The Day the Earth Caught Fire

The newsroom of a London paper. America and the Soviet Union carry out large nuclear tests at the poles on the same day. Soon the weather turns strange: fog, floods, heat and the seasons confused. The journalists press the scientists and get at the truth; the tests have shifted the axis of the earth and the planet is moving toward the sun. The government is suppressing the information. Water is rationed in the city and the temperature rises every day. Val Guest directs and co wrote the screenplay. Edward Judd, Janet Munro and Leo McKern take the leads. The newsroom scenes were shot in the building of a real newspaper and its staff appear in the film, which gives the narrative a documentary texture. It is a disaster film not built on spectacle; most of it takes place in rooms, on telephones and at the presses. Its known ending rests on two different front pages being set, and which one runs is not said, a bold choice for its period. It was made in the years when Cold War fear was at its height and objects to nuclear testing directly. The effects are limited, but the fog and heat scenes are built effectively by practical means. Who it is for: viewers who like classic British science fiction and films about journalism. Who it is not for: there is little action, the science is weak, and the romantic strand slows the narrative.