The Day the Earth Caught Fire
| The Day the Earth Caught Fire | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Val Guest |
| Produced by | Val Guest Frank Sherwin Green |
| Written by |
Wolf Mankowitz Val Guest |
| Starring |
Janet Munro Leo McKern Edward Judd |
| Music by |
Stanley Black Monty Norman |
| Cinematography | Harry Waxman |
| Edited by | Bill Lenny |
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Production
company |
Val Guest Productions
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| Distributed by |
British Lion Films (UK) Universal International Pictures (USA) |
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Release date
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Running time
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98 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Budget | £200,000 |
The Day the Earth Caught Fire is a British science fiction disaster film starring Edward Judd, Leo McKern and Janet Munro. It was directed by Val Guest and released in 1961, and is one of the classic apocalyptic films of its era. The film opened at the Odeon Marble Arch in London on 23 November 1961.
The film, which was partly made on location in London and Brighton, used matte painting to create images of abandoned cities and desolate landscapes. The production also featured the real Daily Express, even using the paper's own headquarters, the Daily Express Building in Fleet Street, London, and featuring Arthur Christiansen as the Express editor, a job he had held in real life.
A lone man walks through the sweltering streets of a deserted London. The film then goes back several months. Peter Stenning (Judd) was an up-and-coming journalist with the Daily Express, but a messy divorce has thrown his life into disarray. Stenning begins drinking too much (One of his lines is, "Alcoholics of the press, unite!"). His Editor (Christiansen) has begun giving him lousy assignments. Stenning's only friend, Bill Maguire (McKern), is a veteran Fleet Street reporter who offers him encouragement and occasionally covers for him by writing his copy.
Meanwhile, after the Soviet Union and the United States detonate simultaneous nuclear bomb tests, strange meteorological events begin to affect the globe. Stenning is sent to the British Met Office to obtain mean temperature data. While there he meets Jeanie (Munro), a young typist who is temporarily acting as telephonist. They "meet cute", trading insults; later, they fall in love.
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Wikipedia