THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE

Edward Judd

THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE (1961). Producer/director/co-screenplay: Val Guest.

Two nuclear bombs are detonated at the same time, and before long there are serious changes to the weather -- flooding, devastating winds, and a massive heat wave along with thick fog. London reporter Peter Stenning (Edward Judd of Island of Terror) tries to ferret out exactly what's going on with the unwitting help of a ministry employee named Jean (Janet Munro of Life for Ruth), who gets angry when Stenning's paper publishes the alarming fact that the blasts have not only shifted the tilt of the earth, but caused an 11% shift in orbit that has the earth moving closer and closer to the sun!

Edward Judd and Leo McKern

The Day the Earth Caught Fire is one of the best science fiction films of the sixties. The movie has a documentary-like feel with overlapping dialogue (a la The Thing from Another World) that makes it even more compelling. Edward Judd was "introduced" in this film but he actually had had numerous credits before this. He is excellent playing a bitter divorced man who is not especially likable or pleasant except when he's romancing Jean, well-played by an appealing Munro. Leo McKern is also notable as Stenning's associate at the paper, Bill Maguire.

McKern, Judd, Munro and Gene Anderson

One thing that especially sets Caught Fire apart from similar films is the superb widescreen cinematography of Harry Waxman [Stolen Hours], whose images of panicking city dwellers, dried up river beds, and a thick fog covering the city are always strikingly effective. The first few minutes, as well as the last few minutes, of the film are tinted sepia to illustrate the extreme heat.

Happier times: Janet Munro and Edward Judd

The Day the Earth Caught Fire also benefits from a literate and intelligent screenplay written by Wolf Mankowitz and Val Guest. The characterizations are solid and there is some well-crafted dialogue, such as when Stenning comments on the suicidal feelings engendered by the approaching disaster. I could quibble about a couple of things: perhaps the collapse of the likable copy boy who drank black market water and gets sick could have generated more pathos, and the last shot of the film is the hoariest of cliches. Other than that, this is an absorbing and very well-made motion picture. This movie was undoubtedly influential on a later and somewhat similar disaster film entitled Crack in the World.

Edward Judd was married at the time to Gene Anderson, who plays the saucy barmaid May. Tragically she died four years later.

Verdict: This is probably the best film Val Guest ever made. ***. 

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS

STRANGE BEDFELLOWS (1965). Director: Melvin Frank.

"No more gay, married bachelor!"

Inter-Allied Petroleum executive Carter Harrison (Rock Hudson) literally bumps into artist Antonia "Toni" Vincente (Gina Lollobrigida) in London, and the two get married practically the same day, only to discover that Toni is a free spirit and Carter much more conservative. After seven years of separation Toni finally files for divorce so she can marry old boyfriend and boss, Harry (Edward Judd of First Men in the Moon), only a willing Carter discovers that he's up for a huge promotion, and his boss prefers happily-married employees. Can Carter win Toni over once again; can he put up with her "antics" and she with his stuffiness; and is he really in love or just play-acting for his job? In the climax, Toni (un)dresses up as Lady Godiva to protest the moral outrage over a piece of artwork. Strange Bedfellows is not a classic comedy, but it does have some solid laughs and an enthusiastic cast. The two leads are effective, and they get fine support from, Judd, Terry-Thomas (in a small, funny role of an undertaker), Gig Young (as Carter's co-worker, a thankless part he makes the most of), and Nancy Kulp as a friend of Toni's who winds up in bed with Carter (who also winds up in bed with Harry!) A highlight is a cab ride with some funny exchanges between the principles and the driver, and the low light is this business of dragging in civil unrest and massacre in Africa as part of Carter's plot to foil Toni's Godiva plans. The film has less to do with Toni's cause of Freedom of Artistic Expression as it does with titillating double entendres.

Verdict: Fair-to-middling mid-sixties sex comedy. **1/2.

THE VAULT OF HORROR

Glynis Johns and Terry-Thomas

THE VAULT OF HORROR (1973). Director: Roy Ward Baker.

After the success of their Tales from the Crypt, Amicus decided to release this follow-up featuring more adaptations of 1950's E.C. horror comic stories. The framing device has five men entering an elevator and winding up down in a sub-basement lounge, where they tell each other of horrible dreams -- or prophecies -- that they've had. Rogers (Daniel Massey), who is looking for his sister (played by real-life sister Anna Massey) for nefarious purposes, uncovers a nest of vampires in a small town in "Midnight Mess." Glynis Johns [Personal Affair] has had more than she can stand of her neat freak, belittling husband (Terry-Thomas) and takes action in "A Neat Job," from the gruesomely amusing story from the first issue of ShockSuspense Stories. "This Trick'll Kill You" features Curt Jurgens [The Mephisto Waltz] and Dawn Addams [The Two Faces of Dr. Jekyll] as a team of magicians who even resort to murder to steal tricks away from Indian fakirs, with back-firing results. Michael Craig [Doctor in Love] and Edward Judd [First Men in the Moon] make a "Bargain in Death," an insurance scam in which one of them pretends to be dead -- but of course there are horrible complications. "Drawn and Quartered" features an artist (Tom Baker) who uses voodoo and paintings depicting scenes that come true to get even with several people who cheated him out of his rightful acclaim and fortune. Superior to Tales from the Crypt, Vault of Horror is very entertaining, creepy and, at times, delightfully ghoulish.

Verdict: Good anthology horror film. ***.