Quake Threat Worsens
It’s Never Been So Hot
Cyclone Horror
No, these aren’t actual headlines from this week’s newspapers, although they may as well be. Instead, they’re fictitious headlines from newspapers in the 1961 film, The Day the Earth Caught Fire. Apparently, the kind of disasters we’re experiencing now with climate change can also occur when two nuclear bombs explode at the same time, tilting Earth on its axis and moving it closer to the Sun.
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However, this isn’t what causes the orange/yellow tint in the opening scene as Peter Stenning (Edward Judd) slowly walks down a deserted London street. There’s been another event even more devastating than two nuclear bombs exploding at the same time. What happened to bring Peter to this point is told in flashback and in regular black and white.
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Although our home planet never catches fire, it does experience worldwide earthquakes, cyclones, snowstorms, floods, and the strangest fog I’ve ever seen. It rolls off the Thames and lingers in the streets, but it’s shallow; so, while you can’t see your hands in front of you if you’re on the ground, you can climb only a couple stories and look down on it from clear sky.
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Sounds like some disaster movie, huh? Well, I don’t really consider it that. Literally, shots of these catastrophes are fleeting. I wanted to see more of three cyclones behind the cityscape. Had I blinked, I would have missed them. Figuratively, the movie has more on its mind than only the end of the world.
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Sure, other disaster movies have characters and drama, but few focus on only two of them and follow them on their personal journeys. Peter is a washed-up reporter relegated to be “the back end of Bill’s (Leo McKern) donkey” in the news room. Looks like he picked a bad day to stop drinking. He’s really trying and we don’t know if the sweat that drips off him is due to the increasing temperatures or the DTs.
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He’s still a confident man, though, and won’t give up his attempts to woo Jeannie Craig (Janet Munro.) They meet cute and continue to bump into each other after that. He finds his way into her apartment when the aforementioned fog prevents him from getting home. She makes a nice bed for him on the bathroom floor because she’s no pushover.
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She conveniently works at the Meteorological (Met) Office and gains inside information about what’s happening. She wants to tell Peter, but is so worried about someone overhearing that she has to do it on top of a ferris wheel. He promises not to tell anyone; but, dammit, he’s a reporter, and a scoop like this could help get his career back on track.
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It’s all so matter of fact, just like any other day. The characters don’t seem too concerned about the world ending, but they want to uncover the truth because it’s the right thing to do. It’s political, but only in a general way. It’s every country in the world vs. nuclear weapons instead of country vs. country. This, then, makes it idealistic.
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