THE NIGHT THE WORLD EXPLODED (1957)
Tagline: Super-quake tilts the earth!
(Sci-Fi, Drama, Time To Get Off This Planet) [G]
Note: The MPAA did not give a rating for this movie, but I am guessing it would have been a [G]. Theatrically this movie was released in a double feature with THE GIANT CLAW.
We better do more than hope, gentlemen. We better pray!
In this one, Dr. Conway has invented a new machine that is able to predict an earthquake in California within 24 hours. After a series of disasters around the globe, Dr. Conway and Dr. Morton end up going as far deep into the earth as they can to find the cause. What they discover is a new explosive element that is slowly being pushed to the surface of the earth causing massive explosions. With 28 days till the end of the world, can Dr. Conway and Dr. Morton discover the secret to stopping an extinction-level event?
First off in spite of its low budget this is a surprisingly engaging movie. Once we figured out what was going to happen the effort to stop it intrigued me. I am not going to say the effects were mind-blowing or anything and we do get a LOT of stock footage, but overall this is a very effective disaster movie.
So I guess that is the question. Do you like disaster movies? If the answer is no, you might find some of the dialog interesting, but this probably won’t be for you. The cast is led by actress Kathryn Grant whose biggest movie was probably THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD, but she was in a lot of other big movies in the 50s. She plays Dr. Morton and is quite good. Dr. Conway is played by William Leslie who is good in this, but I am not familiar with his other work. We also get Tristram Coffin who has fewer lines as Dr. Ellis Morton than the other 2 leads but was super famous in his day and is solid in this flick. He had over 250 acting credits and was in everything from THE CRAWLING HAND to CREATURE WITH THE ATOM BRAIN.
The pacing is pretty good and as I stated earlier, as is the lighting which I am sure wasn’t easy because it was shot in the Carlsbad Caverns. I also enjoyed the banter and relationship between Dr. Conway and Dr. Morton, especially where he kind of goads her into overcoming her fears to the point where she is basically left to lead the charge in finding a solution to the madness for a while there being the one to stay down in the cave.
Don’t go into this expecting MOONFALL or SAN ANDREAS and you might have a good time. If you don’t I have some other good news for you. The movie is a mere hour and 4 minutes long. Some pilot episodes of TV shows these days are longer than that. I would also advise you not to go into this expecting scientific accuracy. Not even science expects science accuracy, which is why crap we already get taught in science class is still getting challenged (Example: it was once accepted that conventional superconductors could only have a maximum transition temperature (Tc) up to 30–40K known as a “BCS Limit”. We now know that hydrogen sulfide under tons of pressure can have a maximum transition temperature of 7 times the previously thought “BCS Limit”.) This is why when someone says “this movie wasn’t scientifically accurate” I can totally understand that, but that is why these movies are science fiction. Even more so in the1950s a lot of these ideas and radioactive anything were relatively new.
As entertainment I actually really liked this one and really don’t understand some of the overblown hate it gets. It’s a b-movie after all. It’s meant to bring a bit of nonsense to the table. This is a 5 out of 7 that I would watch again.
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