Michael Draine's Twisted Vista
The Day the Earth Caught Fire
Anchor Bay DVD $12.99
Val Guest’s The Day the Earth Caught Fire
(1961) may be the finest genre  entry in a
career that includes The Quatermass
Xperiment (1955), Quatermass 2 (1957),
and The Abominable Snowman (1957).
In the tradition of Ray Bradbury and Rod
Rod Serling, producer/director/writer Val
Guest and co-writer Wolf Mankowitz transform
a conventional science-fiction premise into
an exploration of the human condition.
A highly ambitious independent production,
The Day the Earth Caught Fire skirts
convention at every turn, bypassing the
anti-nuclear sermonizing and Biblical
affectations common to doomsday tales.
Rather than a Quatermass-style science hero,
the protagonist, Peter Stenning (Edward Judd),		Anchor Bay's DVD cover art occludes
a jaded, alcoholic Fleet Street journalist,		the human dimension of the film, em-
is already en route to his own personal		phasized in the theatrical poster, below.
apocalypse when the story begins. The
dialogue is heavy on exposition, but the
newsroom cast, including Leo McKern
(TV’s “Rumpole of the Bailey”) and Robin
Hawdon (When Dinosaurs Ruled the
Earth) never sounds a false note.
Fetching Disney starlet Janet Munro (Darby
O’Gill and the Little People) plays Jeannie,
a government employee who ignites
Stenning’s liquor-sodden passions. In a
world of official secrets and impending
cataclysm, Stenning’s contempt for authority
proves more realistic than Jeannie’s con-
fidence that “the people at the top are
cleverer than we are.”
The film is layered with irony: Stenning’s
cynicism proves a thin shield against the
ultimate existential crisis, while Jeannie’s
trust in authority proves profoundly
misplaced. The profiteering, thuggery, and
Dionysian frenzy with which the populace
faces their encroaching incineration leaves
a lingering question: does humanity
deserve to survive?
A stunning, 16:9-enhanced, 2.35:1 transfer
showcases matte painter Les Bowie’s
contribution to the film’s sense of scale,
while the grain of stock footage augments
Guest’s gritty realism. A flash of a topless
Janet Munro cut from the American version has
been restored, as have the fiery tints to the
opening and closing sequences.
The British slang and naturalistic, over-
lapping delivery often render the dialogue un-
clear, a problem compounded by the absence
of subtitles. On a lively commentary hosted by
Ted Newsome, Val Guest graciously clarifies
newsroom jargon and obscure Brit		Music Review Index
colloquialisms. A widescreen trailer, TV and
radio spots, a Val Guest bio, and a still
gallery with two nude shots of Janet Munro
round out the supplement.		Twisted Cinema
Global warming, news blackouts, nuclear
proliferation, and myopic environmental
policies lend The Day the Earth Caught
Fire a disturbingly prophetic relevance
at the outset of the millennium.
Published in Scarlet Street
www.anchorbayentertainment.com