The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)

Val Guest’s classic apocalyptic science fiction film works just as well as a journalistic thriller, with Edward Judd starring as Daily Express reporter Peter Stenning, drinking his way through the days following two nuclear detonations from Russia and the U.S.A that alters the axis of the earth, setting it onto a collision course with the sun. The film plays out through flashback from a world that is tinted yellow, suggesting it is closing in on an (obviously) fatal collision with the sun, as we learn how the world has got itself into this state. Judd is thrilling to examine as Stenning, playing a depressive rather brilliantly, struggling to deal with the fact that he doesn’t live with his son, and searching for a purpose beyond that. Preempting the Cuban Missile Crisis by a year, the plot is naturally ridiculous (similar to an early Thunderbirds episode) but it’s rather the end point that’s lacking in credibility than the cause. Nuclear consequences were something that the world was terrified of, and it’s no surprise that audience found the film worrying on its release. More than sixty years on, The Day the Earth Caught Fire has lost none of its heft and remains prescient today, and it helps that the script is as sharp as it is engaging, leading to a first rate science fiction thriller; a classic that no film fan shouldn't track down. 7.9/10