Day the World Ended (1955)

That was an excellent one.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Roger Corman directed this doomsday science fiction monster thriller, as a disparate group of survivors converge at a ranch house. There, they bicker with each other over what to do next, and petty jealousies between the men and women. Meanwhile, there is a mutated creature roaming the area, which complicates an already desperate situation. Richard Denning, Lori Nelson, Adele Jergens, Mike Connors, and Paul Birch star. Another memorable monster suit creation is the only noteworthy thing in this poorly made farrago, with an absurd story and remarkably slow pace. Very little action, just a lot of dull and tedious talk. An early effort from Corman, who would later improve.

The low budget sci-fi / horror / drama "Day the World Ended" is pretty good as Roger Cormans' low budget genre efforts go. It's well acted overall and well photographed; do try to see this in widescreen if you can. It's largely dependent on its acting and writing to carry it through a long stretch in which there's no real scary stuff. That's saved for the end. Corman is wise to keep his monster off screen until then, and fortunately when the reveal finally happens, the work by Paul Blaisdell ensures a fairly interesting creature, certainly better looking than, say, the thing in "It Conquered the Earth".The movie features a decent ensemble cast with stolid, handsome Richard Denning ("Creature from the Black Lagoon") as the hero Rick, Mike Connors ('Mannix') as hot headed, creepy antagonist Tony, Paul Birch (Cormans' "Not of This Earth") as homeowner Jim Maddison, pretty Lori Nelson ("Revenge of the Creature") as Jims' nubile daughter Louise, sexy Adele Jergens ("Armored Car Robbery") as Tony's gal pal, Raymond Hatton ("The Hunchback of Notre Dame" '23) as aged gold hunter Pete, Paul Dubov ("Shock Corridor") as infected man Radek, and Corman regular Jonathan Haze as an unnamed victim. Blaisdell himself plays the monster.The actors play a disparate group of people who gather at Jims' home after nuclear devastation has made most other places dangerous; Jim lives in a valley that offers some protection. They find that surviving is tough, but making things worse is Tony, who gets the hots for Louise. They also become concerned about the daytime activities of Radek, who frequently disappears into a contaminated area. And eventually the monster shows up...Devotees of genre efforts from this decade and followers of Cormans' career should find this to be agreeable entertainment. Even though the scares only start coming toward the end, the filmmaker manages to keep you watching and involved. Certainly you wait hoping for the rotten Tony to get his comeuppance. There may be moments that inspire more laughter than anything, but taken as a whole the movie is fun.Seven out of 10.

I saw the remake of this film, "In The Year 2889", before I saw the original, and I have to say that the experience made me appreciate the good points of this Roger Corman quickie much more than I might have otherwise."2889" was a piece of dreck, while this is an actual movie, with actual actors, that a person can watch with some enjoyment...once, anyway.Denning (a geologist) and Connors (a crook) give their usual snappy performances in this movie, and Paul Birch (the fellow who owns the house that the cast of characters take refuge in) is given better direction, better lines, and a part that shows his strengths to much better advantage than the previous movie I saw him in ("Beast with 1,000,000 Eyes").On the other hand, Corman's usual problems with pacing and energy and rhythm manifest themselves immediately. There are too many talky scenes that go nowhere (especially between Connor and the girlfriend);too many plot holes that the movie hopes we will overlook; too many badly choreographed action sequences (except for one beautifully staged scene where Denning/"Rick" fires a rifle at the advancing creature as the camera stays behind Ricks shoulder - that was NICELY done) and too many moments of glib hand waving pretending to be actual major movie elements (did you know that mutants with diamond hard skin are created by H-bomb blasts and die when exposed to non-poisoned water?) And if you're going to invoke God in a Doomsday scenario, you need to do it a lot more convincingly than Corman's screenplay does at the end.Oh, and the monster is ridiculous. He's just another prototype/ variation of the Giant Pickle from "It Conquered The World". I'm not casting aspersions on Paul Blaisdell, I'm sure he did his best with no time and a tiny budget...but the monster is ridiculous.Still, there was plenty to like about it. I always enjoy watching Richard Denning, Lori Nelson makes a great Barbie Doll, and there is a nice sense of claustrophobia and paranoia as the plot advances. Worth seeing once if you are interested in the history of Science Fiction movies, or Corman, or Giant Pickles.

I was 9 years old when I saw this movie. I was being "babysat" by a friend of our family while my parents were out of town and he took me to see this. Afterward, when I had gone to bed, he went outside, and scratched on the window of my room, I looked and he flashed a flash light under his face and he had some sort of masking tape and tree bushes on his face...Jeezeus Keehriest! He scared the crap out of me. So, this film always stuck in my mind.I loved the music...very, very creepy and well timed. The monster, though stupid by modern standards, was all the rage in it's day.I remember the screams in the theater when it was first seen full view.The story was rather frightening for the era, too. We all were thinking quite a lot about nuclear war happening to us right at home. People were really building bomb shelters int heir backyards...or had "escape kits" pre-loaded in their station wagons. Yes. It really was that bad.I believe this film would be well worth re-watching, although, I have only seen it once again since I saw it on the big screen and the second showing it seemed a bit less spooky to me. But, the acting was good, the story was practical though of a totally unimaginable theme, and the monster, though rather "over the top", and a bit corny, was scary enough when combined with the well timed and creepy music.I definitely would watch it again, just for the memories.