Day the World Ended (1955)

Watchable film. Decent acting, story, music, cinematography and production. Not great. The story needed more work. But given the production budget and time, it all works well. Definitely watchable. But nothing memorable or great. Good acting throughout. The characters are all there, but again the dialogue needed more work. Slow moving.Rating is a C, or 4 stars.

Ostensibly Roger Corman's first shot at a sci-fi movie, this low-budget effort is interesting for being more of a drama than a genre picture, even with a horned, three-eyed mutant stalking the survivors of a nuclear holocaust. These survivors gather in a home in the countryside, where they do their best to get along, except for one slimy individual (Mike Connors) who wants to rule the roost. Richard Denning is the clean-cut leading man and Lori Nelson is his love interest. The great Paul Birch plays the homeowner and Nelson's dad. Adele Jergens plays Connors' stripper girlfriend and Raymond Hatton is an old-time miner, complete with a burro in tow. Not much actually happens, but the interaction among this ragtag group keeps up the interest. The ending is yet another Adam and Eve variation, a very popular theme in early sci-fi flicks and TV shows like"The Twilight Zone." The cast is definitely a notch or two above the usual casts of sci-fi and horror films of the period.

Seven survivors (and a sleepy mule!) of a nuclear disaster hole up in a California home and eventually begin to get on each other's nerves; meanwhile, a mutant monster borne from the radioactive fallout terrorizes the females. Hopefully, all the duck-tailed teenagers who went to see this tacky Roger Corman sci-fi in the theater had dates to neck with during the slow spots! The monster--who's afraid of water--isn't frightening at all...in fact, he's rather sympathetic. The humans are the ones I would want to avoid, including Mike "Touch" Connors as a tough-talking gangster so oily he puts Mario Puzo's Mafiosos to shame. Played to the rafters, but with such barren material it's hard to stay interested. * from ****

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.