Day the World Ended

If you were to pick folks to hopefully populate the world again as the new Adams and Eves the group from Day The World Ended would not be selected as a typical gene pool. But they are an interesting crew to entertain us for 79 minutes in a typical Roger Corman low budget film.

This futuristic look after the Apocalypse was shot on a shoestring and it shows, but Corman was a master at stretching things. A valley where Paul Birch and his daughter Lori Nelson have their ranch seems to have escaped the holocaust and some folks have arrived there for shelter that include an escaped convict Michael Connors and his moll stripper Adele Jergens, geologist Richard Denning, old prospector Raymond Hatton, and a strange man who has a taste for the radiated flesh of the dead animals around played by Paul Dubov.

Birch has a lot of supplies stored away probably he would be considered a survivalist today, but this is not a crew to think of the larger picture. Both Connors and Denning make a play for Nelson and Jergens is feeling rather frustrated. And there are some nasty mutant beings hanging around, but strangely not entering the valley.

Day The World Ended is a bit better than some of the low budget science fiction from the Fifties. The characters if not original are indeed entertaining.

Roger Corman could stretch a dollar better than most.

This science fiction tale of doom and gloom was one of the earliest from Roger Corman, who produced and directed. While at times being a bit slow and predictable, the film features some fine talent. It stars Richard Denning as the heroic scientist hero--a role he was certainly no stranger to performing, the lovely Lori Nelson as one of the atomic blast survivors-Louise Maddison who is as far as the two leading men(Rick & Tony-played by Mike 'Touch' Connors)in the cast and even the mutant monster in the film are concerned the most desirable woman alive as far as they know. The Mutant Monster is another Paul Blaisdell brought to life on screen by Blaisdell himself. Despite looking a bit rubbery, it does have a real menace about it. Mike Connors is decidedly unsympathetic and uncaring as the two-bit hood Tony(who only wants to take and is concerned only for satisfying his own twisted desires). Paul Birch and Adele Jergens are also quite good as Maddisson(the concerned father who tries to maintain the safety of the group and fend off Tony) and Ruby(Tony's loyal kind-hearted girlfriend with a shady past). For a low budget film effort, this one is really quite good.

This film was recently televised on AMC in 2:35 Superscope, and if you've seen it before (like me), you've missed almost half the picture. The wide photography opens up the film considerably, in the mountains, at the lake, even in the house. The film is eerie, with creepy music and atmosphere, but monster costume at the end disappoints. Yet director Roger Corman wisely keeps the creature offscreen most of the time, effectively using sounds, shadows, and blurred camerawork in this end-of-the world thriller. Lori Nelson is lovingly photographed, playing the comely daughter of Navy vet Paul Birch. It's odd that all the seven survivors gather at once in the beginning of the film, including Richard Denning as (conveniently) a geologist, Adele Jergens (excellent) as a stripper and Mike Connors her punky boyfriend. The film is not uninteresting, and I wonder whether the creature is actually Nelson's transformed boyfriend, since she claims he keeps calling her by name. Worth seeing, but ONLY in widescreen.

Okay, while the scientific background of this film is, to say the very least, incredibly void of any sound scientific data concerning atomic/nuclear type bombs aimed at ending human civilization, the story has charm, a bit of wit, and is quite entertaining as one man, his daughter, and five other strangers live in his home hidden in mountains/valley away from any fallout. Paul Birch plays the man who tried to convince everyone of what they needed to do but wasn't heeded. Birch gives a stoic performance with little emotion. His daughter is played by Lori Nelson(Revenge of the Creature). Her love interest, Richard Denning, plays good guy to gangster Touch (Mike) Connors and his moll, Adele Jergens. Rounding out the cast is inebriate Raymond Hatton with donkey in tow. All of the cast do a very good job. Connors plays a despicable thug very nicely. Hatton is effective as a drunk, and Jergens really shines (and is gorgeous) as a burlesque queen past her prime and stuck with a guy that no longer wants her. You can imagine how things go when rations decrease and sensitivities increase. One man, not aforementioned, named Radek gets affected and fear worms its way into this powder-keg group. The story is a lot of fun despite the total absence of any scientific validity to its premise. Director Roger Corman once again does a workmanlike job.

The Day the World Ended deals with The End of the World...not the one prophesied in the Book of Revelation, but the one popular with Hollywood. After all, if Christ returns for His own, how can you make a movie on the Millennial Kingdom?

"Day" is one of Roger Corman's first forays into low-tech, low-budget science fiction movies. His first effort is commendable; if only he had remembered his lessons when he made some of his more notable bombs. A Navy vet and his daughter are living in a home protected by a plot contrivance - it's basically sheltered from radiation from the surrounding mountains. Hills, mind you, that deadly radiation cannot get over, but are easily traveled by an old man and his burro.

Beyond that, it is an intriguing story of what happens when a little pocket of humanity survives mankind's worst nightmare. Mike "Touch" Connors does an interesting turn as a bad guy with a moll whose old enough to be his mother. Connors has the hots for the Navy vet's daughter, and would like to repopulate earth with her. Other stowaways include an archeologist and a man suffering from radiation poisoning. In this movie, radiation poisoning either kills you, turns you into a monster, or makes you look like Moe Howard.

Even with the end of the world, God is not left out. Notice that the Navy vet asks his daughter to marry the archeologist before they seek to restart humanity, as well as his later statement that, "I prayed and then I stopped worrying."

Sterno says "Day" is a great movie for a rainy Saturday afternoon.