The Night the World Exploded
With his assistant, Laura Hutchinson, Dr. David Conway develops a device to advance the fledgling science of earthquake prediction. After forecasting a large trembleor that will rock California within twenty-four hours, Conway cannot persuade the Governor to act. When the prediction proves true and further tests indicate that there are more quakes to come, Conway and Laura seek to perfect their device. Subsequent tests deep within Carlsbad Caverns discover an unknown element—E-112—that is responsible for the earthquakes and threatens to destroy the globe if it ever reaches the surface. The team determines that with only four weeks until Armageddon, the race is on to neutralize the killer element before it takes a devastating toll.
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- Cast：
- William Leslie , Kathryn Grant , Tris Coffin , Raymond Greenleaf , Frank J. Scannell , Charles Evans , Marshall Reed
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Reviews
Good story, Not enough for a whole film
Best movie ever!
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Dr. David Conway (William Leslie), with the assistance of Laura "Hutch" Hutchinson (Kathryn Grant), is in a race to stop a series of earthquakes that threaten the entire world. It seems that a newly discovered element, Element 112, expands and explodes when dry and mixed with nitrogen. And, because of mining and oil exploration, Element 112 is making its way to the Earth's surface.By no means is The Night the World Exploded a great film, but I found it reasonably entertaining. It's slow, lacks big-budget special effects, and the lead is a bit dry, but it's got something about it that worked for me. The sci-fi elements are presented believably enough to be effective. And there's some nice slow-burn suspense that's built throughout that worked on me. Other aspects that helped the film include a perky female lead in Kathryn Grant, real life disaster footage nicely blended into the film, and a short runtime.I called William Leslie "dry", but it's not just him, it's his character also. I know his Dr Conway is a driven professional, but come on - how could not not see Hutch has feelings for him? It's not until the world is about to end that he pays any notice to her. What a dolt!
I'll start with the spoilers: there are no night scenes in this film and the catastrophe promised by the title is averted. Dr Laura 'Hutch' Hutchinson (Kathryn Grant) at one point suggests that the fissures appearing in the Earth's crust are "almost as if the Earth were striking back at us for the way we've robbed her of her natural resources"; making this an early "green" film. Eight years later in 'Crack in the World' (1965) a mining project results in the Earth splitting into two, but 'The Night the World Exploded' knows its limits (Miss Grant's stylish outfits look like the most expensive items in the budget) and most of the destruction is confined to stock footage (which includes film of the bombing of Pearl Harbor).Fortunately it has a fairly intelligent script and a capable and sincere cast to do it justice; and director Fred Sears again creates bricks without straw. The film probably cost what 'The Day After Tomorrow' spent on catering, but what little money that actually went on special effects has been judiciously spent, and the genuine generator room used for the climax is quite impressive. I'm sure the script is full of scientific clunkers, but most of the talk sounds intelligent enough. I personally know a bit about the Periodic Table, so I'll confine myself to pointing out that in 1957 the total number of known chemical elements then stood at 101. That the next element in line to be discovered is #112 (which was named Copernicium) would mean that this film is set in 1996.
You might think that the explosion of the whole World, no less, could muster some thrills and chills as Scientists race to uncover the cause and apply their Egghead methods to stifle the upcoming Apocalypse.Not so much in the hands of these cheap Hollywood Hacks that in the Fifties exploited Science in their Fiction and made some Really Cool Posters but some very Uncool Movies. This isn't the worst of its kind and does manage to be involving enough. Just the thought of what's at stake could put the nerves on edge.But here just climbing down a rope is enough to make a Female Scientist freeze with fear. The cardboard sets have some visual charm and the stock disaster footage is mixed in nicely with some looking very ominous. But the Plot of the New Element and Diluvial problem solving is rather lackluster and hokey, as is the Romantic necessities. The final shot of the Lovers on an elevated Stage with a Kiss that makes Her quake is an exclamation point on the stodgy and stagy nature of what went before.
Entertaining typical 50's sci-fi low budget offering with slightly above average plot line for the time.However, particularly amusing are scenes in the military command aircraft which used card tables and folding chairs in front of mock-up aircraft porthole windows.