Review of Day The World Ended, The

Introduction

Oh dear, a 1950s B movie. I`m really not a huge fan of this genre. If you are then just stick to the more technical bits of the review, as I can tell you now that I`m not going to say anything nice about the film itself.

This one involves Roger Corman as producer and director, a man who has produced over 300 films, TV shows and straight-to-video productions and directed over 50 films in a career spanning the last 50 years. This was his first science fiction film. It`s been remade too, but this is the original.

A mish mash of people survive a nuclear holocaust (some for very unscientific reasons). Can they survive on the post-apocalyptic planet that they used to call home?

Video

A full frame monochrome transfer. Although these films were always made on a shoestring, it`s my understanding that it was filmed at a ratio of 2.00:1, and that a widescreen print was shown on American TV quite recently. So it seems that we have a cropped transfer, which would be criminal if the film was any good. Personally I was thankful that there wasn`t more image on the screen, but you might not be if this sort of thing is your sort of thing. The image that you do get is in reasonable condition for something that`s 50 years old.

No great sweeping scenery or carefully crafted sets here, just a few different locations in use. And you end up laughing out loud at the "scary monster", which is just not scary. If you snigger a bit when watching some of the monsters in Doctor Who, you`ll be collapsing with laughter at this.

Audio

A simple mono track as you might expect given the age of the film. The dialogue is all perfectly audible, and that`s a shame at times as it is often very painful to listen to and full of ridiculous oubursts.

You`ll also hear the theremin tinged soundtrack from Dr Samuel Hoffman, who was famous for his theremin playing and his sound featured in over 30 films. You may not have heard of a theremin, but if you`ve ever seen Bill Bailey performing live (or on his Bewilderness DVD) then you`ve seen a modern one in action. Basically most horror type films from this era featured them in the soundtrack.

A theremin is played without actually touching it. It has 2 antennae - one controls the volume the other controls the pitch of the sound. As a hand (or other body part if you`ve seen Bill Bailey) approaches the antenna it alters the sound that the theremin makes. It takes quite a bit of skill to play one!

Features

It seems that all of the films in this range contain the same extras.

First a 50 minute interview with producer Samuel Z. Arkoff, which is much better than watching the film. Interesting to listen to, he talks about cinema through the ages as well as talking a lot about 1950s B movies.

You can also watch trailers for other films in the range, which should be enough to put you off wanting to buy them.

There are also postcards included with the DVD, which are miniature versions of the original posters used to advertise these films.

Conclusion

Another 80 minutes of my life have been stolen from me and I can`t get them back. What an awful film, predictable plot, stereotyped characters, hackneyed dialogue and a very unconvincing monster. You don`t get to see the full horror until the final acts, but maybe you should never have seen it at all.

You can see why this was film was made in the way it was made and at the time it was made. It was preying on people`s fears of relatively new nuclear technology, but today it just doesn`t cut the proverbial mustard. Once again I find myself recommending the extra features over the main feature.

If this is your thing, then the DVD is reasonable enough, but the lack of a widescreen transfer is just a little fly in the ointment.

Avoid unless you are a massive Roger Corman fan.