The Day the Sky Exploded (1958) User Reviews

My baby! My Baby! My Baby! My Baby! My Baby! Maby By!

[Bezenby · 5/10 · 9 March 2017]

I've only two films by Paulo Heusch, and both of them are very early, but gosh darnit if they don't display some of the aspects that make Italian trash cinema so entertaining then I'm a something's something! Bad dubbing, crazy logic, loads of stolen footage, insane plot, terrible acting and all that jazz (although there's no boobs or gore...that happened later), I would say this film has it all if it weren't for the fact that Paulo loves to concentrate on folks talking to each other on microphones rather than give us any action. I seriously had my attention wandering throughout this film, although it did give a few laughs.

The plot involves sending a pilot into orbit and then on to the moon in a process that takes up the first twenty minutes of the film, but eventually our ethnically diverse mix of scientists gets our guy up in space, but then things go wrong and he's force to detach his cockpit for Earth while sending his fuel filled rocket into an asteroid belt, which causes a load of asteroids to head for Earth, Armageddon style! Let's whittle it down a bit. You've got scientists all over Earth reporting what not to each other (including Glasgow!) while the Earth gets hotter and hotter, the animals go nuts, and society collapses. This is all demonstrated by stock footage, most of which has a single loop of dialogue where you can hear a woman scream "My Baby" over and over and over again, so look out for that.

You've also got a few side plots, one of which involves the astronaut and his family and the other involving a scientist trying to get into the pants of a frigid female scientist type person. Cue loads of crappy old school sexism.

I also loved that my copy was full of missing frames and got a laugh out of the bit where the frigid scientist bursts into a room with something important to say, only to have the film jump, the scientist disappear from the shot, and leave two male actors staring at each other for some reason.

No where near as funny as his later Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory, this is still a nice early example of what makes these film so much fun.

Unusual for 1950s Sci Fi

[mstomaso · 5/10 · 20 January 2007]

This little Italian oddity offers the drama of a world-wide disaster and the themes of international cooperation which were better capitalized by the Star Trek franchise and several similar disaster films of more recent vintage.

The film is somewhat unique for its unusually jerky pace, clever low budget effects, odd use of stock footage, and strange cinematography. The Day the Sky Exploded begins as if it is going to be a space-flight adventure, but instead treats the space flight in a realistic, almost mundane manner, before proceeding to reveal the real plot - concerning the meteors. The astronaut (nicely played by Hubschmidt) is forced to eject from the nuclear powered rocket and the rocket flies off to .... where? before you know it, a cluster of meteors, probably blown off of some planet or perhaps the moon, is threatening to destroy the earth.

Some of the 'scientists' allude to unknown religious beliefs and seem to think that some great big meanie out there has it in for us because we've ventured off our planet in a serious way for the first time (like the perspective offered by Star Trek First Contact inverted). The plot begins with the rocket launch and a great feeling of optimism and then proceeds into panic, and then a feeling of inevitable doom, as nobody seems able to come up with an adequate solution.

There are also some amusing but really unnecessary romantic elements and some decent character development which help to round the film out in a general way. The acting is generally good, but there are a few really odd moments where people seem either too calm or absurdly evocative given the circumstances they are dealing with. There are also a couple of bad moments for the script, which may be a result of translation problems from the film's native language.

I have noticed a lot of people making fun of the special effects. Sure, the dozens of stock footage clips of rockets being launched is over-done, and yeah, some of the scenes showing people and cars moving around in the parking lot of an unidentified building are kind of funny, but I actually enjoyed the primitive but creatively filmed scenes of asteroids and explosions. They were, at the very least, more artistically designed than some of what appears in contemporary films with similarly low budgets.

A Joint Effort

[Uriah43 · 5/10 · 1 April 2013]

A joint effort by the United States and the Soviet Union to send a nuclear powered manned flight into space results in a disaster which manages to ionize a cluster of meteors and send them on a trajectory toward earth. This causes a crises of the first magnitude as tidal waves are predicted to destroy cities near coasts all over the world. And that's just the beginning of the problem. Now, while this scenario had been done about seven years earlier in "When Worlds Collide", this film offers a different approach and succeeds (more or less) in spite of the limited budget which was spent to produce it. And although the acting certainly wasn't anything to get excited about, the special effects were pretty good considering the era this movie was made. All in all then, it's worth watching as long as people aren't expecting too much. All things considered then I rate it as about average. No more and no less.

We are doomed!

[lastliberal · 4/10 · 10 March 2008]

It is hard to give a rating to old movies like this. This Italian/French film is a predecessor to modern fare like Meteor or Armegeddon.

No Bruce Willis, but Paul Hubschmid, the first Swiss film star. He is on a team of astronauts that included a Frenchman and a Russian and was selected for the first mission in space. Such international cooperation! Absolutely brilliant for the time. It will be even more amazing as the film goes on.

Don't look for great acting or fancy special effects. Stock footage is the norm and the dialog is corny, but there is a bright shining moment when they know they are all doomed and some scientist wigs out.

The solution to the falling meteor is the use of all the nation's atomic warheads. Like that would happen. You know the USA or Russia, probably both, would hold a few in reserve. I am sure the USA did, as I saw no missiles leaving silos.

It's interesting to see the first films of this type before CGI, which is why I am investing the week exploring them.

Voice-over Actor

[joebergeron · 4/10 · 28 August 2010]

The actor voicing McLaren in the American version is Shane Rimmer, who also provided the voice of Thunderbird 1 pilot Scott Tracy. I win the contest!

To me, the oddest thing about this movie is McLaren's demeanor during the space flight. He looks like death warmed over, like he really really wants to go home right NOW, like he might vomit at any moment, and like he can barely bring himself to speak. Or admit that he feels like hell.

This movie is not bad enough to be a source of amusement for that reason alone. It makes a serious attempt to tell a story, and is more coherent and intelligent than some recent similar films which commanded budgets hundreds of times larger.

The Earth is in peril. The sky is actually falling.

[michaelRokeefe · 3/10 · 6 July 2002]

This French offering is not all that bad. Despite the obvious low budget there is enough to keep your interest. Special effects are crude by todays standards, but for 1958 are about par. Space flight experimentation goes awry when a missile to the moon explodes and causes asteroids to be thrown into a path toward Earth. Cast includes:Paul Hubschmid, Madeleine Fischer, Dario Michaelis and Fiorella Mari. In the name of survival the US and Russian rocket scientists work in tandem with hopes of saving the world.

Early Euro sci-fi disaster film is not especially memorable

[Red-Barracuda · 4/10 · 24 March 2016]

A multi-national space mission including astronauts from the UK, the USA and the Soviet Union venture into space but they experience technical problems resulting in the mission being aborted, but unfortunately this is just the first in a chain reaction of events which results in catastrophic disasters back on Earth, including scores of asteroids, earthquakes and extreme weather.

The Day the Sky Exploded is fairly notable for being the first Italian sci-fi movie. Having said that, this is a fairly limited claim to fame given science fiction wouldn't exactly go on to become one of the movie sub-genres that the pasta masters are most well remembered for. This one is fairly ahead of its time in some respects though and quite ambitious for its time. It also is unusual in that it showed Americans and Russians working happily together at the height of the Cold War. So, it has some interesting things about it for sure but on the whole it was pretty forgettable stuff unfortunately. Interestingly, it was also photographed by the great future directing legend Mario Bava; to be honest, the version I saw this was a public domain pan-and-scan copy in which it was difficult to really tell if it had great cinematography or not sadly.

Who's in Charge Here?

[Hitchcoc · 3/10 · 15 June 2015]

This dubbed Italian film is based on an interesting premise, but then it is so dull, it makes no difference. It begins with a nuclear powered ship sent up with an American in it. He has to abandon rocket somewhere, leaving the full payload up there. Wouldn't you know it, it gets itself hooked up with a grouping of asteroids that begin to head for the Earth. There is then about 45 minutes of hand wringing as they hope it won't hit them. They are hoping that the moon's gravitational pull will disperse the asteroids which are linked by a magnetic field. Newton is spinning like a lathe. A marriage almost breaks up. A couple of hot and bothered scientists can't keep their hands off each other, and eventually someone has to come up with a plan. Meanwhile the earth starts catching fire and tidal waves start, but no reason is given. There is no science here. Don't waste your time. Even as high camp, it doesn't cut the mustard.

Red Moon

[sol1218 · 7/10 · 3 July 2005]

**SPOILERS** In a joint US/UK/USSR effort to send a man into space USAF pilot John McLaren, Paul Hubschmid, is chosen to go aboard the X/Z Atomic Rocket on a trip around the moon and back. As the X/Z approaches the moon it runs into technical troubles and McLaren together with his rocket cabin is ejected and lands back on earth with the X/Z's atomic powered motor/engine exploding harmlessly in space, or so everyone thought.

The next few days strange things begin to happen back on earth that defy any explanation that modern science can provide. Birds and animals, even peoples pet dogs cats and canaries, start to act very weird. There's a massive migrations all over the earth of wildlife away from any large body of water like the sea or the ocean or even big lakes and rivers. The sky starts to change in color at sundown and sunrise with this golden bronze and red haze and the moon itself becomes a blood-red illuminated sphere at night.

The magnetic pull from outer space, notably that of the moon, cause huge tidal waves and flooding of low lying areas and governments scientists and local astronomer pick up on radar this giant asteroid hurling itself towards earth. An asteroid one million times bigger then the one that struck in Siberia back in 1908 and wiped out hundreds of miles of woodlands.

It turns out that when McLaren ejected from his space-craft it went on into deep space until it hit the Delta Astorid Belt and dislodged a number it's giant boulders. Causing them to travel in space towards both the earth and the moon attracted by their magnetic pull. Those boulders are now due to reach their destination with devastating force in less then a weeks time.

Good use of newsreel stock footage in this little known Sci-Fi movie that's a lot like the more expensively made future disaster films like "Meteor" in 1979 and both "Deep Inpact" and "Armageddon" in 1998. With a top rate performance by Paul Hubschmid, also know previously as Paul Christian, as the air force pilot who was at first responsible for the space disaster to happen. And later was responsible for preventing it from destroying, by slamming into and pulverizing, the planet with the same element or force that initiated it; nuclear power.

Exciting conclusion with the top scientists an military men on earth using all the worlds atomic and hydrogen bombs packed onto fleets of intercontinental missiles. These missiles are then sent toward the deadly out-of-control giant asteroid using the very forces of man-made nuclear destruction to save the earth from this terrifying force of nature from outer space.

When Men Choose to Play God

[BaronBl00d · 4/10 · 23 October 2010]

Not a bad premise at all about an eclectic group of scientists trying to send a man in space and achieving that dream only to falter in his descent by causing a bunch of meteors to gather together in one big clump and head toward Earth for its final destruction. The scientists scurry and hurry to find a way out of this doom and that is when the day the sky explodes is relevant. This movie has some things going for it. It is extremely thought-provoking - almost to the point of too much perhaps. It becomes so talky and leaden throughout and is aided by wooden performances and extremely cheap sets. Catch that rocket ship move like a snail! The acting, as I have said, is nothing particularly good nor is the direction nor is the script - which plods and plods. The film does get somewhat interesting in the last fifteen minutes or so, but by that time my eyes were almost glazing over from sleep. There are some brilliantly shot scenes despite the low budget and those were probably set up by cinematographer Mario Bava(one of the greatest horror directors of all time). You can get a sense of his visual artistry here and there, but let's face it - he hasn't much to work with. The Day the Sky Exploded has some real neat ideas but just less than compelling execution.

Terrific Italian-French Science Fiction for the era

[craiggerard_2000 · 8/10 · 17 May 2005]

This movie is very good considering what a low budget it must have had. A combined Italian-French effort this film was the basis for Meteor, Deep Impact, and Armageddon many years later. The special effects are very good for the era. One of the most interesting aspects of the film is that it showed U.S.-Russian cooperation for peaceful means at the hight of the cold war, very different than most movies of the time. The other similar movie of the 1950's about a collision with Earth is When Worlds Collide. However even though When Worlds Collide is in color this is the better and more realistic of the two films. Also there is less damage to the Earth in this movie than in Meteor, Deep Impact, and especially When Worlds Collide where the earth gets completely destroyed. It is interesting to see primitive computers and airplanes of the time. If you like Deep Impact and Armageddon you need to see this film that those two movies were based on.

THE DAY THE SKY EXPLODED (Paolo Heusch and, uncredited, Mario Bava, 1958) **1/2

[Bunuel1976 · 6/10 · 30 April 2010]

This is significant as Italy's first science-fiction movie – two years after its first horror outing, Riccardo Freda's I VAMPIRI (1956); what connects these two films is the multi-faceted involvement behind the cameras of the late great Mario Bava. In fact, the latter was officially the film's cinematographer (curiously credited as Baja on the English titles!) but, as was his fashion, he helped out without credit in the special effects department and the direction as well – a fact also mentioned in Tim Lucas' Audio Commentary for the subsequently deleted Dark Sky DVD of Bava's KILL, BABY…KILL! (1966) and whose hearing prompted me to acquire this film sooner rather than later! Interestingly, the film's original Italian title LA MORTE VIENE DALLO SPAZIO translates to DEATH COMES FROM OUTER SPACE; this was picked up and slightly altered a few years later by another Spaghetti sci-fi entry i.e. Antonio Margheriti's LA MORTE VIENE DAL PIANETA AYTIN aka THE SNOW DEVILS (1967); besides, the film's English title was probably inspired by another contemporary sci-fi cheapie i.e. Fred F. Sears' THE NIGHT THE WORLD EXPLODED (1957)! The film under review emerges as a reasonably enjoyable and above-average entry but, probably stemming from a very limited budget, is bogged down by a talky script and much stock footage of rocket launchings and people rushing into underground shelters. The cast is also somewhat undernourished but does include Paul (Fritz Lang's Indian EPIC diptych [1958-59]) Hubschmid, Ivo (Bava's BLACK Sunday [1960]) Garrani and Giacomo (KILL, BABY…KILL!) Rossi Stuart essaying stock-types of lock-jawed astronaut, self-sacrificing professor and no-nonsense technician respectively. Equally predictable are the characters of the proud Russian expert, the astronaut's lonesome wife, the brainy female scientist, her lothario colleague and the crazed skeptic who reaches breaking-point as Armageddon looms. Nevertheless, despite – or, perhaps, because of – the lack of any really spectacular sequences (the rain of meteorites ostensibly about to annihilate mankind never pose that much of a threat since they are themselves destroyed just as they are entering the Earth's orbit!), one finds himself being charmed just the same by all these overly-familiar elements. Almost needless to say, hot on the heels of this movie came the Riccardo Freda/Mario Bava melange of sci-fi and monster movie – CALTIKI, THE IMMORTAL MONSTER (1959) – which was an altogether livelier effort...

Below par Sci-Fi

[vtcavuoto · 4/10 · 24 January 2006]

I think one of the most disappointing things in this film is the role of John McLaren.It's the same actor(Paul Hubschmid, who is sometimes billed as Paul Christian) from "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms". For one thing, it's not even his voice in the dubbing! He seems emotionless 95% of the time. Other character development is only so-so.I did get a kick out of all the old machinery. The plot was OK but not original. The movie seemed to just plod along without much in the way of action. The cinematography was very good(from Italy's Mario Bava).I expected much more from this movie but the fact that I only paid $5.00 for it makes it a little better for me to tolerate. I wish this movie was as good as I anticipated.

A little strange, very French

[Sadako · 5/10 · 24 March 2002]

Not a bad film, just not very remarkable. Most of the characters are well realized and their conflict is realistic. It's very interesting to see a 50's SF film with the US and USSR working together for peaceful ends. If you like spacey sound effects there plenty of those in this film. The visual effects are about average for this time period, with meteor swarm looking not unlike a giant mass of chocolate chips ready to destroy life as we know it.

Some interesting ideas indifferently executed.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 10 May 2009]

The film begins with a nuclear powered rocket flight to the moon. Something goes wrong and the pilot is able to eject. However, the self-destruct mechanism is not activated and the ship blows up in the sun. As a result, it causes so much havoc that a group of killer meteors are bumped towards Earth and the planet is doomed. While the whole idea of a nuclear explosion damaging the sun or having any effect on it is silly, the idea of rogue meteors is pretty cool--and has been the subject of several more recent films.

Unfortunately, while there is something to some of the plot, this Italian film also has a lot against it. First, instead of subtitles, it was dubbed into English. Some of the voices are just terrible (such as the reporter and the whiny sounding kid) and I always prefer subtitles. Additionally, since this film is brought to us by Alpha Video, you can safely assume the print will be terrible--which it definitely is. While some of Alpha's films are great because they aren't available elsewhere, too often they are grainy and never have captions. They are strictly a grade-z producer of DVDs--and this is no exception.

In addition, even if the film was subbed and a pristine copy, it would still only perhaps merit a 5. Overall, a forgettable film.

Not very good "End of The World As We Know It " with full supporting programme

[junk-monkey · 4 January 2007]

This public domain movie available for legal download www.Archive.org has little to recommend it. A very cheaply made, two set movie that consists almost entirely of stock footage and a bunch of scientists shoving bits of paper at each other while peering into a radar screen.

A wild-eyed news reporter who doesn't seem to know where the camera is wildly info-dumps the news to us that the world's first circum Lunar flight is about to take off. Scientists pass pieces of paper to each other and peer at radar screens. Soon the flight runs into difficulties, the pilot jettisons the atomic rocket and returns to Earth. A strange blip is discovered on the radar. More paper is scribbled on and passed to and fro before they make the discovery that the rocket has blown up in a bunch of asteroids, annoying them so much they glued themselves together "with magnetic attraction" and are heading towards Earth. That took a very boring 30 minutes of screen time to set up.

The next 30 minutes are spent watching the scientists pass even more bits of paper to each other before they conclude the asteroids are going to bump into the moon on the way in so the world may be saved without them actually having to do anything. Everyone sits around looking at radar screens (or out the window with binoculars) and sweating as the (Yawn!) tension mounts. With only about 22 minutes of screen time remaining, the asteroids miss the moon and keep on towards Earth. Oh Bum! At which point our nominal hero has the genius idea of blowing the asteroids up with nuclear missiles. The pace of paper passing heats up to fever pitch. The stock footage comes at us faster and faster. Refugees!. TV transmission masts! Jet planes taking off! Jet planes landing! More transmission masts!

"London reports temperatures are increasing all over the world. Fires are breaking out everywhere!" says one scientist between calculations. We are then shown a long montage of things burning down all over the world.

The pace of calculations speeds up to fever pitch as for some unexplained reason the scientist at the moon launching base are the only people in the world who can do the maths to aim the world's ICBMs - though, given the fact they managed to get the calculation about the asteroids whacking into the moon wrong, I can't say that I would have had a lot of faith in them myself. The cooling system breaks down making their room sized electronic flashy-lighty, adder-upper machine go wrong. And don't you just know it, there's a doom saying loony with a gun who gets in their way when they try to fix it.

Finally the last piece of paper is scribbled on and the nuclear powers (which bizarrely seem to include Norway and Scotland) are ready to fire.

Everyone says a prayer. Dear glorious and humungeous God, please let this be the last montage of the movie.

All the missiles are fired in a long montage of every piece of missile launching footage available to the editors, including the ubiquitous shots of V2s taking off (V2 didn't have the capability to get above the atmosphere) and several shots of anti-aircraft missiles with an even shorter range.

Kaboom! The asteroids are blown to itty-bitty bits which are "dispersed into space". Our leads go and watch the sun rise.

End

There are a couple of sub-plots too thin to be worth bothering with. Ice maiden scientist girlie melts into arms of handsome hunk. Mrs astronaut realises she her place is beside her man. Both involve some hugging.

Unintentionally Hilarious

[MarplotRedux · 3/10 · 29 December 2011]

The film's retro 1958 computer equipment is delightful. Also, there are many delightful inconsistencies in the story: as one example, despite that temperatures on Earth have dramatically increased, some of the actors continue to wear heavy clothing that they could easily have taken off. This temperature increase is one of several supposed consequences of an asteroid's near approach to Earth that are flat-out scientifically impossible. Other supposed consequences, such as animals sensing what's about to happen days in advance are equally silly. The acting is generally wooden, and the dubbing into English is occasionally obvious. Much of the special effects are stock footage; so are the movie's lengthy depictions of various kinds of communications equipment, airplane flights and rocket launches. Much of the remaining special effects are stock footage with bright blobs inserted. Again, the phenomena represented by the blobs are scientifically impossible. In general, a splendid movie for those like me who enjoy pretentious bad films.

Not a great movie, but still more than you'd expect from the bare details

[lemon_magic · 5/10 · 20 May 2009]

On the surface, this little End-of-the-World number doesn't seem to have much to offer a viewer accustomed to modern science fiction films with budgets that are bigger by several orders of magnitude and state of the art computer and modeling graphics to sell the story. There seem to be a grand total of maybe 5 actual sets built for the movie.Most of the action is carried by stock footage scenes which are in turn linked by endless chunks of expository dialog.Most of the "live" scenes that carry the action involve people shouting into microphones or typing furiously on the "calculators". The characters are pure cardboard and character development is strictly by rote.And the whole thing is filmed in black and white.

On the other hand, if you view this 'naively', as if you hadn't already seen "Meteor", "Deep Impact", or "Armaggeddeon", it's possible to appreciate the abrupt change of the movie's story arc from "exciting space adventure" to "End of the World Suspense Thriller", as the seemingly happy escape of the astronaut from his malfunctioning "atomic rocket" leads to unexpected consequences. If you think about it, that was a pretty creative conception for the time. The Eurocentric aspect of the production also gives the movie a somewhat unusual feel, even if the romantic lead is supposed to be "American" (actually, he was Swiss!)

Most of the actors are pretty good at fleshing out their cardboard characters (with one or two exceptions - for instance the little boy obviously had no idea of what he was doing).The direction is workmanlike, and much of the live cinematography is really pretty good - moody lighting, stark chiaroscuro outlines, good compositions, etc.And the editors do a much better job of integrating the stock footage into the movie than many other examples of the genre (say, the original "Invasion USA") - the movie doesn't feel nearly as disconnected and airless as it might have in less skillful hands.

"The Day..." suffers a bit from a less-than-stellar dubbing into English - there are bits of awkward dialog and tin-eared readings that cost this movie at least one star in my judgment. But I've heard far worse, and the problems here aren't enough to ruin the movie watching.

I saw this movie as part of the "Nightmare Worlds" 50 movie compilation, and I would say it is easily the best of the 10 movies I've found time to watch so far.

Boring and confusing.

[13Funbags · 2/10 · 9 May 2017]

This movie took a couple ideas and drove them so far into the ground that they never should have been seen again.They spend so much time having meaningless science conversations about magnetic inversions and other such nonsense that it's very hard to stay interested.They also have way too many music-less montages.The first half is basically just scientists looking at screens and talking over radios, waiting to launch this rocket.They don't even have any real reason to launch this rocket.They just want to circumnavigate the Earth.The rocket malfunctions and falls to Earth and then weird things start happening.Animals start to migrate and weird light balls are seen in the sky and everyone knows it because of the rocket.They could have cut out all the pointless crap and made this a nice thirty minute short.At eighty minutes, it's an exercise in attention paying.

Decent no-budget apocalyptic thriller that pleased me more than modern, big-budget ripoffs!

[talisencrw · 6/10 · 10 April 2016]

One problem that has long bothered most filmmakers, since the dawn of cinema, is the smoke-and-mirrors magic act itself--namely, getting big, great, creative ideas that movie watchers will be interested in and like, while getting these ideas across in as budget-conscious a manner as possible. Take this film, 'The Day the Sky Exploded', for instance (but make sure you give it back--I liked it LOL). Rome-born director Paolo Heusch (who later made the no-budget enjoyable thriller, 'Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory') wisely utilized as much stock footage as humanly possible, and a fine cinematographer in future horror-aficionado hero Mario Bava (though his name is bizarrely misspelled in the film's credits), to credibly bring his ambitious ideas of widespread panic and civil unrest to fruition.

Mildly problematic is the dated way that women are portrayed here. Usually in older films, this isn't bothersome to me, simply because it was so widespread, and thus expected to a certain extent, but that doesn't mean it was right. For example, the only two principal women in the film are the wife of the main astronaut, who basically is left to complaining that she doesn't get enough attention from him while the world is in chaos, and a math expert, considered 'cold' because she dares to simply think about her job, who basically falls to pieces when the going gets tough (though, to her credit, she comes to her senses). And, playing the devil's advocate for a moment, it was kind of crappy that it was a Russian who went crazy and made thinks difficult for the scientists who were binding together to try and save the world. But those are minor nit-pickings.

It made me very happy to watch this valiant cinematic attempt. It left me far more satisfied than later, big-budget efforts in the area, such as 'Deep Impact' and 'Armageddon'. Some fanfare for the common man, please! =)

Italy's first venture into science fiction, Mario Bava on board for special effects

[kevinolzak · 3/10 · 8 September 2020]

1957's "The Day the Sky Exploded" (La Morte Viene Dallo Spazio, or Death Comes from Space) hasn't seen much of a revival since its relatively brief period of TV airings, but it marked Italy's very first science fiction effort as directed by Paolo Heusch, later responsible for "Werewolf in a Girls Dormitory" (completely unrelated to Columbia's "The Night the World Exploded"). The most important name among the credits (misspelled as usual) is that of cinematographer Mario Bava, who also contributed to the special effects to fashion the final product. Little of his handiwork is evident however, as this picture so closely resembles a poverty stricken Hollywood example (in particular Robert Loggia's "The Lost Missile") that only boredom results, interchangeable characters with only Paul Hubschmid standing out for most screen time. The successful launching of an atomic rocket into orbit comes to a premature end with Hubschmid's astronaut safely returning to Earth, leaving the ship in position to alter the course of a meteor shower so that the entire world is in danger of being destroyed. There is a perfunctory love story with a brainy female scientist giving in to her male suitor but nothing more comes of it, and for the most part it's stock footage representing the worldwide havoc, as animals stampede inland, bright lights form in the sky, and as temperatures rise fires break out in several nations. The simultaneous launch of nuclear warheads is the designated answer, mankind's intent to destroy himself the means of saving the Earth. With its incessant chatter on too few sets and little action there's almost nothing to entice a viewer into sticking with it, apart from a devoted Mario Bava fan, evidence that in photographing both this title and 1956's "I Vampiri" he jump started both horror and science fiction in his native country. Paul Hubschmid would have been one cast member familiar to English speaking audiences for playing the lead (as Paul Christian) in Ray Harryhausen's "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms" in 1953.

The Movie METEOR as a spin-off of this film.

[Magellan Grey · 8/10 · 25 February 2004]

An interesting film. I saw it in 1958 when it came out in the U.S. It was nicely done. Different Italian film effort, but interesting. Some really good special effects for atmosphere disturbances caused by the approaching meteors. I especially enjoyed the affects of seeing a giant dark spot in the sky over New York City with a halo outlining it. There were other nice ones. The meteors were destroyed with every country in the world sending up rockets to pulverize them.

The movie METEOR is based on this 1958 film. Unfortunately for METEOR they used a weak sentimentality of some sort of pseudo solidarity between the U.S., the USSR and Communist China which I found campy. The 1958 film mainly showed missiles being fired toward the heavens from many countries on the globe who are capable of doing so.

A good movie.

A rare sci-fi Italian movie

[EdgarST · 6/10 · 29 December 2019]

«Death Comes From Space» is one of those films whose good intentions and effort to create stunning visual effects, contrary to their low budget, surpass its achievements. Earth is in danger once again, because of a meteor shower that diverted to the planet, when space travel goes wrong. The main plot involves the American astronaut who went to space and a female scientist (Swiss actors Paul Hubschmid and Madeleine Fischer, respectively), who have the mission of finding the solution to save everyone. In the middle of the story, a family sub-plot interferes, but the moments of destruction are stronger, as shown on the screen, thanks to footage of natural disasters and people in danger, combined with images created by cinematographer Mario Bava, famous for creating effects and atmospheres with little. A minor and certainly rare contribution of Italian cinema in the science fiction genre, but welcome.

Slow moving 'imminent impact apocalypse' film of minimal visual interest

[jamesrupert2014 · 4/10 · 21 May 2019]

Italy's first post-WW2 science fiction film (and third overall after 1910's 'Matrimonio interplanetario' and 1921's 'The Mechanical Man') begins with a malfunction on an atomic rocket heading to the moon. The astronaut (Paul Hubschmid) evacuates the ship in an emergency capsule but does not shut off the ship's atomic engines, which eventually explode, causing an asteroid cluster to coalesce into a single mass that ends up on a trajectory towards Earth. Despite being partially shielded by the moon, the rogue asteroids cause calamitous changes in the environment and, if they cannot be diverted or destroyed, will ultimately destroy the planet. The film is not particularly good (although the grainy, poorly dubbed version I watched may not have done the original justice). After some promising special effects (for era and budget) at the rocket base, the film devolves into talky sequences in cheap-looking sets, a time-filling subplot as the strangely inexpressive astronaut has a stress-induced martial crisis, and extensive use of stock footage. Cinematography was by Mario Bava (who is sometimes given directing credits as well) and while there were some interesting, moody shots, they don't raise the film above mediocre. 'The Day the Sky Exploded' is more of interest for its primal place in the history Italian science fiction cinema than as standalone entertainment (and even then, Antonio Margheriti's "Space Men" (1960) makes a much better introduction to spaghetti space-operas).

Asteroids? Isn't There A Cream For That?...

[azathothpwiggins · 25 April 2022]

In THE DAY THE SKY EXPLODED, a space exploration disaster causes impending doom when a super-asteroid heads toward Earth.

We know this is science fiction because in this story the UN takes immediate action, scrambling all forces to deal with the situation. In reality, they would convene in order to call for a future meeting, so they could decide whether or not to pass a resolution that could lead to a plan.

Thankfully, the fantasy UN is mighty!

Is this movie cheeezey? Oh yes, but it's also entertaining. Compared to the more modern, multi-million dollar space catastrophe films that tell the same basic tale, TDTSE is -very little- money well spent...