The low budget sci-fi / horror / drama "Day the World Ended" is pretty good as Roger Cormans' low budget genre efforts go. It's well acted overall and well photographed; do try to see this in widescreen if you can. It's largely dependent on its acting and writing to carry it through a long stretch in which there's no real scary stuff. That's saved for the end. Corman is wise to keep his monster off screen until then, and fortunately when the reveal finally happens, the work by Paul Blaisdell ensures a fairly interesting creature, certainly better looking than, say, the thing in "It Conquered the Earth".
The movie features a decent ensemble cast with stolid, handsome Richard Denning ("Creature from the Black Lagoon") as the hero Rick, Mike Connors ('Mannix') as hot headed, creepy antagonist Tony, Paul Birch (Cormans' "Not of This Earth") as homeowner Jim Maddison, pretty Lori Nelson ("Revenge of the Creature") as Jims' nubile daughter Louise, sexy Adele Jergens ("Armored Car Robbery") as Tony's gal pal, Raymond Hatton ("The Hunchback of Notre Dame" '23) as aged gold hunter Pete, Paul Dubov ("Shock Corridor") as infected man Radek, and Corman regular Jonathan Haze as an unnamed victim. Blaisdell himself plays the monster.
The actors play a disparate group of people who gather at Jims' home after nuclear devastation has made most other places dangerous; Jim lives in a valley that offers some protection. They find that surviving is tough, but making things worse is Tony, who gets the hots for Louise. They also become concerned about the daytime activities of Radek, who frequently disappears into a contaminated area. And eventually the monster shows up...
Devotees of genre efforts from this decade and followers of Cormans' career should find this to be agreeable entertainment. Even though the scares only start coming toward the end, the filmmaker manages to keep you watching and involved. Certainly you wait hoping for the rotten Tony to get his comeuppance. There may be moments that inspire more laughter than anything, but taken as a whole the movie is fun.
Seven out of 10.
The movie features a decent ensemble cast with stolid, handsome Richard Denning ("Creature from the Black Lagoon") as the hero Rick, Mike Connors ('Mannix') as hot headed, creepy antagonist Tony, Paul Birch (Cormans' "Not of This Earth") as homeowner Jim Maddison, pretty Lori Nelson ("Revenge of the Creature") as Jims' nubile daughter Louise, sexy Adele Jergens ("Armored Car Robbery") as Tony's gal pal, Raymond Hatton ("The Hunchback of Notre Dame" '23) as aged gold hunter Pete, Paul Dubov ("Shock Corridor") as infected man Radek, and Corman regular Jonathan Haze as an unnamed victim. Blaisdell himself plays the monster.
The actors play a disparate group of people who gather at Jims' home after nuclear devastation has made most other places dangerous; Jim lives in a valley that offers some protection. They find that surviving is tough, but making things worse is Tony, who gets the hots for Louise. They also become concerned about the daytime activities of Radek, who frequently disappears into a contaminated area. And eventually the monster shows up...
Devotees of genre efforts from this decade and followers of Cormans' career should find this to be agreeable entertainment. Even though the scares only start coming toward the end, the filmmaker manages to keep you watching and involved. Certainly you wait hoping for the rotten Tony to get his comeuppance. There may be moments that inspire more laughter than anything, but taken as a whole the movie is fun.
Seven out of 10.