User reviews

If you're looking at the reviews for Night the World Exploded, you are probably already a hopeless 50's sci-fi addict. But it's OK, you're in good company.

This is actually a pretty engaging film that may hold up to some repeated viewings. Although the props and sets are not as good as they could be, they still support a very interesting story with good production values and some very good B movie acting.

I would actually recommend this film above The Unknown Terror and Flame Barrier. These two are probably better films with bigger budgets but have a very boring script with little to no action.

Also, if you're into 'End of the World' flicks, don't miss Crack In The World - one of the best!!

A cutting edge scientist, Dr. David Conway (William Leslie) has developed a machine that he hopes can predict when earthquakes are going to occur. It works quite well, as we shall see, and a series of quakes happen which get progressively worse. Conway and his loyal assistant, Laura "Hutch" Hutchinson (Kathryn Grant), find that the culprit responsible is a previously unknown element with very explosive potential. The race is then on to solve the problem before the title disaster can take place.

One might say that the budget for this modestly entertaining B picture is ultimately too low for its ambitions, but director Fred F. Sears ("Earth vs. the Flying Saucers") succeeds in crafting some tension. Much use is made of what is presumably stock footage, adding to the scope of the action (not to mention the running time, which is very short anyway). The "underground" sets and props aren't exactly convincing, but they don't distract too much from the fun. The fairly neat premise is admittedly somewhat close to that in the Universal production "The Monolith Monsters".

A decent bunch of actors does help matters. Leslie isn't terribly expressive, but he's reasonably likable, and it's very easy to watch the young Ms. Grant, who's incredibly cute. Co- starring are Tristram Coffin as the dedicated Dr. Ellis Morton, Raymond Greenleaf as the governor who learns his lesson after failing to take Conway and Morton seriously, and Paul Savage as the curious and engaging Ranger Kirk.

Passable special effects, and a rather amusing problem solving finale, help this to kill 64 minutes pleasantly.

Six out of 10.

Others have compared this movie loosely with The Monolith Monsters. The latter is far better, but The Night the World Exploded is still entertaining, and perhaps especially interesting for fans of eco horror or eco scifi: it's humanity's oil drilling, mining, and other such activities that have caused the catastrophe.

The science is more ludicrous than usual, and the sexism a little more underscored, but as a product of its time it's fun enough.

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.

Well, I like this movie, and I don't care what the critics say. It's a low-budget "Monolith Monsters" in reverse, sort of. Unlike the Monoliths that grow explosively when wet, the rocks in NTWE explode when dry.

Yes, the props and sets are cheesy sometimes (the "Pressure Photometer" could use a few squirts of oil), but it's an interesting concept that makes an attempt to offer halfway logical scientific reasons for its premise, unlike the pure nonsense of more contemporary movies like "Independence Day", in which any appearance of logical reasoning is thrown out the window.

Unfortunately, there appears to have never been a studio release of this movie, either on VHS or DVD. Currently, one can find both formats on ebay, but they all seem to be copies of the same TV broadcast.

If you agree with me that this is a movie worth watching, post a reply on the Message Board (there's a link near the bottom of the NTWE main page) and let me know that I'm not alone.

While "The Night the World Exploded" is a very low-budget film with no-name actors, it is enjoyable. It also manages to make a ridiculous plot seem plausible--and that is no small feat.

The film begins with a seismologist creating a new machine that would help them predict earthquakes. However, the equipment is either faulty OR the Earth is royally screwed!!! Soon, after the big quake, they discover a new element--#112. And here is where it gets crazy. There is a lot of it and the element is VERY explosive--so explosive that the planet may soon go kaboom! That is, unless they enact a crazy plan that just MIGHT work.

While this film offers few huge thrills, it works well. The miniature sets work well and the acting is good. Most importantly, the film is written well and will probably hold your attention.

Two seismologists by the name of "Dr. David Conway" (William Leslie) and "Dr. Ellis Morton" (Tristam Coffin) along with their pretty assistant "Laura 'Hutch' Hutchinson" (Kathryn Grant) have just produced a machine that can predict earthquakes. Unfortunately, the first earthquake it predicts is extremely catastrophic and it's followed by much larger ones. Soon the earth has reached a critical point and everything points to a new discovery called "Element 112" as the cause. But can anybody do anything about it? Rather than answer that question and possibly spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was a satisfactory science-fiction movie for the most part. Obviously, being made in 1957 one shouldn't expect graphics quite as good as those produced today but for that particular time they weren't too bad. Likewise, the acting was adequate as well. All things considered then I suppose this movie is worth a look by fans of this genre and I rate it as average.

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!

A 50's Sci Fi. Is it good? No. It's not good. There's far better sci fi even back in the 50's. It's a pretty short movie too. Short on length. Short on Story. Short on character development. Yeah I know I am stingy. 4/10.

And IMDB has now made it so a review has to have 600 characters before it can be entered. I really don't expect that to last very long because people are sure to complain about it. But until that happens I guess we have to expect reviews to be long winded and sometimes about absolutely nothing to do with the show in question.

It's really not even worth the time reviewing some of them.

This is an unexciting world-is-in-danger flick, with William Leslie as a seismologist and Kathryn Grant as his assistant.

Earthquakes have knocked the earth 3 degrees off its axis, which means the only people who don't notice are the winos. Leslie et al descend into Carlsbad Caverns (I'm still not sure why), where they discover a mysterious mineral that grows and explodes when removed from water. This crap, dubbed "Element 112," keeps pushing to the surface, causing havoc around the globe. Leslie figures out that the only way to stop the catastrophe is to flood every area he can think of. He should have started with director Fred Sears' office. (In fairness to Sears, he did direct "Earth vs. The Flying Saucers," which is a decent film. Then again, he also directed "The Giant Claw.")

Leslie and Grant make a tepid couple, which adds to the overall dullness of the film. They both act as if they are on valium. Gerald Mohr supplies the narration, which is good since we don't have to see his face. The budget is minimal - one guy on an airplane (veteran 1940s B-movie actor Dennis Moore) is sitting on a folding metal chair. And then he suffers the further indignity of getting yanked off the plane because it was overbooked.

The only suspense occurs early on, when Grant is climbing down a ladder in the caverns and freezes up. At this point, Leslie, standing below, decides to use reverse psychology and yells at her: "Wouldn't you know a woman would pull a stunt like this? You're all scientists until there's the slightest bit of danger, then you fold up. Want your mommy and daddy?" I had no problem with this sexist dialogue, but when he accused her of having visible panty bulge, that crossed over the line.

Dr David Conway shows his assistant Laura " Hutch " Hutchinson a new machine that predicts Earthquakes . This machine predicts a large quake is about to hit California in 24 hours and it does . Things go from bad to worse as a series of violent quakes tilt the world of its axis by three degrees and Dr Conway finds its caused by a new found element called " one twelve " which is a highly unstable element that expands and explodes when it becomes dry

This is nothing more than a sci-fi B movie and viewed for what it is it isn't at all bad . It's done in a documentary type way and a massive non prize for guessing this is due to the practicalities of not having a big budget rather than any stylistic imagination of director Fred Sears who does managed to make the most of what little he's got and everything races along at a tight , brisk pace . What tends to bring things is that there is a romantic subplot between Conway and his assistant Hutch who is supposed to be a ballsy independent female but as soon as there's the slightest sign of danger turns in to a blubbering girly girl in need of rescue by the male lead . Considering the period it was made in where the world was split in to two superpower camps both of whom viewed each other with mutual suspicion it's nice to see a film where the international scientific community put aside the politics of the state and work together . Some people might be put off by the lack of outlandish plot devices like aliens and the science never seems entirely credible but I've seen a lot of SF B movies from this era and this is far from being one of the worst

Incredibly boring outing about a scientist that invents a device to predict earthquakes and it is anticipating the big one. Initially unable to arouse the support of the government to alert the public, he and his team are later enlisted on a mission to determine what is causing the quakes. Lots and lots of dull, redundant dialog occasionally interrupted with stock footage of earthquakes and earthquake damage. Bad science and lousy analytical technique are on display followed by the standard call to all nations to unite to save the planet. Typical 50s sexist stuff abounds as Grant tries her best to fit in. This is just a bad waste of time.

Dr. David Conway (William Leslie) develops a method to predict earthquakes, and promptly one occurs within 24 hours. But the worst is yet to come, he declares. A 'new element 112' is going to cause much stronger earthquakes soon, they may even make the Earth explode. 28 days are left to prevent that, therefore scientists all over the planet get to work.

It's fun to compare 50s disaster movies to the productions we get nowadays. The scientists in the 50s arrived clean shaven in the morning to continue their job of saving the world, bringing the kids into a high security area for a little play during lunch break - apparently saving the world was a much more relaxed job in those days. In the 2010s, they find hardly enough time to breathe, let alone shave. Also a sign of the times is a remarkably misogynistic scene when Laura Hutchinson (Kathryn Grant, known for 'The 7th Voyage of Sinbad') climbs down into a cave and the guys ridicule her fear, being so weak like all females. They wouldn't say that to Lara Croft nowadays. Anyway, it's a mild entertaining sci-fi flick of its times, with a running time of just over an hour it doesn't have any lengths to sit through, I give it 5 of 10.

This benefits, if that's the right word, from a mediocre cast of C-listers and some truly amazing papier-mâché special effects that can really only make you smile rather than recoil behind the sofa in terror! William Leslie is the scientist "Conway" who has designed a machine that he thinks can predict earthquakes. Now that could be quite useful in California but he can't get the Governor to believe an evacuation is essential when it starts to ring alarm bells. What's strange is that his gizmo seems to be telling him that the whole world is about to suffer a catastrophic sequence of quakes so together with his glamorous assistant "Hutch" (Kathryn Grant) he sets off into some very deep caverns where they discover a molten rock that is heading to the surface - and if it gets there, well it's goodnight Vienna. Can they concoct a plan to stop it in it's tracks? The story isn't so bad, but the execution is "Outer Limits" standard. There is far too much dialogue and but for the last ten minutes when the faux-rocks starts a-tumbling, there is precious little action in this studio bound and rather dry sci-fi drama. It's only an hour, and doubtless filled the drive-ins in 1957, but it's all just a bit too rudimentary on just about every level - including the underpinning science - to be of much interest now.

Dr. Conroy (William Leslie), an intrepid geologist and his comely assistant 'Hutch' (future Bing-bride Kathryn Grant) discover a new element (#112) that expands on contact with nitrogen and ultimately explodes violently (a process conveniently reversed by submersion in water). Mining has exposed this element to the nitrogen in Earth's atmosphere, causing devastating earthquakes that will ultimately destroy the planet. The premise, acting, special effects and Fred F. Sear's direction are decidedly nondescript, but the film is interesting as an early example of an 'environmental disaster' film, as the threat to the Earth is the result if mankind's exploitation of her resources (the characters muse that our imminent extinction might be the planet's revenge for our thoughtless avarice). Grant's 'woman scientist' character is a typical of the era: she is competent but is feeling the need to get married (to her second choice) and is paralysed with fear at inopportune times (the scene where she is shamed into descending a swaying ladder is an amusing example of the genre's straw-feminism). Needless to say, the titular event does not occur and the disasters resulting from E-112 (earthquakes, volcanoes and apparently changes in the in Earth's tilt and gravity that are never explained) are all blatantly stock footage (the climactic destruction scene is lifted from 1938's 'Born to be Wild'). All-in-all, a dull, predictable, low-budget 'sciencey' adventure film released on a double-feature with Sears' splendidly awful 'The Giant Claw'. For a more entertaining and imaginative 'growing rocks' opus, consider watching 1957's 'The Monolith Monsters'.

The Night the World Exploded (1957)

** (out of 4)

This science-fiction film has pretty much been forgotten because director Fred F. Sears and producer Sam Katzman would follow it up with THE GIANT CLAW, which of course would find a major cult following. This film here has a couple scientists trying to discover the cause for a recent outbreak of earthquakes that are causing major destruction around the world. With the help of a machine, the two realize that the really big one is coming and they must come up with a way to stop it. THE NIGHT THE WORLD EXPLODED runs a quick 64-minutes and is pretty entertaining throughout but at the same time there's just no way for the film to tackle all the important issues brought up in it and especially with such a small budget. The budget is without question one of the smallest I've seen from a Katzman production and there's really no evidence that any money was spent on this thing. Right from the start we're greeted with non-stop stock footage, which shows the destruction of the earthquakes, the mass problems that followed and even the flooding. All of these things have an impact on the story and when we cut away to the stock footage it's just so obvious and it does take away from what you're seeing. I will give the filmmakers a lot of credit for coming up with a pretty good explanation as to why the earthquakes are happening and what it's going to take to stop them. The film is mostly dialogue driven so extra credit has to go to the fact that it really never gets boring. Yes, some of the scenes are dragged out a bit but not to the point where you get bored. Kathryn Grant and William Leslie play the leads and offer up fine performances. If you're looking for a film with ground-breaking effects then you're certainly not going to find it here but fans of the 50's sci-fi should be mildly entertained.