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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Monday, December 28, 2020

The Night The World Exploded (1957)

Starring Kathryn Grant, William Leslie, Tris Coffin, Raymond Greenleaf, Charles Evans
Directed by Fred F. Sears

(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)


A seismologist and his assistant try to track down the source of a series of unrelenting earthquakes, and discover a previously unknown element is responsible.


A low-budget programmer from Columbia Pictures, there's not much in the way of special effects, except the flaming and growing element 111, which is nevertheless believably showcased.  Leslie stars as Dr. David Conway, and Grant (of The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad and her marriage to Bing Crosby) is probably the biggest star in the film, hence her top billing.  Their characters are saddled with a subplot of trying to admit their love for each other, while attempting to save the world.  It's not a bad picture, and is fairly well plotted and scripted, although some sexist dialogue exists.  Still, it doesn't quite make the impact it needs to for a seeming "end of the world" picture, despite amiable characters worth caring about.

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