Day the World Ended

Day the World Ended (1955) was the fourth film directed by Roger Corman. The events take place after an atomic war has destroyed human civilization.

Some of the acting performances were excellent such as Lori Nelson (also Revenge of the Creature) playing the part of Louise. Her facial expressions convey very well the different emotions her character experiences.

Adele Jergens who plays Ruby gives a standout performance as a burlesque / striptease performer who is a bit past her prime and who is rejected by her companion Tony, the small time hood. She's rough around the edges but her heart is in the right place and we feel for her in her drunken grief.

Richard Denning (Target Earth, The Creature from the Black Lagoon & Creature with the Atom Brain) plays the rational scientist hero effortlessly in this and other films.

Mike Connors (TV's Mannix) is perfect as the ruthless uncaring and completely unsympathetic small - time hood, Tony who is only interested in satisfying his own selfish desires.

Convincing performances are also given by Paul Birch (Beast with a Million Eyes & Not of This Earth) who plays Jim Maddison, the decisive authority figure, as well as by Raymond Hatton, the old timer gold prospector, Pete who seems to have ambled onto the set with his mule fresh from a western movie!

Apart from the good acting performances, the film's main strength lies in its portrayal of the interactions, conflicts and emotions of the characters as they try to survive within the limited confines of their post-atomic world.

The Day The World Ended uses its low-budget to good effect with its limited, confining and almost claustrophobic setting.

Seeing this film many years ago and now owning the NA-VHS release I recall an additional scene where the Navy vet father tells the Geologist that there is a LUGER with a snail drum in the house and to rescue his daughter with it. He loads up and wounds the mutant and rescues her. My VHS does not have this scene, does anyone remember it also??? Otherwise the film is intact and my comments are that this is still effective for its time but not as good as Panic in Year Zero, which is still the best of the nuclear nightmare flicks and its effect on people and the breakdown of society. Overall 7 rating,noted for atmospheric effects and the moll is great!

If you were to pick folks to hopefully populate the world again as the new Adams and Eves the group from Day The World Ended would not be selected as a typical gene pool. But they are an interesting crew to entertain us for 79 minutes in a typical Roger Corman low budget film.

This futuristic look after the Apocalypse was shot on a shoestring and it shows, but Corman was a master at stretching things. A valley where Paul Birch and his daughter Lori Nelson have their ranch seems to have escaped the holocaust and some folks have arrived there for shelter that include an escaped convict Michael Connors and his moll stripper Adele Jergens, geologist Richard Denning, old prospector Raymond Hatton, and a strange man who has a taste for the radiated flesh of the dead animals around played by Paul Dubov.

Birch has a lot of supplies stored away probably he would be considered a survivalist today, but this is not a crew to think of the larger picture. Both Connors and Denning make a play for Nelson and Jergens is feeling rather frustrated. And there are some nasty mutant beings hanging around, but strangely not entering the valley.

Day The World Ended is a bit better than some of the low budget science fiction from the Fifties. The characters if not original are indeed entertaining.

Roger Corman could stretch a dollar better than most.

Director Roger Corman's first sci-fi film effort in 1956, "The Day The World Ended", is a low-budget, marginal film. The story involves an older man(Paul Birch) and his lovely, grown daughter,(Lori Nelson) who are holed up in their house after a nuclear holocaust has decimated most of the worlds population; their home has been protected from radioactive fallout by the surrounding mountains. The setting is limited to the house and its immediate surrounding area; Corman makes some attempt at post-holocaustic atmosphere by using smoke-generators in the surrounding foothills. At the start of the film, Birch and Nelson are suddenly besieged by five survivors, including a burrow - who all inexplicably arrive within a short time of

one another. One of the survivors has been affected by radiation and is horribly disfigured on one side of his face. It struck me as unusual that some of them appeared remarkably clean and well groomed for this sort of situation. The characters are varied and much of the conflict results from the contrasting personalities, especially in regard to the limited supplies and to geologist(Richard Denning's) and tough guy(Mike "Touch" Conner's, later TV's Mannix) heated competition over the young Nelson. Denning and Conners give the best performances in this film, Adele Jergens(Connor's girlfriend) also delivers an entertaining bit when reenacting her striptease dancing act. However, the interactive scenes within the house drag on and

on for most of the movie without a glimmer of the "mutant monster" (Paul Blaisdell); the monster finally appears after some foreshadowing, but is remarkably inept in its attack on Denning and Nelson and quickly dies from exposure to the "pure rain" that comes just in time. Anti-climatic; with Denning delivering the cliche', "Man created him, God destroyed him". Not much comic relief except for the ridiculous looking monster, who wouldn't frighten anyone but the very young (I saw it at a local drive-in when aged 12 or 13, and although it appeared interesting at the time to my youthful eyes, it was certainly not scary), and a laughable scene where Conners sticks his exposed hand out a window to collect rainwater in a container to see if it's contaminated by radiation. Some of the dialogue is atrocious, for example, one of the

characters suggests that human skin exposed to radiation could be called "atomic skin" - I rolled at that one. A one-time viewing of "The Day The World Ended" should be more than enough for most, except for perhaps the most ardent Corman fan.

This science fiction tale of doom and gloom was one of the earliest from Roger Corman, who produced and directed. While at times being a bit slow and predictable, the film features some fine talent. It stars Richard Denning as the heroic scientist hero--a role he was certainly no stranger to performing, the lovely Lori Nelson as one of the atomic blast survivors-Louise Maddison who is as far as the two leading men(Rick & Tony-played by Mike 'Touch' Connors)in the cast and even the mutant monster in the film are concerned the most desirable woman alive as far as they know. The Mutant Monster is another Paul Blaisdell brought to life on screen by Blaisdell himself. Despite looking a bit rubbery, it does have a real menace about it. Mike Connors is decidedly unsympathetic and uncaring as the two-bit hood Tony(who only wants to take and is concerned only for satisfying his own twisted desires). Paul Birch and Adele Jergens are also quite good as Maddisson(the concerned father who tries to maintain the safety of the group and fend off Tony) and Ruby(Tony's loyal kind-hearted girlfriend with a shady past). For a low budget film effort, this one is really quite good.