The Day the Sky Exploded

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! =)

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.

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...

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.

«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.