The Day the Sky Exploded
| The Day the Sky Exploded | |
|---|---|
 Italian film poster for The Day the Sky Exploded | |
| Directed by | Paolo Heusch |
| Produced by | Guido Giambartolomei[1] |
| Screenplay by |
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| Story by | Virgilio Sabel[1] |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Carlo Rustichelli[2] |
| Cinematography | Mario Bava[2] |
| Edited by | Otello Colangeli[1] |
Production company |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 82 minutes |
| Country |
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The Day the Sky Exploded (Italian: La morte viene dallo spazio) is a 1958 Italian-French science fiction film directed by Paolo Heusch. It is known as the first Italian science fiction film, predating even the science fiction films of Antonio Margheriti.[3][4]
Plot
An atomic rocket is launched on a manned moon mission, but one of the engines malfunctions. The rocket's steering is broken. The pilot disengages the capsule and returns to Earth. The atomic booster, however, continues on, eventually crashing into and exploding in an asteroid belt. The explosion dislodges many asteroids from their orbits. They coalesce into one giant cluster and are heading for earth. When there seems to be no reasonable hope that humans could eventually avoid the crash, scientists find that the moon will pass in front of the cluster so that the Earth will be shielded from most of it. However, a small part of the cluster is not shielded and continues towards the Earth. As the cluster approaches earth it causes global scale disasters: tidal waves, wind, fire storms and earthquakes. At this point, mankind's only hope is to arm every missile on earth with a nuclear warhead and fire them all at the cluster. One scientist loses his sanity in the crisis and disables the great computer needed to calculate all the firing data. He is stopped and the data provided. The nations of the world band together and fire the volley. The cluster is destroyed.
Release
The Day the Sky Exploded was shown in Rome, Italy in September 1958.[1] It was shown in France in 1959.[2]
It premiered in the United States on September 27, 1961 in Los Angeles.[1]
Reception
In a contemporary review, The Monthly Film Bulletin stated that "The producers of this Franco-Italian science fiction film have turned to stock footage to such an extent that this might well be termed the stock-shot film par excellence." and that "this disparate material has been quite ingeniously assembled" and that the film was "otherwise routine" and "tamely directed"[5]
TV Guide gave the film a one out of four rating, referring to the film as an "Ineffective sci-fi outing"[6] In Phil Hardy's book Science Fiction (1984), a review stated that "the picture's main asset is Bava's excellent cinematography; both acting and direction fail to transcend a poor script."[7]
See also
- List of French films of 1958
- List of science fiction films of the 1950s
- List of Italian films of 1958
Notes
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 "The Day the Sky Exploded". American Film Institute. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
- 1 2 3 4 5 "La Morte viene dallo spazio" (in French). Bifi.fr. Retrieved July 24, 2015.
- ↑ Roberto Chiavini, Gian Filippo Pizzo, Michele Tetro (2003). Il grande cinema di fantascienza: aspettando il monolito nero (1902-1967) (Vol. 2 of Il grande cinema di fantascienza, Collana gli Album ed.). Gremese. p. 145. ISBN 8884402662, ISBN 978-88-8440-266-0.
- ↑ Roberto Chiti, Roberto Poppi, Enrico Lancia (1991). Dizionario del cinema italiano (Vol. 2 of Dizionari Gremese, Vol. 1-2 of I film ed.). Gremese. p. 240. ISBN 8876055487, ISBN 978-88-7605-548-5.
- ↑ "Morte Viene Dallo Spazio, La". Monthly Film Bulletin (London) 28 (324): 10. 1961. ISSN 0027-0407.
- ↑ "The Day The Sky Exploded". TV Guide. Retrieved July 25, 2015.
- ↑ Hardy 1984, p. 182.
References
- Hardy, Phil, ed. (1984). Science Fiction. New York : Morrow. ISBN 0-688-00842-9.