The Day the World Ended (1955)

The Day the World Ended (USA, 1955) 79 min B&W DIR: Roger Corman. PROD: Alex Gordon. SCR: Lou Rusoff, MUSIC: Ronald Stein. DOP: Jockey Arthur Feindel. CAST: Richard Denning, Lori Nelson, Adele Jergens, Mike Connors, Paul Birch, Raymond Hatton, Paul Dubov, Jonathan Haze, Paul Blaidsell. (American Releasing Corporation) 

---

Of all the science fiction films that Roger Corman directed in the 1950s, this one is perhaps the least interesting, even though it has a promising idea and some engaging themes. (Corman’s Teenage Caveman is an inferior film, yet has a final sequence more amazing than anything in here.)

With echoes of Arch Oboler’s Five, and even Shakespeare’s The Tempest, this epic begins with “The End”, as a God-like narrator explains that “this world as we know it no longer exists”, while the Theremin music squeals on high. After a nuclear bomb falls, myriad survivors emerge from the smoke and dry ice, and find their way to the household of Jim Maddison (played by Paul Birch, better remembered for Not of This Earth) and his daughter Louise (Lori Nelson)- the Prospero and Miranda of the atomic age. Because there are only provisions for these two, and a conspicuously absent person named Tommy, Jim is less than thrilled at their arrival.

As one would expect of a 1950s movie, the stock group of characters finding sanctuary and similarly warring one another are: square-jawed hero Rick (Richard Denning), gangster and moll (Mike Connors, Adele Jergens), and desert rat (former cowboy star Raymond Hatton). Poor Jonathan Haze makes a brief, thankless appearance as a radiation victim they encounter on the hill, with these runny, pus-like burns on his face.

For the most part, this movie is a tired love triangle, as the sleazy mob guy has a thing for Louise, whereas Jim wants his daughter to procreate with Rick, to perpetuate the human race. (“You have a week to get used to the idea.”) So much time is spent on this melodrama that one almost forgets the nagging questions of how this ragtag group is going to survive in this new world. Perhaps the most interesting moment occurs when Jergens’ character does a Las Vegas striptease, out of remembrance of her former days, and this brief moment of burlesque and hedonism quickly gives away to sadness when she realizes that these times are gone for good.

The subplot of a radioactive monster, may be confined to a subplot for good reason, as make-up artist Paul Blaidsell’s monster is a truly unbelievable concoction. At the film’s climax, we finally see the monster in full view… three eyes and two horns!

Yet The Day the World Ended is atypical of most 1950s science fiction horror films, especially those with an atomic theme. These monsters are usually created and destroyed by science, yet this film has a more Biblical subtext. In the interesting conclusion, the monster is killed by rain… as if God is cleansing the world of evil, so that the Adam and Eve couple of Rick and Louise can begin life anew in this strange Eden. “Man created it, but God destroyed it.” This observation also makes sense once one remembers the messianic narration in the beginning, and the film ends with “The Beginning.” Sadly, the movie needs more interesting layers like this, because otherwise the film is little more than atomic pillow talk. 

The Day the World Ended was remade as In the Year 2889, as one of several colour remakes that AIP exec Sam Arkoff hired Larry Buchanan to direct for television. 

---

Updated from a review originally published in The Roger Corman Scrapbook.