Day the Sky Explodes (1958)

Death Comes from Space
Death From Outer Space

Cast:

Paul "I went from Beast from 20,000 Fathoms to this..." Huschmid is John McLaren
Fiorella Mari is Mary McLaren
Madeleine Fischer is Katy Dandridge
Ivo Garrani is Prof. Herbert Weisse
Dario Michaelis is Peter Leduq

What the box says:

A space mission goes awry when the experimental rocket malfunctions, forcing the astronaut to eject in an escape capsule and sending the rocket into deep space, where it explodes. The explosion causes a group of asteroids to veer from orbit around the sun, setting them on a collision course with Earth. With the impending doom approaching the planet, the nations of the world desperately attempt to come up with a plan to destroy the rogue planetoids.

Plot:

The space montage ensues before the atomic rocket readies for the lunar mission. John McClaren is announced as the pilot of the mission.

Good luck and congratulations, Captain Guinea Pig... Let the countdown and blastoff ensue. The control room radios John instructions to reach the moon due to a technical mistake.
Vid-phones show how farly advanced weare... The rocket's engines have to be reset. They lose contact with John when he falls back to Earth.

Later, John is taken to the hospital. He explains how the rocket went off course due to the atomic engine being disconnected. The space agency has been searching for the rocket.

Could Sputnik have been phototed until a second satellite was launched? They pick up some explosion in the asteroid belt and the asteroids will be drawn to Earth.

The scientists announce the asteroids to the UN. They explain their plan to magnetize the asteroids into hitting the moon. If lucy, they'll need to evacuate the coastal regions. Let the military evacuation of the coastal regions to start with the panicking citizenry montage ensuing.

John reports back to the military. He's reunited with Mary, his wife, and his son, Dennis. He has them taken to a nearby shelter.

Some asteroids crash to cause the tidal waves and destruction.

Why do you think people don't want beach front properties?

John plans to use rockets to launch nuclear weapons to take care of the big remaining asteroids. They start to send the firing data all over the world. Let the global launches start. John takes Mary and Dennis back to the base. The computer overheats. One of the scientists goes crazy and wants to prevent anyone from restarting the the computer. John and some of the others rush the gun-toting scientists and resume the launch data.

Wait for the countdown of the rocket montage. Rockets versus asteroids.

How does this remind anyone of Sigmund Freud's theories? The radar shows the asteroids were eliminated and Earth is safe.

What I say:

This 1950s cheezy sci-fi movie that was one of the first Italian sci-fi movies even before being dubbed into English for the 1960s a few years later...A rocket malfunctions which causes a number of asteroids to head straight for Earth. Can a group of scientists manage to develop some way to save humanity? Yes, imagine Armageddon by way of 2012 without the special effects.

For such a small movie about 1950s space, it only has the the rocket launch and is more concerned with the impending asteroids. Nice to know that such a massive threat unites all the countries together to use their nuclear weapons against the common doom. Scientists are able to piece together some wonderful miracle scientific solution like Earth Vs the Flying Saucers. Well, that movie has interesting special effects thanks to Ray Harryhausen. Near the end, the Day the Sky Exploded had a number of characters that disappeared and reappeared around the scenes.

The director, Paolo Heusch, also gave us Werewolf in a Girl's Dormitory showing more of his great artistic brilliant pieces. Well, Mario Bava, the cinematographer, co-directed this movie. He's more known for a number of Italian horror movies in the 60s and 70s.

However, this movie would rather have an astronaut who is "discussing" with his wife about career choices. If that's not bad enough, the "Battle of the Sexes" must be included among the scientists by having the Rico Suavay guy trying to win the hot scientific chick who'll be overwhelmed by his greatness instead of the impending doom.

This has to be one of the most stock-footage or montage-included movies I've run across in quite a while: the terrified people, the floods, the evacuation, the animals acting strangely...We may not have recognized where most of the movies are taken from. The stock footage is easily spotted not from here.

Quotable Dialogue
"We'll be in different worlds."
"Has the lost of weight effected you?"
"I shan't be long."
"Pull yourself together."
"Allo, Cape Shark...Allo, Cape Shark..."
Morals of the Story
Countdown clocks are required to be analog.
1950s scientists think female scientists are cold-fish.
Children love boomerangs.
Dogs should be named after physicists.
Air conditiioners can be set to 0º
Air Conditioner = LIFE.