The Day the Earth Caught Fire is a 1961 British science-fiction disaster film directed by Val Guest and starring Edward Judd, Leo McKern, and Janet Munro.

[8] The film, which was partly made on location in London and Brighton, used matte painting to create images of abandoned cities and desolate landscapes.

Peter Stenning had been an up-and-coming journalist with the Daily Express, but since a divorce threw his life into disarray, he has been drinking too much, and his work has suffered.

Stenning's only friend, Bill Maguire, is a veteran Fleet Street reporter, who offers him encouragement and occasionally covers for him by writing his copy.

Meanwhile, after the Soviet Union and the United States simultaneously conduct nuclear bomb tests, strange meteorological events begin to affect the globe.

Stenning is sent to the British Met Office to obtain temperature data, and while there, he meets Jeannie, a young typist who is temporarily acting as telephonist.

The increasing heat has caused water to evaporate and mists to cover Britain, and a solar eclipse occurs days ahead of schedule.

Scientists conclude that the only way to bring Earth back into a safe orbit is to detonate a series of nuclear bombs in western Siberia.

The film ends with a voiceover from Stenning without expressly revealing whether the Earth is saved: "So Man has sown the wind – and reaped the whirlwind.

[10][11][12] In his commentary track for the 2001 Anchor Bay DVD release, director Val Guest said the sound of church bells in the American version had been added by distributor Universal, to suggest that the emergency detonation had succeeded and Earth had been saved.

Guest adds that Christiansen helped secure co operation from press baron Lord Beaverbrook to film on Fleet Street, and provided technical advice.

"[14] In an early film role, an uncredited Michael Caine makes a brief appearance as a policeman manning a road block.

The film was made in black and white but in some original prints, the opening and closing sequences are tinted orange-yellow to suggest the heat of the sun.

[21] Filmink wrote "at times it seems that Munro’s other role in the film seems to be to demonstrate how hot it’s getting by having her constantly sun baking, hopping out of the shower and/or lying around in just a sheet – this did earn her a whole new legion of fans.

But she has a real part to play, with great dialogue and dramatic scenes, and it’s a shame that she never worked with Val Guest again.

"[22] Val Guest and Wolf Mankowitz received the 1962 BAFTA for Best Film Screenplay for The Day the Earth Caught Fire.