As mentioned previously, in “Impossible Voyages” I’m watching and writing about a run of new (to me) science fiction films to be watched over last year, which has extended to this year (2026). You can read the rationale and ground rules here. In the meantime, we are advancing from 1954 to 1955 with this movie, #33 in this series.
Roger Corman is a name I have heard but know almost nothing about. I had the impression that he was basically a producer of low budget b-movies, but a quick scan of his Wikipedia page reveals that he did a lot more than that. He is described there as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. He did indeed produce (and direct) a bunch of lower budget science fiction and monster movies, but he also helped launch the careers of all manner of famous actors and actually mentored a lot of famous filmmakers, and was a key figure in the American distribution of the world of a lot of big filmmakers, including the likes of Kurosawa, Fellini and Bergman.
Spoilers Ahead
Day the World Ended (1955)
Directed by Roger Corman
The Story: After a nuclear apocalypse, a small group of survivors gather at the secluded home of Jim Maddison and his adult daughter Louise, who have stockpiled supplies in preparation for the disaster. Rick, an expert in uranium mining, falls in love with Louise, but faces trouble from wannabe gangster Tony Lamont, who has designs on Louise himself in spite of the fact that he’s accompanied by his girlfriend Ruby. The group also comes under threat by mutants who are created by the radioactive fallout, one of whom may have been Louise’s fiancé who has been presumed killed in the disaster. In the end, Rick and Louise are the only survivors. With the malevolent mutant killed, the radiation dispersed, and having gained new information about the survival about other parts of humanity, the two set off to rejoin civilisation.
Starring: Richard Denning as Rick, Lori Nelson as Louise, Paul Birch as Jim Maddison, Touch Conners as Tony, Adele Jergens as Ruby, Raymond Hatton as Pete (a gold prospector who joins the group) and Paul Dubov as Radek (a survivor who is mutated by the radiation).
Comments: In the world science fiction movies, you can have really earnest stuff, where the focus is extraordinary ideas and the way characters react to these things. You can slo have really cheesy stuff, where the science is improbable and the focus is wacky spectacle. And then you can have movies like Day the World Ended which somehow is both at the same time.
To be fair, this is mostly serious science fiction, dealing as it does with the interaction between a group of survivors of a nuclear apocalypse, and focusing mainly on the interplay between them. The internal conflict mostly focuses on Tony, a low-level mobster-type who quickly becomes infatuated with the lovely Louise, daughter of the homesteader whose home (and survivalist preparations) the whole group has to thank for their continued existence. Nobody likes or trusts Tony, but his girlfriend, former showgirl Ruby, continues to throw herself at him even though it’s obvious she is fighting a losing battle.
It’s all melodramatic, of course, but it’s also played with such conviction that it feels believable, or at least believable enough. And of course it adds to the fact that the group is already in such a perilous situation, not knowing whether or not the next rainfall will bring fatal radiation down on them all.
But in the midst of all this weighty material, there is also this thing about killer mutants lurking about.
This is treated as a completely as something that is supposed to make sense: the result of the radioactive fallout–animals and people caught in it mutate into beings that survive on the radiation itself, including one of our group of survivors. Naturally we in the audience (especially those of us in the 21st century) know that this ridiculous. That’s okay of course, but it does clash somewhat with the otherwise strait-laced (and straight-faced) material that makes up most of the movie.
The mutation storyline is interesting as far as it goes, but it doesn’t actually go very far. Radek, the survivor whose metamorphosis is a looming threat to the group, ends up a bit of a red herring–he is just killed by some other mutant that is further along than him. And while that other mutant provides some tension toward the end, it ends up being killed by the rain (which is revealed to be radiation-free).
There are some interesting hints that this creature was actually Louise’s missing fiancé, presumed dead from the start of the story. These never go any further than that, but I enjoyed the fact that this was something the audience was meant to pick up on, but the characters never did.
The movie’s real drama, once you look past the window dressing of the mutants, is the menace that Tony brings to the group. He seems ready to rape Louise, and though you could argue that there is a measure of self-defence involved in his killing of Ruby, he seems pretty cold-blooded about it.
It’s like Ruby attacking him just gives him the excuse to finally get rid of her. He’s a loathsome character that is well played by Touch Conners, who later became Mike Conners and was nominated for multiple Emmy awards as he starred in the private eye show Mannix for eight seasons. Seeing him get his comeuppance from Louise’s father Jim in his last act to ensure his daughter’s well-being is pretty satisfying.
I’d say that Conners’ character was the most engaging of the group, although Adele Jergens was also interesting as Ruby, and nobody was outright bad (although Richard Denning’s Rick doesn’t have a lot to do besides just being rugged and upright).
Day the World Ended is interesting as an early response at the world’s relatively new fear of nuclear devastation. It never specifies exactly what happened, but the movie is probably better for it; certainly it gives it more of a timeless, almost “morality play” quality–an idea that is supported by the very serious opening title graphic.
It’s not the first movie to deal with that subject–that apparently was Five from four years earlier–but I think it might be the first one to include radioactive mutants! Those mutants put it into the “B movie” category but even so, it remains surprisingly heartfelt in its intentions and approach to the concept.
Other Thoughts
• Richard Denning was the governor of Hawaii over all twelve seasons of the original Hawaii 5-0. I used to watch that series from time to time, but I don’t remember the character.
• Roger Corman appears in the movie as Louise’s fiancé, in a photograph. That guy is implied to be the same character as the killer mutant, but apparently Corman didn’t play the mutant (it was played by Paul Blaisedell, who also designed the creature, and did monster designs for other movies as well).
• The mutant joins the ranks of many other movie antagonists who are undone by water: The Wizard of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West, the Triffids from Day of the Triffids, and the aliens from Signs all being amongst them. (Also, I guess, Max Cady from Cape Fear, technically).
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