1950s SF film
Day the World Ended, 1955, USA DIRECTED BY ROGER CORMAN
After a nuclear strike on San Francisco, in a nearby country house an ex-Navy man and his eligible daughter are descended upon by an assortment of refugees from the destroyed city, while the nearby forests are discovered to harbour a mutant creature out for blood. Roger Corman's first foray into science fiction was devoid of much science beyond the usual post-apocalyptic preoccupations of survival, mutations and monsters. His cast of oddball characters and their idiosyncrasies rub up against each other constantly, resulting in a few rather decent performances despite the movie's occasionally ponderous pace. When revealed the monster itself is disappointing, but on the plus side there are also many indications of a more colourful and adventurous imagination at work, one that had an easy facility for blending horror and SF in that entertainingly low-budget style that Corman made his own. This is by no means a great Corman SF movie, but it was a decent enough beginning.