THE DAY THE SKY EXPLODED

Paul Hubschmid

THE DAY THE SKY EXPLODED (aka La morte viene dallo spazio/1958.) Director: Paolo Heusch. 

An international team has been gathered together to put a man into space, and an American named John McLaren (Paul Hubschmid) is chosen for the first mission. Unfortunately, something goes wrong, and while McLaren makes it back to earth he is unable to jettison an atomic engine, which ultimately creates a magnetic attraction that causes several meteors or asteroids to come together into a single gigantic mass. Worse, this mass is now heading towards Earth. Scientists hope that the mass will break apart as it approaches the moon ... 

missiles head for the deadly space mass

The Day the Sky Exploded is an early, Italian version of a premise later used in several movies, including Meteor, Asteroid, Deep Impact, and Armageddon. Only a few years after this was made, the British came out with the far superior doomsday picture, The Day the Earth Caught Fire. This film is not without interest, however, and moves quickly. As the meteors rush towards the earth there are animal migrations out of season, bizarre mirages of spheres surrounded by halos, balls of light -- and then lots of stock footage of floods and fires. The FX in this very low-budget production are pretty dismal, but there are some nifty missiles employed to destroy the meteor mass, although it takes the scientists in this forever to come up with the solution of using missiles, and even then it's an astronaut who finally hits upon the idea. 

Will the earth be saved? 

The lead actor, Paul Hubschmid, is better known as "Paul Christian," when he starred in the classic monster movie The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms earlier in the decade. He was Swiss, went to Germany where he made films during the Nazi regime, had a brief Hollywood career under his new name, then went back to Germany where he made a great many films under his real name. His best-known later film was Funeral in Berlin with Michael Caine. His excellent voice is dubbed in The Day the Sky Exploded, although it's a very professional dubbing job. Carlo Rustichelli contributed an evocative musical score, and Mario Bava, later a horror director, was the director of photography. 

Verdict: Fairly absorbing minor sci fi. **1/2.