The Night the World Exploded (1957)

This benefits, if that's the right word, from a mediocre cast of C-listers and some truly amazing papier-mâché special effects that can really only make you smile rather than recoil behind the sofa in terror! William Leslie is the scientist "Conway" who has designed a machine that he thinks can predict earthquakes. Now that could be quite useful in California but he can't get the Governor to believe an evacuation is essential when it starts to ring alarm bells. What's strange is that his gizmo seems to be telling him that the whole world is about to suffer a catastrophic sequence of quakes so together with his glamorous assistant "Hutch" (Kathryn Grant) he sets off into some very deep caverns where they discover a molten rock that is heading to the surface - and if it gets there, well it's goodnight Vienna. Can they concoct a plan to stop it in it's tracks? The story isn't so bad, but the execution is "Outer Limits" standard. There is far too much dialogue and but for the last ten minutes when the faux-rocks starts a-tumbling, there is precious little action in this studio bound and rather dry sci-fi drama. It's only an hour, and doubtless filled the drive-ins in 1957, but it's all just a bit too rudimentary on just about every level - including the underpinning science - to be of much interest now.