Thursday, December 14, 2023

Thursday Movie Picks, December 14, 2023: Movies with "Day" or "Night" in the title

This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of Thursday Movie Picks, the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. The theme this week is "Day or Night in Title", and since I have a feeling the series isn't going to be continuing next year, and because I don't see myself doing a post for the TV-themed Thursday Movie Picks in two week's time, I decided I'd do two posts for this edition of the blogathon, one with movies with "Day" in the title, and the other with "Night". Since the day comes first, we first get the three movies with that word in the title, slightly related in terms of phrasing and the fact that nuclear weapons are a theme:

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951). Michael Rennie plays an alien who comes down to earth, landing in Washington DC to try to warn mankind about the dangers of nuclear weapons. Of course the authorities don't know how to handle the alien and try to harm him, leading him to flee to a young widow (Patricia Neal) to see if she can help him. Barata klaatu nikto.

The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961). British apocolyptic film with the idea that simultaneous nuclear tests send the earth off its rotation and orbit, causing climactic changes that threaten to burn the earth to a crisp. Can mankind start cooperating? And if so, can they figure out a way to reverse what happened?

The Day the Fish Came Out (1967). Bizarre farce about a British bomber that scuttles its unexploded nuclear bombs over a Greek island, and the crew (Tom Courtneay and Colin Blakely) trying to find the payload before the locals do, since the locals will get into the nuclear material which is highly dangerous. Meanwhile an archeologist (Candice Bergen), and a couple of American agents disguised as tourist resort developers show up on the island, with the agents looking for the missiles too.

Unfortunately I've never seen Jerry Lewis' The Day the Clown Cried. (I don't think anybody has, now that Lewis is no longer with us.)

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