The Day The Earth Caught Fire (1961) & other UK scifi of the 1950s & 60s

1. I loved The Day The Earth Caught Fire (1961)(henceforth TDTECF): end of the world scifi, "journalism procedural" (if that's a thing) with a dollop of the kitchen sink drama realism of late 50s/early 60s UK cinema. 5 stars!
2. I recognized the voice of an extremely minor character... "Hey! That copper's Michael bloody Caine!" (ALT TEXT for picture: scene from TDTECF, a car stopped at a checkpoint at night. Police officer (played by Michael Caine) standing next to the driver's window, pointing ahead.)
3. Looking for more info on the film, I came across a review of TDTECF, which mentions so many other UK scifi films of the 1950s & 60s that I'm going to end up adding to my wishlist, and a few I might even nominate for the #Monsterdon watch party. (A few, like Gorgo (1961), have already been shown in #Monsterdon.)

The EOFFTV Review - The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)

Other UK (mainly) scifi/horror films mentioned in that review (linked to their pages on Eggplant/NeoDB):

• "the delirious Konga (1960)"
• "the fun Gorgo (1961)"
• "the eminently forgettable What a Whopper! (1961) and Paradisio (1962)"
• "Wolf Rilla’s Village of the Damned (1960)"
• "Joseph Losey’s excellent The Damned (1961)"
• "Anton M. Leader’s Children of the Damned (1963)"
• "It Happened Here (1965) (a remarkable pseudo-documentary documenting a Nazi invasion of the UK during World War II)"
• Lord of the Flies (1963)
• "the early James Bond films"
• "comedies like Mr. Drake’s Duck (1950)" {like TDTECF, directed by Val Guest}
• "trashy but fun B-movies like The Gamma People (1956), Fiend Without a Face (1957) and Behemoth the Sea Monster (1959)"
• "serious attempt by British cinema to confront the fears raised by nuclear weapons {...} Seven Days to Noon (1950)"
• The Quatermass Xperiment (1955) {also by Val Guest, shown in #Monsterdon 25 January 2025}
• "even more impressive sequel, Quatermass 2 (1957)"
• "the excellent crime thriller Hell is a City (1960)"
• "many of the better British SF films of the decade – Unearthly Stranger (1963), The Night Caller (1965), Invasion (1966), Privilege (1967)."