We don't need no stinking special effects. Not
when we have stock footage from all over the world. Buildings falling? We
have it. Cities in rubble? Check. People running in panic? Certainly. You
have to respect a film that can nearly destroy the planet in 63-minutes and
with a budget to match. But this isn't true bottom of the barrel low budget;
it was produced by Columbia to appear on a double bill with The Giant Claw.
How much fun would that have been. The world is exploding, millions are dying
off screen and some on, but what really matters is that love found its way.
It just took the near end of life.
Conway has invented a machine that can predict
earthquakes and he thinks a huge one is about to hit California. The governor
says, you may be right but if I evacuate millions and you are wrong, I will
look like an idiot. He doesn't, the earthquake hits and thousands die. But
then earthquakes begin all over the world. Earth is fighting back. He and
his pretty assistant Laura have to go deep into the Carlsbad Caverns to find
out why. She is engaged to some fellow, but in love with Conway but he only
loves his slide rule. They have 28 days before the world explodes. Will there
be time to realize they love each other? I hope so. Laura is played by the
24-year old Kathryn Grant who in this same year married the 54-year old Bing
Crosby. At the end of the film, Conway holds her tight and she says, oh I
just felt a tremor. I wonder if Bing had tremors.
