Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)

 The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)

What a pleasure to return, by chance, to an age of cinema when 

visual trickery, emaciated plot and stereotypical non-characters 

were not the norm! The basic situation of the story, ... is that 

two nations have simultaneously detonated nuclear bombs in their 

Cold War induced weapons testing hysteria, and have shifted the 

axis and orbit of the Earth with the result that the planet is 

headed for collision with the Sun. This premise unfolds gradually. 

Today, we would be shown, during opening credits, a slick computer 

generated graphic of mushroom clouds and the Earth from space, 

sailing through the cosmos toward destruction. (Richard McDonald IMDB)