if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Blistering performances.

The scientists in the movie have a line - sort of like this: Since the last known element is 111 this must be element 112. No real scientist would ever make a statement like that. Maybe it could be 113, or 115 or who knows what. The actual element 112 was made by smashing zinc and lead together. The current heaviest element is 118 - made by smashing Californium 249 and Calcium 48. An element has a certain number of protons. Period. Each atom could have a variety of neutrons, which seem to help hold the nucleus together. So for an example, Uranium has 92 protons, and a variety of neutrons, bringing its atomic weight up to 235 or 238, and several other varieties - these are isotopes. Each proton or neutron is added as "one". What is interesting is that there may be a stable "island" at element 120, but it is anyone's guess. It should be noted that these heavy elements were not "discovered" - they were made. People picked the 2 smashing elements based on calculations. Note that often only a few atoms were made, sometimes even just 1. To make matters worse, one guy faked his data. So the bulk properties are not known. For example, is Element 118 a solid or a metallic gas?How is the rain solution going to tip the axis back to normal? Why would the rain replace missing mass and restore the too low gravity in some areas? To be fair, the monsoons do shift the Poles a bit. The scientific details are made up. Yes, rain would have mass, but compared to the vast bulk of the Earth, it is a hill of beans.Scientists in the 30's - 50's movies are like another species. People today say they are a molecular biologist, or a nuclear physicist, etc. Not a scientist. A striking example was "Son of Frankenstein" with Rathbone as Wolf Frankenstein. Ygor says - 'but you are a scientist' - meaning that he should have no trouble doing a brain transplant! They went to the deepest part of the Earth - Carlsbad Caverns - to avoid noisy data. That would be about 1600 feet - they say 1800 feet - who knows. That is only scratching the surface. The deepest we have drilled is about 20,000 feet.Finally, a plane was seen to be bombing trucks in a convoy - probably WWII footage.

With a sci-fi movie from this era, it's not really fair to compare it to sci-fi movies from modern days. But I had to admit to myself that a more modern take on this movie's idea would probably run a lot better. Actually, the movie gets to a pretty good start, leaping right into the story and setting up the situation in less time than even some modern movies might take. However, after the promising beginning, things start to slowly go downhill - with emphasis on the word "slow". Though the movie is only about 63 minutes long, it feels much longer. One reason is that there is too much talk and not enough action or tension. The low budget is probably the reason for this, and while they try to liven things up with ample stock footage, it makes the whole enterprise feel cheaper than it actually was. I've seen a lot worse sci-fi movies from this era, but in the end the only people who would probably appreciate this movie would be die hard fans of old school science fiction cinema.

Okay this is a fifty plus year old movie. So scientific knowledge was very lacking by today's standards. The unknown element that explodes when taken out of water is a different scenario for a movie this old. Usually it seems to be some unknown monster, parasite, or some other unknown substance or some alien presence or matter. Kathryn Grant was in a lot of early movies, as eye candy I assume since she typically plays a secretary or some other subordinate to a man's position. Of course she gets the man she has fallen for by the end.Thankfully women are much more accepted and valued in today's world, even in the movies, usually. The scene where the sample in the globe hanging on the tree shows an explosion from the ground and not from the globe. The machine that predicts an up coming earthquake is a nice touch but when the girl is trapped in the cavern the gauges do not correspond to the messages. All in all though this movie is entertaining enough to watch but not to own, art least in my opinion.

I remember seeing this movie at the Simon Theater in Brenham, Texas, when I was in the sixth grade, and am happy to say that it's held up very well over the years.To start with, Turner Classic Movies got a top quality print of it that looked wonderful. There were literally a few seconds where the negative had suffered slight damage, but for that element it's solid.The story is pretty much standard issue. A very, very dedicated scientist is so immersed in his work that he doesn't realize that he's in love with his beautiful lab assistant until the third act.Not that he isn't busy enough. A strange rock called Element 112 has begun to cause earthquakes and worse all over the globe. Unless Steps Are Taken, it will cause the destruction of our planet.Serious spoiler: The world doesn't explode. It does come close, but that shouldn't surprise anyone.The acting is nothing amazing, but it's not set up as an acting lab exercise. There is a plot to be dealt with briskly. Leading lady Katherine Grant was far more impressive shortly after this in a similar role in Otto Preminger's ANATOMY OF A MURDER. Strong director plus powerful screenplay equals good results for actors.Far more interesting than the story itself is the structure of the story and the sexual politics in play here. There wasn't sufficient budget for large scale special effects, so there's lots of stock footage of natural disasters and their aftermath. More interestingly, Ms. Grant isn't just the leading lady. For a big chunk of the running time she's the only lady.Science fiction has always been a male dominated realm. But for the entirety of the first two acts Hutch, the lab assistant played by Ms. Grant, and the character I'd call the Civil Defense Lady are the sole female players. There's a substantial roster of supporting characters, but with the exception of stock footage everyone is White and male.Then, in the third act, disaster is creeping up on the world. The governor's wife and young daughter come to be with him, and in a huge office area we see several women working. But it takes the approach of Armageddon to allow many women into the tree house.One of the best things about the film is that it takes care of business in one hour and four minutes. This is a sharp contrast to this summer's earnest but plodding WORLD WAR Z which so badly needed about 45 minutes trimmed from it that my index finger ached because theaters don't offer viewers a fast forward button.At the time this came out there were presumable 111 slots on the Periodic Table of the Elements. We are now on number 118. The honor of being number 112 (they didn't retire that jersey because of the movie) goes to Copernicum, the most stable of all the isotopes.Parents' note: Nothing disturbing in my humble opinion. Some people would be distressed because a few characters smoked. So did both of my parents. It was 1957.