The Day the Earth Caught Fire is a 1961 British science fiction disaster film directed by Val Guest and starring Edward Judd, Leo McKern and Janet Munro. It is one of the classic apocalyptic films of its era. The film opened at the Odeon Marble Arch in London on 23 November 1961. In August 2014 a restored version was screened at the British Museum's summer open air cinema.

Val Guest was an English film director and screenwriter. Beginning as a writer of comedy films, he is best known for his work for Hammer, for whom he directed 14 films, and for his science fiction films. He enjoyed a long career in the film industry from the early 1930s until the early 1980s.