8/10
1961 color/scope Japanese TOHO doomsday film made during cold war's peak, and definitely not to be confused w/THE FINAL WAR made a bit earlier in B&W by another studio.
9 March 2007
This film has (almost) always been hopelessly confused w/THE FINAL WAR (B&W) in the past, so beware of this when referencing older reviews.

SEKAI DAISENSO was to have been theatrically released in U.S. back in early '60s by Edward G. Alperson's BRENCO PICTURES CO. (after Columbia Pictures passed on it), but this never actually occurred. An English dubbing & edit was attempted by Brenco, but not quite finished. A trailer was also made using JFK's "...mankind must put an end to war..." speech. When shown on U.S. television as THE LAST WAR starting in the '70s, it played strangely because the circular opening & ending was incomplete. Later prints of it by Heritage Enterprises tried to correct this. Disneys' "It's a small world after all" song pops up one too many times in the US soundtrack for me, though.

The small-scale miniature sets of various global metropolis's vaporized by all-out nuclear war were actually built out of sugar wafers for maximum explosive effect. However, on the day of shooting the Japanese technicians found that rats in the studio were getting first crack!
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