A.T.Hagan
Inactive
PANIC IN YEAR ZERO [1962]
95 min. [B&W]
Written by John Morton and Jay Simms
Directed by Ray Milland
Starring: Ray Milland, Jean Hagen, Frankie Avalon, Mary Mitchel and Dick Bakalyan as Carl
One of the oldest nuclear war survival films and in my opinion head and shoulders the best. You don't get all the really neat special effects of nuclear detonations of later films such as <i>Threads</i> and <i>The Day After</i> but what you do get is the right attitudes, at least from several of the major characters. I'll be up front with you that there are several scenes where the protagonist (the father character played by Ray Milland) does things that might make you squirm in your seat, but overall I find this film to be one of he best post-apocalyptic films I've ever seen because of the attitudes they display. This is not a "it's hopeless, the living will envy the dead" film. These folks want to live and they're going to do what they have to do to survive. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
WARNING: Detailed plot analysis. Stop here if you don't want to know.
In a nutshell what we have is a Los Angeles family going on a mountain vacation trip in 1962. Early, early one morning dad packs up mom and the kids into the big car, hooks up the little travel trailer and off they go. As they leave the city and begin to enter the foothills Armageddon occurs to include the nuclear destruction of the city behind them. Ray Milland, as the father, does some quick thinking on his feet and decides he wants his family to survive. They leave the main road (this is pre-Interstate Highway) and take secondary country roads to avoid the worst of the traffic and hopefully find a little town or something that hasn't heard the news yet.
They find such a town and convince the grocery store owner to open early (he lives very close) and dad buys up a big stock of food. This being a small town the grocery man knows the owner of the local hardware store and at dad's behest phones him up and convinces him to open up early as well. In the hardware store dad buys some necessary hardware, to include a number of guns (one of which is an alloy framed .45
). A problem is soon revealed in that dad doesn't have enough cash money in hand to pay for everything and the store owner won't take his credit card or a check, besides there's the Californnia waiting period to be considered (even in 1962). Dad and the store owner get into a fist fight and eventually Junior (Frankie Avalon of the Mickey Mouse Club) gets the drop on the store owner with one of his guns and they leave in haste. Just as word of the nuclear attack begins to reach town.
The family moves on down the road and stops at a filling station (remember when they used to be called that?) for gas only to run into the profiteering owner who wants to charge them several dollars a gallon instead of the price actually on the pump (something like 37 cents a gallon). A straight shot to the jaw straightens him out and they leave with the gas - after Dad pays the man what the pump said he owed.
They come upon a major highway that's bumper to bumper with cars fleeing the incinerated cities and they need to cross that road. No one's going to let them cross so Dad improvises his own form of stop sign and they make it across. Later, there's another town they have to get through before they can reach their camping spot destination and they find the way blocked by the local townsfolk who ain't gonna let any more refugees through their town after the trouble they just had with an earlier crew. Dad forces the issue and runs the blockade.
Before they can get to their bug out location they run afoul of some young punks who want to play bandits and very nearly get away with it until Junior manages to save the day. The boy is excited at the idea of the fight and Dad straightens him out in a hurry. The old man is not afraid to use force where he has to but he makes it clear to his son that it's not because he likes it and he doesn't want him to like it either.
Finally, they reach their destination and set up camp, after they take out the bridge leading into their area. Junior knows about a cave nearby from previous camping trips so they move everything into that and camofluage the car and trailer. Not long after they get there though who should show up but the owner of the hardware store! He's willing to table the matter of their fight in order for both family's to make common cause together, but dad gives him the cold shoulder. (Personally, I thought this was a mistake, but I'm guessing there was a serious embarassment factor here for Dad).
The family settles in and starts trying to survive for the long haul. It's pretty apparent that the mother and daughter are having difficulty with developing the necessary survival attitude, but they're doing the best they can. Unfortunately, not long after they soon discover the former hardware store owner and his wife murdered - in the travel trailer the family had hidden - which the murdered people had discovered and moved into.
Not long after that they also discover the murderers are none other than the punks they'd run into on the highway that had tried to rob them.earlier when they happen to come upon the daughter and tried to rape her (the daughter makes you want to chew the carpet). Realizing they had to do something about this Dad and Junior hunt them down and find them at a nearby farmhouse. They infiltrate the house, discover another sexually molested girl who happens to be the daughter of the farm couple that owned the house whom the predators had murdered. Dad and Junior get the drop on two of the three thugs and quite frankly - kill them. They take the girl back with them, doing what they can for her.
Later on while Junior and the farm girl are looking for firewood the third thug gets the jump on them, but they manage to fight back and ultimately the girl shoots and kills him, but not before he shoots and seriously wounds Junior. Now they have an immediate crisis on their hands and they are forced to leave their retreat in search of a doctor. They eventually find one in a small town, but his office, along with the rest of the town apparently, has been looted. There's not much he can do for the boy, but he does what he can and stabilizes him for a time. He tells them though he needs more help and they have to leave in search of it. Finally, they run into an Army patrol, who has no hesistation about putting a few machine gun bullets into the ground to make them stop, and they at last get the boy the medical help he needs before heading off to the refugee camp they government has set up.
I found the very end of the film to be a bit smarmy, but that's largely a result of the time period it was set in. All such films from then come across as a bit heavy handed by today's standards.
One of the best post-apocalyptic films ever made in my opinion if for no other reason because of the attitudes they diplayed. Dad did what he had to do to keep his family alive, but he never quite shed completely the veneer of civilization that covers us all.
.....Alan.
95 min. [B&W]
Written by John Morton and Jay Simms
Directed by Ray Milland
Starring: Ray Milland, Jean Hagen, Frankie Avalon, Mary Mitchel and Dick Bakalyan as Carl
One of the oldest nuclear war survival films and in my opinion head and shoulders the best. You don't get all the really neat special effects of nuclear detonations of later films such as <i>Threads</i> and <i>The Day After</i> but what you do get is the right attitudes, at least from several of the major characters. I'll be up front with you that there are several scenes where the protagonist (the father character played by Ray Milland) does things that might make you squirm in your seat, but overall I find this film to be one of he best post-apocalyptic films I've ever seen because of the attitudes they display. This is not a "it's hopeless, the living will envy the dead" film. These folks want to live and they're going to do what they have to do to survive. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
WARNING: Detailed plot analysis. Stop here if you don't want to know.
In a nutshell what we have is a Los Angeles family going on a mountain vacation trip in 1962. Early, early one morning dad packs up mom and the kids into the big car, hooks up the little travel trailer and off they go. As they leave the city and begin to enter the foothills Armageddon occurs to include the nuclear destruction of the city behind them. Ray Milland, as the father, does some quick thinking on his feet and decides he wants his family to survive. They leave the main road (this is pre-Interstate Highway) and take secondary country roads to avoid the worst of the traffic and hopefully find a little town or something that hasn't heard the news yet.
They find such a town and convince the grocery store owner to open early (he lives very close) and dad buys up a big stock of food. This being a small town the grocery man knows the owner of the local hardware store and at dad's behest phones him up and convinces him to open up early as well. In the hardware store dad buys some necessary hardware, to include a number of guns (one of which is an alloy framed .45
). A problem is soon revealed in that dad doesn't have enough cash money in hand to pay for everything and the store owner won't take his credit card or a check, besides there's the Californnia waiting period to be considered (even in 1962). Dad and the store owner get into a fist fight and eventually Junior (Frankie Avalon of the Mickey Mouse Club) gets the drop on the store owner with one of his guns and they leave in haste. Just as word of the nuclear attack begins to reach town.The family moves on down the road and stops at a filling station (remember when they used to be called that?) for gas only to run into the profiteering owner who wants to charge them several dollars a gallon instead of the price actually on the pump (something like 37 cents a gallon). A straight shot to the jaw straightens him out and they leave with the gas - after Dad pays the man what the pump said he owed.
They come upon a major highway that's bumper to bumper with cars fleeing the incinerated cities and they need to cross that road. No one's going to let them cross so Dad improvises his own form of stop sign and they make it across. Later, there's another town they have to get through before they can reach their camping spot destination and they find the way blocked by the local townsfolk who ain't gonna let any more refugees through their town after the trouble they just had with an earlier crew. Dad forces the issue and runs the blockade.
Before they can get to their bug out location they run afoul of some young punks who want to play bandits and very nearly get away with it until Junior manages to save the day. The boy is excited at the idea of the fight and Dad straightens him out in a hurry. The old man is not afraid to use force where he has to but he makes it clear to his son that it's not because he likes it and he doesn't want him to like it either.
Finally, they reach their destination and set up camp, after they take out the bridge leading into their area. Junior knows about a cave nearby from previous camping trips so they move everything into that and camofluage the car and trailer. Not long after they get there though who should show up but the owner of the hardware store! He's willing to table the matter of their fight in order for both family's to make common cause together, but dad gives him the cold shoulder. (Personally, I thought this was a mistake, but I'm guessing there was a serious embarassment factor here for Dad).
The family settles in and starts trying to survive for the long haul. It's pretty apparent that the mother and daughter are having difficulty with developing the necessary survival attitude, but they're doing the best they can. Unfortunately, not long after they soon discover the former hardware store owner and his wife murdered - in the travel trailer the family had hidden - which the murdered people had discovered and moved into.
Not long after that they also discover the murderers are none other than the punks they'd run into on the highway that had tried to rob them.earlier when they happen to come upon the daughter and tried to rape her (the daughter makes you want to chew the carpet). Realizing they had to do something about this Dad and Junior hunt them down and find them at a nearby farmhouse. They infiltrate the house, discover another sexually molested girl who happens to be the daughter of the farm couple that owned the house whom the predators had murdered. Dad and Junior get the drop on two of the three thugs and quite frankly - kill them. They take the girl back with them, doing what they can for her.
Later on while Junior and the farm girl are looking for firewood the third thug gets the jump on them, but they manage to fight back and ultimately the girl shoots and kills him, but not before he shoots and seriously wounds Junior. Now they have an immediate crisis on their hands and they are forced to leave their retreat in search of a doctor. They eventually find one in a small town, but his office, along with the rest of the town apparently, has been looted. There's not much he can do for the boy, but he does what he can and stabilizes him for a time. He tells them though he needs more help and they have to leave in search of it. Finally, they run into an Army patrol, who has no hesistation about putting a few machine gun bullets into the ground to make them stop, and they at last get the boy the medical help he needs before heading off to the refugee camp they government has set up.
I found the very end of the film to be a bit smarmy, but that's largely a result of the time period it was set in. All such films from then come across as a bit heavy handed by today's standards.
One of the best post-apocalyptic films ever made in my opinion if for no other reason because of the attitudes they diplayed. Dad did what he had to do to keep his family alive, but he never quite shed completely the veneer of civilization that covers us all.
.....Alan.
And didn't the girl tip off the baddies by washing her hair in a stream? -- the soap suds were the give-away.