Rocket Attack U.S.A. (1961)

Director:

Barry Mahon

Writers:

Release Date:

June 1961 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller

Tagline:

From Another Continent ... Destruction!!! Panic!! ... before the Rocket Strikes!

Plot:

A cold-war propaganda film, released not too long after the launch of Sputnik, intended to rally public support for an anti-ballistic missile program...

Plot Keywords:

Spy | MST3K | Russia | Nuclear Weapons | Anti Communist

Cast

Monica Davis	...	Tannah
John McKay	...	John Manston
Phillip St. George
Edward Czerniuk
Daniel Kern
Richard Downs
Herbert Flato
Ray Brewer
Janice Gilmain
Robert Reeh
Art Metrano	...	Truck Driver (as Arthur Metrano)
Jane Ross	...	Truck Driver's Wife
Marco Behar
Frank Patrinostrow
Milton Fuchs

Also Known As:

Five Minutes to Zero (USA) (alternative title)

Runtime:

68 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Hazlet, New Jersey, USA

Company:

Exploit Films

Goofs:

Factual errors: One of the Russian soldiers is armed with an American Browning Automatic Rifle. The rest of the Russian soldiers are also incorrectly armed with bolt-action rifles, since the AK-47 had been adopted as the standard issue rifle six years prior to the events in the movie.

Quotes:

Tannah: Last month I became the mistress of the secretary of defense. When the pig gets drunk, he talks.
John Manston: What a setup!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Mystery Science Theater 3000: Being from Another Planet (#5.5)" (1992)

God help us if the trendies and the pseudo hip discover Barry Mahon!

This atomic war/spy thriller may be one of the cheapest non-pornographic films ever released commercially. It is not surprising considering that this film comes from an industry that rarely ventured into anything as mainstream as science fiction films and spy thrillers. Barry Mahon and company worked mostly in the lowest end of the film industry; producing cheap semi-pornographic films. Click to his filmography and you will see what I mean.

At least half the film is comprised of stock foot-age. Most of it not very good. The scenes of the rocket in space are done in poor cartoon animation and look like it was culled from some boring classroom film. Forget the fact the acting is bad, the dialogue lame, and lack of any real action make this film rough going. The film does become slightly interesting towards the end, but it is not enough.

God forbid the trendies and the pseudo hip (like the people who only know these old films from watching MST3K) discover Barry Mahon!

A little trivia; the truck driver near the climax of this film is stand up comedian Art Metrano.