Panic in Year Zero! (1962)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Ray Milland

Writers:

John Morton (writer)
Jay Simms (writer)

Release Date:

5 July 1962 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

Where Science Fiction Ends And Fact Begins!!

Plot:

While on a fishing trip, Harry Baldwin (Ray Milland) and his family hear an explosion and realize that...

Plot Keywords:

Los Angeles | Hold Up | Cave | Fishing Trip | Nuclear Attack

Cast

Ray Milland	...	Harry Baldwin
Jean Hagen	...	Ann Baldwin
Frankie Avalon	...	Rick Baldwin
Mary Mitchel	...	Karen Baldwin
Joan Freeman	...	Marilyn Hayes
Richard Bakalyan	...	Carl
Rex Holman	...	Mickey
Richard Garland	...	Ed Johnson
Willis Bouchey	...	Dr. Powell Strong (as Willis Bouchet)
Neil Nephew	...	Andy
O.Z. Whitehead	...	Hogan
Russ Bender	...	Harkness
Andrea Lane
Scott Peters
Shary Marshall	...	Bobbie Johnson

Also Known As:

End of the World
Panic in Year Zero (USA) (poster title)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

CBS Studio Center - 4024 Radford Avenue, Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

American International Pictures (AIP)

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): After lighting a cigarette for his father, Frankie Avalon is shooting a "bird" with his hand up on his chest.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Ann Baldwin: Thanks for the help.
Harry Baldwin: Oh, I'm sorry, Ann... Sorry.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Matinee (1993)

May look campy: Perhaps more real than we realize...

This is a genuinely enjoyable example of a "post-nuclear holocaust survival

film." It may seem a bit campy by modern standards, but is actually well thought- out and acted. The early 60's were an era in which it seemed possible to

contemplate a nuclear war that broke down civilization's normal function

withOUT reducing the entire countryside to rubble. A man takes his family out into the country to escape the chaos, still clinging to the hope that normalcy and order will soon return. His wife is horrified at his newfound ruthlessness, and the kids seem willing to go with the new rules of the jungle.

Ray Milland was at one time an acclaimed actor, but his academy award for

"Lost Weekend" seems to have cursed his career. Now regarded as a "serious"

actor, suited only for "down" roles, he wasn't given much chance to work in the more "up" big-studio roles of the fifties. By the time he wound up at AIP, he was little more than a "has-been" to the public. But he retained real talent, as his directing and starring in this and other Sci-fi pictures of the period shows. When given a free hand, as in "Panic In Year Zero!" he took on challenges others

would have shied away from and showed that he still had a lot to offer. Sadly, big time directors continued to ignore him and the end of his life was defined by roles in "Frogs" and "The Thing With Two Heads" - films far worse than anything with Corman's name on them.

"Panic in Year Zero!" displays the basic conflict of compromise: Ray's character must compromise his beliefs and code of behavior in order to preserve what he cares for. His constant conflict with his wife displays the conflict between

differing ideas of what needs to be preserved - to her, saving the family by acts of savagery is unacceptable, and the only way to preserve civilization is to apply its rules in every situation. The ending seems to redeem Ray, but the fact is that the questions raised are answered by each viewer in the course of the film in his or her own way. Events in the film are not one-sided, and Ray's relation to the hardware store owner calls into question his position and correctness: perhaps by allying himself earlier with other decent people trying to survive, Ray could have saved his family from some of what it endures.

As we now re-acclimate ourselves to an era in which the possibility of "limited" nuclear attack (from national or independent terrorist groups) seems more likely than Mutual Assured Destruction, it is possible that films such as "Panic in Year Zero!" offer us important ethical problems. Problems we hope never to have to solve in real life, but which the screen offers a means to wrestle with in a safe environment.