Atomic Attack (18 May 1954)

A family living 50 miles away try to flee from the fallout of an atomic bomb that fell on New York City.

Director:

Ralph Nelson

Writers:

David Davidson (teleplay), Judith Merril (novel)

Stars:

Phyllis Thaxter, Robert Keith, Walter Matthau

Cast

Episode credited cast:
Phyllis Thaxter	...	Gladys Mitchell
Robert Keith	...	Dr. Garson Lee
Walter Matthau	...	Dr. Spinelli
Patricia Bruder	...	Barbara Mitchell
Patty McCormack	...	Ginny Mitchell
Audrey Christie	...	Mrs. Moore
William Kemp	...	Jim Turner (as Bill Kemp)
Elizabeth Ross	...	Mrs. Harvey
Daniel Reed	...	Mr. Flood
Virginia Gerry	...	Nancy
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Daly	...	Conelrad Announcer
Elizabeth Russell	...	Mrs. Harvey

Storyline

A family living 50 miles away try to flee from the fallout of an atomic bomb that fell on New York City.

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 May 1954 (USA)

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

50 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Civil Defense authorities acted as technical advisers.

User Reviews

Somewhat surreal attempt at illustrating the effect of a nearby atomic attack

It wasn't a complete waste, some of the acting was good. I bought the wife's reactions, but the elder daughter sounded like she was rehearsing for a Shakespeare play. However, the reality of having a hydrogen bomb (at the time, the Soviets only had big ones, no smaller MIRV's)drop on New York was somewhat...lost. The local hospital looked like it would on a normal day, not what it would look like with about 100,000 bomb victims outside it. For reality, watch the British atomic horror movie, "Threads." Even though the town was 50 miles from New York, every hospital within 200 miles or more would be pressed into service, assuming the EMP from the bomb didn't wipe out all transportation. I particularly like the part where Walter Mathau (as a doctor) talks about Strontium 90 radioactive particles in the younger daughter's bones "burning themselves out." Strontium 90, which is byproduct of the blast and is absorbed into bones where it destroys the bone marrow and the body's ability to make red blood cells, has a half-life of 28 years which means the kid would die of leukemia long before the stuff had lost half of its radioactivity. The gist of the movie was that American civil defence preparations would soon have things back to normal (in a couple weeks!) and that even though losses would have happened, America would have prevailed. The second part is at least correct, the Soviets were vastly out-gunned in-terms of nuclear weapons compared to the U.S. in the mid-1950's. However, the Soviets where also far more "rural" than Americans and thus more of their population losses per bomb dropped would have been less. What I did find interesting was that the movie illustrated a greater awareness of the dangers of radiation than other shows produced on this subject in the mid-1950's. While not concerned as much as it should have been, it at least acknowledged that radiation was a problem.