Rocket Attack U.S.A. (1960) User Reviews

In the event of a nuclear strike, cover yourself with wet newspaper.

[BA_Harrison · 5/10 · 5 May 2013]

American secret agent John Manston (John McKay) is sent to Russia to locate and destroy an inter-continental ballistic missile before it can be launched at New York.

Rocket Attack U.S.A is a shameless piece of 1950s scare-mongering propaganda designed to rally public support for the American space programme and the development of a nuclear deterrent. Since the primary function of the film was to scare the proverbial out of the average American citizen, little effort went into achieving narrative cohesion, factual authenticity, compelling performances, convincing special effects, or any kind of artistic merit. As such, this relic of the cold war era is undeniably utter trash, but still qualifies as a reasonably entertaining curio for fans of exploitative, z-grade cinematic crud, being both historically interesting and hysterically daft.

Best unintentionally funny moments: the 'wet newspaper' advice; the blind man in New York pleading for help as the Russian missile rapidly approaches; radio announcer Bill saying a last goodbye to his wife Pat and their son, 'little Bill'; Most boring moment: the excruciatingly drawn-out launch procedure for the missile.

Stop that Russian rocket

[bkoganbing · 1/10 · 28 December 2015]

The only name you will recognize from the cast of Rocket Attack USA is that of Art Metrano who came to be a respected character actor most noted for being Captain Mauser in the Police Academy films. I'm sure he must have shuddered with horror at being associated with this monstrosity of a Cold War era film made to exploit the paranoia surrounding the Sputnik launching.

With a lot of newsreel footage Rocket Attack USA is two different films stitched rather clumsily together both very bad. The first film is a documentary style film about the importance of making rocket research our number one defense priority. With the launch of Sputnik that means the Soviets have a definite lead in missiles if they can put a satellite in orbit. Right around this time we were hearing talk of a 'missile gap' by candidates for president in real life.

The second is maybe the worst espionage story in history as we send in an agent to stop the launch of a missile with an atomic warhead bound for New York. No gimmicks or gadgets and two of the worst players in the history of film get in a little nookie while attempting to stop the Russian rocket.

Definitely right up there with anything that Ed Wood ever created and probably worse. Poor Art Metrano, you'll see him briefly playing a truck driver. He must have cringed at the mention of Rocket Attack USA.

Buckle Up. This Is Going To Be A Rough Ride

[Calaboss · 1/10 · 13 July 2008]

OK, this isn't bad on the order of say, Monster A-Go Go, but it is still one crappy movie. The Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957 and pretty much freaked out all of America. This little chunk of dreck is one of the results of that paranoia. Cheaply made, poorly acted, and beyond forgiveness in its depiction of the cold war, this is one huge pile of wasted film.

The background music is too loud, when it's there, and doesn't match what's going on on-screen. There is a mindless narrator that pipes up every now and then and only makes the story more confusing. Totally random characters are thrown in for no reason I could fathom. Example: An air raid siren blares and people are seen rushing toward underground shelters. A blind man wanders slowly into frame and quietly says "Help me", and that's the last we see of him.

Add in a couple reels of stock footage, some horrible accents, extremely annoying sound effects, and animation that wouldn't have cut it in the '30's and you get the idea. A waste of time on all levels.

The cold war at its dullest

[NateW · 1/10 · 15 January 2001]

I never thought espionage and nuclear war could be so boring. Watching this movie would give you that impression. What was the deal with the blind guy? At least he didn't have to see this. Skip Rocket Attack USA unless you have the MST3K version.

It SUCKS!

[Sterno-2 · 1/10 · 14 September 1999]

This is definitely the feel-good movie of the Cold War era. What more could you want? Plot contrivances by the boatload, one-dimensional characters, and unnecessary scenes clutter this otherwise noble film about military preparedness during the period when just as many people were scared of Charlie McCarthy as Joe McCarthy. What makes this film truly disappointing is the lack of authenticity on the film makers part. After all, who could honestly believe that you would have ONE Russian soldier guarding your precious ICBM that is aimed at New York City. Further, why would an American agent who can waltz right up to said ICBM, but yet have the slowest fuse on any bomb ever invented? *Sigh* I guess all movies can't be "Red Zone Cuba".

Pre 9/11 paranoia.

[madsagittarian · 23 October 2002]

In 1986, SNL alumni Laraine Newman starred in a 13-installment series called "Canned Film Festival", in which she and regular customers in a phony theater snackbar setting would talk about the bad movie that was playing in that night's schedule. What the writers failed to realize was that the irritating "comic relief" offered up by this stock pile of wannabes was nowhere nearly as funny as the films they showed... that took themselves seriously!

Cue ROCKET ATTACK USA. This typically lethargic Barry Mahon epic (remember CUBAN REBEL GIRLS?) is nonetheless a real scream. It is an outrageous piece of grimy slop. This is the kind of Grade Z espionage flick which heavily relies on stock footage, people reacting to offscreen cut-ins, and the principal cast "emoting" in front of those great nondescript black backgrounds. This is the kind of movie where a person gets mowed down by machine guns, and says, "You go ahead- I'm all right."

I haven't seen this film since, but I would love to have another look at it. However, in light of the atrocities of September 11, no-one would dare program it. After all, it does feature rockets attacking New York City. In today's climate, pictures like this and SHACK OUT ON 101, can no longer be viewed as hilariously outdated, naive pieces of Red Scare Propaganda. Suddenly, we understand how our ancestors felt back in the 1950's... being on the verge of disaster. Who knew that a Barry Mahon film would be topical?

Not sensationalistic enough to be interesting.

[planktonrules · 1/10 · 20 April 2016]

Barry Mahon was a terrible filmmaker who was responsible for a lot of films normal folks don't wanna watch today. Crap films like "Cuban Rebel Girls", "Rocket Attack USA" and many cheap porno films were his claim to fame and if you are a bit crazy, you can download "Rocket Attack USA" for free from archive.org...though I can't see why you'd want to!

This film is a terrible Cold War drama and features lots of stock footage instead of more original acting, 'Russian' actors/actresses who don't even bother trying to fake the accent and an incredibly dull script...with acting to match. It's all a lot of hooey about an American agent who easily sneaks into the USSR and seamlessly blends in with all the other folks who sport American accents! His job is to stop an impending attack, as the Russian rocket program is way ahead and they plan on launching a nuclear strike on New York City! Sounds exciting, huh? Well, it should have been...but is about as exciting as watching your grandma shave her legs! Not fun in any sense and amateurish throughout.

So bad its good Red Menace film was probably over the top even in its day

[dbborroughs · 7/10 · 16 November 2009]

Barry Mahon panic inducing tale about the commie threat of nuclear destruction in the wake of sputnik. Mahon 's tale has a secret agent going into the Soviet Union to get the goods on the Soviet rocket program. It's a cautionary tale about what could happen if we aren't vigilant.

It's a typical Mahon film, topical, more than a bit exploitive. It's a mix of documentary footage with narration that informs the viewer of the facts and a story with actors that tell the dramatic story. It's pure Red Menace about how we just can't trust those commies and how all they want is to destroy us with animated rockets. I was amused by its very dated out look on things. Then again the view of THEM as an enemy is always floating around, it's just that the names have changed. It is in its own way an entertaining over cook film that is mercifully short at 65 minutes. I recommend it to those who want to do a Red Menace night in the home theater or those who want to see how things used to be.

7 out of 10 is purely on the so bad/misguided its good scale

Help me

[Jared G. · 1/10 · 8 September 1999]

"If only money spent supporting cheese prices could have been spent on missle research"

This movie is a blatant propaganda piece that, for whatever reason, I get a serious kick out of. Don't get me wrong, the movie's terrible and the acting's wretched. But it's just so BAD! And the "we're right they're wrong" moralizing attitude makes me laugh out loud. Every Communist is portrayed as a boorish, war-mad, untrustworthy pig. And the narration is hilarious, especially in scenes where it "translates" what the Russians are saying.

The most interesting thing about the movie is that for the last 20 min. there seems to be no plot at all. I don't dare reveal the "horrifying" conclusion, but let's just say you'll be scratching your head a bit.

Watch for the scene where some generals stare at the nonexistent rocket.

Film-making at its most abysmal

[bensonmum2 · 1/10 · 22 August 2007]

Rocket Attack U.S.A. is film-making at its most abysmal. There is absolutely nothing positive I can come up with to say about the movie. Both artistically and technically the movie is horrible. When you watch something this bad you at least hope to have a laugh or two along the way. Rocket Attack U.S.A. is so deathly dull that it's not even "so bad it's good". The movie seems to have been made as a propaganda piece in the wake of the successful launch of a Russian Sputnik satellite. But I cannot imagine this movie did anything to get the people behind a U.S. missile program.

I'm not sure how much anyone should expect from a no-budget movie with Barry Mahon as director. Take a look at some of his other directorial credits - The Adventures of Busty Brown (1964), Hot Skin, Cold Cash (1965), or Fanny Hill Meets Dr. Erotico (1967). Is there any real surprise that Rocket Attack U.S.A. is as bad as it is?

Mind-blowingly stupid

[InzyWimzy · 1/10 · 4 November 2000]

Quick checklist: There's a rocket. There's the USA; well mostly Russia. There is a threat of an attack. Guns are fired. Spies do their thing. Soldiers with bad russian accents ponder the term `credibility'. Oh, there's also a bald russian guy who drinks a lot and paws poor American spy girl. A rather heavy American couple part company and he promises to get a tie. Other than, nothing much happens in this good simulation of purgatory. There are a lot annoying BLEEPS and WOOO sirens. Good stock footage of New York, planes taking off, rockets firing. I also loved the rocket which was so advanced it had no shadow.

This movie was great...till it began.

Ironically or Not, ROCKET ATTACK U.S.A. is a Bomb

[brando647 · 2/10 · 17 April 2016]

For an example of a fun movie to spend an hour with, see TRAPPED BY TELEVISION from 1936. On the opposite end of the spectrum, if you want to spend that hour in abject misery you should watch ROCKET ATTACK U.S.A. from 1961. I can't say it's the worst movie I've ever seen (that dishonor belongs to another…) but it is most definitely one of the worst. I watched these two movies hour-long movies of bygone eras (TRAPPED BY TELEVISION and ROCKET ATTACK U.S.A.) back-to-back the other day and the two of them could not have been more different. ROCKET ATTACK U.S.A. is a spy movie for people who hate spy movies. And movies in general. And life. It opens with Russia's launch of Sputnik satellite into orbit and jumps immediately to the United States Department of Defense where people are worried that it will be used to collect data for the enemy. The decision is made to waste no time dropping a central intelligence agent, John Manston (John McKay), behind enemy lines to meet with a Soviet defector named Tanya (Monica Davis). Tanya will use her connections inside the Russian government as an official's mistress to get information on Sputnik's true purpose and the potential likelihood of an attack on the United States. Then a bunch of nothing happens, your interest most like declines to the point of physical pain, and after a while we get the inevitable missile attack against the United States in a film that I assume was meant to scare the American population into hating Russia even more.

I don't know if I'm even justified in commenting on this horrible, horrible film because, despite having actually seen it twice now (and this I promise…never again), I have no real idea what goes on once John makes contact with Tanya in Moscow because this movie is so incredibly dull and so horribly executed that I am incapable of keeping interest. I might be looking at the screen as the movie is playing but my attention begins dropping off exponentially until I'm left glassy-eyed and slack-jawed. I'm essentially comatose for twenty or thirty minutes until finally something of interest happens in the film and John sneaks (unsuccessfully) onto a Russian military base and finds the missiles locked and loaded for assault on the United States. Then we shift over to New York City where we spend some time getting to know a bunch of regular folk for a few minutes in a desperate attempt to add emotional weight to the final few minutes of the film. I haven't managed to find any sort of confirmation but, from the quality and content of ROCKET ATTACK U.S.A., it reeks of anti-Soviet propaganda. I really want to know if this movie was developed and released to help fuel the average American's fear of the Russians. Or maybe it's not and director Barry Mahon was venting some of his own personal fears through this film. I don't know and I've already stopped caring. Regardless of what ROCKET ATTACK U.S.A. was supposed to be, it's garbage. Unwatchable garbage.

I mean, come on…it's just so poorly done. Movies had been around long enough that we had an understanding of character development, story structure, drama and creating tension. This uses absolutely none of it. The only characters we spend any real time with are Manston and Tanya, and I couldn't care less about either. John McKay seems as if he's genuinely trying to act in a spy film (and failing) while Monica Davis may as well have been pulled in off the street. She's just bad. So, right off the bat, I don't care about the characters. What about the story? If it's interesting enough, I might be able to forgive some of the film's other problems. Nope. Nope, nope, nope. Story's crap. What little bit I walked away with, anyway. You see, most of the film's exposition is delivered in droning voice-over narration. And some of the character motivation, too. Seeing as how no one in this film bothers to act, the narrator is left with the job of telling us how characters are feeling. It's insufferable and impossible to follow as a result. I dare you to find anyone who'll enjoy this movie non-ironically. Because this movie fails on so many levels, I can't see it being effective propaganda because I can't imagine anyone sitting through this movie at full attention. If anything, ROCKET ATTACK U.S.A. could've been used to torture suspected Communist sympathizers into confession. Just stay away from this movie. Or don't. I don't care. But just remember I warned you.

**ROCKET ATTACK U.S.A. Fun Fact: director Barry Mahon and "actress" Monica Davis went on to create a bunch of old-timey porn sounding movies (not necessarily together) including 1000 SHAPES OF A FEMALE, SIN IN THE CITY, UNHOLY MATRIMONY, and RUN SWINGER RUN.

Not As Awful As Its Reputation

[Michael_Elliott · 29 August 2016]

Rocket Attack U.S.A. (1961)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

Cold War propaganda has an American agent landing in Russia where his mission is to determine how far their missile technology is and whether or not the United States are in danger.

ROCKET ATTACK U.S.A. comes from director Barry Mahon and many reviews will have you thinking that this here is one of the worst films ever made. I'd argue that it's not even one of the worst Cold War propaganda films ever made. Perhaps I've simply been watching too many Mahon films but there's no question that there's a lot of bad stuff in this movie and I'll talk about that later.

No matter how much you hate this bad movie, and it is a bad movie, at the same time it's technically a lot better made than so many other low-budget movies. I mean, the work of Edward D. Wood, Jr., Al Adamson, Francis Coleman and Ted V, Mikels is much worse to say the least. At least Mahon could take a low-budget movie and to make certainly technical errors that so many others have. While the budget and performances don't make for a great picture, I think Mahon could have delivered something better with the right material.

With that said, the budget here is just so low and there are so many other problems. For starters, this film makes it way too easy for the American agent to sneak into Russia and what's worse is that everyone there is speaking with an American accent. Another major problem is that there's no suspense to be found and you really don't care if the missile hits America or not. In fact, I'd argue that most people will be cheering for it to do so!

ROCKET ATTACK U.S.A. wasn't meant to be taken serious and there's certainly nothing here that warrants you doing so. If you're expecting FAIL SAFE or DR. STRANGELOVE then you're certainly coming to the wrong film.

Magical dumbness

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 21 March 2021]

While the majority of science fiction points toward liberal worries against groupthink - nearly every version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers - Rocket Attack U.S.A. is at once fantasy and propaganda. I have no idea if Barry Mahon believed in what he was selling - the man did fight for our country after all and spent time in a concentration camp - but I think he did know that he could make some money off of the worries that Sputnik was going to destroy America.

Secret agents John (John McKay, who is also in Mahon's The Dead One and Cuban Rebel Girls) and Tanya (Monica Davis, She Shoulda Stayed In Bed, 1,000 Shapes of a Female) have learned that the aforementioned Russian satellite is being used to guide a nuke to New York City because our country's ICBM defense system didn't have enough funding. And the stinger is that the U.S. forces are barely able to fight back, meaning that we're all going to be waiting in lines for borscht soon enough.

Art Metrano, who would play Mauser in the Police Academy movies, shows up here as a truck driver. You can't miss him.

I guess the Red Menace was soundly defeated by the 1960's, as Barry moved on to making movies where women sat around, smoked cigarettes and got naked instead of movies warning us about Russia. Maybe he got bought off. Or maybe, just maybe, it was more fun to hang out with Bunny Yeager in Las Vegas.

A real snorefest

[Woodyanders · 2/10 · 22 April 2013]

American spy John Manston (insipidly played by John McKay) goes to Moscow to find out about the Russian missile program. He discovers that the Russians have amassed the necessary data they need to make a nuclear weapon. Boy, does notorious schlockmeister Barry Mahon totally fumble the ball with this hopelessly dull clunker: The blatant use of grainy stock footage, lousy (far from) special effects, blah acting from a lame no-name cast, sluggish pace, the talky and uneventful script, a drippy narrator working mad overtime to keep the plodding and barely coherent narrative on course, infrequent and flatly staged action, cornball film library score, a crippling paucity of tension and momentum, static cinematography, and a complete fizzler of a would-be "shocking" climax all ensure that this dreadful stiff qualifies as an absolute grueling chore to endure. Only familiar character actor Art Metrano as a jolly truck driver manages to inject some much-needed life into this lethargic dud. A dismal yawner.

Not the Worst Propaganda film i've Seen...

[nammage · 3/10 · 25 May 2012]

...but it comes close. At least it isn't too long. There are some dragged out parts, mainly in the beginning when the "agent" meets the "spy", and they focused quite a bit of time on the belly-dancer. Though, compared to the whole of the film, that is worth a watch by itself. Much of it seems to be stock footage. The funny thing is is that if the U.S. successfully launched a satellite first, the world may have reacted with certain paranoia as the U.S. did. Perhaps not on the same scale. It seems, overall to be like one of those "after school" educational programs except this one filled in fear. As I stated: it isn't the worst out there. But it's close.

Historically Prescient but Dramatically Deficient

[richardchatten · 4/10 · 25 March 2018]

Despite the constant stress by The General on the fate of the world depending on a desperate race against the clock, director Barry Mahon never manages to instill any sense of urgency into 'Rocket Attack U.S.A.', since the need to pad out to feature length a script already over-burdened with long dialogue scenes set in offices means that nothing is ever done quickly and the action is padded out with digressions like an interminable belly dance in a Moscow nightclub. SPOILER COMING: Then suddenly two of the main characters are abruptly killed off, and as in 'Dr. Strangelove' and 'Fail-Safe' the worst happens.

The stock footage that makes up much of the film is interesting to watch, and it manages to anticipate the Cuban missile crisis by four years (it carries a 1958 copyright date), as well as the leadership coups staged by hard-liners in the Kremlin that unseated Khrushchev (who is never mentioned in the film by name) in 1964 and Gorbachev in 1991, but is unfortunately so dull that you're unlikely to still be paying attention when after dragging its heels for the previous sixty minutes it all abruptly ends with a bang.

At times it seems this film was just random scenes spliced together

[Aaron1375 · 1/10 · 6 August 2013]

I saw this film on MST3K, which is going to probably be the only way to find some enjoyment out of a U.S. propaganda movie from the old Cold War days. I am rather sure that even if you lived during that time though you would find little enjoyment out of this film which basically uses scare tactics to ramp up the Soviet threat to the United States. Throw in a pointless spy who infiltrates Russia and a couple of other padding devices and you still barely have enough present to call it a movie.

The story has the Russians launching Sputnik and the U.S. in a panic! The United States sends in a top spy to infiltrate Russia and try to find out just how close they are to launching an attack on the United States. He falls in love with his contact in what amounts to a pointless padding plot point and fails miserably in destroying the Russian missile as he is a bit too worried about his own safety...should of made that thing go off sooner you idiot. We go back to the U.S. for a couple of really pointless plot points before the missile attack is imminent!

It made for a good MST3K episode in spots; however, it was not one of the funnier episodes. It had moments where the film lagged a bit too much and there was just not enough fodder for the guys to jump on. The acting was stale and the plot slow so it did not have a lot going on which does not help the guys' riffing. It is not a bad episode either as there are area where they are giving enough material to shine!

So this film is not really all that good...it is serious to the point of being droll and annoying. It is not like you cannot have fun with the subject, look at Stanly Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. It goes by at a snail's pace and the only way this film seems to be even watchable is with the MST3K gang. If they wanted to make a propaganda piece ditch most of the plot and just show New York getting hit, as generating fear is what this thing was all about. Instead they generated boredom which probably put everyone to sleep before the bomb even hit...

Boring Propaganda

[Rainey-Dawn · 1/10 · 12 November 2016]

If you want a film to help you to fall asleep - this is it. The mundane tone of voice the narrator uses (same with the actors) will send you into dreamland in no time flat. It's as if they are saying Americans have no personality, they are monotoned in voice and the Russians have the bigger guns (in their highly reserved monotoned voices).

Basically the movie is what it is: boring propaganda on film. This flick is so lame I can hardly make fun of it. I would have more fun watching a snail cross the street than watching this trash. But then again if I watch it, it might help me to sleep by popping this into the player haha!

Stock footage and boring people with a story of propaganda is all this really is. And not even good enough to make fun of - just boring!

1/10

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

[youroldpaljim · 13 October 2001]

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.

Rocket Shoes

[Bezenby · 5/10 · 19 April 2016]

*This review contains shoes* Strange but fascinating cold shoe war pseudo-documentary about the Ruskis getting a hold of the atomic shoe quicker than the US. Not being Russian or American (I'm a Samoan-Glaswegian cobbler) it's hard to get a handle on why sending a shoe into space was such a big deal but I guess that if you can fire a plimsole into space, you can fire a whole load of radioactive trainers at your enemy. This is all told to us via a narrator who sounds like he's wearing Doc Martens.

In West Germany (where folks were free to wear what they like on their feet), the US dispatches an agent to go to Moscow and infiltrate a Soviet sponsored high heel factory. Meanwhile, in the Kremlin (everyone wears platform boots in this scene), a new government of fashion designers has plans to unleash their new wellington design on the west. Our agent (who somehow gets dropped off 'one to five weeks away' from Moscow – maybe he needed to break in a pair of winklepickers) finally gets to his destination.

Now this is where the film gets bogged down a bit because our man goes to this fashion show and we get about ten minutes of a woman dancing about in open-toed sandals. Just when you think it's all over, the dancer goes away and then a guy appears and starts doing the same thing! I love shoe action as much as the next person but come on! Things pick up a bit where the agent goes to his contact's house and decides to live in her shoe cupboard while her designer boyfriend comes round and knock boots while he listens (a shoe fetish is implied here). Eventually they fall in love (the agent and the contact), and they end up snogging right after the boyfriend leaves. You've got another man's love stink on ya!

Loving gets pushed to the side as there's a rocket full of shoes to take care of, so our team get their Reebok on and all of a sudden we've got gunfights and our agent sticks an explosive shoe to the side of the rocket. He probably should have at least tried to hide it a bit as some guy just walks over and removes it (then hilariously gives it to a guy who runs off with it and blows up). Our agent and his contact get killed too. Oh well.

Meanwhile later the next morning subsequently, we somehow are introduced to various shoe-wearing new yorkers who unwisely go to work on the day the Ruskis sent over their rocket. The US fail to destroy the rocket, New York blows up, and we're shown a big pile of burning shoes with the message "Don't let this be the end (of shoes)". Also, Tom Skerrit.

It's that last message that confuses me – was this a message to rocket designers, or a call to arms for the US to gather up their shoes and go attack Russia. As the world was destroyed by nuclear war in the eighties, we'll never know.

Attempt at Plot Synopsis

[email2amh · 2/10 · 20 October 2008]

I can't disagree with the comments made by other contributors, so I will instead try to give you an outline of the plot.

First, there are sort of two movies here; the initial rocket espionage and then, the atomic readiness material at the end.

In the first story, and erstwhile American agent is sent to Russia after the Sputnik launch to find out if it was just a publicity stunt, and if not, what data & science could the Russians get from a satellite that orbited Earth and crossed the USA.

In Russia, he hooks up with an underground woman, posing as a belly dancer who has hooked up with a Russian rocket program minister. She allows the agent to live with her and spy on her sessions with the minister to get critical information.

Later, the girl heads for a final rocket test, then summons the agent - through, I think, a member of British intelligence. After some skullduggery and stock footage, the girl is shot by a soldier guarding the rocket, but manages to shoot him to save the agent. The agent gets caught attaching a bomb to the rocket, but escapes in a gun battle. The soldiers get the bomb off the rocket and it explodes safely (?) nearby. The American agent hears the explosion and thinks he has destroyed the rocket. He returns to the girl (now dead) and is, himself, strafed by machine fire and killed. END PART ONE.

In Part Two, we see some very short vignettes about a husband & wife discussing duty and air raids, Russian generals plotting, blue collar guys discussing buying a tie, and etc. Soon, the Russian ICBM is launched, America is on alert, sirens go off, and the radio announcer keeps us posted and eventually says goodbye to his wife & kid. It is determined that New York is the target, and Nike missiles are sent up to shoot down the ICBM, but to no avail.

During this part of the film, a single lower-ranking general has been manning a telephone (stenographer at his side), making all calls and decisions. Too late, he finally calls the president.

We see the ICBM up in space, then coming down, and finally mushrooming over Manhattan.

Final scene: "We can not let this be.......THE END".

A very weird little film, but unique!

So badddddd!!!!

[dcherson · 23 April 2012]

This movie must be the only terrible movie to be too terrible to be panned on MST3K (which it was...). Did any of these "actors" actually paid for this trash? This makes the 1951 Invasion USA look like academy award material. Who was Barry Mahon trying to kid? How about a worst movie of all time festival with this piece of you-know-what, Monster A-Go-Go, and Manos the Hands of Fate as the headliners? The production was the cheapest, the actors the worst, the plot was stupid and contrived, the so-called facts about the Soviet Union and sputnik weren't. How about all those "foreign" accents, eh? Well Mahon may have gotten the miniscule amount of spoken Russian right as they were spoken by two real Russians (noticed them in the credits).

Not the worst movie ever made but on the short list

[robertmurray-70637 · 1/10 · 17 October 2019]

Plot: Cold War era American spies go into USSR to get rocket secrets. Silly script, bad actors, cheap sets, ridiculous scenes that make no sense. I saw the Mystery Science Theater 3000 version, and they had no trouble coming up with a multitude of jokes mocking every aspect of this low-budget junk. You have to wonder who paid money in the early 1960s to see this. Probably drive-in movie patrons in rural areas who would do anything to get off the family farm for a few hours.

The MST3K version is the only palatable one...

[cygnetboy · 1/10 · 24 May 2019]

Bad, stunningly bad. Contrived is a compliment. The years of the Cold War formed my youth and I was stationed in West Berlin. There were no Soviet officials that I've ever met that were as pathetic as was written in this. This movie is great if you're suffering from insomnia. You'll watch for a while and when the pain gets bad enough, you can hit yourself over the head with a club. Problem solved.

The MST3K boys (and Gypsy) were perfect and the "game show moment" was the highlight of the film.