NUCLEAR NOIR for the Fallout Generation

[Dewey1960]

Nuclear Noir: the final sendoff for the film noir cycle, spanning that chasm of uncertainty between the once (World War II) and the future (Korea, Viet Nam, Iraq). Where bedroom dicks wander lustily around in search of the Great Whatsit and a wised-up world waits out the end of civilization with stunned indifference. You wanna see films that celebrate THAT?? Yeah, me too.

The unjustly reviled Howard Hughes-produced I MARRIED A COMMUNIST; aka THE WOMAN ON PIER 13 (1949) acually spawned this hybrid sub-category. It deserves a little respect.

A pickpocket and a prostitute show those Commies a thing or two in Sam Fuller's cold war masterpiece PICK UP ON SOUTH STREET (1952).
KISS ME DEADLY (1955) Ralph Meeker's banal brutality as Mickey Spillane's cold warrior Mike Hammer is the Fallout Generation's apex / nadir & in THE GIRL HUNTERS (1963) the author himself has the common sense to play his own creation.
In CITY OF FEAR (1959) a psychotic escaped con makes off with enough radioactive Cobalt 60 to blast LA off the map. Lee Marvin heads an all-star cast of thugs in the "Citizen Kane" of fallout generation movies, SHACK OUT ON 101 (1955).

THEM! (1954): Thanks to all that nuclear bomb testing in New Mexico, desert fire ants have mutated into 12 foot long radioactive monsters! Seriously. And the encroaching spectre of communism is allegedly at the root of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956).

Jacques Tourneur directed THE FEARMAKERS (1958), a seldom seen cold war thriller (on TCM August 8) which involves brainwashing and the Korean War four years before THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE (1962). FAIL SAFE (1964), DR. STRANGELOVE (1964), ON THE BEACH (1960). These all go without saying.

And of course: PANIC IN THE YEAR ZERO (1962) and THE LAST MAN ON EARTH (1961).

Paranoia + Movies + atomic energy = Nuclear Noir

[MikeBSG]

"Panic in the Year Zero" is based on two stories by Ward Moore, "Lot" and "Lot's Daughter." I like "Lot" very much (almost said a lot), as it really has a driving narrative, but "Lot's Daughter" just left me cold.

"The Last Man on Earth" is based on Richard Matheson's SF vampire novel "I Am Legend." I've never been as impressed with that novel as I've been with matheson's other novels. Matheson disliked "Last Man." Apparently Fritz Lang wanted to film "I am Legend" but that fell through. Matheson thought Vincent Price was seriously miscast in "Last Man." "The Omega Man" from the early Seventies is also based on "I Am Legend."

[Dewey1960]

I'm a huge Richard Matheson fan. Apart from writing dozens of great novels and short stories and contributing some of the best Twilight Zone episodes, he was the also the author of the original novel THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN which became a seminal 1957 science fiction film classic--and another interesting example of Nuclear Noir: just where did that strange radioactive cloud come from?

[jdb1]

If you haven't seen "Fail Safe" lately, you should. I saw it a few months ago, after not having seen it in umpteen years, and it said a whole lot more to me than it did back then. I found it absolutely of the moment, and really, really scary. Fonda's performance as the president is terrific and needs to be re-examined against all his other terrific work. Walter Mattau's turn as a saber-rattling intellectual ranting at a Washington cocktail party could be plopped into any similar contemporary scenario and not be a whit out of place.

[Dewey1960]

I agree with you completely on FAIL SAFE, Judith. When it first came out it had to contend with DR. STRANGELOVE which was released at virtually the same time. Back then the outrageous satire of Kubrick's film obscured the fact that what was going on in Lumet's film was darker and far scarier, although at the time I took it to be a drier, duller film It wasn't until about ten years ago that I revisited FAIL SAFE after a long absence and found it to be everything you said it was in your post. A nuclear noir classic, to be sure!

[MikeBSG]

I too am a big Matheson fan. It's been years since I read the novel, but I saw "Incredible Shrinking Man" fairly recently. What I noticed is while the characters in the movie say the cloud was radio active, they also mention that prior to the cloud incident, the hero was doused with insecticide in an industrial accident. So the movie covers its bets, in a way, so it can't be dismissed purely as a "nuclear" horror film.

(Were these becoming passe by 1958? I once read some film reviews by Charles Beaumont, Matheson's friend and fellow Twilight Zone scribe, and he was awfully fed up with giant bugs and invaders from space by 1958 when "Curse of Frankenstein" turned up.)

In a way, the ambiguity about the cause of the horror reminds me of the original "The Hills Have Eyes." When I read about the movie, everyone says that the mutants are the result of being born on a nuclear weapon testing ground, yet in the movie itself, the pappa mutant is said to have been born in 1929.

[pktrekgirl]

Well, since it was on last week, let me add ASSIGNMENT - PARIS (1952) to this list. And THE IRON CURTAIN (1948) as well, for that matter.

Both of them pretty heavy duty Cold War-inspired films starring Dana Andrews, both with the same simple message - Soviet Russia is evil.

Got it.

[benwhowell]

What about Frank Perry's "Ladybug, Ladybug." With frightened children and paranoid adults contemplating doom as they are sent home from school after a "nuclear drill." Powerful independant movie with great performances and an interesting cast (of adults)-including William Daniels, Nancy Marchand, Estelle Parsons, Judith Lowry, et al.

[mrsl]

Benwhowell:

Your statement of: frightened children and paranoid adults reminded me of being in about 4th grade and having 'air raid' drills, in addition to fire drills. During air raid drills however, we didn't go outside, we knelt under our desks, or chairs and covered the back of our necks with our hands. Thinking about it now, it seems the better thing would have been to go out to our lockers and climb into them (at that time, they were much larger than the ones offered today).

Anne

[benwhowell]

mrsl,
That's the thing about this movie ("Ladybug, Ladybug") that freaks everybody out. It is a small school in a rural community that receives a "nuclear attack warning." The principal is unable to contact anyone to verify it...he panics and closes the school. Most of the kids walk to school. The fear and paranoia escalates on their journies home...
Here's a blast (pardon the pun) from the past-
[youtube][/youtube]

[nightwalker]

Although I've not seen it, LADYBUG, LADYBUG sounds like it would make a good companion piece to LORD OF THE FLIES.

[MissGoddess]

I saw Panic in the Year Zero for the first time this weekend.

I thought it was a fairly effective "apocolyptic" tale, or "Nuclear Noir"? Anyway, Ray Milland directed it and that was its drawing card for me. What probably surprised me the most was its really, really dim view of human nature and I thought it very daring that he even alluded to something as sordid as gang rape in a 1950s movie. It's about a hydrogen bomb hitting L.A. and how the people who survive behave in the aftermath. In fact, the bombing is only shown in a couple of long shots using opticals and the rest of the film is just about character; not something people could sit with today.

However, I did NOT like the wife/mother character at all---she was idiotic.