In this up-and-down, seesawing, Covid-19 pandemic (now sequelized by acts of social extreme), panic is the lay of the land, but there are movies from decades past that predicted such activity to a distressing tee.
"Panic in Year Zero!" (aka "End of the World"), directed by Oscar-winning thespian, Ray Milland, is a fine, 1962 alternate-history example of this, even if its premise rises from Cold War concerns and not a perplexing, politicized virus.
John Morton and Jay Sims' script starts subtly enough, with Milland's Henry Baldwin preparing his wife, Ann (Jean Hagen) and their teenage children, Rick (Frankie Avalon) and Karen (Mary Mitchel) for a camping sojourn. However, as they depart Los Angeles, a mushroom cloud catches their eye and through an inevitable, radio broadcast, they learn that an adversarial force (the insinuated U.S.S.R.) has fired nuclear missiles upon the city, as well as other parts of the U.S and the Western Bloc.
The resolute Henry directs his family to gather food, gear and shelter (via a cozy, mountain cave), while avoiding and combating troublemakers.
The prime antagonists are young hoodlums (Richard Bakalyan, Rex Holman, and Neil Nephew), who rough up Karen (per an implied rape), with further (though lesser) conflict stemming from an affable enough gun-store owner named Ed Johnson (Richard Garland) and his wife, Bobbie (Shary Marshall), whose prime vice is being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Other characters, such as the hoodlums' attractive abductee, Marilyn (Joan Freeman); a grouchy grocer (O.Z. Whitehead); and the cynical Dr. Strong (Willis Bouchey), further texture the family's plight, but it's the way the quartet rebounds from misfortune that guarantees one's interest, even if it's tipped by a naive conclusion regarding radioactivity.
It's Henry who really makes the dramatic difference, and it goes beyond his ability to seek the most practical supplies and a great hideaway, for he knows how and when to use ruthless (and on occasion, unethical) tactics to override the snags. For unsavory opponents, his shotgun is loaded and aimed.
If redone today, "Panic" would reduce Henry to a craven negotiator or fanatic survivalist and place sole sympathy on the pillagers and ideological brutes. And yet even with that said, "Panic" (as it stands within its Cold War niche) would be identifiable to most sensible, modern viewers, much in the manner of "The Walking Dead". "Panic'"s calamity remains tangible, therefore, on all fronts (thanks in no small part to the ironic jive of Les Baxter's snappy but forbidding score). More so, the adventure references the human condition's varying range, weaving scenes comparable to those of Rod Serling's "Twilight Zone" classics, "The Shelter" and "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street".
"Panic'"s edgy ingredients make it as pertinent today as it was upon release: a fearsome, sociological gem that's prevailed through the decades to remind us that upheaval can summon a populace's best and worst traits, particularly if "zero" becomes the reset.
"Panic" may feature Milland's best performance next to the first-place tie of "The Lost Weekend" and "Man with the X-ray Eyes", which is saying a lot. Avalon is quite convincing, too, as the son, but the entire cast is great. "Panic" may have been peddled as a drive-in exploitation film, and it is just that in many respects, but its quality performances are a large part of why it has endured.
ReplyDelete