PANIC IN YEAR ZERO

US, 1962, 95 minutes, Black and white.
Ray Milland, Jean Hagen, Frankie Avalon.
Directed by Ray Milland.

Panic in Year Zero was a small-budget film produced at the time of the more serious nuclear scares in the 1960s. It appeared about the time of Berlin, Cuba, the Bay of Pigs, the time When people were reading Failsafe and Seven Days in May. The film versions of these novels were to appear in a year or two to frighten people. Dr Strangelove was soon to be released.

Panic in Year Zero is quite successful in its attempt to frighten and warn. The film concerns a family going on holiday from Los Angeles who are caught in the fear and lawlessness following the nuclear bombing of Los Angeles. They fight to survive and find themselves acting violently in ways they never expected. Their plight and struggle with thugs is a small mirror of what might happen to any family. Ray Milland directed the film, fairly unpretentious science-fiction. (Cornel Wilde's 1970 film - No Blade of Grass - tells practically the same story but about pollution. However, Wilde's film is not as good as Ray Milland's).

1. How convincing did you find the opening of the film - the family situation, holiday preparations, then the unexpected explosion, followed by difficulties in radio transmission, telephone connections etc? If a bomb were dropped do you think most people would find themselves in such situations or would they be prepared?

2. What did you expect to happen when communications broke down? Order became chaos, people robbed and ran. Do you think this would happen?

3. What would you have done in such a situation? Was it wise to buy groceries in quantity, to buy ammunition? Do you think you would react like Rick?

4. Did the father do the right thing in trying to protect his family at all costs - e.g. burning his way across the highway?

5. Discuss the lowering of civilisation as they burned their food, lived in caves, became suspicious of neighbours.

6. The rape of the daughter - was this to be expected? Your reaction to the father killing the rapist in cold blood?

7. The army and police seemed to be trying to control the situation. Should they have had primary responsibility?

8. The film says 'The End' and 'The Beginning'. What was its message about mankind and human nature in times of stress and panic? Did you find the film frightening? Convincing? A fair assessment of what might happen?