Panic in the Year Zero

Sharing a disc with The Last Man on Earth is another apocalyptic tale, Panic in the Year Zero, a 1962 American International cheapie directed by and starring Ray Milland that turns out to be pretty good.

Milland and his family, wife Jean Hagen, son Frankie Avalon, daughter Mary Mitchell, have just started a vacation into the California mountains when they see bright flashes. Later, what this means becomes clear when they see a mushroom cloud over Los Angeles. Sporadic radio reports indicate that the country is at war, and Milland snaps into survival mode. After nixing a return to the city, he pilots his family deep into the mountains, but not before stocking up on provisions, which requires him to actually steal from a hardware store at gunpoint.

I found the film to be fairly realistic about what would happen in such a situation. There would be panic, looting, and indiscriminate mayhem. Milland, as the representative of everyman, has his family as a paramount concern, and tells his doubting wife that he will re-enter civilization when it returns. But he realizes that he is turning into what he finds contemptuous.

The only real evidence of a low budget here is that there is a coincidence at coming across the same people miles away from there are first spotted. Other than that, the action is gripping, the danger real. I remember a TV film called The Day After that told basically the same story in several hours and a lot more star power, but it wasn't much better than this short, effective film.