Invasion, U.S.A. (1952)

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Blistering performances.

I caught this film as an episode of the cult riffing show, Mystery Science Theater 3000. From the looks of it, though it was certainly not a huge success at the box office, it did manage to turn a tidy little profit. The film is clearly trying to get people on board with the idea of spending money on the military through taxes, having a draft and having factories make military equipment. These days, of course, the military has no problems getting stuff manufactured as there is profit in it and spending remains high, the draft is still no longer around, but who knows what the future may hold. There are areas of the film that do a somewhat decent job of depicting events going on, but for the most part what you are watching are people in a bar, stock footage of World War II and a bunch of newscasts on the television.The story has people in a bar in New York and they are all kind of apathetic towards more military spending and stuff of this nature. When a strange man talks about how things could go badly all of a sudden an invasion begins. A mysterious force attacks Alaska and it is communist so of course it is kind of implied that it is Russia. Troopers are diving out of planes, A-bombs are dropped and cities taken over and decimated. Granted, you do not really get to see any of this. A man from San Francisco who scoffed earlier about making tanks in his tractor plants rushes back home with a guy from Texas in tow so that he can fire up his plants to make the tanks the military needs. The guy from Texas and a cab driver then make their way to wherever he lives and end up being caught up in the destruction of Boulder dam. Then a politician is on capital hill begins pleading for more resources when before he wanted to cut military spending and a newsman and woman have a bit of a romance before New York is attacked and soon we get an ending that is pretty lame.This made for an okay episode of MST3K. When I first read the title of the film for this one I had thought they riffed the Chuck Norris film of the same name, but it turned out to be another film pretty much like Rocket Attack U.S.A. It had its moments, but most of the moments came during the last section of the show. Just a bunch of stock footage jokes for the most part. It was just an okay episode as nothing was really all that laugh out loud funny. I think it would have been a much funnier episode had they done the Chuck Norris film instead.So this film had some parts in it that were okay as the film plays out a bit like the much later film Red Dawn. There are scenes they do a pretty good job with, but most of the time the action that is taking place is that of stock footage of World War II. Even the aftermath footage of 'New York' in the film is that of London after the blitz. The film is obviously trying to rev up the red scare that was prevalent back when this film was made and it ended up profiting off people's fears and may have drummed up some business for the military too. However, add Chuck Norris to the equation and the tides turn and we win easily as seen in his film of the same name!

Not a bad movie at all. Hypnotist Dan O'Herlihy foresees the future. Recently, the Russians paratroops in deception uniforms in the movie is almost exactly what they did in Crimea. I only wish Noel Neill was the love interest and had a bigger role in the movie, but Peggie Castle was credible. Gerald Mohr was decent as the newsman but not one of his better roles. I thought O'Herlihy stole the show and if he had a bigger role, this would have been a better production. This is a good description of real concerns of the air raid drills, a-bombs, and world destruction that the Soviets posed at the time. Communism was as deadly then as it is today. But people will wake up and see the destruction that this movie and others warn us of. It does not take much, remember, it only took 2 punks to shut down Boston. As, Mr. Ohman said, it takes focus. Something lacking today, but thanks to movies like this, we can remember what we need to be free. As for the communist "scare" in the 50's it was very real. They ranted of invading the US, but it took Ronald Reagan to make them "tear down this wall" and that's exactly what they did.

Invasion USA must have been Joe McCarthy's favorite movie. Had he become president this would have been required viewing, indoctrination for kids from Kindergarten level on up.The film depicts the Russian invasion of the good old USA from the denizens of Tim's bar in New York City. Among those denizens who meet on a fateful afternoon are TV commentator Gerald Mohr, party girl Peggie Castle, cattle rancher Erik Blythe, industrialist Robert Bice, a member of the House of Representatives and a mysterious stranger who functions in this bizarre tale like Hickey from The Iceman Cometh. In fact the whole thing is like Eugene O'Neill if it were directed by Ed Wood. The stranger is Dan O'Herlihy and Tim is played by Tom Kennedy.While we've been soft capitalists the Communists have been fanatically busy making preparations for war. And they strike through Alaska as Sarah Palin watched from her window. There's no end to their trickery, the invading troops have been schooled in English and are wearing our uniforms, better to confuse the capitalist tools. But when a strike force comes to invade the Capitol Building itself and mow down Congress, an alert National Guardsman questions one of them from an Illinois based unit about the Chicago Cubs. What American doesn't know about them?Through all this invasion Mohr and Castle get down to some serious kanoodling. You've got to have a romance even in the time of our nation's greatest peril.My guess is that the players involved took these roles because they wanted to make themselves blacklist proof. They couldn't all have been that desperate for a paycheck.As for the conclusion, think Dallas and remember to keep giving the military industrial complex what it needs.

It's worth noting that this ultra-low-budget splicing-together of unmatched stock footage was mocked and panned even in its own day, so it should not be viewed seriously as an accurate document of Cold War paranoia. Even in the depths of the Red Scare, most Americans weren't stupid enough to be scared by crap like this. It was more like a super-cheapie public service announcement for the military-industrial complex. If you fast forward through most of the stock WW2 battle scenes, which are endless, and slow down for the "story" scenes, it's a mildly amusing exercise in what-if? science fiction -- doofy and utterly implausible, but good for some wry smiles. I mean, you gotta love that the hypnotist fortune teller is named Ohman. It's also kind of interesting that many, many more "serious," bigger-budget invasion and terrorist- plot films since this one have followed a pretty similar storyline, if more competently. Add the general atmosphere of paranoia post-9/11, and this thing is worth a look, with the FF button to the metal.