Red Nightmare (1962)

Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I suppose it's to be expected that this film laid on the anti-Communism a bit thick. Red Nightmare was a film for our Armed Services that Warner Brothers produced on their lot which utilized a whole lot of familiar faces from their television shows. Jack Webb in his patented staccato style narrated the film where Jack Kelly plays Mr. Average American who takes his American way of life quite for granted.The funny thing is that I have no real problem with films encouraging greater citizen participation. Where folks might differ is the result of said participation. Nor do I have a problem with anti-Communism either as long as it doesn't involve persecution of people whose opinions are to the left of the then president of the United States when this film was made.But this film ratcheted up the paranoia scale to unbelievable heights. We see Kelly in his daily life with wife Jeanne Cooper, daughter Pat Woodell and two other younger kids and Woodell's boyfriend Peter Brown. Job, family life are just stuff Kelly takes for granted.But at night Kelly has an It's A Wonderful Life type dream as he sees his same life after a People's government has taken over the USA. And there's no angel named Clarence to get him out.As there are a few survivors left from the cast I wonder how many of them feel about this film seen today.

The government ID and title are" AFIF 120 "FREEDOM AND YOU" AFIF stands for Armed Forces Information Film. Shot on Universal backplate including famous City Hall steps from Bye Bye Birdie and City Square shots from "Back to the Future" series. Only thing film missing is Ann-Margret and Michael C. Fox! Peter Brown actually tries to act and Jack Kelly, he of "Bart Maverick" fame overacts wildly. If you look hard you see Beaver's neighborhood too!Jack Webb looks solemn and oh so sincere. Film ends with shots of everything that was wonderful in 1962 America. Rioting scenes from unidentified countries. Film is good for a few laughs due to it's overtly simplistic examination of Communism.

Jack Webb takes an average white American male, husband and father of two, into a vision of what America might be like under Soviet control.Heavy-handed and one-sided, this propaganda one-reeler has Jack Webb's thumbprints all over it. Rumored to have been bankrolled by a US Government agency (you pick one), this film runs almost like a right-wing answer to "The Twilight Zone", as if to confront TV pioneer Rod Serling's liberal-left musings.It may have shocked people in it's day, and will probably enthuse those who still look for Commies under the bed, but now, it's a camp classic, reminding us of how paranoid we were (and, by the way, how paranoid the Soviets were about the USA!).

I got this expecting a camp riot. What I found was a fairly standard propaganda piece, a bit confused at times but generally aware of itself enough to stay "on message" as the phrase goes these days. Jack Webb, though obviously rightist, was too knowledgeable and talented to let things get completely out of control. As a result, the film isn't as funny as originally billed; it really provokes no strong response in me at all. Ho-hum.