Warning Red

(1956)

13:48 minutes

Documentary

Directed by Nicholas Webster

Cast: Joseph Cunningham, Melvin Scheldt and Mary Reading Miller

A city is 'A' Bombed! The cold war hysteria of the 1950's spawned numerous U.S. Government Department of Defense documentary and Civil Defense short. Here is all you needed to know in the 1950's about mushroom cloud safety, fall-out shelters and duck-and-covering. For authorized personel only! 

This film portrays the atomic odyssey of a 'John Q. Public' who, while on his way home after buying some ice cream, sees the bright flash of the Bomb. Once he gets up, dusts himself off and puts on his charred fedora, the movie moves forward with its agenda to convey all of the clichéd civil defense lessons about staying in one's shelter and avoiding contaminated food, etc. Of course, Mr. Public ignores most of these rules by busily running through the fallout and fire-filled streets trying to find his family. But, to his credit, he is never seen trying to eat his presumably irradiated (and melted) ice cream.