Panic in Year Zero!
Panic in Year Zero!
Radiance Films
Blu-ray – Region B
1962 – 93 Min.
Starring Ray Milland, Jean Hagen, Mary Mitchel, Frankie Avalon
Cinematography by Gilbert Warrenton, Written by Jay Simms
Directed by Ray Milland
American-International built an exploitation empire on teens, horror, and science fiction—in 1962 they combined those cash cows into one 93 minute infomercial for Cold War paranoia, Panic in Year Zero! Ray Milland stars as Harry Baldwin, a middle-aged Mad Max riding out the apocalypse with a mobile home and itchy trigger finger. The actor did double duty as the film’s director, and though AIP’s penny-pinching house style could hobble less inventive filmmakers, Milland’s jaundiced worldview gives this low-budget thrill ride the kick of a classroom scare film.
By all appearances a conventional suburbanite, Baldwin has made plans for a weekend getaway with his wife Ann and their two teenagers; Ann is played by Jean Hagen, Mary Mitchel is their Barbie doll daughter Karin, and son Rick is a quasi-Ken: he’s played by Frankie Avalon, the sovereign prince of Bikini Beach (his hair remains rock-solid through fist fights and radioactive fall-out).
The term “nuclear family” was coined in 1924 but the Baldwin clan will soon live up to the name; only a few minutes into their journey a mushroom cloud blooms over Los Angeles and all hell breaks loose—at least in Harry’s mind. The audience can probably guess who’s responsible for the attack but that’s beside the point for Baldwin: the weekend fisherman switches to Soldier of Fortune in record time, barreling off the main road to stock up on groceries, gas, and guns. Lots of guns. The world may be racing to oblivion but Harry is several steps ahead.
The blast has awakened the beast in this ostensibly serene sportsman, he warns that violence is coming, but he’s the first one to pull a gun and loot a hardware store. Though Ann frets about Harry’s sudden change it appears her husband has always been eager to devolve—and he’s more than happy to trade his fishing rod for a rifle.
The family finds little safety in the hills surrounding LA, and Harry’s worries about the approaching apocalypse are borne out; the highways are littered with overturned cars where road rage is now prelude to murder. Vigilante roadblocks meet them at every turn until an anonymous camping ground offers shelter from the storm.
But the world won’t wait, teenaged hoods (AIP’s premiere troublemaker Richard Bakalyan alongside Rex Holman and Neil Nephew) are scouring the countryside for food, cash, and sex. They come upon Karin at a remote lakeside where Harry’s worst fears are realized. Though Milland’s methods are strictly old school, the attack and its bloody aftermath predict the vigilante-minded cinema of the 70s, Straw Dogs and Death Wish; in this world, everyone has blood on their hands. The finale suggests a happy ending but Powell Strong, a folksy doc played by Willis Bouchey, has other thoughts: “Our country is still full of thieving, murdering, patriots.”
Even with its low-budget roots Gilbert Warrenton’s widescreen photography gives Panic in Year Zero! an epic quality. Milland’s direction carries equal weight; no surprise, he learned from some of the most resourceful artists in Hollywood; Hitchcock, Lang, and yes, Roger Corman. And though Jay Simms’s script flirts with jingoistic fantasies, Milland had a bit more on his mind than retribution; Harry Baldwin is a man both exhilarated and ashamed by his own blood lust. An actor whose gloomy nature colored even light-hearted comedies like It Happens Every Spring, Milland may have been the perfect choice to direct this troubling, imperfect film. In 1974 he published his autobiography, Wide-Eyed In Babylon, and concluded with a confession, “… if there is cynicism in me it has been engendered by disillusion. Most of my pedestals stand empty and the world seems filled with predators…”
The new Blu ray from Radiance Films is an admirable production. Though cinematographer Warrenton was a victim of the film’s restrictive shooting schedule (17 days according to Milland), the rushed result adds to the documentary mood—some scenes, like Harry’s abrupt assault of a gas station attendant, have a startling urgency. Radiance’s transfer of the film is fine, and they added several extras from previous home video releases to make their “limited edition” a must-have for fans. Special note: the disc is advertised as Region B but plays on some Region A machines as well.
A Richard Harland Smith commentary recorded in 2016 fleshes out the movie’s backstory and a new interview with Kim Newman is an illuminating trek through Milland’s wildly diverse career. That career gets a going over in an interview conducted with Milland in 1972—he’s quite gracious and even cheerful charting his history and goes into some detail about Panic in Year Zero! The package is capped off with Atomic Shock, a 2016 interview with Joe Dante sharing his thoughts about Panic in Year Zero! His appearance puts us in mind of Matinee, his own take on the duck-and-cover era that manages to be both an astute commentary on the age of anxiety and a heartfelt tribute to the filmmakers who transported us.
Mary Mitchel can be seen in a couple of episodes of Leave It To Beaver as Evelyn Boothby. Her brother-in-law is played by Ryan O’Neal!