Panic In The Year Zero — Panic In The Year Zero( Blu Ray)
Panic In The Year Zero is an American early 60’s post-nuke thriller/ drama focusing on a family unit in peril. Instead of going down the expected route of looking at the town/city damage and health issues caused by such an event. The film looks at how people might react/ interact with each other. Here from Radiance is a Blu-Ray release of the film- taking in both new and archive extras.
Panic In The Year Zero (aka End Of The World) was a 1962 low-budget production produced by Roger Corman. It was directed by actor-turned-director Ray Milland- he had four other directorial feature films to his name, but nearing one hundred and eighty acting credits- including this film. The other films he helmed include in classic western A Man Alone (1955), Film Noir Lisbon (1956), the war-based crime drama The Safecracker (1958), and hit ’n’ run focused crime drama Hostile Witness (1969).
The film focuses on the Baldwin family- who I guess are meant to be a fairly typical middle-class family from LA suburbs. There’s later middle-aged trilby hat-wearing father Harry (Ray Milland), his wife Ann (Jean Heagen), and their two later teen children Ricky (Frankie Avlon) and Karen(Mary Mitchel). We first meet the family at four Am one morning, as they’ve packed up and getting ready to go on a caravan holiday- just outside their suburban home. The adults are ready to, but the teens come out moaning and groaning about feeling tired and the time.
They hit the road from their LA home, and we drop back with them two hours down the road. There are several sky-filling/ blinding flashes behind them, and fairly quickly they find out LA has been hit by a nuke- as well as other major American cities, with London and Paris having been devastated.
As the film unfolds Harry very much takes the reins of the family. First acting surprisingly focused and sensibly in his actions, but as things progress his decisions/ actions start to push against what’s morally right/ decent- as his focus becomes completely and utterly on protecting his family unit.
The main cast is all good/ well picked- but I think the most surprising here is teen pop idol turned actor Frankie Avalon- he is very believable as a character struggling between childhood and manhood. The small surrounding cast is largely good too- with special mentions going to hardware store owner Ed Johnson (Richard Garland), and opportunist thug-come-gang leader Carl (Richard Bakalyan).
The film has a runtime of one hour and thirty-three minutes, and it remains eventful/ pacy, and often quite tense throughout. The film clearly had a fairly small budget- but Milland does the best he can with it, with only one occasion of repetitive looped road stock footage becoming rather trying.
For the most part, Panic In The Year Zero is a good/ interesting take on the post-nuke genre- but I’m afraid it has one glaring issue/ problem. And that is the soundtrack by Les Baxter- it’s made up of sassy/ upbeat to dynamic jazzy orchestrion, which more often than not doesn't fit the tone of the film, or what’s going on screen. I was very surprised Baxter did the soundtrack- as normally he is apt at following the tone/ atmosphere of films with his scores- take his work for Black Sabbath or The Dunwich Horror.
This recent Blu-Ray is region B. It features an HD print from an original 35 MM fine grain positive. This looks very crisp and well-defined in its black-and-white stock- though as a result some of the effects show their age/ cheapness, for example when they look back to the mushroom cloud over LA- it does look rather naff.
We get a few extras- most of these are archive- the only new thing is an onscreen interview with genre expert/author Kim Newman (20.56). He largely focuses on giving a bio of Ray Milland- with a few minutes focused on the film to hand. We find his real name was Alf James- he changed it to Milland, as he lived in Wales as a child and there were lots of Mills there. We find out he came into acting in the 1920s after being a sharpshooter in the army- he got picked up for walk-on roles, as he was seen as handsome in his earlier years. He slowly but surely worked his way up the industry- moving from support and lead actor- we find out he did a few notable noirs like Ministry Of Fear (1944) and Circle Of Danger (1951). His big breakthrough role was playing an alcoholic in The Lost Weekend (1945). Newman moves on to touch on his directorial career- and briefly discusses Panic In The Year Zero. Before finishing off by touching on later notable acting roles in the likes of Fogs and The Thing With Two Heads- both from 1972. All in all, a decent featurette.
On the archive side, we have the following: audio commentary by critic Richard Harland Smith. Ray Milland interview from 1972. Atomic Shock! - A 2016 interview with filmmaker Joe Dante.
The finished release comes with a reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters, and an inlay booklet featuring new writing by film critic Christina Newland.
Panic In The Year Zero is a worthy addition to the post-nuke genre, and it’s nice to see it getting this release on Radiance- with a crisp print and a decent enough selection of extras.