Red Nightmare

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.

Looking back today, it's still hard to believe that as late as 1962 we'd be seeing propaganda films like this. But then, this was made around the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, so in that sense it figures. But in a way, one can see why some people would believe (as many reference books have claimed) that this piece came out in or around 1957, since the '50's were the height of anti-Communist hysteria in America, although Mr. Webb's necktie and jacket lapels were far too narrow for that year, more appropriate for the early '60's. Another key that this was a 1962 piece, if nothing else, was the presence of a young actress who within a year would go on to become the first Bobbie Jo Bradley on "Petticoat Junction", Pat (billed here as Patricia) Woodell. The year this was filmed, she also put in guest shots on some Warner Bros.-produced shows such as "Hawaiian Eye" (whose star, Robert Conrad, also appeared here) and "The Gallant Men", being at the time she was under contract to that studio.

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.

This educational short – intended as a propaganda piece, solemnly narrated by Jack Webb (a familiar face of the era) and personally overseen by movie mogul Jack L. Warner – feels very much like an episode of "The Twilight Zone". As in INVASION USA (1952), on whose DVD it's included, the politics are hard to take nowadays – though the fantasy, albeit moralistic, framework of the narrative (wherein a passive working-class American wakes up one morning to find his hometown overrun by the Communists) makes it at least palatable in an IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) sort of way. On the other hand, being compact and on a much smaller scale than the earlier feature-film, it's easier to suspend belief in its case. By the way, George Waggner (billed "waGGner", for whatever reason) is best-known for his stint directing such classic Universal chillers as THE WOLF MAN (1941).

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!).