The House in the Middle

House in the Middle, The (1954)

** (out of 4)

The National Clean Up- Paint Up- Fix Up Bureau produced this documentary teaching people how to save their houses if an atomic blast was to take place. The Nevada Test Site is the setting for the short that shows various houses and how well they take an atomic blast. I'm really not sure how true the details provided in this short are but we're told that if you clean and paint your house then it won't be destroyed by an atomic blast. If you leave newspapers around your living room or trash bags by your house then you're going to die when the blast comes. Again, I'm not sure how true this research is but the short comes off as a neat freak trying to use an atomic scare to get his neighbors to clean up the yard. The film is rather boring in all of its tests but those who enjoy the atomic scare films should get a few laughs. Telling someone to mow their lawn before an atomic blast is pretty funny in its own right.

"The House in the Middle" is a very strange short film. It's a production of the oddly named ' National Clean Up-Paint Up-Fix Up Bureau' as well as the Federal Civil Defense Administration.

This public service film is all about how to survive a nuclear disaster. According to the film, homes that are well painted, have uncluttered yards and look nice are far more likely to survive attacks. Of course, the likelihood of ANY homes surviving a nuclear attack is something the film never discusses!

Overall, this is a dull little film that is mostly of interest to historians and folks who enjoy the various weird nuclear preparedness films of the era.

This short subject starts off with a picture of a mushroom cloud arising from a nuclear explosion. It is produced by "The National Clean Up - Paint Up - Fix Up Bureau" -- with of course, the cooperation of the Federal Civil Defense Administration. This was an era when they exposed soldiers to atom bombs to study effects. Indeed, it was a couple of years before Howard Hughes imported sand from atomic testing sites for studio retakes of THE CONQUEROR. This eventually resulted in the death by cancer of Dick Powell and the removal of one of co-star John Wayne's lungs. So, at the time, this seemed a sensible question.

In retrospect this industrial film looks like a parody of itself -- will a semi-gloss or a latex best resist the end of the world and should I use a white undercoating? Or would wallpaper do a better job? Maybe one of the Morris prints which uses lots of green arsenic for the nursery. In the meantime, you'd better throw out those old newspapers because when they drop the Bomb next door, they will burst into flames and lower real estate values.

Yet, in many ways, B movies and industrial films provide us with the best view of contemporary thought from an era. For a major picture, you have many bright people laboring intensively to make every choice. For something like this, it's a matter of getting it today, not right, and so the casual, easy choice that reveals the habits of the era is the one taken.

So while you're busy laughing your head off at the stupidity of people more than half a century ago -- and trying hard not to think of what people will think about us in another half century -- consider this from a sociological viewpoint, if you would.

In retrospect, this is so ridiculous as to be laughable. Having lived through this time (as a child at the time), government agencies had us believing that if a nuclear weapon were exploded, all we had to do is get out of the way. We all know the "duck and cover" bit. The idea that a coat of paint and a clean up of your yard would do the least bit of good when a fireball hits your property is ludicrous. My rating was strictly on the basis of its entertainment value. The dramatic music and the intensity of the narrator are quite amusing. Let's hope with our current cozying up with Russia that we don't ever have to face such an attack. That's the serious side.

OMFG. Like one of the other reviewers I too recorded this from TCM (9/4/2010) and expected to see mushroom clouds and damage to different types of objects, but never expected it to be saying the a clean house and yard will be protected from an atomic blast.

It seems like the US govt. would have been a little more realistic in their messages to the public by telling them to kiss their asses goodbye if an atomic bomb was detonated in their town, rather than wasting money on a film telling them their property would be spared if it was clean and well maintained. Of course this from a government who would later develop the neutron bomb which preserves property but kills everyone more quickly.

Good for a few chuckles with horrible production values and (as mentioned by another reviewer) the same narrator (seemingly) as some other classic government propaganda films. Enjoy!