Bionic Nostalgia - The Legacy

Fairly quickly after the television debut of "The Six Million Dollar Man" the word 'bionic' entered the lexicon permanently, going from a science fiction term to a science fact in recent years.  While no one has been granted super-strength, speed, or senses from their bionics (that we know of), cybernetic replacement of limbs, as well as things like cochlear implants are almost everyday things. 

As we've seen, the television universe was too big to have just one bionic man.  Soon Steve Austin was joined by the Seven Million Dollar Man, the Bionic Woman, and Maximilian the Bionic Dog.  In 1976, during Lee Majors' bad mustache phase, Vincent Van Patten became the Bionic Boy in a backdoor pilot that failed to go to series.  Both series, "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "The Bionic Woman," left the air in 1978, but would return in just under a decade. 

Three TV movies would follow starting in 1987.  The first, simply and awkwardly called The Return of the Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, was similar to the Bionic Boy in two ways - it was a failed pilot and involved a young man getting bionics, in this case, Austin's illegitimate son. The last two, coming in 1989 and 1994, were Bionic Showdown and Bionic Ever After?. 

The legacy of Martin Caidin's Cyborg novel, and the "Six Million Dollar Man" television series that was based on it continues to today. There are novels, comic books, jigsaw puzzles, the "Bionic Six" animated series (among dozens that feature bionics within them), a new, if short-lived, "Bionic Woman" show, and of course the always-threatened-but-never-announced theatrical film. Bionics remains a part of our lives and pop culture decades later.

Check out the rest of my posts in this series here.

The Mist

Of late, the work of Stephen King has had a size problem.  The Dark Tower, much anticipated and based on a multi-book series of thousands of pages is being squeezed into a 95-minute film next month.  As bad as that sounds, I'll be the first to admit that it looks very cool and very promising.  And then there's The Mist, one of King's shortest novels or longest short stories (depending on the format in which you originally read it), now a ten-hour mini-series.

"The Mist" premiered on Spike several weeks back, vaguely based on King's novella, if only in concept.  The town is still Bridgeton, there's still a mysterious mist with monstrous creatures within, a mall fills in for the supermarket, and there are still two military suicides from Arrowhead, and a religious zealot old lady doomsayer.  The rest is different. 

New characters, new situations, new interactions, same paranoia, but with an updated sensibility.  The original story is nearly forty years old after all.  The new situations are very CW and pedestrian when all you really want are the monsters in the mist.  I suppose the soap is needed to stretch it into ten hours though. 

Frances Conroy, best known for "Six Feet Under" and "American Horror Story," is the stand out here as the old hippie whose belief in God is shattered by the mist.  Alyssa Sutherland, the supermodel who played one of my favorite characters in "Vikings," Princess Aslaug, sadly proves to be an acting black hole in this contemporary suburban environment. 

The quality and suspense varies from episode to episode.  Now at the mid-point, it has slowed to a crawl.  It does have its moments though.  This series might be better viewed as a binge with your finger on the fast forward button.  Or just read the story and skip the series. 

American Gods

I read Neil Gaiman's American Gods so long ago that I barely remember it.  I know I liked it, but honestly I remember it more in concept than anything else.  Perhaps that's why I'm enjoying the hell out of Starz' television adaptation of it so much, I'm not sweating the details of the source material that much. 

Rather than painstakingly recreating the book, as well as elements of its pseudo-sequel Ananzi Boys, showrunners Bryan Fuller ("Pushing Daisies," "Hannibal") and Michael Green (Logan, Alien: Covenant, and Green Lantern) have wisely chosen to concentrate on dazzling visuals and mining the incredible talent of their cast.  First and foremost among the latter is Ian McShane as Mr. Wednesday.  He is perfect as the conman and old god Odin who plots against the new gods. He ruled every scene he appeared in on HBO's much-missed "Deadwood" so I couldn't ask for a better lead. 

Ricky Whittle from the the UK's "Hollyoaks" is more than adequate as Shadow, who's learning of the gods just as we viewers do.  The rest of the cast so far is a wonder of stuntcasting, and that's a good thing.  One can never take one's eyes off Crispin Glover in anything he's in, and then there's Cloris Leachman, Kristen Chenoweth, and Corbin Bernsen. 

Gillian Anderson shines as Media, a small role in the book, but here stunning as manifestations of Lucille Ball, David Bowie, and Marilyn Monroe.  Also impressive are Pablo Schreiber as the leprechaun and the usually annoying comedian Dane Cook in a surprising and serious turn.

So far it seems more of a road trip than a war of the gods, but I'm having fun watching week after week.  Fun television is not something we get very often any more, and this is one of the bright spots.  It may inspire me to pick up the book(s) again, but I'm afraid I might be disappointed.  I think the show might be superior. 

Octopussy

Octopussy ~ Confession time, I've never seen Octopussy in its entirety until fairly recently. I didn't see it in the theater, even though I was in college by then and could have. I guess at that point I just didn't care any more about Bond.

By the time Octopussy came out I had spent the seventies watching James Bond on ABC movies of the week. I loved them, watched them every time, edited or not. I had even been lured to the library to read the source material by Ian Fleming, being chastised by the librarian, bless her heart, that I was too young (junior high school) for "that trash." Shame on me!

But as far as the movies go, I had long before figured out that Sean Connery was the man, and that Roger Moore in his ridiculous indestructible tuxedo was only playing it for laughs. That said of course, Live and Let Die remains a favorite guilty pleasure. It would finally take both Duran Duran and Grace Jones to get me into a theater with Bond and Moore in A View to a Kill, but I think we all know what a mistake that would be.

Like many Bond films 'based' on Fleming work, the jump from page to screen is just cray-cray. Only the title and character are lifted from the short story collection "Octopussy and The Living Daylights," although a scene from another story therein, "The Property of a Lady," is included in the film. Even as a sniggering teenager I thought Fleming's femme fatale names were a bit much, and 'Octopussy' was just waaay over the top.

The movie comes from a time when Bond was mad camp, constantly trying to one up itself from the last entry. Seriously one could put a bat-costumed Adam West in some of these situations and it would be more serious. A tale of Faberge eggs, killer circuses, and a smuggler named Octopussy, it just does not hold my attention well. I think I would rather watch the non-canon remake of Thunderball, Never Say Never Again, released in the same year, at least that was exciting. This one breaks a cardinal Bond rule - it's boring.

There are some spectacular stunts, some beautiful locales, and a better than average theme by Rita Coolidge, but it's just not good enough. Roger Moore is showing his years, his toupee, and his disdain for the role. Maud Adams doesn't have the charisma her character demands in all of her scenes. And Moore in the clown suit and the gorilla suit... is just shameful and embarrassing. I think I'll skip this one if it comes on again, a disappointment.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ~ For a kid, tales of Jules Verne, and especially Captain Nemo, just fire the imagination, and this film has always been a grail for me in this way. I of course had read the books, but I had seen the movie Mysterious Island, with its great Ray Harryhausen effects, first, with Nemo as a peripheral character and yet so large - I wanted more. When I finally saw the 1954 Disney version of the real Nemo saga, I was thrilled.

Originally imagined as an animated feature over a decade before, Walt Disney eventually decided to make the move to live-action with this story, investing much in special effects, and winning Academy Awards for the effort. Coupled with an all-star cast - James Mason, Peter Lorre, and Kirk Douglas - this was a sure-fire hit, although the truth is it took several re-issues to get its money back. Either way, it remains a pinnacle of the genre, inspiring generations, just as the source material of Jules Verne did.

I got the chance to see this on the big screen recently at the 2016 TCM Classic Cruise, and it was introduced by Craig Barron and Ben Burtt, two of the men behind the special effects on the Star Wars movies, who were also spurred by this film to become the SPFX wizards they are today. The boys gave a 30-minute presentation about the making of the film, the special effects, and the miniatures, which was fantastic, featuring footage from the Disney vaults never before seen.

The cast is simply stunning, with James Mason as the prototypical Bond villain a good decade before they really hit the screen, as Captain Nemo. The camaraderie between Douglas and Lorre, and Douglas and Esmeralda the seal too, as a matter of fact make this a buddy movie before its time as well. Kirk Douglas' Ned Land is flamboyant, loud, and lovable, and we do love him, and root for this hero throughout the movie. We love him so much that the wonderfully addictive and simultaneously obnoxious "Whale of a Tale" song is even excusable. You will be humming it for days after seeing it.

Highly recommended, a classic Disney adventure that we have rarely seen since.

Disney's The Rescuers

Disney's The Rescuers ~ This animated feature comes from a different era of Disney animation, the time after Walt Disney's death but before the new generation of animators who would usher in a renaissance in the 1980s. The Rescuers was the first film to include both the old guard and the new kids, a bridge between animation dynasties. Watching it, you can see the changing of the guard happening as tradition mixes with technology and new thinking.

The story itself comes from the book series by Margery Sharp, a property that Disney had been eyeing since the early sixties. The series follows the adventures of rich philanthropist mouse Miss Bianca who rescues animals in trouble. The journey from page to screen is so fraught with changes, I've heard it's nearly unrecognizable. An example of this is that at one point Cruella de Vil from 101 Dalmatians was considered as an antagonist in the film.

Eva Gabor as Miss Bianca and Bob Newhart as Bernard are mice and members of the Rescue Aid Society who set out to, what else, rescue a young girl from the evil Madame Medusa, played by Geraldine Page. There's a certain international flair that borders on stereotyping because it's a global mouse organization, headquartered below the UN and all.

Eva Gabor is fun, but the songs are forgettable, and Bob Newhart seems wasted here, and that's s shame. It moves quite slowly, even for a mystery. The screen does brighten however when Madame Medusa is on screen. Supposedly based on an animator's wife, she is a deliciously manic maniac. Much more fun than Cruella could have ever been, and her movements are mesmerizing.

In some ways The Rescuers seems like it was done for younger kids, but then there are some parts, accompanied by suitable scary music, that are downright frightening. The good guys win in the end of course, although the little girl is so 1980s sitcom annoying I almost wanted her gone. Good for the kids, and the adults too.

The Monsters Are Back

In this season of "Penny Dreadful," we have moved beyond the world of the penny dreadful and into the one of its American counterpart, the figuratively more expensive dime novel. As the protagonists have all gone their separate ways and formed new alliances - Lily and Dorian, Hecate and Ethan, Victor and Henry, Malcolm and Kaetenay - and spread to different corners of the world, it gives the show an HBO vibe with quick cutting to display the many characters. This tact also builds anticipation for when our 'heroes' once again meet and merge subplots.

As a fan of the original stories I was excited to see Caliban/John Clare, our Frankenstein monster, in the Arctic. I was yet equally excited to see him searching for his lost past in Chinatown. Might it be too much to wish for an appearance by another Victorian villain, Fu Manchu? Or might the legal rights be too difficult to navigate?

The concept of Victor Frankenstein and Henry Jekyll (a black man in this continuity) being old school chums and fellow outcasts is a charming and imaginative one. I like it quite a bit. Their clashing and contrasting philosophies of science and the evil of man make their partnership one of both madness and wonder, and I love that they are currently quartered in Bedlam, the prime place to conjure horror of that age. Think how they could anger God together.

I applaud the addition of Patti Lupone to the cast, though not in the part she had been playing (and should have gotten a Emmy for, the Cut-Wife), but as Dr. Seward, a gender-switched version of the character from Dracula. Notably she is a distant relative of her former role, and is not the only new addition from that book. We also have Renfield, complete with fly obsession, as her secretary and the titular monster himself in the guise of Alexander Sweet currently romancing Seward's patient Vanessa Ives.

Dracula is of course not the only big bad waiting in the wings, as Lily and Dorian Gray are still plotting a domination of the human race and are teaching a young girl, Justine, their evil ways. Reeve Carney and Billie Piper are deliciously evil and have certainly come a long way from Spider-Man and Rose Tyler, Defender of the Universe.

Patti Lupone is not the only new cast member this season, there's also award-winning Native American actor Wes Studi. Unfortunately he is filling the role of the magical Negro that Danny Sapani's Sembene thankfully avoided in the first two seasons. Hopefully there is more than meets the eye with his Kaetenay character in the dime novel sequences of this season.

I am unsure where the subplots in the American West are going, even though I am enjoying them the most, but I do hope the London stories end with that old kaiju eiga trick of turning the monsters against each other. That would be awesome. Either way, I'll be watching this season.

For a different point of view on "Penny Dreadful," please check out friend and author Marie Gilbert's reviews of the series here at Biff Bam Pop!.

The Island of Dr. Moreau 1996

The Island of Dr. Moreau ~ In prepping to watch Lost Soul, the documentary about writer/director Richard Stanley's aborted attempt to make this very film - I sought out and watched the 1996 version of The Island of Dr. Moreau for the first time. I must confess that I have not read the H.G. Wells novel it's based on, one of more than a few holes in my Wells reading, but I have seen the 1977 version, and I know the basic story.

First, this is a period piece that has been updated to modern times, introducing the idea of genetics into simpler concepts of Wells' beast men. Sometimes change is not good. Other than the idea of genetics this updating does little for the story. I was disappointed in the make-up, primitive even for 1996, face masks not much better than the 1977 movie.

With the inclusion of Marlon Brando as the titular role of Dr. Moreau, comparisons can't help but be made with Apocalypse Now, in both character and story. In fact, these similarities drove a wedge between once friends H.G. Wells and Joseph Conrad, who wrote Heart of Darkness, on which Apocalypse is based. The presence of Brando, as well as his performance, do not help that situation one bit.

I was also very disappointed in the cast, Val Kilmer and Fairuza Balk simply walk through the film. David Thewlis, so wonderful as Remus in the Harry Potter movies, has no charisma as our POV character, and the great Marlon Brando is... is... I don't know what the hell Brando is in this movie. I never realized until seeing this how dead-on the "South Park" parody of Dr. Mephesto was. Wow.

I was also surprised that I saw nothing special or spectacular here visually. I usually enjoy John Frankenheimer's work, in fact, I think this is the only one of his movies I did not love. Now I can't wait to watch Lost Soul, to see what may or may not have gone wrong. Because this, is so wrong.

Miracles for Sale

Miracles for Sale ~ Tod Browning's final film is not only pedestrian and toothless, but also a big disappointment for this Browning fan. Miracles for Sale from 1939 is based on the mystery novel, Death from a Top Hat, by Clayton Rawson, the first in a series featuring the Great Merlini character.

Only a very young Robert Young (who plays the Amazing Morgan, inexplicably changed from Merlini) really stands out in this murder mystery wrapped up in the world of magicians, escape artists, and con men. TV's Uncle Charley from "My Three Sons," William Demarest has some fun here too as a (surprise) curmudgeon.

One would think this setting would be right up Tod Browning's alley, but he never really takes hold and makes it his own. Reminiscent of Houdini's war on frauds late in his life, only nowhere near as exciting, this one has little of that old Browning -pardon the pun- magic.

Wayward Pines

I'm an M. Night Shyamalan fan. Yes, I admit it, and I've continued to watch and have faith much longer than many folks. When I first heard he was moving to episodic television with a limited series that was reminiscent of "Twin Peaks," I put it on my watch list.

My friend, editor over at Biff Bam Pop!, and a "Twin Peaks" authority, Andy Burns, got around to seeing and reviewing "Wayward Pines" before me. He was unimpressed, and you can read his thoughts here. I have to say we're pretty much in agreement. This story of a Secret Service agent, waking up after a car accident while in search for two other agents, and finding himself in a small town full of strange characters and paranoia, is nowhere near as good as it could have been.

"Wayward Pines," or the pilot at least, had potential. The books it's based on - The Wayward Pines Trilogy by Blake Crouch - I have not read but have heard are quite good and recommended for folks who dug "Twin Peaks" because of the similarities and vibe. Between that and the M. Night connection I was starting to look forward to this. Add in that it was going to be on Fox, who had brought the TP mood from "Broadchurch" in their American remake called "Gracepoint," I could definitely see it working.

Andy Burns had good things to say about the cast, not their performances, mind you, but their casting. If I'm being honest, other than Melissa Leo (and she is hands down the best part of this show) and Toby Jones, I thought the casting better suited to a parody of a drama than an actual drama. Speaking of drama, lead Matt Dillon to me has always been the real life version of his brother Kevin Dillon's character Johnny Drama on "Entourage," and I've never been able to take Juliette Lewis seriously.

The rest of the cast stumble through this mess like zombies overacting in a school play. Terrence Howard is an embarrassment, and unbelievable as the potential heavy. This could have been good. There is more "Lost" and "The Prisoner" to this stinker than "Twin Peaks," and M. Night does little to distinguish himself or improve his rep here. The pilot is it for me, I won't be watching further. Consider this a case of having me watch something, so you won't have to.

Bosch

I never would have believed it when I first got my Kindle Fire, but it's true. Amazon Prime has been a wonderful source of quality entertainment. Amazon, like Netflix, is producing some amazing television. One of these is "Bosch."

Based on the Harry Bosch book series by Michael Connelly about a homicide detective in Los Angeles, this Amazon TV series is overseen by both Connelly and one of the folks behind one of the best shows ever done for television - "The Wire" - Eric Overmyer. I've never read any of the Bosch novels (but now I will), but with just Overmyer's name I was sold on this.

The story is pulled from several of Connelly's Bosch books and is very rough and slick at once, a police procedural that doesn't feel like a police procedural. It has qualities of both the aforementioned "Wire" and HBO's "True Detective." Yeah, it's that good, and folks who know me know that I do not heap praise like that lightly.

Titus Welliver, a character actor perhaps best known for playing the Man in Black on "Lost," brings Harry Bosch to life in the first season, which pulls storylines from three different novels. Welliver is surrounded by an excellent ensemble cast in this series more focused on storytelling than the characters. I dug this a lot, and cannot wait for the second season. Check it out.

Bionic Nostalgia - The Six Million Dollar Man

Esquire TV (formerly the much missed G4 channel) has been showing old reruns of "The Six Million Dollar Man" and "The Bionic Woman," shows that while I haven't seen since the 1970s, were huge parts of my childhood, like Evel Knievel, Planet of the Apes, or SSP Racers.

Begun as three made for TV movies of the week, "The Six Million Dollar Man" was very loosely based on the book Cyborg by Martin Caidin. The book and its three sequels were much more serious, adult, and more science fiction-oriented. Much had been changed, but when I read the book sometime in the mid-seventies as a pre-teen I still enjoyed it. The telemovies were wildly successful leading almost immediately into the TV series, which ran for five years, with one spin-off, "The Bionic Woman," and at least three other attempted spin-offs. There were toys, lunchboxes, and all the other paraphernalia one might expect a phenomenon.

The premise was pretty simple. Lee Majors played Colonel Steve Austin, an astronaut and test pilot who was involved in a body crushing accident that left him without the use of an eye, an arm and both legs. Secret government organization OSI offered to rebuild him, "make him better than he was before," with bionics. Now, it's real and is something that happens (although sans super strength and telescopic vision), but then this kind of technology was pure science fiction. In exchange for saving his life, Steve agrees to go on missions for the ominous Office of Scientific Intelligence. It was average spy fare for the most part, and invariably you waited through the boring stuff to see Austin kick some butt at the end, just like "Kung Fu."

Looking back, I remember Kenneth Johnson's ("Incredible Hulk," "V," "Alien Nation") name on the series, but I had forgotten that Glen A. Larsen ("Battlestar Galactica") and Harve Bennett (responsible for the best of the "Star Trek" films Wrath of Khan) were involved as well. The show had a very small cast, usually only Majors, Richard Anderson as Oscar Goldman, sometimes Dr. Rudy Wells (played by various actors), and dozens of nameless bad guys who Austin would throw around during fight scenes. Yep, keep it simple.

In hindsight, it is only just okay television, with only the big event episodes standing out. When Steve faced the Robot, played by John Saxon, made by the scientist who would later create the Fembots who pestered the Bionic Woman, was one big event. Or when it was discovered there was another bionic man, a Seven Million Dollar Man, who turned out to be not just a jerk, but later a criminal. Or, at the height of 1970s Bigfoot and Alien fever, the appearance of Sasquatch, played by wrestler Andre the Giant, and later Ted Cassidy. There was even a renegade Venus Probe that fought our hero more than once.

The Robot (weirdly called Maskatron), Sasquatch, and the Venus Probe from above all got action figures in the playsets, it should be noted. Both the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman had action figures from Kenner. There also had the Fembots, Oscar Goldman, vehicles, and lots of mission or fashion outfits. Like Evel Knievel, these were toys that kids of a certain age had to have. I never did though. Evel was my jam.

The episodes I've seen on Esquire are, as I said, only ordinary, but full of nostalgia. I remember "The Six Million Dollar Man" fondly though, despite the season Majors sported a bad mustache. It was the first thing I watched on my first TV, a tiny black and white set, and watching the show that Sunday night was just the best. Simple things are good. More to come.

Quickies 2-18-2015

Gone Girl ~ The book by Gillian Flynn, besides being one of the biggest books of the year, was one that so many friends of mine urged me to read. I ripped through it in just a few sittings, and looked forward to the film. Ben Affleck is on point here, and when he is, he is sooo good, as is Carrie Coon, and Neil Patrick Harris in a rather sinister role. The score by NIN's Trent Reznor is another pleasant surprise. While slightly different from the book, the film is engaging and well worth seeing.

The Way, Way Back ~ Terrific performances and writing highlight this little award-winning coming of age film that many folks didn't see until it got to cable. Written and directed by the Academy Award winning team of Nat Faxon and Jim Nash, who won praise for The Descendants, this movie is one of the best I've seen this year, a throwback to a simpler time when films about kids didn't have to be silly or stupid. Well worth seeing.

London By Night ~ Not to be confused with the lost Lon Chaney horror classic London After Midnight, this is a backlot mystery supposedly set in London. It wants to be a screwball comedy but never arrives. A
reporter, a wacky socialite, and his dog get wrapped up in the pursuit of a murderer called the Umbrella Man. The best actors in this are the dog and Virginia Field as the cockney barmaid. Even Leo G. Carroll disappoints. Still, it's not a bad seventy-odd minute distraction.

Chef ~ Fun comedy written and directed by Jon Favreau, with cameos by Avengers alumni Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson. Oliver Platt and especially John Leguizamo are excellent as well in this tale of an overburdened chef who finds happiness in his heart and with his family in a food truck. This is a really great film, uplifting and fun.

Fresh Off the Boat

When I first started seeing ads for this new ABC sitcom I groaned. The stereotypes conjured by the title alone - "Fresh Off the Boat" - were enough to steer most sensible folks away from this one. Me? I had to see this train wreck, and I was glad I did, and not for the reasons I thought I would be.

I thought I'd see a nightmare mash-up of bad stereotypes but instead I got a rather smart sitcom about growing up ethnic in the 1990s, with a surprisingly fresh hip hop sensibility. In that period memoir of the same name by chef Eddie Huang.

piece vibe, "Fresh Off the Boat" is also comparable to "The Goldbergs," and that's a good thing. And thankfully its origins are not in a boardroom but the blog and

The bad news is this is still a network sitcom and only occasionally funny, and it's difficult to get past the father's role as Kim Jung-Un in The Interview. Still, I dug it, and it's much better than it has any right to be. If the network would let it get just a bit more edgy, this could awesome.

The Man in the High Castle

Based on the 1960s novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick, this is the pilot for an Amazon Prime series that happens on an alternate world where the Axis powers won World War II.

In this world, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was assassinated in the 1930s before pulling the United States out of the Depression. Presidents that followed pursued an isolationist stance in world events, and the US was therefore unprepared for the crippling blow at Pearl Harbor. At the end of a prolonged war, the once powerful US is now divided into three puppet nations under the control of Imperial Japan and Nazi Germany. In this new timeline these two empires engage in a familiar yet more dangerous nuclear Cold War.

As the Fuhrer is dying and the power struggle to fill the void promises an oncoming American war between Germany and Japan, the pilot follows a handful of characters as they navigate this alternate political landscape. Complicating matters is a film called "The Grasshopper Lies Heavy," which depicts a World War II occurring as we know it, whether it's trick photography or an actual newsreel is left up in the air in this pilot.

"The Man in the High Castle" is a streamlined version of a very complicated book, with a few subtle twists not present in the source material. It sets itself up as an enthralling political thriller albeit taking place in a sinister yet fascinating parallel world. I hope it does well in Amazon's pilot season because I'd like to see more.

Panic in Year Zero!

Panic in the Year Zero! ~ When you read the TCM description for Panic in Year Zero! - "A California family try to survive looters, armed vigilantes and doped-up motorcycle punks as they flee a nuclear disaster in Los Angeles and head to their remote vacation spot." - it conjures visions of The Road Warrior or The Hills Have Eyes, right? But then there's the kicker, Panic in Year Zero! was made and released in 1962.

Panic was shot in black and white and directed by star Ray Milland, his debut as a director, and with themes close to his heart. The movie was written by John Morton and Jay Simms, yet bears a remarkable resemblance to the "Lot" and "Lot's Daughter" short stories by Ward Moore, for which he has never received official credit. The parallels are however obvious.

The jazzy upbeat score was equally iffy, by the controversial Les Baxter, which means it may really have been done by Nelson Riddle or someone else. The rumor was that Baxter couldn't read or write music and that many of his scores were ghost written. This one has that Riddle flavor, reminiscent of the "Batman" TV series, either way, the soundtrack is very good.

As in the description, Milland and his family are headed to a nice vacation when they hear on the radio that LA has been nuked. Milland plays a man obsessed with survival and every man for himself. To quote his character, the incredibly resourceful yet obsessed Harry Baldwin, "When civilization gets civilized again, I'll rejoin it." This movie, especially the shopping sequence, probably makes the survivalists very happy.

Frankie Avalon, in a studio bid for a different audience, is his son. He doesn't do much at first other than "Yes, Dad" but he comes along to be just as nuts as Dad. Avalon does get a little acting in when a girl he's not related to shows up. A young version of character actor Richard Bakalyan plays one of the thugs that terrorize the family. The women in the flick unfortunately are victims of its time, and thought of as helpless or possessions.

The movie does fall apart a little bit when coincidence brings most of the cast, good and bad, all to the same place. And we never do quite reach the madness or brutality of Road Warrior or Hills, but certainly the potential and possibility are here. All in all, this is not only a more than average entry from American International, but an excellent look at what it really might be like in this situation. Definitely worth a look.