Panic in Year Zero

(1962) ***1/2

Harry: I killed two men.
Ann: [conciliatory] I tried to kill them too but I missed. I just wasn't a good enough shot.

The Baldwins picked a lucky day to go on their fishing trip. About an hour after they get outside of Los Angeles, the place is flattened by an H-bomb. The rest of the film concerns their months long struggle for self-protection and survival.

What makes Panic in Year Zero special is that it isn't enough for patriarch Harry for his family to simply survive the crisis. He wants to ensure that when peace is restored, his family is uniformly worthy of living in the new world. Chivalry, honor and decorum matter to him a great deal. After the Baldwins manage to ward off a trio of thugs, son Rick (a young Frankie Avalon) gloats, "I coulda blown that guy's head off." Harry chides him, "I want you to use that gun, but I want you to hate it. A big piece of civilization has been blown up and your mother wants to save what's left. And so do I."

The conflict between his principles and the pragmatics of their survivalist situation leads Harry often into murky ethical territory and this is where the film is most intriguing. After pumping 30 gallons at one gas station, the attendant tries to gouge the price from 35 cents a gallon to over $3. Harry sucker punches the attendant in the face but leaves the rightfully owed $10.50 on the countertop before getting back in the car.

Harry's grip on ethics becomes lighter as the film goes on, but it's not because he's losing his touch with what's right, it's just that the morality in the choices he has to make becomes more of a toss-up. Those men he's referring to in the quote at the top of the article were unarmed, but he shot them because they did a very bad thing and were probably going to do more.

Panic in Year Zero is on the flip-side of the disc that features The Last Man on Earth. The first time I ever knew of it was through a trailer at the beginning of X - The Man with the X-Ray Eyes. It appeared among other B-movie classics like Mars Needs Women and Reptilicus and like these three others the camp-factor is pretty high. With a bleating jazz horns soundtrack and mixed-bag 50's values (Harry's daughter Karen once laments the apocalypse thusly, "This whole thing is a bore, such a drag!") it's a pretty fun ride.