Talk about a misnomer! Ray Milland, who directs and stars here doesn't panic once, at least not in front of the camera. Judging by the low quality of this B-picture look at a nuclear attack, he didn't panic enough behind the camera either.

The film starts with Milland and wife (Jean Hagen of TV's "Make Room for Daddy") packing up the kids (the pre- beach party Frankie Avalon and the still unknown Mary Mitchel) for a summer camping trip. When they get safely out of L.A., lights start flashing behind them, and before long, they can see the giant mushroom cloud in the rear-view- mirror. At first tempted to go back, Milland finally leads the group into the woods for a lesson in Survival 101. Milland's father/protector here never flinches once. He is such the antithesis of panic-stricken, that he doesn't take his fedora off once during the entire 90 minutes the film runs.

Scripters Jay Simms and John Morton (working from Simms' story) do an interesting job although they pretty much stick to the trapping of a B-film. The picture is interesting because Milland's character never once loses his bearings. From the outset, he is cautious, thoughtful, and pragmatic. He holds his family together at all costs and wisely secludes them in a cave in the mountains after covering their tracks to make sure no one can follow them. Milland acts much like we might hope we ourselves would act during a crisis using his intelligence and know-how to keep his family safe while attempting to obtain provisions so that they may survive.

Of course, Milland, at times, must resort to violence to insure his family's survival. At the first sign of trouble, he is hell-bent on doing whatever it takes to endure. This includes robbing, fighting and, if necessary, killing others. The film also has a sub-textural element involving Avalon's initial excitement at the violence that he finds himself capable of. Oddly, Milland nips this in the bud almost the moment it emerges. The film can at times, be quite interesting because it doesn't take the turns we expect it to. We think Avalon will gain a blood-lust as the film progresses (a typical B-movie plot twist) but Milland's straight talk to his son early in the film quells this expectation. Instead, the film shows Milland trying to keep his head throughout the plot. Even when he does finally resort to murder, in retaliation to his daughter being attacked, he seems to do this more to insure it doesn't happen again than for revenge. And yet Milland is deeply troubled by his ability to kill. It's not the sort of stuff we expect from a film with this theme.

Avalon is the only other member of the cast to truly get any valuable screen time. As the other male member of the group, he is called upon to help Milland throughout the film. Meanwhile, Hagen and Mitchel are pretty much forced into the typical mother and daughter routine. Still, Hagen does her best to make her concern for mankind seem integral to the plot. The rest of the film is filled with other victims or villains. None of them make any lasting impression.

Milland is pretty much a hack behind the camera, although one suspects he had a very small budget to work with. The most obvious lack of directorial talent in the film comes when Milland is supposed to halt traffic on a busy highway by pouring out a stream of gasoline and setting it ablaze. Milland interjects closely cropped stock footage of freeway traffic into the scene to give it a busy feeling. The rest of the segment is pretty typical low-budget stuff with one fiery wreck representing the supposed resulting chaos. It looks pretty cheap.

In many ways, "Panic in Year Zero!" is pretty standard B-movie stuff for 1962. It has a bit of mild violence and some sexual situations that are pretty lame by today's standards. Yet what could be a pretty tacky affair is elevated by the treatment the subject matter gets from the script. Although totally dated by modern knowledge of nuclear attacks (there is a whole sub-genre of films that deal realistically with this), the film is quite thought-provoking for 1962.

Note:

Co-Executive Producer is Samuel Z. Arkoff. Director of Photography is Gil Warrenton. Assistant Director is Jim Engle. The bombastic musical score is by Les Baxter.

The Nepotism Factor (?): Music Coordinator is Al Simms.

Milland, who starred in well over 100 films, directed only 4 pictures in his career. He starred in all of these directorial efforts.

Review written in 1996

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