This Is Not a Test (1962)

So much average

Great Film overall

Crappy film

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

It has always intrigued me how cinema reflects its times--nothing demonstrates that to me more passionately than the doomsday scenario of nuclear apocalypse in movies, particularly during the times of extreme political crisis between the USA and then-USSR in both the 60's and 80's.'This Is Not a Test' was director Fredric Gadette's lone work as director, producer and scriptwriter, and he's able to make, with a small set, a truck, a few cars, 17 no-name actors and a dog, an intriguing and moderately suspenseful genre entry. He utilizes a few nice gimmicks to make it more enjoyable--a murderer on the loose, a couple who should have divorced probably a decade ago, a lost rifle--some hilarious parts (what good is canned grapefruit juice if you don't have a can opener, and what 'discount world' sells mink coats?), and all tolled, it's a fine, low-budget 73 minutes that make me honestly wish Mr. Gadette had made a lot more movies.(Cinephiles, this is readily available for a fine price in Mill Creek's 50-film set called 'Nightmare Worlds'. Don't say I didn't tell ya!) =)

Nothing especially original in this doomsday flick, except it's taut, manages the momentum well, and does a fine job on a limited budget. Seamon Glass (Deliverance) plays a gruff, brawny highway patrolman assigned the unenviable duty of preventing motorists from entering what is likely to become the target of an Atom-bomb attack. When he and the assorted bunch of motorists stopped at his checkpoint discover they are within the prospective radioactive zone, they set-about futile attempts at survival in the cargo hold of a semi-trailer. Predictably, tensions mount as the attack grows more imminent.Low-key, no frills production has plenty of atmosphere highlighted by Glass's no- nonsense portrayal of the harassed cop whose heavy-handedness makes for turbulent relations with those who's welfare he's assigned to protect. There's infidelity, an escaped murderer, the old sage spouting metaphors of wisdom, and while most are just clichés, director Gadette handles the sub-plots with economy, serving only as pauses from the narrative, nothing too deep to distract the attention.The cast is fairly obscure; notwithstanding Glass, Norman Bartold has a prominent role as a whining cuckold husband (credited as Norman Winston for some reason), and Ralph Manza appears briefly late in the film as one of a mob of crazed looters. Quite a decent yarn.

To understand the importance of this film, and one or two others like it, please remember that at the time this film was made, the US government was still insisting that a simple wooden board could save one from the deadly effects of a nuclear blast. I still remember the drills in grammar school - in 1962 (2 years after this film was made), the drill was to duck under our desks. A year later, it was finally admitted that maybe a concrete wall would be needed, so we were filed out into the hall and sat on the floor with our arms over our heads - the placement of the arms were to weaken the effects of fall-out.This is not a great, or even good, film. It's cheap, it's underdirected, underacted, underlit, underdesigned in every way. And of course there's the unnecessary dash of pure exploitation - drunkenness, lust, bad attitude. And the cop is a hoot by any standards, although let us admit the courage of the writer to make him a complete fool as far as the A-Bomb and his untrustworthy government are concerned.But that, after all, is the real importance of the film. Only four years later, Barry Goldwater ran on the promise that he wouldn't hesitate to use the A-bomb - in Vietnam, Cuba, what the hell, Alabama, if the Civil Rights movement got violent."Nuke 'em, nuke 'em," we still hear the chant, from irresponsible lard-heads who have not the slightest idea how even one or two badly placed bombs would destroy their lives forever - presuming they survived.So, surprisingly - a historically important film, worth a glance.

The film is garbage with a capital G. The entire cast COMBINED has less than a rookie "American Idol" contestant, the dialog would embarrass Ed Wood, the ending is too abrupt, the special effects are anything but, the soundtrack isn't worth the 8-track tape it was apparently recorded on, the storyline is harder to comprehend than a nuclear physics course, and don't even get me started on the direction-- or should I say lack thereof. Why the cast didn't file a class-action suit against the director for wrecking their careers with this cinematic Chernobyl is a mystery for greater minds than ours to ponder...I just know that I didn't like this movie. Compared to films like "The Day After", "Dr. Strangelove", or even "Defcon IV", "This Is Not A Test" is a perfect example of how NOT to handle the topic of nuclear war on the silver screen.