Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Panic in Year Zero! (1962)The Baldwins are on their way camping in the California mountains when they see that L.A. has been hit by atomic bombs. That's the first exciting five minutes of the movie and the whole premise. What does an "ordinary" family do when the Soviets bomb us?Ray Milland is the dad, and he's good and forceful, taking on a father role with a combination of extreme resolve and civilized goodness. When I say extreme I mean that he's not always to civilized, and that's maybe the crux of the best of this movie—good people going bad. There is very little of what truly good people might do in this situation (I imagine there is a lot of generosity as well as panic and selfish survivalism). This was a fairly low budget affair, and B-movie king Roger Corman says that director Milland wasn't really up to the job, and it shows. It's often clumsy, and there is some awkward editing that must have come from lacking material in the three week shoot. It is, however, the most direct and sensational of the series of great films made in the early 60s about the coming of nuclear war ("On the Beach" is my favorite, but "Bedord Incident" and "Fail-Safe" are great, too, not to mention the singular "Dr. Strangelove.")The first third of this film is mostly about the actual panic, and it's not a bad rendition of the small towns and deluge of desperate people (and cars—lots of classics). The rest of the movie is the actual survival camping and the running into dangers in the wilderness (human ones) is a slow building of despair.Frankie Avalon, the singer, is a young star, and he's fine here. Mostly this is Milland's show, though, showing wisdom and authority in a male-dominant way that a bit tiring, even if the 60s were still a time where men were supposedly making the decisions (the truth was different, we know).The ending, which I won't give away, is an interesting take on the early 60s, and how our view of the government and the army have changed. At least for some people.A truly flawed movie with some truly interesting aspects that ill be interesting for decades to come.

Ray Milland and family (including Frankie without Annette) head off for a camping weekend. As they cruise along, they encounter multiple flashes. It turns out that they see a mushroom cloud forming over Los Angeles. At first they try to return but find out quickly that there is no going back and that numerous cities worldwide have been decimated. Of course, there is mass panic and people turn to the dark side (profiteering, looting, and worse). Milland begins the process of trying to save his family. They head to their camping area but have a series of close calls as they try to get supplies. They are confronted by three hoodlums who will later play a part in their lives. Milland is quite enterprising. His wife is little help, not realizing the danger they are in. He is forced to act as he has never acted. While some of this is a bit trite, it's a decent nuclear holocaust story. I'm not sure the science is quite accurate, but it does depict a kind of anarchy that presents itself.

Whatever drew Ray Milland to direct and star in this piece of junk? Was it the chance to direct? Had his career hit a low point?The real blame goes to the writer. The script is terrifically plodding and predictable, clunking from one incident to the next with no finesse whatsoever. The dialogue--my god, the dialogue!--is completely cringeworthy. Most of the time it's just functional, but on the rare occasion when it tries to rise to something higher, it becomes ridiculously awkward. Dad tells Mom, "I was looking for the worst in others and found it in myself." Whoa, so pseudo-profound.Niney percent of screen time is given to Milland. Ninety-eight percent of the dialogue is given to him. Frankie Avalon and some young actress play Milland's teenage children--she probably has no more than six lines of dialogue. Apart from lots of "OK" and "Sure" Avalon may have eight or ten lines.Many scenes are shot on sets that are about as convincing as an episode of the Twilight Zone or an early episode of Star Trek. You can hear the voices echoing on the sound stage. The bushes and rocks are only rough approximations of the real things. The lighting is pure studio lighting, without even a pretense of being outdoors.Finally, the music is awful. I know it was the fashion around that time to use a kind of very intrusive jazzy score--like in In the Heat of the Night. But it puts up a wall between you and the action, its blatant artificiality a constant reminder of how false and patched-up the whole production is.For a summer drive-in movie, it might be worth the 25 cents, if it came with a second feature and some good cartoons. But why reviewers here have such good things to say about it, amazes me. It's the worst movie I've seen in a little while.

WARNING - this review contains details which may be considered by some to "spoil" a movie, which, in my opinion, is already so BAD that it is BEYOND spoiling! Apparently, I chose a rather unconventional approach to viewing this film; rather than to shut one eye, squint thru the other and do my absolute best to "enjoy" it, regardless of all the glaring inconsistencies - or perhaps seek to superimpose a Post-Katrina America commentary on it all (as many "reviewers" have done), I simply watched it with my normal objective outlook, taking the story at face value. And that story failed miserably! Starting with the big, cloudy, barely-discernible (supposed) "explosion"... we don't ever learn what it truly WAS - or the cause behind it (as in "who" or "why") - but just seeing the thing is good enough for Ray Milland to pack up his family and head for the hills before "the bad people" can get on the move. What comes next is unbelievably silly to the point of being laughable - because terminally-grouchy Mister Milland begins taking steps to BECOME one of those "bad people" - eagerly getting involved in theft, assault, armed robbery, manslaughter (or murder, you decide)... all in the name of "preserving civilization". Sure, okay. It is perfectly acceptable to be a violent thug as long as HE is the one doing it! I won't get into the details of all the ensuing foolishness, since other reviewers have gone out of their way to make excuses for all of the illogical claptrap which follows. Long, tedious and ludicrous story short - if you are able to find this plot "interesting" enough to sit through it to the bitter end, then you probably won't even mind that the "hero" of the tale NEVER finds out what actually happened in the outside world; whether or not the entire continent was obliterated by nuclear holocaust, or if there had been an invading army (and a ground war which could still be raging)... no, he has NO idea what he will be returning to. And that is supposed to be a good enough reason for the viewer, as well. Because what it all boils down to is that this family went off and hid in the hills to behave like savages for a while, and now it suddenly has become a Happy Ending.Wow - what A GREAT movie! (NOT)