Don't Believe the Hype

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

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

I could be wrong but I think this movie, which I saw when it appeared at local cinemas in 1951, was the very first serious production about the possibility of lone-wolf nuclear terrorism. These days, we probably get a new spin on that concept almost every year at the cinema.So, this film is distinctive for that and many other reasons, not the least of which is the semi-documentary style of the narrative which shows, in exquisite detail, the preparations required to evacuate a modern metropolis in the face of nuclear threat. Obviously, the co-operation of the entire city of London was needed to put it all on film.The title, moreover, is distinctive in that it reverses the biblical myth of the creation of the world in seven days. In this story, the antagonist – an emotionally disturbed nuclear scientist – is dead set upon destroying his world in seven days.It's distinctive also in that it takes us into the mind of the said deranged scientist, Professor Willingdon (Barry Jones), showing how he thinks and how he cleverly evades detection from authorities by his local knowledge, his demeanor with people he meets and by taking advantage of opportunities as they arise. So, it's a lesson in the art of remaining on the run to do your worst.The Boulting brothers use all the best tricks of shadow, low lighting, narrow streets and darkness to great effect. Incidentally, not only are some of the Boulting camera techniques up and down staircases vaguely reminiscent of how Hitchcock used the Bate's staircase in Psycho (1960), but also the introductory, frenetically paced sound track at the start of SDTN certainly caused me an "Ah-ha!" moment when I recalled the opening sound track of Psycho. There is, after all, no greater flattery than copying...Finally, the movie is well-paced over all, with just the appropriate amount of light relief occasionally; most of the time, though, the plot proceeds at a relentless pace as befits an excellent thriller, keeping the viewer glued to the screen. However, it's all done with superb British aplomb and without the need for car chases, crashes, shootings (there is only one shooting) and such like. Along the way, of course, we are given the benefit of the writer's opinions – through the script of course – about nuclear war, nuclear proliferation, the Cold War, national security and so forth; one must expect it, given the times when the film was made.The cast is uniformly good, even excellent, especially Barry Jones. Not to be ignored is Andre Morrell as Special Branch Supt. Folland, a cool, perfect foil to the emotionally troubled Willingdon. Watch for a young – and thin – Geoffrey Keen as a patron in a pub. Special mention goes to Olive Sloane as Goldie who unwittingly becomes Willingdon's companion during his efforts to evade capture. Significantly, and appropriately, Goldie has the last line of the story when – while sitting on her suitcase in the middle of Westminster Bridge and as the All Clear wails across London – she asks her little dog: "What will we do now?"She, of course, decides to walk back home. Today, we, of course, are still wondering what to do about the twin curses of nuclear bombs and nuclear proliferation.Give this ground-breaking, timeless story eight out of ten. Highly recommended.February 18, 2012.

SEVEN DAYS TO NOON was the sort of topical film that could appear in Europe, but not in the United States in the years after World War II. There were American films about the atomic bombing at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but the story of atomic spies and ethical doubts were not in the cards for Hollywood from 1946 to about 1953. The idea of a scientist taking over and using one of the bombs against our government was not favored in the McCarthy period, and would have ended some film careers. Lesser "errors" destroyed careers like John Garfield, Canada Lee, Gale Sondergaard, J. Edward Bromberg. There errors were in membership with left wing groups or (in some cases) involvement in pro-Soviet movies. But a film about a scientist turning against the country? Nobody here had the guts to do it. It was not the same in Europe - oddly enough. There were really far more serious reasons for the Europeans to fear Communist aggression, and only two of the countries (England and France) had the capabilities of building atomic weapons of their own against the Soviet Union. But the Europeans were more willing to talk about the dangers of the weapons, and of radioactivity. After all, if there was a war between Stalin's Russia and the U.S., it would be across Europe.England had two examples of atomic spying that came out in the late 1940s: the cases of Alan Nunn May and Klaus Fuchs, both of whom gave atomic and nuclear secrets to Russia. May is on record of never having regretted doing this, in the interest (as he put it) of "international peace". At the time that these two cases came up the West was unaware of the ring of spies around Kim Philby at Cambridge. With Nunn May and Fuchs in mind one can see the germination of the story that becomes SEVEN DAYS TO NOON. A scientist with impeccable credentials (winner of some prizes, and once a leading figure at the Cavendish Labs) Professor John Willingdon (Barry Johns) has disappeared from a high level science think tank. At the same time a letter, signed by Willingdon, has been sent to the Prime Minister, Arthur Lytton (Ronald Adam) threatening that unless England announces unilateral disarmament in seven days London will be destroyed by an atomic bomb. The letter is sent to Chief Inspector Folland of Scotland Yard (Andre Morell), who finds that Willingdon's think tank is missing an atomic bomb that is small enough to fit in a small Gladstone bag.Because the British made this film the sense of reality is much stronger that a Hollywood production might have made it in that period. Anti-Communist hysteria would have made the police act more like James Bond against the enemy here than was necessary to get the story across. In fact, the reality of the film, and the fact that the actors are first rate character performers but not superstars (no Guinness or Sim or Donat here) the film keeps the audience believing in the plausibility of the situation. What happens is two stories neatly meshing, One is the careful police procedural (later assisted by the military) in tracking down Willingdon and his bomb. The other is following Willingdon, and realizing that this man has had a nervous collapse due to the pressures of dealing with the ethics of creating hideous death for his country's defense. For each of the bombs will cause tens of thousands of deaths due to radioactive poisoning, not to mention the hideous damage to Earth itself. All this was known by 1950 - it was a badly kept secret, for films of the doomed survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed people with skin slowly falling off due to the attack.Willingdon could have been made into a cartoon villain - a traitor who is doing this on the behest of the Soviets. But he's not - he is a humanitarian who has to make a stand to fight nuclear proliferation. Compare him to the upper crust, hypocritical politician who was the villain (a few years after) in the British film HIGH TREASON, and you can see the difference. Efforts are made to show Willingdon is a loving husband and father (Sheila Manningham is his daughter Ann, and Marie Ney his wife), and that he even tries to get some guidance from the local Vicar (Wyndham Goldie). The script does not make the subject matter easy to decide on for the audience.The film slowly gets claustrophobic as a net grows around Willingdon - a net he is clever enough to keep ripping apart by such things as shaving his mustache and losing his mackintosh coat. His assistant Steven Lane (Hugh Cross) and his daughter are brought to London to help find the man, and hopefully get control of the bomb before it blows up. And we see a cross-section of the public, most notably a landlady (Joan Hickson) and a former music hall performer (Olive Sloane) and the army men, typified by angry and tired Sgt. Victor Maddern, who at the tail end moves on his own to settle matters. It holds up well - the issues on the use of atomic and nuclear weapons (and even atomic or nuclear power) remain to bedevil to this day. As pointed out in another recent review of the film the idea of someone traveling around with a "dirty" atomic bomb in an American or European or Asiatic city is (unfortunately) all too real a possibility. In the end of the film Professor Willingdon does get a personal answer to his query. But it is not an answer that really is satisfying to anyone.

Despite a long and active career, which included amongst other things supplying the off-screen 'voice' of Lord Haw Haw in Twelve O'Clock High and creating the role of Socrates in the Broadway production of Maxwell Anderson's Barefoot In Athens, Barry Jones was relatively unknown to cinema-goers in 1950 which made him an ideal choice for Professor Willingdon who, well-shod in London, intends to detonate a nuclear device in its centre unless the Prime Minister agrees to issue a statement prepared by Willingdon. This is one of those British films that DO stand up half a century later which is not, of course, the same as saying they are without flaws - for one thing we never see Willingdon until he has stolen the nuclear device, left home, wife and daughter and made his way to London. What we feel the loss of is a sense of seeing him being slowly driven from brilliant scientist and nondescript family man to someone prepared to unleash devastation on a great capital city. Joan Hickson and Olive Sloan are both solid in support as is Andre Morrell, charged with the task of finding Willingdon but others characters, Willingdon's daughter, his colleague and son-in-law-in-waiting are cheapest cardboard cutouts. Overall the pace is the thing that keeps it interesting, that and the period 'feel' of a lost London. Definitely worth a look.

In this day and age when atomic weapons are everybody's bow and arrows the plot of this film has never been more up to date. The setting of the film in London with the devastation left by the bombing in World War II made a great back drop for the story. I can remember when London really looked like that. Both the plot and the characterisation are believable and the acting more than adequate. But star status must go to the people of London who back in 1950 still had the camaraderie and spirit forged by six years of war. This was a time when people still looked out for each other and this come over well as the story unfolds. With our video making mobile telephones and instant access to news this film may seem tame and dated but don't let the black and white format fool you this is a good story, well told and well worth seeing. Oh, and by the way, we really did talk like that back in 1950.