Invasion U.S.A. (1952 film)
Encyclopedia
Invasion U.S.A. is a 1952
motion picture set during the Cold War
and portraying the invasion of the United States
by an unnamed Communist enemy meant to be taken as the Soviet Union
.
bar, where the brooding, mysterious forecaster Mr. Ohman (Dan O'Herlihy
) is sitting and drinking from a very large brandy
glass. He gets into discussions with a cross-section of affluent Americans at the bar, including local television newscaster Vince Potter (Gerald Mohr
), beautiful young New York society woman
Carla Sanford (Peggie Castle
), a California
n industrialist, a rancher from Arizona
, and a Congressman. International news is bad, but these Americans do not want to hear it. While they all dislike Communism
and appreciate the material wealth
they enjoy, they also want lower taxes
and don't see the need for industrial support of government
. Mr. Ohman does not seem to think that all adds up.
Suddenly the news becomes worse. The Enemy is staging air attacks over Seal Point, Alaska and then Nome
. Paratroops have landed on Alaskan airfields and an American female communications operator is gunned down in mid-sentence. Soon The Enemy's plan of attack becomes clear: civilian airfields are captured as staging areas while military airfields are A-bombed. The United States fights back and attacks The Enemy's homeland with B-36
missions, but The Enemy steadily moves into Washington and Oregon
. Shipyard
s in Puget Sound
are A-bombed with large casualties.
Meanwhile, the Americans at the bar scramble to return to their lives to do what they can against The Enemy, now that it is too late. Potter and Sanford fall for each other ("War or no war, people have to eat and drink ... and make love!"). He continues to broadcast, while she volunteers to help run a blood drive
. The industrialist and the rancher both return home to find themselves on the front lines: the former caught in the battle for San Francisco, the latter in the destruction of Boulder Dam
by a nuclear missile. The President
makes ineffectual broadcasts with inflated claims of counter-attacks to rally the morale of the people. But things are only going to get worse, much worse. And each American talks about how if they could only do everything over again....
accents, "People's Army" proclamations, and use of Soviet fighter aircraft (Yak-17s
and MiG-15s
) and bombers (Tu-4
, a clone of the American B-29 Superfortress
).
Much of the film's running time is taken up with inappropriate and inconsistent combat stock footage
. This is relatively aseptic, and sometimes unintentionally humorous: American C-82 Packet
transports drop "Enemy" paratroopers on Washington, D.C. Some of the individual encounters between The Enemy and Americans are typical of Red Scare material of the time.
On a philosophical level the film is also often viewed as humorously (and unintentionally) ironic, as the lesson it communicates encourages citizens to subordinate their individual needs and desires to that of the State in order to combat Communism.
Future Lois Lane
s Phyllis Coates
and Noel Neill
and B-movie stalwart William Schallert
all have small parts in the film.
The film was commercially successful, bringing in net profits of almost a million dollars.
Invasion U.S.A., after its initial success, was shown some on television in the late 1960s, but then was not widely viewed for a long time. In 1994, it was spoofed on the movie-mocking television show Mystery Science Theater 3000
. It was released on DVD in 2002.
The film is unrelated to the 1985 Chuck Norris film of the same name.
1952 in film
The year 1952 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* January 10 - Cecil B. DeMille's circus epic, The Greatest Show on Earth, premieres at Radio City Music Hall in New York City....
motion picture set during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
and portraying the invasion of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
by an unnamed Communist enemy meant to be taken as the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
.
Plot
The film begins in a New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
bar, where the brooding, mysterious forecaster Mr. Ohman (Dan O'Herlihy
Dan O'Herlihy
Daniel O'Herlihy was an Oscar nominated Irish film actor.-Early life:O'Herlihy was born in Wexford, Ireland in 1919. His family moved to Dublin at a young age...
) is sitting and drinking from a very large brandy
Brandy
Brandy is a spirit produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35%–60% alcohol by volume and is typically taken as an after-dinner drink...
glass. He gets into discussions with a cross-section of affluent Americans at the bar, including local television newscaster Vince Potter (Gerald Mohr
Gerald Mohr
Gerald Mohr was an American radio, film and television character actor who appeared in over 4,000 radio plays, 73 films and over 100 television shows....
), beautiful young New York society woman
Social Register
Specific to the United States, the Social Register is a directory of names and addresses of prominent American families who form the social elite, . The "Directory" automatically includes the President of the United States and the First Family, and in the past always included the U.S. Senators and...
Carla Sanford (Peggie Castle
Peggie Castle
Peggie Castle was an American actress who specialized in playing the "other woman" in B-movies. She was also billed under the names Peggy Castle and Peggie Call.-Career:...
), a California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
n industrialist, a rancher from Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, and a Congressman. International news is bad, but these Americans do not want to hear it. While they all dislike Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and appreciate the material wealth
Materialism
In philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance...
they enjoy, they also want lower taxes
Tax cut
A tax cut is a reduction in taxes. The immediate effects of a tax cut are a decrease in the real income of the government and an increase in the real income of those whose tax rate has been lowered. Due to the perceived benefit in growing real incomes among tax payers politicians have sought to...
and don't see the need for industrial support of government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
. Mr. Ohman does not seem to think that all adds up.
Suddenly the news becomes worse. The Enemy is staging air attacks over Seal Point, Alaska and then Nome
Nome, Alaska
Nome is a city in the Nome Census Area in the Unorganized Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska, located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea. According to the 2010 Census, the city population was 3,598. Nome was incorporated on April 9, 1901, and was once the...
. Paratroops have landed on Alaskan airfields and an American female communications operator is gunned down in mid-sentence. Soon The Enemy's plan of attack becomes clear: civilian airfields are captured as staging areas while military airfields are A-bombed. The United States fights back and attacks The Enemy's homeland with B-36
Convair B-36
The Convair B-36 "Peacemaker" was a strategic bomber built by Convair and operated solely by the United States Air Force from 1949 to 1959. The B-36 was the largest mass-produced piston engine aircraft ever made. It had the longest wingspan of any combat aircraft ever built , although there have...
missions, but The Enemy steadily moves into Washington and Oregon
Oregon
Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...
. Shipyard
Shipyard
Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
s in Puget Sound
Puget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
are A-bombed with large casualties.
Meanwhile, the Americans at the bar scramble to return to their lives to do what they can against The Enemy, now that it is too late. Potter and Sanford fall for each other ("War or no war, people have to eat and drink ... and make love!"). He continues to broadcast, while she volunteers to help run a blood drive
Blood Drive
Blood Drive may refer to:*Blood donation at a special event where donors come to give blood*Blood Drive , the sixteenth episode of the fifth season of the television series The Office...
. The industrialist and the rancher both return home to find themselves on the front lines: the former caught in the battle for San Francisco, the latter in the destruction of Boulder Dam
Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam, once known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the US states of Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on September 30, 1935, by President...
by a nuclear missile. The President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
makes ineffectual broadcasts with inflated claims of counter-attacks to rally the morale of the people. But things are only going to get worse, much worse. And each American talks about how if they could only do everything over again....
Production and history
"The Enemy" is never named but is clearly meant to be taken as the Communist Soviet Union, given their approach through Alaska, pseudo-SlavicSlavic languages
The Slavic languages , a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia.-Branches:Scholars traditionally divide Slavic...
accents, "People's Army" proclamations, and use of Soviet fighter aircraft (Yak-17s
Yakovlev Yak-17
|-See also:-Bibliography:* Gordon, Yefim. "Early Soviet Jet Fighters". Hinkley: Midland. 2002. ISBN 1-85780-139-3* Green, William & Swanborough, Gordon. "The Complete Book of Fighters". London: Salamander Books. 1994. ISBN 1-85833-777-1...
and MiG-15s
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 was a jet fighter developed for the USSR by Artem Mikoyan and Mikhail Gurevich. The MiG-15 was one of the first successful swept-wing jet fighters, and it achieved fame in the skies over Korea, where early in the war, it outclassed all straight-winged enemy fighters in...
) and bombers (Tu-4
Tupolev Tu-4
The Tupolev Tu-4 was a piston-engined Soviet strategic bomber that served the Soviet Air Force from the late 1940s to mid 1960s...
, a clone of the American B-29 Superfortress
B-29 Superfortress
The B-29 Superfortress is a four-engine propeller-driven heavy bomber designed by Boeing that was flown primarily by the United States Air Forces in late-World War II and through the Korean War. The B-29 was one of the largest aircraft to see service during World War II...
).
Much of the film's running time is taken up with inappropriate and inconsistent combat stock footage
Stock footage
Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures and file footage are film or video footage that may or may not be custom shot for use in a specific film or television program. Stock footage is of beneficial use to filmmakers as it is sometimes less expensive than shooting new...
. This is relatively aseptic, and sometimes unintentionally humorous: American C-82 Packet
C-82 Packet
The C-82 Packet was a twin-engine, twin-boom cargo aircraft designed and built by Fairchild Aircraft. It was used briefly by the United States Army Air Forces and United States Navy following World War II.-Design and development:...
transports drop "Enemy" paratroopers on Washington, D.C. Some of the individual encounters between The Enemy and Americans are typical of Red Scare material of the time.
On a philosophical level the film is also often viewed as humorously (and unintentionally) ironic, as the lesson it communicates encourages citizens to subordinate their individual needs and desires to that of the State in order to combat Communism.
Future Lois Lane
Lois Lane
Lois Lane is a fictional character, the primary love interest of Superman in the comic books of DC Comics. Created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, she first appeared in Action Comics #1 ....
s Phyllis Coates
Phyllis Coates
Phyllis Coates is an American film and television actress. She is perhaps best known for her portrayal of reporter Lois Lane in the 1951 film Superman and the Mole Men, and during the first season of the Adventures of Superman television series.-Early life and career:After graduating from high...
and Noel Neill
Noel Neill
Noel Neill is an American actress in motion pictures and television. She is best known as her portrayal of Lois Lane in the film serials Superman and Atom Man vs...
and B-movie stalwart William Schallert
William Schallert
William Joseph Schallert is an American actor who has appeared in many films and in such television series as The Smurfs, The Rat Patrol, Gunsmoke, The Patty Duke Show, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, The Waltons, Bonanza, Leave It to Beaver, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Love, American Style, Get...
all have small parts in the film.
The film was commercially successful, bringing in net profits of almost a million dollars.
Invasion U.S.A., after its initial success, was shown some on television in the late 1960s, but then was not widely viewed for a long time. In 1994, it was spoofed on the movie-mocking television show Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000
Mystery Science Theater 3000 is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc., that ran from 1988 to 1999....
. It was released on DVD in 2002.
The film is unrelated to the 1985 Chuck Norris film of the same name.
Cast
- Gerald MohrGerald MohrGerald Mohr was an American radio, film and television character actor who appeared in over 4,000 radio plays, 73 films and over 100 television shows....
(Vince Potter) - Peggie CastlePeggie CastlePeggie Castle was an American actress who specialized in playing the "other woman" in B-movies. She was also billed under the names Peggy Castle and Peggie Call.-Career:...
(Carla Sanford) - Dan O'HerlihyDan O'HerlihyDaniel O'Herlihy was an Oscar nominated Irish film actor.-Early life:O'Herlihy was born in Wexford, Ireland in 1919. His family moved to Dublin at a young age...
(Mr. Ohman) - Robert Bice (George Sylvester)
- Tom Kennedy (Tim the Bartender)
- Wade Crosby (Illinois Congressman Arthur V. Harroway)
- Erik Blythe (Ed Mulfory)
- Phyllis CoatesPhyllis CoatesPhyllis Coates is an American film and television actress. She is perhaps best known for her portrayal of reporter Lois Lane in the 1951 film Superman and the Mole Men, and during the first season of the Adventures of Superman television series.-Early life and career:After graduating from high...
(Mrs. Mulfory) - Aram Katcher (Factory Window Washer)
- Knox ManningKnox ManningKnox Manning was an American film actor. He appeared in 94 films between 1939 and 1956.He was born in Worcester, Massachusetts and died in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles.-Selected filmography:...
(Himself) - Edward G. Robinson Jr. (Radio Dispatcher)
- Noel NeillNoel NeillNoel Neill is an American actress in motion pictures and television. She is best known as her portrayal of Lois Lane in the film serials Superman and Atom Man vs...
(Second Airline Ticket Agent) - Clarence A. Shoop (Army Major)
External links
- Production history of film at Conelrad.com