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This Is Not a Test

This Is Not a Test (1962) Movie Poster
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USA  •    •  73m  •    •  Directed by: Fredric Gadette.  •  Starring: Seamon Glass, Thayer Roberts, Aubrey Martin, Mary Morlas, Michael Greene, Alan Austin, Carole Kent, Norman Winston, Ron Starr, Don Spruance, James George Jr., Norman Bishop, Ralph Manza.  •  Music by: Greig McRitchie.
      Late one night on a rural road in the western US, a policeman sets up a roadblock and begins stopping all traffic. When several cars and a big truck have stopped, he tells everyone why: a nuclear attack on the US appears to be underway, and since they have the truck there, their best chance at survival is to use it as a bomb shelter. Time is short and tensions in the small group quickly rise.

Review:

Image from: This Is Not a Test (1962)
Image from: This Is Not a Test (1962)
Image from: This Is Not a Test (1962)
Image from: This Is Not a Test (1962)
Image from: This Is Not a Test (1962)
Image from: This Is Not a Test (1962)
This may not have been the worst movie I have ever encountered but is pretty close to the worst I have ever watched to the end. If it had gone on for 74 minutes instead of only 73, I doubt I would have made it. This is Not a Test had almost no redeeming qualities -- unfocused direction, mostly amateurish acting, excruciatingly awful dialog, undistinguished cinematography, stereotyped characters and the cheapest of the cheap production values. One is left wondering if most of the actors paid to be in the movie. Their inept performances range from wild-eyed overacting to walking dead, deadpan delivery. Only Aubrey Martin as the irritating old chicken rancher's granddaughter showed any spark of talent. She was lively, but restrained, and very pretty. It is surprising her career never seems to have taken off.

Written to exploit the well-warranted fears of nuclear war in the early 1960's, the story has a diverse group of motorists stranded on a mountaintop and being bullied about by a brutal deputy sheriff while awaiting an incoming atomic missile. It showed some promise, and could have turned out okay with some fine-tuning, better dialog, careful direction, competent acting, and decent production values. Unfortunately, it got none of these.

The worst reviews I have read of this movie have not plumbed the depths of it awfulness. If it is an atomic war movie you are in the mood for, I would recommend Panic In Year Zero. If you are afflicted with insomnia and this movie is the only alternative to tossing and turning in bed, I would heartily recommend the tossing and turning.


Review by oldblackandwhite from the Internet Movie Database.

 
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