Review of Panic in Year Zero! (1962) by Jack E — 17 Jul 2016

Ray Milland starred in and directed this minimalist Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi film for AIP. While heading out on a family fishing trip, Harry Baldwin (Milland), his wife Ann (Jean Hagen) and two teen-aged children, Rick (pop star Frankie Avalon) and Karen (Mary Mitchell) are appalled to see a mushroom cloud forming over the L.

A. skyline. Their home gone and the United States under nuclear attack, Harry decides that his family must survive. As they head into the Sierras, the highways become clogged with refugees fleeing the fallout and civilization and law and order crumble.

Milland tries to preserve civilization, but purposely cuts himself and his family off from society out of fear and that threatens to make him as savage as the gang of 'greaser' punks he eventually comes into conflict with.

Year Zero refers to an emergency UN resolution to declare that the Post-World War III world is starting over again, at Year Zero. The somewhat less sentimental No Blade of Grass owes as much to this film as it does to John Christopher's novel.