“It will scare your pants off!” - Hedda Hopper

Also…

“Bombs away!”

Fair warning: we’re going to spoil this one a lot more than usual.

Invasion U.S.A. may be one of the best hardcore Cold War flicks I’ve seen this side of Red Dawn.

The main stage for this little gem is a cocktail lounge in 1952 New York City, where a half dozen customers watch the world descend into all out war.

The players represent different parts of American society: Vince, the reporter (The Media); George, who runs a factory (Industry); Carla, a single young woman (The Family and American Virtue); Ed, an Arizona rancher (Agriculture and Rural America); Arthur, a member of Congress (Government), and Tim, the bartender (Blue Collar America).

It is a clever construct and not obvious at first blush. It also suggests a level of sophistication in storytelling that might be lost if you just look at the movie poster. A special Tip of the BMB Cat Hat to director Alfred E. Green (The Jackie Robinson Story) for this.

So the war…

One of the most impressive things to me was the realism of the enemy battleplan.

WWIII went down this way:

The enemy (who are never named, but speak with crazy Russian accents, fly aircraft with bright red stars, and talk about liberating the workers), kick things off with an invasion of Alaska (not yet a state). From there they move on to the Pacific northwest, move down the coast, and launch strategic attacks against key military and industrial targets.

In the earliest days they limit themselves to conventional attacks, but eventually resort to employing tactical nukes against military targets, including the U.S. Pacific Fleet. The U.S. responds with a massive nuclear attack against the Soviet….errr…”Enemy”…homeland, but by that time the enemy military control much of the west coast and are preparing to launch a second wave of attack, moving against New York and Washington D.C.

We won’t spoil the end, but will say that it takes an unexpected turn ala the Twilight Zone or a typical M. Night Shyamalan flick.

A couple other things we enjoyed -

The Enemy tactics ring true: English speaking infiltrators in U.S. military uniforms, effective propaganda and information operations, and the use of friendly “non-combatants.”

The acting isn’t going to (and didn’t) win any Oscars, but there were a few deeply human moments. One big one involved a woman who was desperately trying to get a flight to rejoin her husband and children on a military base in Montana, only to be told by the airlines that they were no longer serving that area…because it had been destroyed by an A-Bomb.

Finally, the actors have some cool comic connections (which we always dig).

Vince (Gerald Mohr) voiced Mr. Fantastic in the 1967-68 Fantastic Four cartoon and Green Lantern on the 1967 Aquaman tv show. Phyllis Coates played Lois Lane on the 1952-53 Adventures of Superman. And Noel Neil also played Ms. Lane is a series of early Superman films, as well as a half dozen later Superman-related flicks, including Superman Returns.

Invasion U.S.A. isn’t the best movie ever made, but it has clever moments, is more thoughtful than it seems, and is worth a watch.

You can get a front row seat to the war HERE.

Three out of Five A-Bombs.

💥💥💥

Post Credit Bonus!

A look at the original 1952 trailer -

Extra: So who in the heck is Hedda Hopper??? You can learn a bit about her HERE.

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