kevin olzak 1962's "This Is Not a Test" is a rarely seen end of the world melodrama, a fitting and logical conclusion to a decade's worth of such science fiction endeavors. Director Arch Oboler began the sub genre with his 1951 feature "Five," more highbrow efforts such as "The World, the Flesh, and the Devil" and "On the Beach" sharing the screen with more exploitive titles like "Day the World Ended" and "Last Woman on Earth," both from director Roger Corman. By 1962, Ray Milland directed and starred in his own take on the subject, "Panic in Year Zero!" followed by this tiny budgeted effort, which appears to have bypassed any theatrical distribution and gone straight to television (the last word on the 50s era 'end of the world'). It's 4:00 AM, and Deputy Sheriff Dan Colter (Seamon Glass) is assigned to create a road block, stopping traffic somewhere in the Sierra Nevadas. His curt instructions to all the passersby is simply to pull over and wait, and it soon becomes clear that a state of emergency has arisen. Once the red alert is sounded and martial law declared, the sheriff's behavior grows more erratic and unpredictable, keeping events at a good pace and reasonably believable (the story takes place in real time, roughly 72 minutes). Despite the clichéd characterizations expected from such a film, the little known cast does very well indeed, marking this forgotten programmer as a growing cult item. There are a few familiar TV faces among the performers, particularly Thayer Roberts as the elderly farmer, comedic scene stealer Ralph Manza (in rare serious mode), and Michael Greene, making his screen debut as the jive talking Joe (he would star in 1973's "The Clones," another cult film).

banker-4 If you find this atomic bomb era film interesting or informative of the duck and cover time period I would heartily recommend that you view "Split Second" by Dick Powell. It has an RKO budget and Hollywood B stars such as Richard Egan, Stephen McNally, Alexis Smith, Jan Sterling and Keith Andes. It has much better acting, writing and production values. In each of these films people of various social and moral backgrounds are placed in tense situations in close confinement, that is a pressure cooker situation. Both this film and "Split Second" are informative of the real fear of atomic warfare that was in the back of our minds in the 50' and 60's.

classicsoncall Someone, somewhere, at some time must have thought this was a pretty good idea for a picture. But come on, even with the back drop of Cold War hysteria and all those 'duck and cover' air raid drills back in grammar school, this is one sorry effort. I keep thinking about the character of Deputy Dan Colter (Seamon Glass) and I just have to shake my head. What a pain in the butt. Did it really make that much of a difference where everyone parked their cars? And what was the big deal about getting everyone's name - he never referred to anyone by name afterwards anyway. Then he really earned the creep of the year award by choking out the little puppy dog. You would think by that time every able bodied guy and gal on board would just rush the lunatic and throw him over to go their own way.The inclusion of the hitchhiker killer was an interesting touch though. Remember when granddaughter Juney (Aubrey Martin) stated to him that they were all going to die? Clint (Ron Starr) responded by saying that she wouldn't because she was nice. Sounded to me like he might have had a plan, but they all went out the window when he tried making a tossed chicken salad while all the birds were still alive.Curiously, most of the other reviews of the flick on this board seem fairly supportive, making me wonder whether I watched the same story. I don't know, I put myself in the place of any one of the poor roadside hostages and I think I'd be of a mind to take out old Deputy Colter and make a feeble run for it, foolish as that might have been. After all, it wasn't a test, so why bother following rules?

winner55 To understand the importance of this film, and one or two others like it, please remember that at the time this film was made, the US government was still insisting that a simple wooden board could save one from the deadly effects of a nuclear blast. I still remember the drills in grammar school - in 1962 (2 years after this film was made), the drill was to duck under our desks. A year later, it was finally admitted that maybe a concrete wall would be needed, so we were filed out into the hall and sat on the floor with our arms over our heads - the placement of the arms were to weaken the effects of fall-out.This is not a great, or even good, film. It's cheap, it's underdirected, underacted, underlit, underdesigned in every way. And of course there's the unnecessary dash of pure exploitation - drunkenness, lust, bad attitude. And the cop is a hoot by any standards, although let us admit the courage of the writer to make him a complete fool as far as the A-Bomb and his untrustworthy government are concerned.But that, after all, is the real importance of the film. Only four years later, Barry Goldwater ran on the promise that he wouldn't hesitate to use the A-bomb - in Vietnam, Cuba, what the hell, Alabama, if the Civil Rights movement got violent."Nuke 'em, nuke 'em," we still hear the chant, from irresponsible lard-heads who have not the slightest idea how even one or two badly placed bombs would destroy their lives forever - presuming they survived.So, surprisingly - a historically important film, worth a glance.