This 16mm film made by the US Army is one of the first to try to quell the American public's anxiety about the looming threat of the new Soviet Atomic Bomb. This reel from my own collection is a Cinecolor print - an unusual 2-color bipack process that puts two strips of film through the camera at the same time, one on top of the other. The top film stock is on a strip of celluloid dyed red with an orthochromatic emulsion that reacts to the blue-green part of the spectrum and that also acts as a filter for the polychromatic black and white strip behind, which is exposed by the remaining red part of the spectrum. This process was far cheaper than the 3-stripTechnicolor process but required twice the lighting and subsequent duplicate prints using the same process created very high contrast and rather blurry prints such as this one. An interesting film in many ways - and as always this was transferred using my own Telecine. Enjoy........... and Survive!
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By Fran

13 thoughts on “Surviving atomic attack 1949”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Caedmon Johnson says:

    Grim, but still pretty upbeat and positive compared to ‘Threads’.

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Ernie Simpson says:

    Humans don't live up to their own PR… So very depressing.

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars CARL iCON says:

    "No moral, no message, no prophetic tract, just a simple statement of fact: for civilization to survive, the human race has to remain civilized. Tonight's very small exercise in logic from the Twilight Zone."

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars TBP-Channel says:

    Very interesting copy indeed.. color and sound, but not that sharp picture. And the process is even more interesting, many thanks for the infos of it, Fran.

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Glen Birbeck says:

    Living underground…..this is the era that PK Dick used as inspiration for the "pits" where survivors lived in the "Perky Pat" stories, among others. They survived with psychedelic drugs and dolls. I plan to take the same tack post atomic apocalypse. I hope the Martians making drops of supplies have a big catalog. Seriously….we'll be toast.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Matthew Contreras says:

    BRILLIANT AND PLAYS GUITAR FRAN HOTTEST EVER!

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars thebeaz1 says:

    You know what? I really really wish that you hadn't posted that.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Mr. Pavone says:

    Thank you for not presenting these films without snark, irony or your own opinions.

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars robert robert says:

    I was a child and a soldier of the Cold War. US ARMY 1968-1971. My brother was submerged in a US NAVY submarine off the coast of Cuba during the "Missile Crisis". We both experienced air raid drills in elementary school. We had food and water stored in our basement in case of a Soviet attack. Now we have to relive those years in our old age with Putin becoming the new MADMAN.

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Simon Byrd says:

    Well, this was cheery..

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars George Mays says:

    Thanks Fran. A blast from the past (couldn't resist). Imagine how modern communications systems are impacted by this. You might be dusting off old 70s transistor CB radios. Not to mention the effect upon the electrical system of a modern automobile. "NUKEMAP" is fun, in a sick sort of way, to play with. Unfortunately it doesn't show EMP approximations. Appreciated.

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars zardoz derpy says:

    There were Soviet long range flying wing bombers?

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Scott Thomas says:

    If you can find it, the book " Pulling Through" by Dean Ing deals with surviving a nuclear war. It's a how-to book disguised as a science fiction novel.

    " In a protected area far from the city…" There's something very Batman about that line…

    In elementary school, we saw a nuclear survival film with a cartoon character called " Bert the Turtle"… It was old when I saw it in the early '70s..

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