“NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE”

By Raymond Benson

It was a surprise to discover this engaging, tightly-written and directed thriller—released in 1950!—about a possible nuclear nightmare taking place in London. In fact, the film was awarded the Oscar for Best Story (back when that category still existed). The writers were Paul Dehn (who would years later co-pen the script for Goldfinger and, after that, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold) and James Bernard (primarily known as a film score composer, best remembered for his work for Hammer horror pictures).

The Boulting Brothers (identical twins!) were a sort of British Coen Brothers at the time, having made numerous quality movies from the late 1930s to the 1970s, usually directing separately. Seven Days to Noon is the only picture on which both brothers are credited as directors.

While the tale is fiction (and based on a novel), it plays as if it’s a true story. A brilliant nuclear physicist, Professor Willingdon (Barry Jones) has written a letter to the Prime Minister, saying that he’s stolen one of the suitcase-sized nuclear bombs from the British weapons development facility, and he will detonate it on the following Sunday at noon (seven days from the beginning of the picture) if Britain does not announce the cessation of atomic weapons creation. Willingdon goes into hiding to wait out the days, staying in shabby rooms-to-let near the center of London. One of his landladies is the colorful (and morally dubious) Goldie (Olive Sloane). Scotland Yard Superintendent Folland (Andre Morrell) teams up with one of Willingdon’s colleagues, Lane (Hugh Cross), who happens to be sweet on the professor’s daughter, Ann (Sheila Manahan), to try and figure out Willingdon’s whereabouts.

The picture goes into fine detail on how such a scenario might play out in the city. For the first couple of days, the public is kept in the dark; but as the deadline draws near, an evacuation must occur. A fifteen-mile radius is determined to be the danger zone, and the filmmakers illustrate what a problem this would entail.

The result is a suspenseful, beat-the-clock doomsday picture that foreshadows by almost fifteen years other similar cautionary movies like Dr. Strangelove or Fail-Safe. The film moves quickly through its near-ninety-minute runtime, generating tension and chills galore.

Kino Lorber’s new Blu-ray restoration is a solid black and white, suitably grainy presentation in 1920x1080p with optional English subtitles. Alas, there are no supplements save for a theatrical trailer and some for other Kino releases.

Seven Days to Noon is terrific stuff, a shining feather in the cap of the British film industry.

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