The Atomic City Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

The Atomic City Blu-ray Movie Review

Do you still need to duck and cover if you're hiding in a cave?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 12, 2013

Benjamin Franklin was always good for an aphorism or two, as his various writings in publications like Poor Richard’s Almanac ably prove, but one of his most famous quotes has been getting quite a bit of traffic lately, due to our current situation with such hot news items as the NSA, Wikileaks and Edward Snowden:

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

The Atomic City is a fascinating little 1952 film that posits a post-World War II and nascent Cold War era of paranoia and general trepidation, focusing on a high powered scientist at Los Alamos who finds himself embroiled in a Communist conspiracy to cull atomic secrets when his young son is kidnapped and held hostage, with the ransom being those very secrets. While parts of The Atomic City play like a rote kidnapping drama, albeit in a somewhat “exotic” setting, the subtext of Sydney Boehm’s Oscar nominated screenplay are really interesting, even if one suspects that Mr. Boehm’s nomination might have been due at least in part to a concerted effort on the part of Academy voters to prove that they were as anti-Commie as it was possible to get. While The Atomic City might seem to be a fairly straightforward drama with an undeniably jingoistic subtext, hindsight gives us a somewhat more illuminating perspective on a film that fairly wallows in an early fifties’ fear of “those damned Russians” (to borrow a phrase that was in common parlance back in that era) usurping what many (maybe even most) Americans assumed was the United States’ preordained destiny of global superiority.

That tradeoff between security and freedom is firmly on display from almost the first moment of The Atomic City, when an installation technician shows up to deliver a sparkling new television to the family of Dr. Frank Addison (Gene Barry), one of a host of scientists and their kin who make their homes in Los Alamos as they pursue various atomic technologies to supposedly keep America safe. (In a kind of funny prelude, the film includes stock footage of various atomic industry workers going about their business, all with their faces masked “for security reasons”, as shown in screenshot 7 accompanying this review. All faces that is except for one quick shot of a guard protecting a fenced and supposedly top secret area. As Homer Simpson might say, “D’oh!”.) The installation guy has to go through a rather rigorous check in procedure and in fact he’s surrounded by a bunch of other people arriving at the location for various duties, all of whom are being asked for their identification and to account for why they’re there at all.

The paranoid atmosphere surrounding the workers and their families at Los Alamos is getting on Frank’s wife Martha’s (Lydia Clarke) nerves. She resents the fact that Frank is followed by the FBI at every turn and she’s even more concerned that their young son Tommy (Lee Aaker) is growing up in such a tamped down environment. Tommy on the other hand doesn’t seem to mind, and gives the television installation guy a run for his technical knowledge money, going into detail about various voltages and electronic data that show that this kid’s acorn hasn’t dropped far from his scientist father’s oak tree.

When Tommy is kidnapped during a school outing (didn’t the FBI think of that?), Martha’s most atavistic fears come true, and the film kicks into overdrive as Frank, soon joined by an FBI inspector named Mann (Milburn Stone, soon to be immortalized as Doc on Gunsmoke), attempt to track down the culprits responsible for taking his son. The kidnappers have demanded the formulae for the H-bomb as the “payment” for them not killing Tommy, and Frank’s attempts to fool them with useless information only work for a while.

It’s important to place The Atomic City in its proper historical context to understand some of the frankly disturbing—if somewhat tangential—elements of its plot. In 1952, America was still (supposedly) the only holder of the secrets of the H-bomb, and the incipient anti-Communist tendencies that would soon explode into full blown McCarthyism were already more than on the rise. The film is therefore rife with so-called Fifth Column elements, undercover Americans who have gone over to the “dark side” of Soviet influence. This also ostensibly explains the almost police state tactics that the United States government employs to keep track of its valued scientists.

While this roiling political subtext is in a way only hinted at throughout the film, it’s there nonetheless. But The Atomic City gives way to a more traditional thriller ethos as Frank and the various police agencies close in on Tommy and his captors. Frank becomes more prone toward violence when he realizes the life or death of his son is of secondary (maybe even tertiary) importance to the government agencies which are in fact more concerned with whether vital national secrets have been compromised. There are a number of really interesting locations utilized here, including a Los Angeles baseball game, but the real standout in the film is a very exciting chase sequence that takes place on the barren cliffs of the American southwest. First time director Jerry Hopper, who spent most of his career in episodic television following a few features which came after The Atomic City, stages things extremely well and elicits a really winning performance from little Lee Aaker, who pretty much manages to defeat incipient Communism with his own two tiny hands.

The Atomic City Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Atomic City is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. The elements utilized for this high definition presentation are in very good shape overall, save for some of the stock footage, which is pretty ragged looking. Most of that is utilized in the opening quasi-prelude, which is meant to "educate" the audience about both the dangers and opportunities of the then new Atomic Age. Once the actual story kicks into place, the image is quite stable and boasts nicely deep blacks and well modulated gray scale. Hopper tends to frame things mostly in midrange shots often featuring two characters, and so fine detail doesn't really pop incredibly well, though the image is certainly decently sharp and well defined. There are a couple of brief cutaway shots, including some with rear projection, that are a good deal softer looking than the bulk of the film. There's some attendant and expected age related wear and tear, but nothing exceptional or beyond the norm. As with most Olive releases, neither restoration nor digital tweaking seems to have been done here.

The Atomic City Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Atomic City's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix is one of the more problematic we've had from Olive Films, one which has recurrent popping and crackling issues, especially in the early going. A couple of these pops were loud enough to actually provoke a startle response in me as I listened. The good news is things calm down after the first several minutes, and for the bulk of the film, dialogue is relatively cleanly presented. Leith Stevens' propulsive score has some minor distortion as well (again mostly in the early going), but overall sounds good if not great.

The Atomic City Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

The Atomic City Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Atomic City is surprisingly relevant in its subtext if not in its overt content. Those who wonder about intruding governmental agencies, or an overreaction to a perceived threat, may well be fascinated by some of the plot points dangling around the edges of what is at its core a simple thriller of a desperate parent trying to get his son back. The film is very well performed by a game cast, and director Jerry Hopper keeps things moving along at a breathless pace once the pieces have been set on the board. This Blu-ray features generally pretty strong looking video, but the audio has a few more issues than the typical Olive Films catalog release. Recommended.