General Information

Author/Creator

Waggner, George, director.

Language

English.

Published

United States : Hendricks, William L., 1962.

Physical Description

DVD-ROM (29 min.)

Digital ver. identifier

HU_OSA_10000126

Contents/Summary

Summary

The famous anti-Communist propaganda film, commisioned for the Department of Defense, was a standard curriculum in civics, history, etc. throughout the sixties. Today it is sometimes shown as "The Commies are Coming!" in classes about the anti-Communist excesses of the period. It's also become something of a cult comedy classic. "Red Nightmare" opens on a seemingly all-American town complete with American cars, soda fountains and freedoms but surrounded by barbed wire barricades and Russian soldiers. Jack Webb tells us "it may be assumed that such a town does exist, shrouded in secrecy and protected by utmost security, deep behind the Iron Curtain." According to Webb, it is used to train Russian students in "espionage as a science" and "propaganda as an art" in order to destroy American freedoms. Webb then launches into our main story, that of a typical complacent American, Jerry Donovan, who, the narrator tells us, "tends to take his freedoms much for granted." After being shown an idyllic picture of a typical American family complete with younger kids, the movie takes an eerie turn. The next day Jerry awakes to a Red Nightmare, his community overun by communists. He can't make a phone call without a permit, his wife & children are automatons, Bill is a Communist soldier who transports Linda to a farm collective in order to free her "from the lingering bourgeois influence of family life."Jerry is ultimately tried and convicted of crimes against the state for complaining of lack of warrants, his children being sent to a state school to make up for his failure to indoctrinate them, etc..Jerry awakens from his Red Nightmare with new dedication to the defense of liberty. And as an added bonus, his daughter defers her decision to mary until her fianceBill completes his hitch in the service.

Bibliographic Information

Note

Start: 00:06:00, End: 00:35:00

Holdings

Item Type	Current Location	Call Number	Status	Shelving Location	Public Note
DVD-ROM	OSA Film Library	FL Record 0604b	Available		-
Digital film	OSA Film Library	FL Record 0604b (HU_OSA_10000126.mp4)	Available		Access Copy, MP4 format