The poster says it all. Is the terrified woman falling from the window having her pants scared off her ? Directly above from the dreadful Hedda Hopper there is the quote that this will happen to the audience, and no doubt the viciousness of the film did precisely that for a lot of people in 1952. Today it looks like Communist scaring rubbish, with a lot of real people being killed in real footage of WW2. That said there is horror in it especially a family in a car washed away in a flood, children screaming as all the occupants die. The whole film is propaganda for more armament and to use this to a gullible audience is sad, showing how the depths of such films could sink. Sadly too is the real manipulation of fear as of course having destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki the Americans were probably all too afraid they would receive the same awful death and maiming. To speak of good acting in this film is irrelevant as the actors just wait around in a bar as the fear mounts. The special effects are well done and I do not condemn the film for its terrifying ability to cause nightmares and distress. There is even romance in it, but who cared as the ' red scare ' advanced. The scenes with the unnamed Russians is very badly done, with every cliché in place especially with their accents which are totally wrong. There is a twist in all this and no spoilers. An attack on Congress is unhappily shown, so viewers if you watch this trash be afraid; very afraid ! To my knowledge the new look of the BBFC website does not say it was initially banned before getting a well deserved X certificate.
Review of Invasion, U.S.A.
