Le Kid atomique

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Mickey Rooney and Robert Strauss star in a comedy. A peanut butter sandwich seemingly preserves the life of a poor guy at ground zero during a nuclear test.

This is an unlikely choice of subject matter for light comedy, without the acerbic attitude of a daring movie like Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove".

Director Leslie Martinson is associated with directing for television, but his movie "Fathom" is not just entertaining but one of the crucial early starring features that helped put Raquel Welch on the cinema map forever.

"The Atomic Kid" was based on a story written by Blake Edwards, and produced by Rooney, whose leading lady was played by his wife Elaine Devry.

'Blix' Waterberry (Mickey Rooney) and Stan Cooper (Robert Strauss), a couple of uranium prospectors lost in the Nevada desert, wander into an experimental house at ground zero of an atom bomb test. Despite hiding in the closet, Blix is exposed to the full force of the nuclear blast but miraculously survives, emerging radioactive and manifesting odd abilities. Made in the early years of the cold war, this was one of the first 'atomic comedies' and a typical example of a Hollywood 'radiation can do anything' plot-line. Blix is 'hot' enough to glow in the dark and fog film but even the scientists don't seem worried that he might sterilise (or induce cancer in) anyone he stands near. The 'living chain-reaction' wears a Geiger-counter wrist-watch that clicks when his 'neutrons' become temporarily exited (by kissing a pretty girl for example), his proximity causes slot-machines to 'jackpot', and his arms function as radio antenna. All of this nonsense is played strictly for laughs in Blake Edward's simplistic screenplay but even to contemporary audiences the premise must have seemed a bit ridiculous ("...far-fetched and forced" according to Variety's Dec 8, 1954 review). Rooney mugs it up in a typical 'lovable sucker' role, rough-voiced Strauss is fine as his conniving buddy/manager and Elaine Devry (one of serial-groom Rooney's many brides) is pretty as Blix's nurse-love-interest Audrey (another cookie-cutter role). The first half of the film, up until Blix 'escapes' from the hospital, is moderately amusing but the casino scenes with Audrey are just silly and there is a tacked-on 'espionage' sub-plot so Strauss has something to do when producer Rooney is not on screen. Clearly writer Edwards ran out of ideas as the down-hill slide of the story ends abruptly and inexplicably, setting up one last predictable gag. Silly but topical at the time of release, now just silly.

I remember this film from when it was new--if this is the same film. Today I was trying to remember the star, and that's how I ran across this comment.

Does anyone know if there were any other films like it? A comedy with a rube who accidentally finds himself in a house that is at the center of an atomic bomb test? If not, this is it. It made a lasting impression on an 11-year-old who had practiced ducking under the desk. It seems like in the film they surmised that the reason he was able to survive the bomb had something to do with what he was eating at the time. Which, I guess from reading the synopsis, was a peanut butter sandwich. Must have been a huge promotion for Peter Pan!

During the 1950s, there were a ton of films done about horrible monsters unleashed by dreaded nuclear radiation. The Japanese had their Godzilla-type films and here in the States we had giant bugs and Blix Waterberry! What or who is Blix Waterberry? He's a guy played by Mickey Rooney who just happened to survive a blast near ground zero!! And, unlike these nuclear horror films, this is a comedy about nuclear radiation!

When the film begins, Blix (Rooney) and his friend Stan (Robert Strauss) are lost for several days in the desert while prospecting for uranium. Their spirits rise considerably when they find a lone house in the middle of no where and they assume their problems are over...though they are only about to get much worse. The house turns out to be filled with dummies and the two guys think it's some sort of model house for a new community...little do they know it was built for a nuclear test to examine the effects of the blast on the building! And, to make it MUCH worse, the bomb will soon be detonated. Fortunately for Stan, he leaves the place in a car he finds and is just out of harm's way when the explosion occurs. As for Blix, he takes the brunt of it...and the military folks are AMAZED to find him alive and apparently well...though thoroughly soaked in radioactivity. What's next? Will he grow into a giant menace to society? Will he grow extra limbs? Will he be called to Japan to take on Rodan?! No...he'll have commie spies after him as well as Stan!

I agree with one reviewer who said this easily could have been an Abbott & Costello or Martin & Lewis film. It's entertaining and fun...not the type thing that will change your life but you will have a nice time seeing it despite it being anything but subtle!

This film is a Mickey Rooney production and the nurse, Audrey, is actually played by Rooney's fourth wife, Elaine.

This movie would come on tv a lot during school holidays in the 1960's. i saw it countless times and i still think it is one of the funniest movies i have ever seen. brilliant comedy. well written and acted. definitely fun from start to finish.