Minaccia atomica

A wonderful picture of London in the 50s, and an insight into the way people behaved, and were treated, during the war - patient crowds sitting on railway platforms waiting to be evacuated (Come along, ma! No, lad, you can't take that chicken!). I can't see or hear the married couples calling each other "darling" that another reviewer complained of - there's an engaged couple and he calls her "darling" about twice. Watch out for Joss Ackland as an eager copper and Jonathan Cecil as a young officer. The aging "actress" is simply wonderful and the relationship between her and Prof. Willingdon quite touching. ("He was a gentleman and I treated him as such - as he did me!") Lovely to see Joan Hickson as a cat-loving landlady, living in a house untouched for fifty years and crammed with Victorian nicknacks. What would they be worth now!

Seven Days To Noon is ironically one of those films that has grown into the times rather than be dated. It's certainly a relevant film given the threat of nuclear terror today.

But back in 1950 I don't believe the technical expertise was there so that Barry Jones or anyone else could have put a device like that in a briefcase. Take a look at pictures of Fat Man and Little Boy the code names for the weapons dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Those things could not have fit in a briefcase and developments hadn't advanced that far in five years. Now sad to say it actually could be done.

Barry Jones is an atomic scientist who is suffering from fatigue and overwork and a questioning mind about what exactly he's developing. His mind snaps and he takes one of the weapons Great Britain has been developing and sends a letter to the Prime Minister. Issue a statement you'll stop the program or he's going to explode his package on Sunday at high noon.

That sets up a manhunt for Jones throughout the United Kingdom, but especially of course in London. His note does specify the seat of the government. Andre Morrell as a Scotland Yard Inspector, Hugh Cross as one of his fellow scientists who will have to disarm the device once located, and Sheila Manahan as his daughter lead the search for Jones and the package of destruction he has.

Despite the fact that it was a technological impossibility in 1950, Seven Days To Noon is still an effective thriller of a film, worthy of a Hitchcock. It's interesting that they came close to getting Jones a few times before they do catch up. Best in the film is Olive Sloane the frowzy former music hall entertainer who Jones holds as a hostage for a while. She wants to do her bit as well as she's trying to get to Aldershot to entertain the troops.

Seven Days To Noon got an Oscar for Best Screen Story. It remains one of the few films that actually grew technologically and became more relevant now than when it first came out.

An absolutely excellent thriller from the golden age of British SF filmmaking. Relying on tension and character rather than special effects, the film depicts a fevered manhunt for a scientist threatening to blow up London with a small A-bomb. Whereas other films would've easily dropped into stereotype, this film took the trouble to depict all the major characters as three-dimensional. Not to be missed.

The Boulting Brothers stray from their usual cheery British comedy films to make this effective and thoughtful thriller. Leaving the plotting to one side, it is remarkable as, at that time, the Government was laying the basis for the U.K.'s independent atomic deterrent and the effects of Atomic and Nuclear testing were never discussed. (ask the poor soldiers who watched the tests in Australia!) The issue is never resolved, and in the end the Professor can't make his case publicly.

Part of the film shows the evacuation of London. It harks back to the great evacuations of 1939/4 and invokes the same spirit. Oddly enough, Wartime studios had not portrayed the Home Front (other than nods to Fire Services or War-Work)and perhaps this is a belated look back. It does show one incident that would never have passed the wartime censor's pencil- the shooting of looters.

Other cultural notes: How easy it was for the studios to clear London even then the most traffic congested city in England, and to get the army to lend hundreds of personnel (and demonstrate their efficiency). And the great attraction of the old 1950's films: glimpses of bomb sites, long lost street scenes and forgotten buildings.

Watch it and remember its been 55 years since this film was made and 7/7. I don't think the genre was attempted again. Instead Studios turned to Sci-Fi ( a thin disguise for the external Russian menace).

An absorbing tale, well-told.

The big picture - London being evacuated, Prime Ministerial meetings, military operations - are contrasted with the anti-hero's attempts to evade detection among the city's ordinary people. His encounters with a seedy land-lady (brilliantly played the late Joan Hickson), and a fading second-rate actress, are depicted in fine detail.

But the film never gets bogged down - whenever the pace threatens to slow-up the scene cuts to racing police cars, thundering army convoys, or shrieking steam trains.

Carefully photographed set-pieces, solid acting all round, and a tense climax. Top stuff.