[CaptainCrunch]

I have to say that after watching that movie, it hasn't lost its luster for me. At the time that it was made, 1959, it must have been positively terrifying to movie goers. The scene with the tea was stomach churning. The final car race, and bottle on the window depressing, and the crewman who jumped ship when they got home and was left behind was sad.

I think the most impactful scene was the fishing day when they had the kids playing, people fishing, that group of drunks singing, and you knew they were doomed.

It was a rare cold war movie that really didn't have violence in it, but was built around a remorseless and invisible enemy that had no political agenda but was caused by one.

It was a different type of cold war move then the terrifying "Day After" which showed the actual nuclear exchange and the aftermath of a dying specis.

Some interesting notes from that move

this was Frank Sinatra's first role that didn't involve dancing or comedy, nobody had every offered him a serious role before.

This was Ava Gardner's first role as a free agent actress, before that she had spend years as a MGM contract actress receiving a weekly salary and having no say in the movies that she could do or not do.

To increase the realism of the movie, Gardner wore no makeup, a rare thing in movie making.