Hollywood in the Atomic Age - Monsters! Martians! Mad Scientists!

"Hollywood in the atomic age (etc)" is a documentary about the science fiction/fantasy movies and the horror movies made in the 1950's, with an emphasis on the special effects work. Unsurprisingly, these movies tended to express deeper societal fears such as the fear of nuclear war or the fear of advancing Communism. The documentary combines movie trailers, clips and behind-the-scenes footage with interviews. Many of the people interviewed - ageing actors, writers and the like - look back upon their cinematic adventures with an admirable mix of humility and self-mocking optimism.

The documentary also treats subjects such as the various technologies and gimmicks used, including "3D" and "Emergo". Yet another subject is the discovery of the lucrative teenage market and the subsequent creation of horror movies aimed directly at teenagers.

"Hollywood in the atomic age" has its assets, but it could have used more structure. In its current form the documentary seems to skip along happily from topic to topic, like a hitchhiker content to pluck an apple here and a rosehip there. And at the risk of sounding hoity-toity, it might have been useful to invite some historians and other specialists well-versed in the Classics. For instance, why mention a 1950's movie about a Cyclops without explaining the deep literary and cultural roots of this ancient monster ? Or why not tell the audience about Daedalus, an early fictional example of an inventor/scientist both admired and shunned ?

Anyway, "Hollywood in the atomic age" includes many a scene of screaming women. The wise viewer may want to dim the sound accordingly.

Following WWII, the Cold War with the 'red Menace' and the threat of nuclear war persuaded Hollywood to create any number of sci-fi / horror films. Some were classics, some were hits and many were awful.

This documentary makes little attempt to really get under the skin of what made these films so popular. Instead, largely in chronological order through the fifties into the early sixties, the trailers are shown and then actor, director or technician from the day talks about the films, with some providing amusing anecdotes. Whilst some films get mocked eg The Killer Shrews, for the most part these people clearly adore them, and it is clear towards the end that they think America in the fifties was as good as life got. It's fun to hear about these films, but as a documentary it is poorly structured / edited and lacks direction.

Unfortunately so many of the key people who made these movies are long dead so this settles with interviewing former child actors and the kids of famous people (Vincent Price and William CAstle's daughters for example). That is a huge problem in and of itself, but it's the poor use of trailers instead of pertinent clips and the overall shoddy production values that bring this down. There's a lot of repetition and lack of focus through the interviews and the overall package just comes across as cheap.

There's a great doc to be made about this subject, but this isn't it, despite the effort. I hoped for better.