1962 This Is Not A Test - Good But Could Have Been Shorter

Yes it’s only 73 minutes long but there was bloat to it. It takes place primarily at a road block at 4am set up by a deputy on orders from those manning the police radio. The folks he stops are a farmer and his granddaughter, a couple who grift, a married couple with dog , a truck driver and his criminal hitchhiker and a biker.

The deputy gets word of inbound missiles. The deputy got his head full of power and started ordering everyone around. He wanted to use the back of the delivery truck as a makeshift nuclear bomb shelter. Yeah not a good idea. The film focused on the people which was good but during that time the wife and truck driver had an affair. It seemed idiotic and for bloating the time.

I liked the idea it focused on average folk. You understood their fear but you also felt they were in over their heads. The farmer did get the motorcyclist and his granddaughter away. Gramps was sole one with common sense but even he seemed to understand it was futile.

I also liked how it showed under extreme stress a person’s true self comes out. The grifting couple she completely misread her boyfriend. This movie like Testament focused solely on average folk, not politicians or military. It’s the average folk that will ultimately bear the burden.

I wish Rod Serling was given the script to cut back the bloat. I felt the affair really took it off focus.

The cast didn’t really do much after except for Michael Greene who stayed active doing guest shots and in movies until his death in 2020. In 2019 he did two biography films In Greene and On Greene. I have not seen either. In this movie he played the grifter boyfriend.

It’s on Tubi. It looks very cheaply made I would say close to what a TV movie would have looked like then. It’s still good, the ideas are solid but does have bloat which should have been removed. It would have worked better at about 50 minutes.