In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Invasion USA
  • Ron Briley
Invasion USA (1952). Directed by Alfred E. Green. Distributed by American Pictures. 73 minutes.

Americans have long celebrated their opposition to tyranny, dating back to the American Revolution and clarion call of "no taxation without representation." Many citizens take pride in the second amendment to the Constitution, believing that individual possession of firearms will prevent foreign invasion and the imposition of dictatorship in the United States. More sophisticated considerations of how fascism might come to America, such as It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis, emphasize that American fascism would most likely manifest itself in the guise of right-wing populism. Nevertheless, American popular culture perpetuates the fantasy of foreign invasion and heroic citizen resistance. While such scenarios are often reminiscent of partisan European fighters (many of whom were communists) during the Second World War, there is a tendency to view such resistance as uniquely American. This is another example of American exceptionalism, grounded in a perception that the belief in freedom is a national, and not a human, value.

Red Dawn, released in 1984 when President Reagan was reinvigorating the Cold War, describes the adolescent fantasy of a high school football team, the Wolverines, who defeat communist forces from Cuba and the Soviet Union, no match for quarterback Patrick Swayze and his teammates/warriors. Although made on a much lower budget, film director Alfred E. Green's Invasion USA (1952) perhaps best places the idea of American Cold War exceptionalism in historical and global context. Invasion USA projects the scenario of a full-scale Soviet assault upon the United States. Made during the Korean War and heyday of McCarthyism in Washington, Invasion USA depicts an expansionist Soviet empire intent on world domination, abetted by fifth columnists and Americans too soft to make the sacrifices necessary for the preservation of liberty. [End Page 148]

The film begins in a New York City bar, where news anchor Vince Potter (Gerald Mohr), factory owner George Sylvester (Robert Brice), Congressman Arthur V. Harroway (Wade Crosby), Arizona rancher Ed Mulfory (Erik Blythe), and attractive socialite Carla Sanford (Peggie Castle) are mesmerized by the enigmatic Mr. Ohman (Dan O'Herlihy), who suggests that the patrons should curb their carping about selfish concerns and recognize that the American way of life is being threatened. Mr. Ohman mysteriously disappears, and the group at the bar is awakened from a trance-like state by a news bulletin reporting that American forces in Alaska are under attack. The source of this assault remains unnamed in the film, but the Cold War historical context, the invasion route through Alaska, the unintended comical Slavic accents, the proclamations from the "People's Army," and the use of MiG-15 fighter planes clearly indicate that the invading enemy comes from the Soviet Union.

The story of the invasion is modeled after the news bulletin technique pioneered by Orson Welles in his radio broadcast of The War of the Worlds. The startled bar patrons watch the enemy launch an invasion of the Pacific Northwest supported by the employment of tactical nuclear weapons against American military installations. The President announces that the United States will retaliate with atomic bombs and take the war into the enemy's home territory. Nevertheless, the invasion appears to be gaining momentum, and the denizens of the bar recognize that they need to do their patriotic duty.

Each, however, pays the ultimate price for failing to venerate and uphold the American Way. Sylvester returns to his tractor factory in the San Francisco area. While at the bar, he complained about government intervention in the operation of his plant, voicing discontent with suggestions that he direct some of his production lines into national defense. But his return is too late, for the enemy has occupied the factory. A fifth- columnist laborer helped the invading forces gain control over the means of production, casting doubt upon the political loyalty of labor. Sylvester confronts his former employee and is shot in the back by a member of the "People's Army."

Meanwhile, Mulfory arrives in Arizona to retrieve his family. As they flee their home, the enemy bombs Hoover Dam, setting off a flood, which consumes...

pdf

Share