From 1962, the Department of Defense’s short film “Red Nightmare“.

[High Praise! to American Digest]

[YouTube direct link] (Viewer #3,057)

“Jack Webb (Dragnet) plays a Rod Serling-like role as he introduces us to Jerry Donovan – an average guy who shrugs off his inconvenient, civic responsibilities. Jerry “wakes up” in a communist-controlled town, where he’s the only American left. This film was produced for the Defense Department by studio mogul Jack L.Warner and stars many Warner Brothers stock actors – including Jack Kelly (Maverick), Robert Conrad (Wild Wild West) and Andrew Duggan.”

For my part, although I thought the acting was passable, the storyline of the script just left me baffled. Apparently the moral of the story is that if you don’t attend PTA meetings, you’ll be shot in the head by communists.

Nevertheless, worth a watch. Just don’t expect Twilight-Zone-level plot-coherence.

One thing that did occur to me, though… during the “nightmare” sequence, Jerry’s oldest daughter mutates into Sandra Fluke.

A younger, hotter Sandra Fluke, to be sure, but still just as willing to mouth the socially-acceptable “party line” of her peer-group while vociferously rejecting the morals and values of her parents (or at least her father).

As for the younger kids, it’s basically the 60’s version of having your kids come home and unplugging your computer because they were told at school that you’re “killing polar bears by using electricity.”