September 27, 2021

THE ATOMIC KID (1954)


A crowd mentality suggests a person will typically do things in a crowdno matter how smallthat they would not do alone. I probably should have watched this silly science fiction film with a couple of friends due to my lack of laughter. I mustered a couple of chuckles, however, due to comedic visuals. The film has not aged well. The B-movie garnered lukewarm reviews when it was released, too. It is an absurd twist on actual early Fifties atomic bomb testing in the Nevada desert about two lame brain prospectors stumbling into ground zero—maybe the only science fiction film of the era that is meant to be a comedy. The thirty-four-year-old “kid,” Mickey Rooney, and his seven years older partner, Robert Strauss, have gotten lost in the desert searching for uranium. Rooney confesses to Strauss that he threw away the compass. It was broken. The needle only pointed in one directionnorth. A clever line that also defines his character. They cannot agree on the purpose of a 500-foot tower with a “cabin” on top. The duo comes off as a once-popular, decade-long comedy team in their final film insult before calling it quits.


Seeking rest and food, they are encouraged by a lone house in the distance. The abandoned house with a mannequin family is there to give the researchers a vague idea of what an atomic explosion can do. However, the duo is unaware that the Nevada desert is set aside for nuclear testing. Parked beside the abandoned model home is a new Mercury with the key and a full tank of gas. I cannot explain this. Strauss, the one with big ideas, takes the car to get help, heading straight for a trench filled with military men. Having no clue why they are wildly waving their arms at him, he sheepishly waves back. Under protest, he is dragged to the safety of the trench. Staying behind in his search for a peanut butter sandwich, Rooney absurdly survives the atomic blast in an enclosed pantry. Do not try this at home. He emerges from the obliterated house seriously singed, hair smoking, and with a toasted sandwich. His voice is sped up electronically, giving him a cartoon delivery. The officials who arrive wonder if he is a 5' 2" alien. Only one-third into the movie, it is the film's funniest scene.

During Rooney's treatments, his real-life "mid-point" wife of eight, Elaine Devry (Davis), plays his attending nurse. He becomes a national phenomenon for surviving an atomic bomb blast. Somehow. After weeks of medical supervision, he needs to escape his hospital room. Way too freely. The FBI plans to follow him because their intel says the Soviets want to kidnap the kid. The two selected FBI agents cannot believe their assignment. They are left with the responsibility to pick up the atomic hitchhiker because no one else stopped. Some funny lines from the agents. Rooney arrives in Las Vegas and bumps into Devry there. Because of radioactivity exposure, he can clear out every slot machine he walks by. Outside the "inconvenient" radiation exposure, Rooney does glow in the dark when his romantic impulses increase around Devry. Perhaps the first film to use this gimmick in this manner.

In bug-eyed, bombastic Strauss form, he sets his sights on money-making deals about the peanut butter brand Rooney was eating at the time of the denotation. The kid's newfound fame could make him a fortune with a book and product endorsements. The dunderhead he is, he unwittingly teams up with a Soviet spy. Now radiation-free, Rooney unconsciously helps them capture the "head spy" by accidentally falling on him from an upper-story office window.  

Devry developed a thing for the little guy, and they get hitched. Tired of all the attention, the newlyweds take back roads across the Nevada desert, stopping at an isolated house for directions and maybe a cold drink. But the mannequins inside are of no help. Panicked, they accelerate away from another atomic test site.

Note: This eighty-six-minute film was distributed by Republic Pictures and produced by Mickey Rooney Productions from a Blake Edwards story. The music score by Van Alexander puts the odd in periodic as it flits from a symphonic string quartet during a lighthearted moment to a driving march theme during Rooney's physical tests. The film includes many familiar faces in comedy films or television: Joey Forman, Paul Dubov, and Stanley Adams. Peter Leeds and Hal March deliver funny,  sarcastic remarks as the two FBI agents. Not missing out on a single casting call is Whit Bissell.

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