Duck and Cover (1952)

Sorry, this movie sucks

How sad is this?

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

This is probably one of the most infamous educational films about nuclear war. An animated turtle helps tell the children this is aimed at that, in the case of nuclear attack, they can protect themselves by dropping on the ground and covering their head and neck with their hands. It's not clear why you would want to spread this ridiculous misinformation ... most likely to create a false sense of security by creating the impression that your foreign policy isn't aiming towards the complete destruction of your society ... we can all survive kids. Just cover your head!

Duck and Cover (1953) ** (out of 4) Atomic scare film is part animation and part live action. The animated part has Bert the Turtle walking when a monkey lights a firecracker behind him. The turtle then teachers the kids how to duck and cover. We then get a narrator telling us what we should look for an expect in case of an atomic attack. Looking at these films today you can't help but roll you eyes but at the same time it's somewhat scary because of what we're told in this film. Had an atomic explosion really went off you can't help but this about how unhelpful films like this would have been. Informing people to put a newspaper on your head to prevent burns? Cover your necks with your hands to avoid burns? On a technical level this thing is pretty poorly done because if you pay close attention you'll notice then telling you how to "duck" during one scene at yet others showing us how to duck are wrong or at least don't match up with what was told earlier.

Being too young to have been in school in the '50's, I had the privilege of viewing this little gem in US History.Starting off with a very catchy song about Burt the turtle, "Duck and Cover" describes how ducking and covering will make you safe in a nuclear blast. Needless to say, it's very amusing.I also liked it just for its '50's vibe (i.e. "Little Timmy knows what to do!"). This combined with the government's reassurance that a nuclear blast is not that big a danger made me utterly love every second of it, however ludicrous it might be."Duck and Cover," however, is also an interesting look at government propaganda. Again, very amusing for its not-so-subtle approach in this department.So if you have some time, check it out. It can be viewed on the internet (http://www.archive.org/details/DuckandC1951), and it's 9 minutes where you can just shake your head and laugh.So remember children, when you see a flash, DUCK AND COVER!

Truly one of the most mind-bogglingly surreal movies I've ever seen, teaching kids that all they need to do to survive a nuclear war is duck down and cover their heads; and quite rightly satirised in the 'South Park' TV show. Watching it today it's hard to imagine that the US government could have made it as a serious training film, or that American teachers could have shown it to their kids with a straight face.More seriously, I imagine that when they first began planning the movie they were probably still in the A-bomb era where it might have made a difference: the damage from such a bomb was fairly localised so a single bomb in a major city would kill only a small fraction of the population... but by the time it was being shown to kids H-bombs could obliterate an entire city in one go, and 'Duck and Cover' tactics were utterly pointless.