In response to mib_one...My father was stationed at an Air Force base in Florida during the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 (not that long before this movie was released), and families there did stockpile canned goods in their cellars, at the very least, in the expectation that a nuclear missile attack might indeed be imminent. The possibility of a nuclear strike was omnipresent if barely acknowledged, exactly as it is depicted throughout this film. I thought William Daniels was especially good at not overtly revealing more than his frustration at not being able to get through to anyone on the phone. (According to the credits all this was inspired by an actual incident, although I wish I could find more details about that.) Apparently TIME Magazine didn't think much of this movie either. But to me it's a gem of an encapsulated moment in time, when Cold War paranoia was at its peak, and everyone had to face the possibility that they actually might not make it to adulthood, or even next Saturday.
Review of Ladybug Ladybug
