“If you want to change what you become, change what you are.”
In a New York City bar five people are sitting and chatting. They are a television newsman Vince Potter (Gerald Mohr), a beautiful young socialite Carla Sanford (Peggie Castle), a California industrialist George Sylvester (Robert Bice), a rancher from Arizona Ed Mulfory (Erik Blythe), and a Congressman from Arizona Arthur V. Harroway (Wade Crosby). Another patron name Mr. Ohman (Dan O’Herlihy) is drinking a brandy from a very large snifter. He is a fortune teller and a little mysterious.
The conversation in the bar turns to Communism. Everyone is against it and they all are appreciative of America and all the benefits they enjoy from being here. They are more concerned with taxes and enjoying their lives the way they are than of any threat from a foreign country. As Mr. Ohman (Omen?) swishes the brandy around his snifter he talks about how Americans want safety and security but they are not willing to sacrifice anything for it. As he continues to swirl his brandy the other patrons become transfixed on the motion of the brandy in the glass.
Mr. Ohman places his glass on the bar, gets up, and walks out. Everyone else is still focused on the snifter. The bartender Tim (Tom Kennedy) realizes that the news on the bar television has become worse. Everyone focuses now on the TV. Enemy attacks are happening over Seal Point and Nome Alaska. Paratroops have landed on Alaskan airfields. Civilian airfields are captured and military airfields are A-bombed. The US launches an attack on the enemy's homeland. The enemy moves forward into Washington and Oregon. There are large casualties. Shipyards are A-bombed.
The bar patrons are now in the thick of things and are doing what they can to aid in the effort. Potter continues broadcasting war news. Sanford volunteers at a blood bank. They fall in love. The rancher returns home to his family. They drown when Boulder Dam is destroyed. The industrialist tries to go back to his work and is killed by enemy combatants. The Congressman is killed in an attack on the Capitol. Potter is killed during a broadcast. Sanford jumps out a window when an enemy soldier tries to rape her.
All the while the enemy continues to advance. New York is A-bombed. Paratroopers descend dressed in American uniforms. The President of the United States spreads fake news with exaggerated claims of battles won and counter-attacks.
“Invasion U.S.A.” was released in 1952 and was directed by Alfred E. Green. The movie is basically stock footage interrupted now and then by people saying stuff. Many movies done during this period are labeled as “cold war” movies. This one is pretty obvious. At least with “Invasion U.S.A” you do get a historical view of war. The “enemy” is never actually mentioned, comrade.
The movie was made a mere 7 years after the end of WWII so it’s easy to see that at the time it was made, the wounds of war were still raw. Add to that McCarthyism was still going strong. It wasn’t until 1954 when Senator McCarthy accused the American Army of being infiltrated by Communists that America woke up to what a bully and a crack-pot he was. (He died of alcoholism in 1957 at the age of 48.)
Both Lois Lanes, Phyllis Coates and Noel Neill have teeny tiny parts in the movie.