MEDICAL ASPECTS OF RADIATION (1950 - 20:14)
A pretty girl laying by a poolside serves as an example of nuclear ionization by the four different missiles of nuclear ejecta - gamma rays, neutrons, alpha & beta particles. Relying on a number of animated diagrams, one of which looks like several of the seven dwarves on the night shift, the machinery of the human mechanism (their words) is shown to slow up terminally, or not at all, based on radioactive exposure. Once you've been fully reassured that toupees are just fine as cure for radiation baldness, and that the mutations in your offspring will probably be for the better rather than the worse, you'll be pacified enough to remember all about that Roentgen meter stuff that came before it, and maybe all of that "half life" mumbo jumbo - who knows, you may even forget all about that sterility stuff, too!

THE HOUSE IN THE MIDDLE (1954 - 12:09)
Need one say more that "the premise of this film is that keeping your house neat & clean is your last best defense against nuclear attack"? OK - how about "this film was selected for the 2002 National Film Registry of 'artistically, culturally, and socially significant' films"? LOTS of atomic tests at the Nevada Proving Grounds, too - let alone mannequin families!

ATOMIC ALERT (ELEMENTARY VERSION) (1951 - 10:34)
This civil defense procedure film starts with the arming of a bunch of high school students with a geiger counter, which is promptly turned upon their own persons in the search for radioactive substances. Stressing "we're all on the team", the audience is asked "what is your job?". You don't have to answer, you're told what it is - it's to know and to act upon every little bit of nuclear what-do-you-do that's been packed into this film. We of today have much to learn from them then - this film's a veritable checklist of where to go, what to have, and what to do when - and if there's a knock on your door after a nuclear blast, it's not an atomic zombie - it's your friendly neighborhood block warden!

DUCK AND COVER (1951 - 9:15)
Hands down (and everything else), this is the most famous civil defense film of them all. This film for children, through the person of Bert the Turtle, teaches kids what to do in the event an atomic bomb is dropped. Just as Bert has a shell, kids have to learn how to take cover in their own way in case of a nuclear attack. Comparisons are made between things children already know and things that are like them in an atomic explosion - sunlight and atomic flash, sunburn and radiation, etc. - all in order to emphasize and impress upon them the danger. It's all done in an effort to communicate one over-riding message - kids must learn to fall to the ground and cover their necks and heads - in other words, to duck & cover!

OUR CITIES MUST FIGHT (1951 - 9:00)
A U.S. Federal Civil Defense Administration film on the need for America's city dwellers not to mind the fact that they are being nuked and to stand and fight an (imagined) invading enemy rather than evacuate.