History Film / InvasionUSA1952

* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: There's a lot of accusations of being a sissy in the film. The MartyStu TV reporter, of course, is a man's man; but even he gets hit by it a little, when he acts AfraidOfNeedles while giving blood (although in that instance he's probably just flirting).

* BrokenAesop: To defeat Communism, cede your time, money, businesses, and even identity to your government and country. In other words, [[StartXToStopX defeat communism with more communism]]! Near the beginning of the film, the tractor manufacturer even explicitly refers to the universal draft ''as'' communism.

->'''Mr. Ohman:''' The manufacturer wants more war orders, and lower taxes. Labor wants more consumable products, and a 30-hour week. The college boy wants a stronger army, and a deferment for himself. The businessman wants a stronger Air Force, and a new Cadillac. The housewife wants security, and a new dishwasher. Everyone wants a stronger America, and we all want the same man to pay for it. George. Let George do it.\\

No relation to the [[Film/InvasionUSA1985 1985 Chuck Norris movie]] of the same title.

* AnyoneCanDie: The main characters drop like flies throughout the film, and it starts fairly early. At least two of them (the factory owner and the senator) are killed in the midst of [[RedemptionEqualsDeath attempting to reverse]] their earlier BystanderSyndrome attitudes.

* CriticalResearchFailure: {{Invoked}} in the SpotTheImpostor scene. Seriously, an infiltration unit should be far better briefed.

* CoversAlwaysLie: Don't let the poster fool you. Carla is wearing trousers when she jumps out the window. Sorry, fellas! No PantyShot![[note]]Maybe that's what the blurb at the top means when it says "it will scare the pants off you"...[[/note]]

* MoralDissonance: Apparently it was wrong for one of the characters to turn down the offer by the government to take control of his tractor factory to build tanks to fight the communists -- an act which would have been very communistic in itself.
** The major himself, although understandably 100% correct in his logic, is terrible at convincing the guy, too; making no attempt to persuade or reason with him, offer any compensation, or impart the gravity of the situation, he simply tells him he should do it because the Army ''needs'' tank parts. Sylvester, on the other hand, is selfish and bullheaded, but he gets the chance to lay out a good counterargument by explaining that his distributors rely on his tractors, and you can't just freeze them out for patriotism's sake. The major then has the gall to reply that one day the Army will have to seize uncooperative plants by force, as if he'd just turned down a totally reasonable offer, giving Sylvester another chance to attack him.

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''Invasion U.S.A.'' is a 1950s RedScare [[PropagandaPiece propaganda film]] that purports to show the American audience how quickly the UsefulNotes/ColdWar could heat up and the importance of the military-industrial complex and the universal draft (and by universal, they don't mean the usual interpretation of drafting women into the armed forces -- no, they mean ''everything'').

''Invasion U.S.A.'' is a 1950s RedScare [[PropagandaPiece propaganda film]] that purports to show the American audience how quickly the UsefulNotes/ColdWar could heat up and the importance of the military-industrial complex.

''[everyone laughs]''

* MeaningfulName: Mr. Ohman, who hypnotizes everyone into seeing an ''Omen'' of things to come.

** The major himself, although understandably 100% correct in his logic, is terrible at convincing the guy, too; making no attempt to persuade or reason with him or offer him any compensation, he simply tells him he should do it because the Army ''needs'' tank parts, then has the gall to reply that one day the Army will have to seize uncooperative plants by force when the owner says no, as if he'd just turned down a perfectly reasonable offer. Sylvester, on the other hand, is selfish and bullheaded, but he gets the chance to lay out a good counterargument by explaining that his distributors rely on his tractors, and you can't just freeze them out for patriotism's sake.

* MoralDissonance: Apparently it was wrong for one of the characters to turn down the offer by the government to take control of his tractor factory to build tanks to fight the communists -- an act which would have been very communistic in itself. The major himself, although understandably 100% correct in his logic, is terrible at convincing the guy, too; making no attempt to persuade or reason with the guy or offer him any compensation, he simply tells him he should do it because the Army says so, then has the gall to reply that one day the Army will have to seize uncooperative plants by force when the owner says no, as if he'd just turned down a perfectly reasonable offer.

* MoralDissonance: Apparently it was wrong for one of the characters to turn down the offer by the government to take control of his tractor factory to build tanks to fight the communists; an act which would have been very communistic in itself.

* BrokenAesop: To defeat Communism, cede your time, money, businesses, and even identity to your government and country. In other words, [[StartXToStopX defeat communism with more communism]]!
** Near the beginning of the film, the tractor manufacturer explicitly refers to the universal draft ''as'' communism.

* NeutralFemale: The movie ends with everyone thinking about what they could do to stave off a Soviet invasion. All except Carla. Nothing she does either way would affect anything. In fact, she's just yet another war prize when the invasion happens. She did work as a nurse during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.

* WhileRomeBurns: Discussed. One of the bar patrons asks the bartender what he'll do if WorldWarIII breaks out; the man replies he'll do the same thing he did during [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the last World War]] -- serve drinks. [[TemptingFate Not one minute later]], "The Enemy" bombs New York, and the bartender is among the dead.

One day in a bar, with news of Cold War tensions on the TV, a reporter comes in to ask the patrons -- a motley bunch from all walks of life -- if they support allowing the U.S. government to take over companies in the name of the Cold War effort. Most of the patrons are skeptical except for a strange man nursing a wine glass at the end of the bar -- one Mr. Ohman (Dan O'Herlihy), who delivers a [[WhatTheHellHero What The Hell, Citizen]] speech to everyone accusing them of just wanting to wish their problems dead instead of doing what needed to be done. After mesmerizing his audience with his speech before leaving, the patrons quickly discover that the U.S. is now in the middle of {{World War III}}, as "[[CommieLand the Enemy]]" ([[BlatantLies totally not]] [[HammerAndSickleRemovedForYourProtection the Soviet Union]]) conducts an audacious plan to invade the North American mainland, with both nukes and paratroopers flying freely. The main characters try to do what they can, but somehow every request of the military-industrial complex that they'd been complaining about or ignoring comes back to bite the U.S. at the worst possible time, and the cast starts dropping like flies before the Red onslaught.

* BigDamPlot: The Soviets nuke Hoover Dam (referred to in the film by its old name, "Boulder Dam"), causing Boulder City to be flooded, and presumably cutting off power.

* DeadlineNews: A reporter covering one battle against the Enemy's forces has his signal cut off while his position is being overrun. Also, the reporter hero's final broadcast near the end of the film.

* DressingAsTheEnemy: The Enemy soldiers are equipped with American uniforms and weapons, allowing them to infiltrate Washington , D.C. and kill off most of Congress.

* HollywoodTactics: Ranges from the "Enemy"'s liberal use of nuclear weapons to paratroopers being dropped while under machine gun fire.

* ItsRainingMen: The way the "enemy" invades America.
* TheJuggernaut: No matter how much the American military throws at the Enemy forces, the Enemy just keeps on coming, seemingly unstoppable and invincible. It's especially egregious given the President's claim that the U.S. is striking back at the Enemy's homeland, three strikes for every one of theirs (on the other hand, given how [[SwissCheeseSecurity pathetic]] the U.S. military is depicted herein, said three-fold retaliation could be just an exaggeration to boost morale).

* KilledMidSentence: The traffic controller at Peace Harbor, Alaska -- the "Enemy"'s beachhead for the invasion.

* OmniscientCouncilOfVagueness: The "Enemy"'s war room, with a huge wall map of the United States and "the most feared Geography teacher of Central High".

** The Senator, who previously had advocated for reductions in military spending, spends the crisis giving an impassioned speech to Congress urging everyone to pour every last morsel of their resources into the military. In the middle of his speech, the "Enemy" storms the Capitol, and the Senator is gunned down in the ensuing panic.

* SpotTheImposter: Used when the "Enemy" sends its troops disguised as Americans to infiltrate Washington, DC, and one infiltrator claims to be from a Chicago unit.

* SwissCheeseSecurity: Even given the film's Aesop, only ''two guards'' are posted to defend the seat of government in Washington? It's not just Washington but ''the whole country.'' Are there more than 10 American soldiers in the entire movie? And if the Russians captured Alaska to use as a launching platform to invade the USA, where is ''Canada's'' army to stop them going through Canadian territory to reach the continental US?
* TelevisionGeography: Enemy paratroopers are shown landing on a beach supposedly outside Washington, D.C., which is 30+ miles from the Atlantic Ocean. A similar landing is shown at the wide open plains of Puget Sound in western Washington state, a region covered in trees and hills for hundreds of miles around.
* WhileRomeBurns: Discussed. One of the bar patrons asks the bartender what he'll do if WorldWarIII breaks out; the man replies he'll do the same thing he did during [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the last World War]] -- serve drinks. [[TemptingFate Not one minute later]], the "Enemy" bombs New York, and the bartender is among the dead.

One day in a bar, with news of Cold War tensions on the TV, a reporter comes in to ask the patrons -- a motley bunch from all walks of life -- if they support allowing the U.S. government to take over companies in the name of the Cold War effort. Most of the patrons are skeptical except for a strange man nursing a wine glass at the end of the bar -- one Mr. Ohman (Dan O'Herlihy), who delivers a [[WhatTheHellHero What The Hell, Citizen]] speech to everyone accusing them of just wanting to wish their problems dead instead of doing what needed to be done. After mesmerizing his audience with his speech before leaving, the patrons quickly discover that the U.S. is now in the middle of {{World War III}}, as "[[CommieLand the Enemy]]" ([[BlatantLies totally not the Soviet Union]]) conducts an audacious plan to invade the North American mainland, with both nukes and paratroopers flying freely. The main characters try to do what they can, but somehow every request of the military-industrial complex that they'd been complaining about or ignoring comes back to bite the U.S. at the worst possible time, and the cast starts dropping like flies before the Red onslaught.

** Near the beginning of the film, the tractor manufacturer explicitly refers to the universal draft as communism.

One day in a bar, with news of Cold War tensions on the TV, a reporter comes in to ask the patrons -- a motley bunch from all walks of life -- if they support allowing the U.S. government to take over companies in the name of the cold war effort. Most of the patrons are skeptical except for a strange man nursing a wine glass at the end of the bar -- one Mr. Ohman (Dan O'Herlihy), who delivers a [[WhatTheHellHero What The Hell, Citizen]] speech to everyone accusing them of just wanting to wish their problems dead instead of doing what needed to be done. After mesmerizing his audience with his speech before leaving, the patrons quickly discover that the U.S. is now in the middle of {{World War III}}, as "[[CommieLand the Enemy]]" ([[BlatantLies totally not the Soviet Union]]) conducts an audacious plan to invade the North American mainland, with both nukes and paratroopers flying freely. The main characters try to do what they can, but somehow every request of the military-industrial complex that they'd been complaining about or ignoring comes back to bite the U.S. at the worst possible time, and the cast starts dropping like flies before the Red onslaught.

* ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics: The film was made less than a decade after World War II, when people had especially little idea how nuclear weapons worked. The weapons called "Atom Bombs" are just vaguely better ([[StockFootage and visually identical]]) versions of conventional explosives, not devices that leave a thousand mile wake of irradiated fallout. Hence, [[DirtyCommunists "The Enemy"]] throw nuclear weapons like peanuts, blowing up [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill airfields, dams, battleships, small out of the way towns, and cities (repeatedly)]], technically negating the very concept of an "invasion", since there'd be nothing actually left to occupy for about fifty years. As a particularly ludicrous example, the nuclear bombing of New York City results in only twenty thousand deaths. There's also the matter of the nuclear ''torpedo,'' which somehow only sets its target on fire instead of vaporizing it and everything a mile out in every direction.
** In fairness, this was TruthInTelevision as far as 1952 was concerned: the hydrogen bomb was still experimental and the American atomic stockpile consisted of mostly Mark 4, 5, and 6 gravity bombs with a maximum yield of about 180 kT, from half to a third of modern strategic yields. Given limited miniaturization, tactical atomics were also experimental; the 8 to 61 kT Mark 7 had only just entered into service in 1952 and a torpedo-based weapon probably ''would'' only set fires if it didn't hit directly. Military doctrine basically treated atomics as really powerful versions of their conventional counterparts and planned to use them the exact same way; Operation Plumbbob in 1957--the one with the films of soldiers marching into a mushroom cloud--was a test of this doctrine. This is how people thought nuclear war would be fought in 1952, and it's probably how it would've been thought... except that in 1952 the U.S. had 841 bombs and the U.S.S.R. 50, so they wouldn't have been tossed around like candy.

* BystanderSyndrome / NotInMyBackYard: Discussed when Mr. Ohman points out to the bar patrons that everybody wants the problems of DirtyCommies solved, but they all want someone else to make the necessary efforts and sacrifices (the metaphorical "George").

* CriticalResearchFailure: Invoked in the SpotTheImpostor scene. Seriously, an infiltration unit should be far better briefed.

* TheJuggernaut: No matter how much the American military throws at the Enemy forces, the Enemy just keeps on coming, seemingly unstoppable and invincible. It's especially egregious given the President's claim that the U.S. is striking back at the Enemy's homeland, three strikes for every one of theirs. (On the other hand, given how [[SwissCheeseSecurity pathetic]] the U.S. military is depicted herein, said three-fold retaliation could be just an exaggeration to boost morale.)

* SwissCheeseSecurity: Even given the film's Aesop, only ''two guards'' are posted to defend the seat of government in Washington?
** Not just Washington but ''the whole country.'' Are there more than 10 American soldiers in the entire movie? And if the Russians captured Alaska to use as a launching platform to invade the USA, where is ''Canada's'' army to stop them going through Canadian territory to reach the continental US?

* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: There's a lot of accusations of being a sissy in the film. The MartyStu TV reporter, of course, is a man's man.

* RedemptionEqualsDeath: The factory owner spends his last few minutes of life trying to work out a deal with the U.S. Army and, when the invasion overtakes him, refusing to kowtow to the invaders even in full knowledge that they will just shoot him.