EVEN DeepER Blurting!: DBNS: Alone Again, Unnaturally

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DBNS: Alone Again, Unnaturally

Posted by Kenneth Morgan on 2/28/2009, 10:39 pm

Today, Kenneth Morgan is looking for some company.
*****
Not too long ago, I wrote a review of “The Last Man on Earth” with Vincent Price. I noted that it’s one of a part of the whole post-Apocalypse group of stories, more specifically the part where most of the rest of humanity is, for one reason or another, gone. Now, there are a good number of such movies around, ranging from the recent hit “I Am Legend” (from the same source novel as “The Last Man on Earth”) to the more obscure New Zealand effort “The Quiet Earth” to the BBC series “The Survivors”. Well, I’m not writing about any of those today. Instead, I’m focusing on one that may be new to you; it was to me, anyway.

It’s our subject for today: “Where Have All the People Gone?”, a TV-Movie first broadcast on NBC in 1974.

The story opens with somewhere in the High Sierras in California, where the Anders family is on vacation. Steven (Peter Graves), his wife Barbara (Jay W. MacIntosh), college-age son David (George O’Hanlon, Jr.) and teen daughter Deborah (Kathleen Quinlan) are camping out and exploring some caves for fossils. When Barbara, who’s a scientist, has to leave early for an important meeting, the rest of the family stays behind with their guide, Clancy (Noble Willingham). Everything seems pretty normal…at first.

While the Anderses are exploring a cave, there’s suddenly a blinding flash of sunlight, followed by a mild earthquake. The family gets out of the cave OK, but they realize that something is wrong. Clancy, who was outside, suddenly becomes weak and shaky. Also, the radio only seems to pick up static. Based on his account of the flash of light, David (who’s studying physics) concludes that Clancy may have radiation poisoning, which he seems to confirm via a pretty clever test with a camera. With no car, civilization two days walk away and Clancy getting worse, the decision is made to carry him down from the hills and back home. En route, however, Clancy dies from his illness.

There’s some discussion about whether they should leave his remains and continue on, or bring him all the way back. The question becomes moot, though, when something shocking happens: they discover that Clancy’s body has vanished. All that’s left are his empty clothes and some strange powdery stuff like ash. The family arrives back in town and reaches Clancy’s home, only to find his family gone, except for the same strange remains. In fact, it seems that everyone in the town has suffered the same fate, though there are indications that some may have survived for a brief time.

The mysteries continue to pile up. They find a Geiger counter that shows that there is now no dangerous radiation. They discover that almost no electrical equipment, including car batteries, seems to work, leading David to suspect some sort of strange energy effect. Many animals in the area, mainly dogs, have suddenly become hostile. And they still haven’t found any other person alive. Determined to reach Barbara, who they hope was protected somehow, Steven leads his children on a trip across the state back to their home on the Pacific coast. Along the way, they encounter a few other survivors, not all of them friendly. In particular, there’s a young woman they call Ann (Verna Bloom) who’s been rendered nearly catatonic from some terrible emotional shock, and Michael (Michael-James Wixted), a boy who’s lost his parents in the aftermath.

As their journey continues, they still have few answers as to what could’ve happened to the rest of the population, and what they’ll eventually do after reaching home and Barbara. The answers are not what they expected…

I don’t remember seeing this movie back when it was first on TV. (Then again, 1974 was quite a while ago. Pre-“Space: 1999”, even.) I’d heard the title before, but knew pretty much nothing of the story. Not too long ago, I saw it running on cable on the Fox Movie Channel, so I figured I’d catch it. Actually, it’s a pretty good movie.

One good choice made by the filmmakers is that the movie is restrained. Given the TV budget, they wisely keep the focus on the Anders family, rather than the rest of the world. We eventually hear some information about what’s happening elsewhere, but it’s not that important, really. There is also, for the most part, a lack of a musical score, leaving most of the movie played against the quiet of the empty surroundings, which is pretty eerie. (There is, though, one moment when they reach a city where the soundtrack is put to very effective use.) And, while there are some scenes where the characters give in to the stress of the situation (including one crucial scene where even stalwart Steven is overwhelmed by events), the acting is fairly low key, a good choice by the cast and director John Llewellyn Moxey.

Another point is that the script by Lewis John Carlino and Sandor Stern keeps the exact cause of the disappearances vague, for the most part. Several theories are put forth, like solar flares and such, but the whole event is kept pretty mysterious. That’s another good choice, since we’re really not interested in a lot of technobabble. Besides, by keeping it undefined, they avoid the problem of some similar movies where the explanation just isn’t as interesting as the event itself (like, say, “The Happening”).

As I noted, I saw this movie when it was run on Fox Movie Channel. Unfortunately, we no longer live in the day when made-for-TV movies from the 70’s were common on our airwaves, particularly late at night. (Infomercials rule there now.) So, this one may be hard to come by. I did find, however, that it was released on VHS once, so you may have to prowl Amazon or Ebay to come across it. I’d say it’s worth the effort.

All in all, I can recommend “Where Have All the People Gone?” It’s a little-known but very effective story. I’ve read speculation that it might have even been intended as a pilot that never went to series. Shame, really; I’d have been interested in the story continuing.

That’s all for today. I’ve got to get some sleep, then I’m going out tomorrow to be around other people. I don’t feel like solitude around now.

Now, if I’d just seen “Soylent Green” again, I might have a different answer for you.

CONNECTIONS NOTE: Director John Llewellyn Moxey also directed the MSTed “San Francisco International”. Robert Prince, who composed the sparingly-heard music, also worked on the MSTed “Squirm”. Executive Producer Charles W. Fries also worked on another post-Apocalypse movie, the previously-reviewed “Chosen Survivors”. And Dan Barrows, briefly seen as an unfriendly fellow survivor, also appeared in the comedy “The Big Bus”, which I believe Dexter reviewed a while back. Is my memory accurate, Dex? And Peter Graves is well-known to us all...on "Biography".