Looking for a copy of "It Can't Happen Here"...

[CanuckAmok]

a Cold War movie produced by the American Legion.

I'm sure many of you 30something and older DUers must have been forced to watch it in school.

Does anyone know where I can find a copy? VHS or DVD, 3/4" (Umatic) or even 16mm film will do.

[izzie]

1. I do not recall it and I am that age.

Sounds like the book 'White Dawn' about a take over of the country.

[CanuckAmok]

2. Yes,

complete with armbanded (I assume red armbands, but the film is in black and white) civilians with bolt action rifles rounding up "real" americans and penning them up in a town square, and a memorable sequence which has been used in a few rock videos, of obvious miniatures of the Statue of Liberty, a country church, and Congress being blown up and crumbling into ash and dust...

I'm having a hard time finding a copy--I can't believe it's not still in current rotation in one school system of another.

[CanuckAmok]

3. Yes,

complete with armbanded (I assume red armbands, but the film is in black and white) civilians with bolt action rifles rounding up "real" americans and penning them up in a town square, and a memorable sequence which has been used in a few rock videos, of obvious miniatures of the Statue of Liberty, a country church, and Congress being blown up and crumbling into ash and dust...

I'm having a hard time finding a copy--I can't believe it's not still in current rotation in one school system of another.

[punpirate]

4. Wasn't aware that the American Legion had...

... produced such a film. The "It Can't Happen Here" is obviously reference back to Sinclair Lewis' novel, but likely adapted for Cold War purposes as propaganda against the Soviet Union.

I'm not finding any references to it, and as an elementary school student in the `50s, I don't remember such a film.

Do you have any more information with which to search (year of issue, any cast members, director, etc.)?

Cheers.

[CanuckAmok]

5. No, but I'll check with a friend at the NFB, because

They had to license the Legion film in order to use parts of it in "Atomic Cafe".

[punpirate]

6. That's a good hint...

... somewhere (somewhere!), I have a copy of "Atomic Cafe" on tape. I'll try to dig it out in the next day or two (uh, that's not an exaggeration--my storage room defies description).

Cheers.