Dr. James Newslow is the mastermind behind Red Midnight (1966). He poured his money, heart, and passion into this film. Newslow’s fear of nuclear destruction drives Red Midnight. To make his nuclear scare film, Newslow recruited local nightclub act Johnny Bee and the Honeycombs, a bevy of sexy dancers, and plenty of stock footage of nuclear explosions. Newslow represents low budget ingenuity at its most unhinged and inspired.
The film follows a doctor (Joseph Sherriff) and a singer (Web Fleming) who are taken hostage by rogue foreign agents plotting to set off small nuclear bombs in America’s urban centers. Swimming pool tortures, nightclub hopping, and gratuitous female nudity make the adventure a memorable one. The plot stops and starts erratically, motivated by entertaining asides rather than the suspense promised by the simple premise of the film.
The varied spectacles loosely strung together are more or less unified by a hammy voice over that functions primarily to reiterate the dangers of nuclear bombs. Scenes of go-go dancers are cut short by the voice over as if to remind the viewer of what is supposedly at stake for our heroes. It’s a device not uncommon in independently produced genre pictures that does more to draw attention to the meager budget than the stock footage.
Interestingly, one of the lead heroes is played by a Black man who ends up being the only survivor of the main cast. He gets a musical number and he gets to survive. It’s almost unheard of in this type of film so it plays as rather subversive and progressive. It adds something special to the off-kilter nuttiness of Red Midnight, elevating its status among other regional offerings of the time.
