Ladybug Ladybug (1963)
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In late 1962, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, an elementary school in rural California received warning of an imminent nuclear attack. As the yellow light flashed on their control panel, the administration tried to establish whether this was a fault or a test. Unable to get confirmation, they had to go through with procedure: the children were assembled in the playground and then escorted home on foot by the designated teachers.
Frank and Eleanor Perry’s 1963 film ‘Ladybug Ladybug’ uses this incident to examine what happens when kids are forced to confront the idea of death, not only their own, but that of their friends and families, their entire world. It’s a challenging concept even when you come face to face with the reality, but when the threat is abstract, when nothing or no one had died and there is no visible sign of danger, it’s something hard to get your head around. The adults know what might be coming, but even they are unsure, unwilling to believe, bewildered.
After the alarm sequence, the film consists of one simple action, the journey home. The kids are led along quiet country lanes, cross sunlit fields. It would be idyllic if not for the growing awareness of crisis. Panic on a long fuse. Then they arrive one by one at empty houses or encounter disbelieving and inconvenienced parents and they have to take matters into their own hands. It could be a bad dream. And the ending has the temperature of a child about to wake from a feverish nightmare.
