No Film to Watch: Pare Lorentz and the Atom Bomb

This chapter looks at documentarian Pare Lorentz’s attempt from 1948 to 1950 to produce an adaptation of David Bradley’s memoir No Place to Hide, which details the nuclear testing at Bikini Atoll following the Second World War. Examining the documents stored at Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, this chapter contextualizes the pursuit as what would have been a dramatic departure from Lorentz’s previous work in both politics and form. A chronology of the development and eventual abandonment of this project begins with an examination of Lorentz’s own research on atomic warfare, including his numerous correspondences with Bradley. Special attention is also paid to the various screenplay drafts, which demonstrate a cinematic approach at odds with Lorentz’s traditional style featured in his surviving works. Preproduction notes reveal the filmmaker’s recruitment of numerous public figures to appear onscreen including Eleanor Roosevelt, Albert Einstein, and Supreme Court Justice William Douglas. Correspondances with government officials including Secretary of State George Marshall ultimately indicate exactly why a documentarian once known as "FDR’s filmmaker" could not get funding under the Truman administration to direct what would have been his final work.