Duck and Cover (1951)

Synopsis

Duck and Cover is a 1952 American civil defense animated and live action social guidance film that is often characterized as propaganda. It has similar themes to the more adult-oriented civil defense training films.

The film starts with an animated sequence, showing Bert, an anthropomorphic turtle walking down a road while picking up a flower and smelling it. A chorus sings the Duck and Cover theme: Bert is shown being attacked by a monkey holding a lit firecracker or stick of dynamite on the end of a string. Bert ducks into his shell as the charge goes off; it destroys both the monkey and the tree in which he is sitting, but Bert is left unharmed. The film then switches to live footage, as narrator Middleton explains what children should do "when you see the flash" of an atomic bomb.

Summary adapted from the Wikipedia article Duck and Cover (film) (text available under CC BY-SA 4.0).