The Waking Point (1951) is a Civil Defence film aimed at increasing recruitment to the now long-abandoned Civil Defence Corps. I think this film is really about covering three main themes; recruiting to Civil Defence; explaining Civil Defence and trying to legitimise it. Unfortunately the film tends to demonstrate all too clearly the limitations of civil defence in the nuclear era. Unintentionally I think it explains that civil defence would break down almost immediately in the face of nuclear attack. Within the film just about all the serious deficiencies of civil defence that's been discussed in the nuclear era are all too apparent. The narrative of the story is set around an "every man" character in Joe Mercer ( John Slater , 1916-1975) who comes to realise that civil defence is universal after a mishap with his son getting trapped in a sandpit. At the end of the film he realises there is "still time" to train in civil defence after he dreams about ...