Underplayed Gems

Surprise Attack

Surprise Attack poster
Country
United Kingdom
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More films like this

How it feels

A short British film shows what happens when an unvaccinated girl catches smallpox from her father. It follows public health workers as they contain the outbreak and warns parents about the dangers of ignoring vaccination advice.

informativesoberinginstructionaldatedearneststarkcautionarypublic-spirited

What happens

Surprise Attack is a British short film released in 1951 by the Crown Film Unit, and commissioned by the Ministry of Health, depicting the fictional story of a young unvaccinated girl who contracts smallpox after her father returns from the Far East. The film shows how control of a smallpox outbreak in an ordinary English town takes place, co-ordinated by the local medical officer of health (MOH). Although the girl survives the disease, she has to be sent to an isolation hospital and is left permanently scarred. Eleven further cases of smallpox occur, of whom four children die. John Le Mesurier played the role of the general practitioner (GP) physician in the film, which aimed to demonstrate the risks of ignoring official vaccination advice. The final scene sends a message to parents of the early 1950s that by the time their children are grown up, air travel will be common, creating an opportunity for infectious diseases to enter Britain. Despite recent outbreaks of smallpox in Britain occurring in 1949 and 1950, the film was a one-off and not part of a wider health education campaign. At least until the early 1960s, no further efforts were made to update or replace the film. Smallpox was ultimately certified to have been globally eradicated in 1980. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.