The Beginning or the End

Director: Norman Taurog, Eduardo Coutinho Norman Taurog

Overview

Filmed not long after the actual events, The Beginning or the End is a sober, intelligent account of the development and deployment of the Atom Bomb. Step by step, the film details the progress of The Manhattan Project, from its inception in the early stages of the war through the dawn of the Atomic Age over the city of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Brian Donlevy stars as Brigadier General Leslie Groves, assigned by President Roosevelt (Godfrey Tearle) to act as military supervisor of the top-secret project at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. After a grueling trial-and-error period, the first atomic bomb is tested before an assemblage of scientists and military personnel-even though there's the disturbing possibility that the explosion may cause a chain reaction that will wipe out all mankind. Woven into the proceedings is an unnecessary but innocuous romance between idealistic young scientist Matt Cochran (Tom Drake) and his new bride Anne (Beverly Tyler), who cannot understand why she and her husband are forced to live in isolation with scores of other scientists and their families because Matt, like his associates, has been sworn to total secrecy. Though the Cochrans are fictional, many real-life participants in the Manhattan Project are depicted herein, including J. Robert Oppenheimer (played by Hume Cronyn), Enrico Fermi (Joseph Calleia), Albert Einstein (Ludwig Stossel) and Col. Paul Tibbetts (Barry Nelson), pilot of the bomb-bearing Enola Gay. Refreshingly free of propagandizing, Beginning or the End would make an excellent companion feature to Fat Man and Little Boy (1990), a highly politicized retelling of the same events.

Product Details

Release Date:	09/22/2015
UPC:	0888574330200
Original Release:	1947
Rating:	NR
Source:	Warner Archives
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono, Dolby Digital Stereo]
Language:	English
Time:	1:52:00

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Brian Donlevy	Maj. Gen. Leslie Groves
Tom Drake	Matt Cochran
Robert Walker	Col. Jeff Nixon,Grace Tully
Beverly Tyler	Anne Cochran
Audrey Totter	Jean O'Leary
Hume Cronyn	Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer
Hurd Hatfield	Dr. John Wyatt
Joseph Calleia	Dr. Enrico Fermi
Godfrey Tearle	President Roosevelt
Victor Francen	Dr. Marre
Richard Haydn	Dr. Chisholm
Jonathan Hale	Dr. Vannevar Bush
John Litel	K.T. Keller
Henry O'Neill	Gen. Thomas F. Farrell
Warner Anderson	Capt. Parsons, USN
Barry Nelson	Col. Paul Tibbets Jr.
Art Baker	President Truman
Ludwig Stossel	Dr. Albert Einstein
John Hamilton	Dr. Harold C. Urey
Eduardo Coutinho	Actor
Trevor Bardette	Clinic Doctor
James Bush	Dr. Ernest O. Lawrence
Jimmy Davis	Pilot at Tinian
Edward Earle	Charles G. Ross
Frank Ferguson	Dr. James B. Conant
John Gallaudet	Dr. Leo Szilard
Paul Harvey	Lieutenant General W.D. Styer
Larry Johns	Quaker Scientist
Robert Keane	Dr. Rand
Norman Lloyd	Dr. Troyanski
Damian O'Flynn	C.D. Howe
Moroni Olsen	Dr. Arthur H. Compton
Tom Stevenson	Dr. E.P. Winger
Charles Trowbridge	Walter S. Carpenter Jr.
Frank Wilcox	Dr. W.H. Zinn
William Wright	Colonel John Lansdale
Huntz Hall	Brehon Somervel
Daniele Amfitheatrof	Composer

Technical Credits

Frank Wead

Norman Taurog	Director
Frank Wead	Screenwriter
Samuel Marx	Producer
Eduardo Coutinho	Director
Warren Newcombe	Special Effects
A. Gillespie	Special Effects