Duck and Cover (film)

Duck and Cover is a civil defense social guidance film that is often popularly mischaracterized as propaganda. With similar themes to the more adult oriented civil defense training films, the film was widely distributed to United States schoolchildren in the 1950s. It instructionally teaches students on what to do in the event of a nuclear explosion.

Title card.

Directed by Anthony Rizzo. Written by Raymond J. Mauer.

Narrator

• It's a bomb! Duck and cover!
• Now we must be ready for a new danger: the atomic bomb.
• There might not be any grown-ups around when the Bomb explodes. Then... you're on your own.
• This is an official Civil Defense Film produced in cooperation with the Federal Civil Defense Administration and in consultation with the Safety Commission of the National Education Association.

Dialogue

Singers: ♪ Diddle Dum Dum. Diddle Dum Dum. ♪

♪ There was a turtle by the name of Bert. ♪

♪ And Bert the Turtle was very alert. ♪

♪ When danger threatened he never got hurt. ♪

♪ He knew just what to do... ♪

♪ He ducked and cover! ♪

♪ Duck and cover! ♪

♪ He did what we all must learn to do. ♪

♪ You and you and you and you. ♪

♪ Duck, and cover! ♪

---

[last lines of the short film]

Bert: Remember what to do, friends! Now tell me right out loud: what are you supposed to do when you see the flash?

Children: [off-screen] Duck... and cover!

Cast

• Robert Middleton as Narrator. (uncredited)
• Carl Ritchie as Bert. (uncredited)
• Leo M. Langlois III as Boy on Bike. (uncredited)
• Ray J. Mauer as Civil Defense Worker. (uncredited)

External links

• Encyclopedic article on Duck and Cover (film) on Wikipedia
• Media related to Duck and Cover on Wikimedia Commons
• Works related to Duck and Cover on Wikisource