1950s or early '60s America as Police State Movie

[sandbagger]

Here it goes, this is what I remember. It aired on TBS back in the late '80s. It's opening shot is on the flag of something called The American Internal Security Agency which has a block of text superimposed on it laying out that America has become a Police State due to its battle against communist subversives. The plot centers on the agents of this organization hunting a particular dissident. It has a scene where the head of the security arrives in town on his special train and everyone in the train station is forced to lie flat on the ground including a bell ringing Santa. While this guy disembarks and exits the station.


 Can someone please help with the title.

[316zombie]

i think that's called"amerika", i'll check imdb...

[sandbagger]

It's not Amerika. This was a late '50s early '60s film.

[Rayo Casablanca]

Was it B&W? Could it have been an episode of a television series?
Red Scare type film?

[316zombie]

sorry, i misread your post. i thought it was made to LOOK like an older film, but in the 80's.

[sandbagger]

It was in color and it was definitely a film not a t.v. show. It struck me as being more anti-McCarthy than Red Scare.

[Rayo Casablanca]

Reminds me of something by Peter Watkins, like Punishment Park. Only that was in '71 and was hippies being hunted down in a future fascist America.

Do you remember anything regarding the plot? Were the "hunters" the central characters? Was it low budget?

[Rayo Casablanca]

I think I figured this bad boy out:

It's a NBC TV pilot, rarely broadcast, called Shadow of the Land (1968) (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063589/)

Described thusly:
"This film deals with the aftermath of the U.S. being placed under the control of the ISF, the "Internal Security Forces" in the wake of cleverly staged "terrorist" attacks. All it needs is a few more "terrorist" attacks, and the U.S. will be placed under control of a dictatorship , who will root out and destroy the terrorists. Freedom is already lost. All it needs is a few more actions to give total control by the ruling junta. The mission of the freedom fighters is to stop the attempted sabotage of a power plant by the agents of the government. Watch it and get chills."

"A fascist dictatorship takes over the country in an "election" when everyone is scared by events. No longer called the president, he is now "The Leader" (which is what Der Fuhrer means) and has taken emergency powers voted in by a panicked Congress (a la' The PATRIOT ACT) and has created a Gestapo called the Internal Security Force (Homeland Security). People can't pass from one part of the country to another without an internal passport, a la' the old Soviet Union (and the proposed national ID cards now). A small resistance called the Society of Man learns from a patriotic Air Force colonel that the INF is going to launch terrorist attacks to blame on the resistance to take even more control and erode public support for the Society of Man."

[sandbagger]

 That may be it. Now I just need to get a copy of it to confirm. 



Thank you.