Seven Days to Noon

Professor Willingdon works on the nuclear weapons programme. One day he cannot bear what he is doing, takes a small warhead out of the laboratory and disappears. He sends the Prime Minister a letter: unless the government announces it is giving up nuclear weapons, he will set the bomb off in the middle of London at noon on Monday. There are seven days. Folland of Scotland Yard goes looking for him. In the end the government starts emptying London. Willingdon's daughter Ann tries to reach her father before anyone else does. John and Roy Boulting direct; ninety-four minutes, with Barry Jones as Willingdon. The scenes of the evacuated city were shot in the real streets of London. It won the Oscar for best motion picture story in 1952.