Donna Reed and her Iowa science teacher sought to spotlight the horror of the atomic bomb. Then the White House got involved.
The studio promised it would be a prestigious motion picture, with big stars and stunning visual effects. The movie would tell the true story of the creation of the atomic bomb, and give people a fuller understanding of what it means to live in a world with such weapons. It was 1947, 76 years before Oppenheimer, and The Beginning or the End was the first feature film about the Manhattan Project and the destruction of Hiroshima.
If you’ve never heard of The Beginning or the End, that’s because none of what the studio promised happened. But Donna Reed was involved. Read Emma McClatchey's article.