As a child of the 80s, I remember 1985’s cheesy Chuck Norris action flick Invasion USA - well, I recall it vaguely. Even as a stupid teen, I shied away from Chuck’s seemingly terrible movies.

I didn’t realize Norris’s Invasion acted as a remake of a 1952 film. When the latter showed up on my doorstep, I felt curious to give it a look.

As a group of strangers hang out at a Manhattan bar, shocking news comes across the airwaves. After weeks of tensions between the two sides, Communists attack the United States.

This sends the various barflies on their own missions. All of them do what they can to halt the Red Menace.

Which ends up as “not much” in this oddly structured little movie. Thanks to a low budget, much of the story concentrates on the aforementioned bar or other interior locations.

Granted, Invasion does come with a fair number of action scenes, but these don’t integrate well. Again due to the lack of money available to the producers, nearly all the battle scenes use archival or stock footage.

Given the broad array of sources involved, these don’t mesh at all. Indeed, they combine so badly that rather than spice up the proceedings, they make the story muddled and silly.

Perhaps Invasion might’ve worked better if it stayed exclusively in the bar where we meet the main characters. Maybe they could observe the war via TV and conflict with each other as they react.

Though I can’t say that’d clearly become an engaging drama, it’d almost certainly work better than the actual film. With its mix of character beats and awkward battles, the final product becomes a mess.

Another issue comes from the weak development of the bar patrons. We get basic introductions to them but they then go MIA for long stretches and we never really get to know – or care – about any of them.

Whereas these roles should allow us to invest us in the events on a human level, instead they just seem gratuitous. None of these elements feel natural or believable, so they end up as cheap melodrama fodder.

I will acknowledge that Invasion seems less cheesy than I expected – and probably holds up better than that Chuck Norris remake. Again, I never saw the latter, but I find it difficult to believe a 1985 anti-Communist Chuck Norris movie wouldn’t fill all olfactory senses with the odor of ripe cheddar.

“Less cheesy” doesn’t mean “not cheesy at all”, though, and Invasion indeed can lay it on thick. Still, I figured it’d reach a level of unintentional comedy it mostly manages to avoid.

Honestly, the basic narrative shows promise, and that’s probably why it got remade 33 years later. Though not quite as extreme as the McCarthy Era of the 1950s, we went through a pretty serious “Red Scare” phase during the Reagan years as well – and what’s old is new again given 2020s tensions thanks to the warmongering of Russia’s Putin.

Oddly, though, Invasion never names the Communists in question, so while most assume the movie refers to the Soviets, the film never specifies the enemy. Indeed, as portrayed, they seem more like Germans, though late in the film, some soldiers toss out a couple words of Russian.

Perhaps the filmmakers wanted to avoid poking the bear. Not that I suspect Stalin would’ve cared about some crappy B-movie, of course, but I can’t think of too many other reasons the producers refused to specify the identity of the attacking nation.

In any case, Invasion never turns into the campy dud I expected. That provides what we call faint praise, though, as the film provides a disjointed and not especially interesting melodrama that winds up with one of the dumbest endings imaginable.

Footnote: we see Dan O’Herlihy as one of the bar patrons. Robocop will enjoy the chance to see “The Old Man” as a young man.

Invasion USA appears in an aspect ratio of 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. The film boasted a decent image but not a great one.

Sharpness largely seemed pretty good, though inconsistent. While most of the movie looked reasonably concise, occasional soft spots manifested.

No issues with shimmering or jaggies occurred, and I saw no edge haloes. Though grain cropped up, I suspect a bit of noise reduction got used as well.

Print flaws popped up through the ample use of footage not specifically shot for Invasion. Those clips varied a lot in terms of quality.

While some looked pretty good, others became fuzzy and badly damaged. At least the material filmed for Invasion held up with only minor marks at most.

Blacks tended to seem a bit inky, and the image could feel a bit bright. I thought the image remained good enough for a “B-“ but the end result seemed less than stellar.

In addition, the movie’s DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack seemed dated but decent. Some noise reduction made the mix feel somewhat flat, though not to a severe degree.

This left speech as a little dull and some lines became slightly edgy. Dialogue still appeared intelligible and without significant issues, though.

Music and effects both leaned toward the trebly side of the street, and the latter showed some distortion. Nonetheless, both felt acceptable given their age. Again, nothing here impressed but this seemed like a perfectly adequate mix for a low-budget flick from 1952.

The disc comes with a bunch of extras, and we open with an audio commentary from film historian Jason A. Ney. He offers a running, screen-specific look at the movie’s production, cast and crew, genre domains, historical context, the flick’s release, publicity and reception and his thoughts about the flick.

Expect a pretty solid chat from Ney, as he covers a good array of domains. Though Ney loses a little steam as the track goes, he still offers more than enough useful info to keep us invested.

Called A Matter of Minutes, a featurette goes for 18 minutes. It provides remarks from actor’s son Tony Mohr.

“Minutes” looks at the life and career of actor Gerald Mohr. Tony Mohr offers some good insights and avoids too much fluff in this enjoyable chat.

Next comes a documentary entitled Better Dead Than Red. It lasts 36 minutes, six seconds and features narration from Larry Blamire but no remarks from anyone else.

With “Dead”, we learn about the Cold War and the 1950s “Red Scare” as well as how these events impacted Hollywood. “Dead” provides a pretty succinct summary.

Under Atomic Era Shorts Collection Part 1, we locate six Cold War reels. We find 1953’s A Is for Atom (14:43), 1954’s A New Look for the H Bomb (10:14), 1955’s About Fallout (23:35), 1960’s Stay Safe, Stay Strong (22:34), 1951’s Atomic Alert (10:38) and 1955’s Fallout (14:13).

All of these provide educational, civil defense and/or public service messages related to various nuclear domains, with an emphasis on issues related to weapons. Inevitably, they seem dated and quaint, but I like our ability to see how various authorities attempted to disseminate this information to the masses.

From 1951, And A Voice Should Be Heard (21:33) offers another short, one that looks at the communications network in Syracuse, New York. Though not fascinating, it gives us another intriguing view of 1950s informational films.

In addition to the film’s re-cut trailer, we find a Gallery of Stills that includes 27 images. These mix ads, shots of theaters and behind the scenes elements to form a small but engaging compilation.

The set concludes with a booklet that provides art and essays from film historians Don Stradley and Toby Roan. It adds value to the package. It connects to Invasion due to its focus on emergency messaging and it becomes another intriguing archival reel.

While not the campy disaster I feared I’d find, Invasion USA nonetheless fails to click. Despite a promising premise, the low budget flick lacks coherence and dramatic impact. The Blu-ray provides acceptable picture and audio along with an appealing roster of supplements. Invasion becomes interesting to see as an artifact of the 1950s “Red Scare” but it doesn’t hold up as a movie.

Note that this Blu-ray of Invasion USA comes as part of a double feature along with 1960’s Rocket Attack USA.