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Red Nightmare was made in 1962 for the U.S. Department of Defense (it is also known as Freedom and You), produced at Warner Bros. and hosted by Jack Webb, the deadpan face of Dragnet. It opens on a claim that a model American town was built inside the Soviet Union to train spies: "From all appearance, this community could be in Iowa, California, or Tennessee" (00:42).

Then it meets Jerry Donovan, played by Jack Kelly of Maverick. Jerry is not a bad man. He just skips the PTA and the meetings, and has his excuses ready: "Besides, Wednesday's my bowling night" (05:26). So the narrator decides to give him "a real red nightmare" (09:46).

Jerry wakes up in the same town under communism. He needs a permit to phone his wife. His daughter is sent away to work. His own son tells him, "As a member of the Young Pioneers, it will be my duty to report you" (17:07). His church is now "the people's museum," with a display claiming the telephone was a Russian invention. At his trial his wife and friends confirm signed statements against him, and he is sentenced to be "liquidated." Then the narrator stops the bullet: "That bullet will never reach you" (24:03). Jerry wakes up in bed, grateful for his ordinary life.

The film's argument is spelled out at the end: "Freedom is not hereditary. It must be earned" (27:01). What makes it so watchable now is the size of the crime. The whole nightmare is what he gets for bowling night.