Melodrama is doing for movies today what it did for theatres at the century's turn -- saving them. When writers get lost in the cliches of their trade, and find it easiest to guide well-known characters through well-known roles, then producers give their writers an extended vacation and dig into their files under "M."

The ploy usually works since audiences enjoy melodrama. Change the century's villain from a landlord to the communists, the hero from a farm boy to the F.B.I., the issue from this month's rent to atom bomb secrets, and a skillful director can guide unknown actors toward familiar outcomes to the satisfaction of everyone involved. Jerry Hooper is one skillful director.

the Atomic City opens with a bang, the biggest bang of the century -- an atomic bomb explosion. This, plus the setting of part of the plot in Los Alamos, the Oak Ridge of the Southwest, gives the film its title. But the legend of Simon Legree gives it its plot.

For the second time on the screen this month, the F.B.I. relentlessly tracks down its red prey. But while its success is due to modern science in Walk East on Beacon, it is due on ancient fate and blind luck in The Atomic City . Save for a junior, tow-headed edition of Lanny Budd on a bicycle and a raffle ticket, Joe Stalin might be sitting in the White House even now, the country's cities in ruins.

It's fun to watch a spy story. By shooting old situations from new angles, Hopper sustains the high key of suspense, set at the outset, until the country and its morals are rescued in the end. It is a thoroughly enjoyable picture, in the same way the Curse You, Jack Dalton was a thoroughly play in '02, and for the same reasons.