Sci-Fi Film Fiesta: The Swingin' 60s, Volume 4 – Purple People Eaters and Trippy Creatures by Chris Christopoulos - HTML preview

“I assure you it's not for the greater glory of science. I just want

us to survive”

Lighthouse

Within the lighthouse, Tom and Karen work on dissecting and studying the dead triffid. Karen is pleased to see him working again but Tom assures her that he just wants them both to survive, and that if they can work out how the triffid functions, they might discover a more practical way of killing it. Once again, there is probably a lot more of significance lying behind his words and bluster than he is willing to admit.. He now has purpose and a goal and it is surprising how much meaning that can give to a mans life.

Karen convinces her husband to get some sleep if only for an hour. During that time, the apparently inert dead triffid specimen begins to move on the dissecting table. While Tom and Karen slumber, the triffid gradually reconstitutes itself and then slowly and stealthily makes its way upstairs to where their bedroom is located. Karen is suddenly awakened by a crashing sound below and goes to investigate. When she spots the source of the sound ascending the stairs, true to form she screams – Loudly! Not surprisingly, her scream scares the crap out of the triffid and it skedaddles the hell out of there. With the lab a complete mess and the lighthouse door smashed outwards, Tom deduces that the triffids “regenerate” and that “it's like like worms” when you “cut them in half and you can't kill them.” As Tom with sleeves rolled up high on his arms launches into action-man mode and repairs the door. Karen ominously observes, "It's like being nailed in your own coffin."

“Most plants thrive on animal waste, but I'm afraid this mutation

possesses an appetite for the animal”

While Masen refills the fuel tank on the generator, Bettina enters the utility room to talk to him about leaving for Spain. His earlier hard-edged uncompromising rationalism is somewhat diminished when he explains to her that the only way he can help is to try to find some “real help” and that he can't do it by staying put at the Chateau. He tells Betina that he’ll come back….if he can.

Later, Masen and Coker are in town foraging for supplies from the local store for the Chateau. Upopn spotting a lone triffid, Masen puts a couple of rounds into it but with little effect. Both men then head in the direction the triffid went and discover a multitude of growing triffids along with spores blowing about in the air. Coker had seen a triffid in a greenhouse several years previously and it was known that it had come “to Earth in a meteorite” and that “this reappearance must have been caused by the meteorite explosion of the other night.” The chilling thought is raised as to “why should they attack people” when “most plants thrive on animal waste?” The horrible conclusion is that “this mutation possesses an appetite for the animal.” As for the spores? “This must be how they propagate” and with millions of them around, “one light wind and they're everywhere.”

As far as Masen is concerned the situation now makes it imperative to “pack up and leave” the Chateau before they are swarmed by triffids. Christine, however will not hear of leaving behind to die those she grew up with and who are her friends.

Everyone’s attention is soon drawn to the sound of a plane overhead and when they go outside to see, the plane begins to experience engine trouble and descends before crashing. Masen and Coker go to investigate the plane crash. Before the pilot dies, he reveals some information concerning Toulon and “the Naval Base being a rescue centre.” Masen knows of the French base in the Mediterranean near Marselle. Suddenly both men find themselves surrounded by triffids. As they flee, Coker injures his ankle and as he is carried by Masen in a fireman’s lift, he is sprayed by a triffid and dies.

Later Masen makes his way back to the Chateau on foot only to discover loud music being played and that escaped convicts have invaded the building. Upon finding Susan, she tells Masen that the convicts who can all see have taken all the females in there and “made them dance with them” and that they had “brought all kind of food and whisky.”

In this instance, a crisis has managed to bring out the worst in the worst kind of people. Within the confines of the Chateau, all sense of morality, human decency and order has broken down and is replaced by the satisfaction of personal lusts and desires. Within the Chateau faith and hope is abandoned and the law of the jungle reigns supreme in which the individual takes whatever they want and gives themselves over to e very kind of vice.

Bill takes Susan outside to a parked prison van then returns to the house to rescue Christine. As he accomplishes this, Bettina makes her way outside but is killed by the triffids who have begun to overrun the Chateau. In the end, Masen, Susan and Christine survive by fleeing in the prison van.

“You're alive and you wonder why”

Toulon

After driving all night, Masen, Christine and Susan arrive in Toulon the next day. To their dismay, all they they see before them is a scene of utter destruction. Their next destination is to be an American Naval Base near Cadiz.

During the drive the matter of ‘survivor’s guilt’ is raised in which Masen understands how Christine must be feeling knowing that she survived while the others perished. The inevitable question that eats at someone who finds themselves in such a situation is Why me? Why did I survive and the others didn’t? “Why me, why not someone better?”

Spain

The trio finally make it into Spain, albeit with just a horse and cart. While Masen and Christine are preparing a meal and experience feelings for each other beginning to surface, they unexpectedly hear music coming from outside. It is Susan who has found a ‘Toto Circo’ truck with a loudspeaker.

The discovery of the little clown truck raises another of those ethical questions that have be dealt with during times of crisis resulting in hard lessons that need to be learned along with tough decisions that have to be made, all in the interests of survival. If our trio is to make use of the truck, this will necessitate the abandonment of the horse. Not surprisingly, a mortified Susan will not hear of this. It may not be fair, but little is really fair in life and sometimes one just has to settle for what is best or right for everyone concerned. There is no sense in shielding Susan from such tough lessons if she is to survive in these changed conditions.

“There's an answer here in front of us, there has to be!”

Lighthouse

Tom and Karen are hard at work trying to discover something that will affect the triffid tissue but they find that “nothing, absolutely nothing seems to affect this tissue!” After all, the triffids “live, they grow, they take nourishment, they have sensory response, they absorb and spend energy.” Whatever they are made of, something must “interrupt their life cycle.”

Karen recalls the last radio call from Devonport and compares it to “listening to the end of the world.” Interestingly enough, her husband who previously been despondent and cynical retorts that it is not the end of the world and declares that there has to be an answer. Karen comes up with yet another less than cheery analogy for their predicament with the triffids outside the lighthouse staring in. She compares it to being like having “ guards outside a condemned cell.”

Casa de la Vega

(House of the Meadow)

Heading toward the American naval base in Cádiz, Masen, Christine and Susan are brought to a halt by roped off roadblock. Beyond they catch sight of a large, white villa toward which they begin walking. When they arrive they are met at the door by Luis de la Vega and his wife, Teresa de la Vega. Teresa is pregnant and is very close to giving birth. The couple are both blind, but Teresa had lost her sight years ago. She along with others who are visually impaired would probably fare better than most in this new world.

The others soon learn from Luis that the Naval Base had to be evacuated by submarine. He had heard on the radio that some submarines had been submerged during the night of the meteorites and that their entire crews had not been afflicted by blindness. Luis had trad to communicate with them but his transmitter wouldn’t function. While Christine and Susan begin to make preparations for the delivery of Teresa’s baby, Masen sets about the repair of the radio.

When the radio functions the following broadcast comes through:

“….Survivor pickup will be on Saturday at Alacante. We repeat our warning: vast bands

of triffids are roaming the area. Do not travel at night. Barricade all doors. We repeat

our warning. Do not travel at night. Barricade all doors. Final. Survivor pickup will be

on Saturday at Alacante……”

This means that the little group at the villa will have to leave the very next day in the morning.

“It's sound that attracts them”

That night, Masen sets about electrifying the villa’s fence while a short time time later at the other side of the fence a gathering of triffids have taken up position and appear intent on gaining access to their human quarry. Susan speculates that the plants might be able hear and are therefore attracted to sound. The switching off of the generator confirms this. Meanwhile, Teresa has given birth to a baby boy. However, any feeling of initial hope and joy is short-lived when, with the villa surrounded by a mass of triffids, the electric fence proves not to be effective due to weak electrical current. When triffids begin their concerted attack, Masen, during a moment of inspiration, believes that fire might just well prove to be effective. Consequently, he resorts to using a makeshift flamethrower made from a large hose attached to a small petrol tanker truck. The flame thrower ignites the triffids but there are just too many of them.

“This is the Gibralta rescue centre for the Mediterranean area.

Our pickup at Alacante has been made on schedule. This is the

final rescue operation for the present...”

Dash for Gibraltar

Amidst a pall of thick smoke, everyone except Masen has piled into the de la Vega’s car. It is planned that they’ll all meet up in Alacante near Gibraltar where a mass evacuation is to take place the next day. Meanwhile, Masen intends to use the little truck and its loudspeaker to attract the triffids. The plan is successful and Masen leaps out of the truck and makes his way to the rendezvous point. The rest of the party arrive at the Naval Base and board a submarine. Just before it is about to depart, Masen dives into the water and is picked up by a search party of sailors on a survival raft near to where Masen dove into the water.

“You hunt and you search and all the while the answer is right in

front of you."

Lighthouse

Just as Tom and Karen hear of the rescue at Gibraltar on the radio, the triffids begin to break into the lighthouse and pursue the Goodwins steadily up to the top floor, in a scene that is reminiscent of the alien chasing the crew of a spaceship to the top-most levels in the film,“It,The Terror From Beyond Space.” With few options left, Tom decides to use the fire hose to direct seawater at the Triffids. Masen had used fire in a similar move and now Tom is successfully employing sea water which acts like an acid on the Triffids - plants that grew from and then liberated themselves from the earth and set about propagating themselves by means of spores spread by the wind. As the triffids steam and dissolve, Tom observes, "Seawater. Two-thirds of the Earth is covered with it. You hunt and you search and all the while the answer is right in front of you."

In the end we come full circle with the realization that “nature's scheme of things” can be seen to be at work if we choose to look carefully. In this instance, a simple method had been found to destroy the triffids in the form of sea water “from which life on Earth had sprung” and had “became the means of preserving life on Earth.” The idea of having faith in something greater than ourselves even during times of peril is reinforced by the idea that mankind has reason to give thanks for having survived as does Masen, Christine, and Susan along with many of their fellow human beings who are seen ascending and entering into a cathedral.

Points of In Interest

Kieron Moore who played Tom Goodwin starred in other science fiction films like Satellite in the Sky (1956) and Crack in the World (1965).

Apparently filming had to be cut short as the producers ran out of money before they had the chance to film a lighthouse sequence where the character Tom hits upon the idea for killing the triffids.

Initially, the final film ran for only 60 minutes necessitating the inclusion of extra material. It has been alleged that there had been a reluctance or inability to spend the money for shooting major action and special effects sequences planned for Spain. There was also a requirement to spend most of the money in England to qualify for a government subsidy under the ‘Eady Plan.’

A new story line was devised which added thirty minutes of screen time but due to the potential expense involved did not involve the original cast. It was therefore decided to use two characters in an isolated setting - in the lighthouse.

Day of the Triffids was part of a double feature with Horrors of the Black Zoo and was not released in cinemas until May 1963.

The film contained some basic plot elements from John Wyndham's novel The Day of the Triffids, and should be a seen as being a somewhat loose adaptation. For instance, unlike in the novel where the triffids are experimental plants that are capable of movement and attack people, the triffids in the fil version arrive from a meteor shower. Also, some of the action is moved to France and Spain and nowhere does the character Josella Playton appear!

The idea of most of humanity being struck blind by the brilliant light show emitted from a spectacular shower of meteors is a very telling and effective one. Consider the panicked reaction of the passengers on the plane who discover that their pilot is blind, or indeed the passengers spilling out of the crashed train onto station platform. Then there are the scenes of eerily deserted cities with small clutches of people suddenly robbed of sight attempting to navigate once familiar streets with hands outstretched seeking desperately for those still able to see. The story forces us toi consider the power of imagination: what it might be liker being blind and and feeling vulnerable, helpless and fearful. The recent history of the Covid-19 pandemic has given us a taste of what this might be like.

Ours is a civilization based largely on the sense of sight or what can be perceived and understood visually. It is one of our greatest strengths which like the power of electricity or the connectivity of the internet, once we are deprived of it, civilization faces the danger of complete collapse. Why would an alien race bother truing to unproductively take pot shots at us in an attempt to invade and subdue us when it could simply devise a way to rob us of our greatest strengths which then ultimately become our greatest weakness?

Speaking of alien invasions, it has been too often assumed that the invaders would be grotesquely humanoid in appearance, technologically and intelligently superior to humans and would embark on such a course of action in order to supplant or dominate us for our planet and its resources. Instead in Day of the Triffids, we have monstrous mutated man-eating plant-based life forms whose growth has been initiated by the meteors entering the earth’s atmosphere. Extraterrestrial life as we imagine to be may not turn out to be what we will be confronted with.

By all means watch the skies

To see what up there flies

But to you I strongly advise

That you close fast your eyes!