Sci-Fi Film Fiesta, The Swingin' 60s - The Complete Book by Chris Christopoulos - HTML preview
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Contents
Introduction Volume 7
In the shadowy twilight between the optimistic dawn of the Space Age and the deepening anxieties of the Cold War, a remarkable strain of science fiction cinema emerged that dared to ask unsettling questions about humanity itself. The films gathered in Sci-Fi Film Fiesta: The Swingin’ 60s – Volume 7: “They’re Damned, Man… DAMNED!” are united not merely by their themes of apocalypse, mutation, alienation, or social collapse, but by a far more disturbing proposition: perhaps the true danger to humanity is humanity itself.
From the eerie, platinum-haired children of Village of the Damned and Children of the Damned to the irradiated youth and moral decay lurking beneath the cliffs of These Are the Damned, and finally the plague-ravaged loneliness of The Last Man on Earth, these films reflect a world gripped by fear, uncertainty, and profound self-doubt. Produced during a decade of nuclear brinkmanship, ideological conflict, rapid scientific advancement, and generational upheaval, they channel the growing suspicion that modern civilisation, for all its technological triumphs, may have fatally compromised its own soul.
The early 1960s were haunted by the spectre of annihilation. The Cuban Missile Crisis brought humanity terrifyingly close to nuclear war. Governments spoke openly of fallout shelters, mutually assured destruction, and the possibility that entire populations could vanish in a blinding flash. Science fiction cinema absorbed these anxieties like radioactive fallout drifting through the cultural atmosphere. Yet unlike the giant monster spectacles and bug-eyed invaders of 1950s sci-fi, the films in this volume turn inward. Their horror is psychological, moral, and existential. The enemy no longer comes solely from outer space or distant laboratories; it emerges from within society, within science, within ideology — even within ourselves.
In Village of the Damned, adapted from John Wyndham’s chilling novel The Midwich Cuckoos, the children are both innocent and terrifying: emotionless beings possessing superior intelligence and frightening collective power. They represent the fear of a generation that no longer recognises its own offspring — a fear sharpened in an age when youth culture was rapidly transforming social values and traditional authority structures were beginning to fracture. The children are not overtly evil, yet their existence threatens humanity’s dominance. The film’s enduring power lies in its refusal to offer comforting certainties. Are these children monsters… or simply the next stage in evolution?
That same ambiguity runs through Children of the Damned, which expands the concept into an even more global and politically charged nightmare. The gifted children of many nations expose the impotence and paranoia of governments trapped within Cold War thinking. Military officials and political leaders react not with understanding, but with fear and violence. The children may possess terrifying powers, yet it is adult humanity’s inability to transcend suspicion and aggression that proves truly destructive. In this sense, the “damned” may not be the children at all, but the adults who cannot imagine a future beyond conflict.
Perhaps the bleakest social commentary arrives in These Are the Damned, one of the most underappreciated British science fiction films of its era. Beneath its leather jackets, juvenile delinquents, and windswept coastal atmosphere lies a savage critique of Cold War fatalism. The government’s secret plan to preserve radioactive children for survival after nuclear catastrophe is chilling not simply because it exists, but because it assumes annihilation as inevitable. Humanity, the film suggests, has become so resigned to self-destruction that it now prepares future generations not for life, but for inheritance of a ruined world. The children hidden underground are tragic symbols of innocence sacrificed to political cynicism and militaristic thinking.
Then comes The Last Man on Earth, starring the great Vincent Price in one of the most haunting performances of his career. Based on Richard Matheson’s groundbreaking novel I Am Legend, the film strips civilisation down to its barest essentials. The apocalypse here is intimate, lonely, and spiritually exhausting. The deserted streets and empty houses evoke not merely physical extinction, but the collapse of meaning itself. Price’s Dr. Robert Morgan clings desperately to the remnants of a vanished world, believing himself to be the last representative of “normal” humanity. Yet as the story unfolds, the devastating irony becomes clear: Morgan himself has become the outsider, the relic, the monster feared by a new society struggling to emerge from catastrophe.
This theme — that humanity may be judged and found wanting — gives this volume its unusual emotional and philosophical weight. These films are not merely cautionary tales about science gone wrong or civilisation under siege. They are meditations on fear, intolerance, violence, and the tragic inability of human beings to adapt ethically to the powers they unleash technologically. They ask whether humanity deserves survival if it cannot overcome paranoia, tribalism, and self-destructive impulses.
Modern audiences may find these films more relevant now than ever. Today’s world wrestles with artificial intelligence, genetic engineering, pandemics, environmental collapse, disinformation, and renewed geopolitical tension. Once again, society faces questions about whether technological progress is outpacing moral wisdom. Once again, younger generations inherit crises created by their predecessors. Once again, fear threatens to eclipse compassion and understanding.
What makes these films endure is that they resist simplistic answers. Their monsters are often sympathetic. Their humans are often flawed. Their endings rarely offer triumph. Instead, they leave audiences with lingering unease — the unsettling suspicion that the line between salvation and damnation is perilously thin.
In the end, “They’re Damned, Man… DAMNED!” is not simply a cry of horror directed at alien children, irradiated survivors, or plague-born mutants. It is humanity staring into a dark mirror and recoiling from what it sees. These films remind us that science fiction, at its best, is never really about the future. It is about the present — about who we are, what we fear, and whether we possess the wisdom to survive ourselves.
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Village of the Damned (1960)
A sinister horror picture with superb believable performances, an excellent mix of
horror and science fiction genres as well as taut and suspenseful direction from
Wolf Rilla.
Directed by Wolf Rilla
Screenplay by Stirling Silliphant, Wolf Rilla, Ronald Kinnoch Based on “The Midwich Cuckoos” 1957 novel by John Wyndham Produced by Ronald Kinnoch
Cinematography: Geoffrey Faithfull
Edited by Gordon Hales
Music by Ron Goodwin
Production company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributed by Loew's
Running time: 77-78 minutes
Budget: $320,000
Box office: $2,175,000
Cast
George Sanders as Gordon Zellaby
Barbara Shelley as Anthea Zellaby
Martin Stephens as David Zellaby
Michael Gwynn as Alan Bernard
Laurence Naismith as Doctor Willers
Richard Warner as Mr. Harrington
Jenny Laird as Mrs. Harrington
Sarah Long as Evelyn Harrington
Thomas Heathcote as James Pawle
Charlotte Mitchell as Janet Pawle
Denis Gilmore as Keith Harrington
Pamela Buck as Milly Hughes
Rosamund Greenwood as Miss Ogle
Susan Richards as Mrs. Plumpton
Bernard Archard as Vicar
Peter Vaughan as P.C. Gobby
John Phillips as General Leighton
Richard Vernon as Sir Edgar Hargraves
John Stuart as Professor Smith
Keith Pyott as Dr. Carlisle
BBC “History's Mysteries – Fact & Fiction” TV Program
Good evening, I’m your host Denis Vaughan. In tonight’s episode we’ll be examining the so-called “Midwich Time-out Incident” that reportedly occurred back in 1960 when it is said that the inhabitants of the British village of Midwich suddenly and inexplicably fell unconscious one day for several hours. Anyone entering the village also apparently succumbed to the same malady.
It is only recently that we have been able to piece together the events surrounding this inexplicable incident through numerous Freedom of Information requests. Much information has been denied to us and a great deal of the documentation (official government, scientific, military and medical sources, along with minutes from various meetings) is in some instances heavily redacted.
Surprisingly, but probably largely as a consequence of the application of the Official Secrets Act, no-one from the village in all the intervening time has come forward to give an open and public account of what transpired all those decades ago. That is apart from one individual now well into his seventies who we’ll refer back to later on. It is as if a cordon of silence has surrounded and encased Midwich and that as far as the residents of the village past and present are concerned, it is none of the outside world’s business what took place there.
To begin with though, we do know that the military established a cordon around Midwich. This was then followed by the establishment of a five-mile exclusion zone around the village for all aircraft. After a few hours, the villagers suddenly regained consciousness, and appeared to be unaffected. Or so it was believed…..
What followed these initial events with the passage of time will have the quality of a work of pure science fiction, so much so that many in government, the military and the scientific establishment scoff at the very idea of any such incident as ever having taken place.
We now take you to Midwitch village in rural England where our investigative reporter, Barbara Long will try from whatever evidence is available to reconstruct the mysterious events of what has come to be called the “Midwich Time-out Incident.”
Part One:
“What's happened isn't natural.”
Barbara Long: [On location at the village of Midwich. As she delivers her report, Ms. Long moves at a leisurely pace along the main street and towards the village centre. Sparse car and pedestrian traffic.] At first sight, the little village of Midwitch appears to be the last place on earth where anything of such significance as you have outlined, Denis could ever happen. It feels as if Midwich has strenuously ignored the passage of time and has steadfastly resisted the familiar signs of change and progress that are part and parcel of life in the 21st Century. And yet, on one fateful day all through this very village, people suddenly collapsed and passed out sometime around 11 am. And there they remained in that state over the course of a few hours, in cars and busses that crashed or ran off the road, lying prostrate in the street where they had stood only moments before or perhaps in a deep slumber oblivious to their telephones’ insistent unanswered ringing.
Records at our disposal show that it was a British army officer, Alan Bernard who first noticed that there was something amiss when he found himself cut off as he was speaking to his brother in law, Gordon Zellaby on the phone and was unable to raise him for more than an hour. Bernard reported to his superior that something odd seemed to have happened in the village of Midwich and requested permission to leave early.
As Bernard drove to the village, he encountered the local police officer who was investigating the whereabouts of an overdue bus from Midwich. They soon discovered further down the road that the bus had crashed in a ditch.
When the police officer proceeded to investigate, he like all the others within a certain radius of Midwich passed out. Bernard quickly went back to report to his commanding officer and orders were soon issued to seal off Midwich and surrounding areas.
[A reconstruction is shown in which soldiers are ordered forward carrying caged canaries attached to poles.]
This low tech approach was reported to have been used to determine the extent of the malady. When the birds passed out, the spot was marked. It was soon noticed that the canaries returned to life as soon as the cage was retrieved.
[Reconstruction: At the site of the bus crash an army volunteer wearing a gas mask and tethered by rope enters the affected area.]
As you can see, as soon as the soldier collapsed he was pulled to safety, where he eventually revived complaining only of feeling intensely cold but was otherwise fine.
It seems that the army then sent a plane to overfly the town. The pilot reported that there was nothing unusual except that there was nothing moving below and that people appeared to be lying on the ground. The pilot was then ordered to fly lower apparently causing him to black out and tragically crash nearby in a field. The type of plane and the pilot’s identity have recently been confirmed.
Records also show that all aircraft were warned to avoid the area for a radius of five miles, latitude 51 degrees,10 minutes, 30 seconds north; longitude 1 degree, 11 minutes, 20 seconds west. They were also instructed to maintain aminimum altitude of 5000 feet. However, nothing of what I have mentioned so far appeared in the media of the time as the flow of information was quickly cut off by the military authorities.
While the military were considering their options suddenly about 3.00 pm. people all over Midwich began to regain consciousness and no doubt were baffled over what had happened to them with many waking up on the floor and most likely feeling intensely cold. We can well imagine them thinking what “an extraordinary thing to do.” Even more disturbingly, how might they account for a missing chunk of time from their lives that seemingly passed unheeded by them?
Soon after the residents of Midwich awoke from their mysterious slumber, the military entered the village and had specialists conduct tests on them. In addition, the entire village was examined, “even the bark on the trees” for unusual effects.
It was soon determined that aside from “a few cuts and bruises” no-one seemed to have come to any real harm. Neither did there be determine any after-affect or cause for the strange phenomena. All that could be said for certain was that it “was static, odourless, invisible” and “nonmetallic.” It also apparently “didn't register on radar” and “it showed nothing on Geiger counters.”
Even with “no signs of any physical, biological or psychological changes” being apparent, Professor Gordon Zellaby was reported to have been concerned about the long term effects would be determined if they couldn’t understand what caused it. Professor Zellaby was tasked with the job of monitoring Midwich’s population while the whole incident was to be kept firmly under the umbrella of national security and shielded from the potential downpour of media scrutiny.
Part 2:
“They've all got these strange eyes”
Two months later, it had become quite evident that a significant section of Midwitch’s population were affected, which in turn impacted most of the rest of the community. You see, all females of child-bearing age fell pregnant, irrespective of marital status and even extending to those who were virgins. Now don’t forget that this was over 60 years ago and social mores, values and views of morality were quite different. The inexplicable rash of pregnancies resulted accusations of infidelity and extramarital sex.
There were residents who were surprised but overjoyed at the prospect of having children who because of age or other reasons had almost given up hope of having the chance of doing so. Other women, however were devastated to find out they were pregnant, especially if their husbands were absent for a considerable time. One can only imagine the consternation of those women who were virgins. Who would now believe them? We might also wonder at the thoughts and feelings of many of the boyfriend’s and husbands of Midwitch. Tensions were obviously very high and a cloud of despondency, confusion and suspicion descended over the village.
Not only was every woman of child-bearing age in the village expecting, all the pregnancies had dated from the day of the strange events I have just outlined.
The next bit of information that has come to hand concerns the progress of the pregnancies five months later. According to Dr Willers, the local MD’s records, the pregnancies were all going well and at that stage each fetus appeared to be at the 7th month of development even though the women were only in their fifth month.
Despite the rather unusual but positive medical news regarding the status of the pregnancies, we must consider the mental and emotional state of the expectant mothers. They must have agonised over whose baby they were carrying along with wondering what exactly they were bringing into the world.
This question was soon to be answered when all the women go into lobar at roughly the same time. A total of 12 babies are born, all weighing a bit over 10 pounds and all possessing odd scalp hair construction of a striking platinum blonde colour, narrow fingernails and strange disconcerting "arresting"eyes.
Part 3:
“The extraordinary power these children and the sinister way they use
it.”
The unusual physical characteristics and attributes of the children of the “Time-out” period were not the only disturbing things to be noted. Incidents began to occur that seemed to suggest that these children could in some way affect the behaviour of those around them. For instance, there was a report of a mother plunging her hand in a pot of boiling water, burning it badly seemingly because she had forgotten to test her child's milk which was too hot for him.
After just a year Zellaby’s own son, David could spell out his name using blocks. He was even able to work out a Chinese box puzzle in no time at all. This test was repeated with other children of the same cohort and they too could open the device without hesitation, suggesting the existence of a group consciousness whereby when one child learns something the new information is instantly passed on to the rest of the group.
One of the blonde-haired children who was tested with the chinese-puzzle box had the devise snatched out of his hand by his older brother. That older brother is the man who is now well into his seventies that Denis told you about at the start of the program. A great deal of the information we have has come from him during two interviews. His name is Keith Harrington and he has been a patient at a psychiatric facility in another part of the United kingdom for most of the last six decades. He recalled those days with dread, particularly the incident when he snatched his little brother’s puzzle box. He remembers his brother's eyes being illuminated with a strange glow, and of himself drifting into a trance-like state and unaccountably feeling impelled to return the stolen puzzle-box. It seems that psychiatric treatment could not rid Keith of what must have seemed to others as mere delusions. Sadly, he is now in a nursing home and suffers from a terminal illness. Keith declined to appear on camera or have his voice recorded for this program.
In the second interview, Keith informed us that the “Time-out” children’s abilities to both read minds and control the actions of others began to manifest themselves in various ways and on other occasions. He remembers how they appeared to be inseparable and set themselves apart from the other children who often tried to taunt and bully them. The non-”Time-out” children of the village soon learned to desist from such behaviour though after a few demonstrations of the mystery children’s uncanny powers.
Image by Chatgpt
So what have we learned about this most unusual group of children all of whom were apparently mysteriously conceived on the same day and all born at roughly the same time. If we are to believe the reports and the available evidence, they all;
➢ dressed impeccably and had perfect manners
➢ always walked about as a group
➢ communicated in an adult manner
➢ behaved maturely, far above their years
➢ displayed a lack conscience and emotions such as love
➢ were cold and impersonal in their dealings with others, even their parents
➢ possessed a telepathic bond with one another
➢ communicated with each other over great distances
➢ possessed a group mind allowing all to learn what one had learned
➢ engendered feelings of fear and unease in those around them.
Professor Gordon Zellaby was later summoned to London for a special conference to discuss the matter of the “Time-out” children.
At the London meeting the minutes reveal that other parts of the world had experienced the same phenomenon as Midwitch. “In Northern Australia 30 infants were born in one day, but apparently something went wrong. All the children died within 10 hours of birth.” In both Greenland and Mongolia, the children were killed at birth by frightened members of the community. However, in the former Soviet Union, one group of children were thriving and received “education on the highest level.” Were they being somehow conditioned to be weaponized and to provide the Soviets with a definite tangible and strategic advantage over their Western adversaries? Of partricular importance was the fact that “all these time-outs happened on the same day as the one at Midwich.”
This last point necessarily leads us to the HOW? and WHY? of the presence of these most unusual children. How on earth were they conceived and for what purpose? If we discount the occurrence of a mass biblical-style incidence of immaculate conception, then what are we left with?
At the London meeting it was suggested that “once in a great many thousand years, an abrupt jump may take place in animal or in vegetable life. A new variation suddenly occurs for no apparent reason.” However, this evolutionary mutation jump theory does not explain “why groups of people were cut off for several hours.”
Another possible explanation, more extra-terrestrial in nature, was proffered at the meeting involving energy impulses being directed towards the Earth from outer space.
Whether or not these children were a product of a natural process or of extra-terrestrial intelligent intervention, the question as to the kind of danger they posed had to be considered. At least one death, that of a child drowning in Midwich could be blamed on the “Time-out” children.
At the London meeting two opposing propositions were put forward as to how to proceed. One suggestion was that considering the risk of being destroyed, it was proposed that the children be shut away in prison for the safety of the wider community. The other as favoured by Zellaby was to grasp the opportunity to provide science with the chance to study the nature of their power and their “mass mind.” If humanity could control that, it could conceivably advance intelligence by a factor of 12 and “we could leap forward in science 100 years.”
A giant leap forward into the unknown of “an entirely new development” or to succumb to the “age-old fear of the unknown?” Could a compromise be found between the opposing courses of action? That is what Zellaby proposed: That the children be kept together at one location at Midwich's school. He would assume responsibility for running the project and continue studying them for a further 12 months while the government decided on the best course of action to take. Zellaby banked his hopes on the truth of his firm conviction that the children were not intrinsically evil or bad, but just needed to have a sense of morality instilled in them.
Part 4:
“A force is building up.
Sooner or later, it will explode”
At the local school house building Zellaby, worked with the “Time-out” children including his son, David and there he tried both to teach them and learn more about them.
The children confirmed to Zellaby that they could indeed read his thoughts but only at the front of his mind. They had not yet mastered the understanding of his thought processes and reasoning but would be able to do so eventually.
Zellaby even questioned the children about their awareness “of life on another planet” and whether “it is possible that life exists elsewhere,” presumably thinking back to the London meeting and one of the theories put forward to explain the existence of the children. According to Zellaby’s notes, the children refused to answer that question hich may in itself have spoken volumes.
Zellaby then moved on to a most crucial consideration which he put to his son, David. Namely, what they intend to do with the powers they are developing. David responded by telling Zellaby that he was aware of what he was trying to find out and that it would be better if those types of questions were not asked. David told Zellaby they were there to learn from him.
Later, an inquest into a tragic “accident” is convened at which Mrs Zellaby is called to testify as a witness. Her testimony was somewhat confused and lacked detail, as if she was trying to remember what happened but couldn’t quite recall specific details. Even without absolute proof, It can reasonably be assumed that one of the “time-out” girls was nearly run over and killed by a car. The driver fearing that he may have hurt the girl most likely got out of the car to check on her welfare. Some of the “Time-out” children who accompanied the girl used their collective power to cause the driver to slip into a trance, return to his car and drive it directly into a wall, killed him on impact.
At an inquest a verdict of accidental death was given
By this stage there was a palpable feeling among the residents that Midwich was “living on top of a volcano” and a force was building up that would sooner or later explode. Many would have agreed with the brother of the man who had supposedly died in the car ‘accident’ that the “Time-out” children were “not human” and “ought to be destroyed.”
The next incident could not be so easily disputed and it involved the very same brother just referred to. In revenge for his brother’s death and overcome with emotion he tried to ambush a group of the “Time-out” children with the intent of shooting them. Zellaby, his wife and Bernard attempted to talk him out of the attempt, but all four of them fell under the mental control of the children. They then exert their power causing the man with the gun to fatally shoots himself with his own gun.
Part 5:
Midwich Cuckoos-
The Changelings
It had become quite clear to Professor Zellaby that his plan to establish communication with the children had broken down. It was apparent that they had to be stopped before they expanded their power beyond the village.
Back at Midwich, it seems that an angry and fearful group of male villagers had formed a vigilante mob and armed with farm implements and flaming torches they headed off to do something about the children seeing that the authorities appeared to be dragging their feet on the matter. They then apparently advanced on the school house intent on burning it down along with the children inside. It all went horribly wrong when one of the children, most likely Zellaby’s son, David went outside to confront the advancing mob. One of the men was reported to have fallen into a trance-like state and while under the boy’s power was forced to set fire to himself.
An entry from Major Alan Bernard’s report indicates that he witnessed the above incident and decided to enter the school-house to confront David. David then informed him that despite the destruction of the Russian colony, a similar fate would not befall Midwich’s colony. His reasoning as quoted in the report: “...because we have to survive, no matter what the cost, and you must learn that we are determined to survive.”
Yes, indeed. It would seem that life no matter what form it takes will always try to find a way to survive and spread. It is all part of a brutal process of the struggle for survival. These golden-eyed children were recognised as being intruders or “changelings” or indeed “cuckoo-children.” You see, the cuckoo’s egg somehow manages to wind up in another bird species’ nest, hatches, is slavishly reared by its ‘surrogate’ mother and is motivated by its instinct for survival. The cuckoo chicks will kill the other chicks in the nest in competition for food and parental attention. “The cuckoo survives because it is tough and single-purposed.” As indeed these “cuckoo-children” were!
Major Bernard reported that his mind had been taken control of and a message that the children just wanted to be left alone was relentlessly driven into his consciousness before he was released. Later, an examination by Dr Willers revealed that Bernard appeared to have been suffering the worst case of shock the doctor had ever seen.
In a letter left in Zellaby’s desk drawer, the professor mentioned that David later arrived at the house and informed him that the children had decided to leave the village and “spread out and disperse” and eventually “form new colonies.”
As they had already “attracted too much attention,” David insisted that his father help them to leave and it was arranged that Zellaby would return later to the school house with the necessary arrangements for the departure of the children from Midwich.
According to Major Bernard’s report and Anthea Zellaby’s personal journal, Gordon seems to have come up with a scheme involving a resolution of the situation involving the children – one of a drastic nature as evidenced by his strange behaviour, demeanour and comments. For instance, he arranged for his wife to travel back to London with Alan and as they prepared to leave, Zellaby seemed to have been very pensive and emotional. Considering what happened next, we can understand why.
Together with the information in Zellaby’s hurriedly written letter, we can infer much of what took place from this point onwards. When the others had departed and he was alone, Zellaby must have constructed a time-bomb with the aim of destroying the children. The problem with such a plan as you may have already guessed is how to carry it out without the children detecting his true intentions.
One authority in the area of psychiatry suggested to us that someone with the intellect and will of Zellaby would have to blank out his thoughts by visualising something like a brick wall and use this as a means of self-protection against the children’s mind-reading power.
It appears that Zellaby then left with the time-bomb concealed in his brief-case to conduct his usual session with the children at the school-house. Once there, he must have tried to block any thoughts of the bomb and its detection by the children by using a mental visualisation trick such as the suggested brick wall example.
In the meantime, while driving to London, Anthea realised that something was amiss, and instead headed back to Midwich to try and stop her husband from carrying out his intended course of action – whatever from her point of view that may have been.
It appears that the children did try to break down Zellaby’s mental defence barrier and actually succeeded but ran out of time. Neither the children nor Zellaby managed to escape the final fateful conclusion….
As Anthea and Bernard arrived at the school at precisely 8:27pm, an explosion tore through the building and forever rent the fragile fabric of the little village of Midwich.
Denis, as we end our report and depart the village of Midwich, we might stop and ponder the following: On the one hand, there was the irrationality borne of fear of the unknown. On the other there was immense power impelled by the requirements of survival, governed by rationality and exercised without the restraint of ethics and morality and feelings of empathy. With the clash of these two opposing forces there seemed to be no room for two species to learn and help to live with one another.
Denis Vaughan: Thank you Barbara for that amazing and very unsettling report. We must also stop to consider these questions as they could just as easily apply to many of the other mysterious incidents we cover on this program:
• Did these events take in fact take place?
• Was it a result of a cruel trick played on humanity by nature?
• Was there some kind of extra-terrestrial intervention or invasion?
• If so, what would be the outcome when we surely will come into contact with
a truly alien species?
• Was it an misinterpreted gift to us from our future?
• Was a secret government or military experimental program responsible?
• Has there been a massive governmental and military cover-up?
• Or was it all just an elaborate hoax further fuelled by conspiracy theorists?
You be the judge. Until next time, this is Denis Vaughan for BBC’s “History's Mysteries – Fact & Fiction.”
Points Of Interest
“Village of the Damned” (1960) is based on John Wyndham novel,"The Midwich Cuckoos" about a British village visited by unknown (most likely extra-terrestrial) life form which leaves all women of child-bearing age of the village pregnant.
There is also a sequel, “Children of the Damned (1964)” and a remake, John Carpenter's “Village of the Damned” (1995). Neither quite matches the quality and atmosphere of the original.
“Village of the Damned” was originally intended to be an American produced picture starring Ronald Colman but MGM shelved the idea due concerns with some the issues that were to be dealt with in the film. A couple of years later the film was relocated to England and shot on location at Letchmore Heath, with George Sanders replacing Colman who had recently passed away.
The film had a shooting schedule of six weeks and a budget of £82,000. Despite the film’s small budget and sparse use of special effects, the performances of the cast and almost documentary style of story telling gives the film a very engrossing, disturbing and terrifying quality.
Most filming took place at MGM's Borehamwood Studio but it was also shot on location in the village of Letchmore Heath near Watford, approximately 12 miles (20 kilometres) north of London with Local buildings such as The Three Horseshoes Pub and Aldenham School used during filming.
The glowing-eye effect was achieved by creating animated overlays of a bright white iris; this created a bright glowing iris with a black pupil when optically printed into the film. This technique was used mostly on freeze-frame shot to create the required effect.
The blonde wigs that the children wore were padded to give the impression that they had abnormally large heads.
What makes the film particularly disturbing is the notion of children, who we ought to cherish and protect actually becoming our worst nightmare. The belief in children’s supposed innocence and our natural human attachment to our offspring is being used and weaponized for the purpose of world domination. Added to this is the unsettling fear of helplessness on the part of adults to do anything about the situation.
“Village of the Damned” is certainly a film of its time as can be seen not just from the more obvious elements but also from its avoidance of using the term “pregnant” as well as it’s subtle anti-nazi commentary relying on people’s recollections of Nazi German Aryan blond and blue-eyed superior race notions. Hell, even the Commie Soviets didn’t want any part of their children’s colony after a while and ended nuking them!
One final and interesting point of interest is when the military are testing Midwich for radiation after everyone wakes up, you’ll notice a sign in the background that reads, "Beware of Children."
**************
These Are The Damned (1962)
Quite a powerful sci-fi film with social commentary and philosophical / moral
implications. Solid acting performances and good cinematography.
Directed by Joseph Losey
Screenplay by Evan Jones Based on The Children of Light 1960 novel by H.L. Lawrence Produced by Anthony Hinds
Cinematography: Arthur Grant
Edited by Reginald Mills
Music by James Bernard
Production company
Hammer Film Productions
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Running time 87 minutes (UK), 77 minutes (US) Budget: £160 – 170,000 approx.
Cast
Macdonald Carey as Simon Wells
Shirley Anne Field as Joan
Viveca Lindfors as Freya Neilson
Alexander Knox as Bernard
Oliver Reed as King
Walter Gotell as Major Holland
James Villiers as Captain Gregory
Tom Kempinski as Ted
Kenneth Cope as Sid
Brian Oulton as Mr. Dingle
Barbara Everest as Miss Lamont
Alan McClelland as Mr. Stuart
James Maxwell as Mr. Talbot
The children
Rachel Clay as Victoria
Caroline Sheldon as Elizabeth
Rebecca Dignam as Anne
Siobhan Taylor as Mary
Nicholas Clay as Richard
Kit Williams as Henry
Christopher Witty as William
David Palmer as George
John Thompson as Charles
What could the following possibly have in common?
The southern English resort of Weymouth.
An American tourist.
A youth gang leader.
His troubled sister.
A top secret government facility.
A shocking experiment.
A group of nine children.
“The age of senseless violence has caught up with us, too”
To find out, we’ll need to begin our journey with a bird's eye view of ocean waves crashing on the remote shore below a rocky cliff on the south coast of England. Atop the cliff and along its edge we spot a collection of bronze sculptures looking like fallen grotesque, disfigured and charred human remains: Something akin to Southern England’s version of Easter Island’s mysterious stone sentinels? What do they stand as testament to? A message to a future with no0one left to decipher what they had borne witness to in the dim past?
Come now and let us descend to the land of the living at the resort of Weymouth to the accompaniment of the Black Leather Rock song:
"Black leather, black leather, rock-rock-rock.
Black leather, black leather, ta-ta-ta.
Black leather, black leather, hip-hip-hip.
I got that feeling - black leather rocks!…"
Despite the pleasant vacation setting, we’ve entered a time and place of uncertainty and fear that often comes with a sense of impending unsettling change. It is a time of fear of youth who are labelled as juvenile delinquents who seem to show a disregard for authority and long established traditions and who would rather seek thrills, kicks and validation as members of movements, groups and gangs such as Beatniks, Teddy Boys, Mods and Rockers, Bodgies and Widgies. It is a time when people also fear for a future that could be snatched away from them and carried sky-ward in a mushroom cloud at any time.
Image by Chatgpt
And so beneath the town's clock tower we see a leather-clad motorcycle gang known as the Teddy Boys, led by King who is attired in a checked-plaid jacket and carries an umbrella that conceals a blade. See how they disrespectfully drape themselves over and around the monument dedicated to England\s “mad” King George the third as if history had no relevance at all to them deserving only mockery and disdain.
We can tell the gang is up to no good and it seems that the unsuspecting Simon Wells is about to become the victim of a set up involving the gang and a rather attractive 20 year old by the name of Joan who is King’s sister.
Poor Mr Wells, a recently-divorced, middle-aged American tourist who just decided to drop out of the rat race by resigning as an insurance executive. Here he is on vacation having sailed in on his yacht to Weymouth. All Joan has to do is wiggle her behind and the silly old boy quickly takes the bait, hook, line and sinker. For his troubles, Simon is savagely and cold-bloodily mugged by the gang who steal his wallet and watch. So, “you 'appy in your work, Joanie?”
Well, Simon it seems that what appears to be two policemen have found you and are taking you towards a bar to recover and as fate would have it this is where you meet Bernard and his mistress, Freya Neilson.
Freya is an artistic-type who creates sculptures such as the “graveyard bird” she shows to Bernard. She is very much an unconventional free thinker and seems to recognise the irony of a situation and sees things with a rather jaundiced eye.
Here comes the battered and worse for wear Simon accompanied on to the terrace by Major Holland and Captain Gregory who are not police officers but who as Freya wryly observes “belong” instead to Bernard. It is obvious and by implication an accepted fact by the men that Simon had been beaten up by the Teddy Boys, but Freya thinks it is more to point to understand “why” they did so.
Perhaps it is just that “the age of senseless violence” has inevitably arrived or that “people who know what they're talking about” c an offer up explanations as to why such things happen. Believing that one knows all the answers might bring a sense of satisfaction but from Simon’s viewpoint that wouldn’t do as he wouldn’t “like the answers” and what they might say about humanity.
Freya feels a certain rapport with Simon “'cause he doesn't like the world.” For her “it's a good beginning” possibly because seeing it for what it is might help lead one on to doing something about it? Or, like herself, does such an attitude merely lead one to separate or divorce oneself from the rest of humanity?
Now what of Bernard, the one without the surname? He has “military friends” who apparently “belong” to his “mysterious project.” He is a shadowy man with secrets and whose entire life is stamped with “TOP SECRET.” This is an aspect of Bernard that Freya hates, but as Bernard chillingly points out, if he were to disclose any of his secrets to her he’s be condemning her to death.
Now, how’s that for laying a few breadcrumbs for you! I bet you’re dying to know more about the secretive nature of Bernard’s work and what his top secret project is all about…….
“You had the choice of staying with King or coming with me”
I’m afraid though that these discoveries will have to wait until after certain discoveries of a more personal human nature are to be revealed. See now as Joan with the gang in tow makes their way to where Wells has docked his small boat. Wells seems prepared to forgive Joan for what happened but she suggests that he asked for it after trying to pick her up believing she was just some tart.
King and the gang approach and it is soon apparent that King has a rather disturbing possessive and controlling relationship with his sister. Earlier he said to her “it's you and me against the world. It's been this way since we was kids” to which she replied “he (Wells) offered me his arm to cross the street.” Initially though, both Wells and Joan came together for rather selfish material reasons, one for the prospect of having sex with “a little tart” and the other for money and kicks.
Before the gang arrives, Wells tells Joan how he decided to give up his work as an insurance executive seeming to imply that we all have choices when it comes to changing the direction of our lives. However, perhaps for some people making such choices is not so clear cut as Joan points out to Wells that “it's a nice life…..to be able to give it up, if you don't like what you're doing...”
Now let’s turn back to King as he orders his sister to get out of the boat and appears to threaten her when she tries to defy him by warning her not to “do that again, Joanie.” His perverted controlling relationship with his sister is evidenced by his asking Joan, “do you think I'll let a man put his dirty hands on you?”
To the accompaniment of the gang’s taunts,Wells sets off on his boat but watch as Joan suddenly runs off from the others when Wells calls to her to “give it up!” and jump into the boat. An act of defiance and making a choice! But will this amount real and meaningful lasting change or is it a mere chasing after unicorns? Can it be that easy?
Not for Joan apparently who asks Wells what he’s going to do now that he’s carried her off. She can’t return to Weymouth fearing what King will do – the brother who had locked her, a 20 year old in a cupboard for a week after she went out with a man. And now she’s “stuck here in the middle of the ocean on a boat” with King waiting for her to go back.
For Wells, Joan had the choice of staying with King or coming with him and she made that choice “out of pure instinct.” Suddenly, in a “clumsy and brutal” move, Wells tries to force himself on Joan almost reinforcing what her brother had said about him. Despite Well’s regret and apology, Joan asks to be put ashore. Here she is making a decision, her decision and not one being made for her: to not spend her life running away like Simon but instead returning to deal with the life that she has.
“Some day, they'll have to be told everything”
"When the time comes"
While Simon and Joan head back to shore, let us head over to a military base that is connected with coastal caves within which reside nine children, all aged 11 and who appear to be connected with Bernard’s top secret project. There seems to be some distension among the scientific and military staff that run the facility which whether it be a “guided” or “rusty” cage, is nevertheless a prison for its young inmates. There is questioning over the project’s purpose and whether or not they can provide the children with values that will in the future mean anything. This speaks volumes as to the kind of future that is expected!
As you can see the children are exceedingly well-mannered, healthy and very intelligent. What is unusual about them though is that they know little about the outside world, that they live their lives under continuous video surveillance and are educated via closed circuit television by Bernard. The children appear to be very curious about their circumstances and like most young people they begin to question everything around them including what they told by Bernard.The children don’t want to be seen only via technology and want to be able to see and interact with Bernard in person. They also want to know when exactly does the time come when they will be told what they need to know. They are merely told that they should trust in Bernard’s judgement which the children view as being “undemocratic.” All these kids want is the right to have meaningful human contact with adults and to know about things in the wider world that will affect them and to have a say in such matters. Notice how Bernard does little but side-step and deflect their questions by reiterating that they will learn the answers sometime in the future when they are deemed to be ready to handle those answers. Is Bernard one of those referred to earlier by Simon who think they know all the answers?
“I've never found this kind of quietness before”
Meanwhile, let’s see how Joan and Simon are faring. Hello! There they are now breaking into Freya’s cliff-top “bird house” studio. It isn’t long before Simon and Joan open up to and discover more and more about each other. For instance, it is obvious that Joan is more than just some little tart and to Simon’s surprise is someone who is sensitive and perceptive enough to paint a poetic word picture of the “bird house” and its surrounds.
With Joan in his arms, Simon tells her, “Look, I'm not holding you, and you haven't moved.” They both realise that a choice has indeed been made. I think we should give them some privacy as they are about to get somewhat warm and friendly with one another!
“I know your kind…..People with no morals”
Oh, oh! It isn’t long before the “bird house” is surrounded by King's gang and our two lovers are forced to make a hasty bid to escape. In the meantime, our bohemian Freya has arrived and discovers that someone has been ‘sleeping’ and whatnot in her bed. Even more disquieting is the creepy presence of King demanding to know the the whereabouts of his sister.
King and Freya both in their own respective ways stand as society’s outsiders but also as opposites in terms of their intellectual and emotional make-up. Freya’s apparent lack of fear, her show of self-control and risky recourse to use of repartee leads King to say that he doesn’t like people making fun of him, particularly those of Freya’s ilk with their “smart talking, bad living” and “no morals.” That coming from him?
King, the destroyer instinctively knows how to strike at Freya, the creator. With her very being so wrapped up in her creative expression, King after spitting on one of her pieces, resorts to senseless vandalism of her sculptures. Freya wanted to know earlier how someone could do what had been done to Simon and now cannot comprehend how King could be so cruel knowing how much her art means to her. Freya cannot believe that King did what he did merely for personal enjoyment. It’s often incomprehensible what exactly motivates people to act with brutality and cruelty towards other people. For individuals, groups and nations alike it’s far easier to senselessly destroy than it is to constructively create.
“Where are you, simple Simon?”
You’ve probably noticed how the "Black Leather" tune incessantly and persistently weaving its way in the background. On this occasion it is delivered in the form of a whistle alerting the gang members of Simon and Joan’s flight from the vicinity of the “bird house.”
See how single-mindedly the gang closely pursues Simon and Joan who frantically make their way into a nearby military base where guards and German-shepherd dogs are in pursuit of all the intruders.
Simon and Joan are pursued to the cliff edge where they supposedly have lost their footing and have plunged into the water below. To their pursuers, the “poor devils” have met their end. But we know better, don’t we?
“These children are locked up”
Back at the base, one of King’s gang members is being detained for interrogation concerning who Wells is, and why the gang was pursuing him when the the previous day they had beaten him up. It turns out to be a stand off between on the one side, a representative of the Establishment and authority while on the other side is the epitome of youth anti-establishment, rebellion and disrespect of authority. On that basis there is little possibility of communication, cooperation or understanding between the opposing cultures.
In the meantime, Simon and Joan have managed to make their way down the cliff to the beach and emerging soaking wet discover a network of caves and an underground bunker located under the military base. It is here they make the surprising discovery of a small group of young boys and girls, all aged about 11.
One of girls by the name of Victoria seems to act as leader as the other children who readily appear to defer to her. Joan is astonished to find that Victoria’s “hand is as cold as ice” and doesn’t get warm when she touches it. The children are equally surprised to discover that Simon and Joan are both warm.
Victoria informs the two newcomers they are in a supposedly secret “hide-out” away from the pervasive surveillance that the children are forced to endure in their subterranean prison. The children are under the impression that Simon and Joan have come to save them…..but from what?
Here’s a very touching scene as the children who have “never touched warm people before” touch Simon and Joan’s faces with unabashed curiosity before they retire for the night.
It is interesting to note that the children each bear the name of an English monarch as if to establish some kind of historical tie to carry into the future. However, a walk through the historical periods covered by those leaders would lead us to the current situation which Bernard’s project is designed to deal with. One wonders what kind of world the children will wind up reigning over in the future if what is feared comes to pass.
As if we didn’t already expect it, King has been obsessively and determinedly following the two lovers right to the cave system and is now being fished out of the water by one of the boys, Henry who has come for his turn to see what he can glimpse of the world outside. The boy informs King that the “others” are already inside and leads him to where Simon and Joan are.
Back in the children’s hide-out, Simon and Joan learn that all the children are 11 years old and all have their birthdays in the same week. They also learn that the children have “been here always” and that far from having parents are under the impression that Simon and Joan are their parents having come to save them.
When asked if the children know why they are so cold, all Victoria can respond with in the absence of having any answer is to recite what she has been told over and over by Bernard: that “there are some things, Simon, that you can't understand. You'll be told everything in time, each new thing as you're able to understand it, not before.”
Hey, here comes young Henry proudly proclaiming “I found another one.” Another one being of course, King who immediately sets about trying to exert his control over Joan by ordering her to “come over here, Joanie.” This time, however he’s confronted with someone who is defiant and has made the decision to refuse to be dominated by her brother. She confronts him with the truth about himself: that he’s the one with the problem “who thinks dirty,” and who tried to lock Joan up and stop her being a woman. In short, king is a pathetic obsessive socially, sexually and psychologically warped individual whose sense of self is determined by his capacity to dominate and control. He is incapable of understanding what it means to really love someone and instead resorts to lashing out with displaced anger at the rest of the world.
Let’s leave the trio for a moment and consider the children in their hideout refuge. It is with a feeling of pity and sadness that this is where they keep pictures and other mementos of people they believe are their parents. They believe that this place is safe and secret from the prying eyes of their adult teachers. What of the bunker where they ‘live?’ The children certainly don’t know much except what they are told and what they are tasked to learn. However, they are beginning to have so many questions that demand answers.
Our point of view shifts now as we view the bunker through the eyes of someone else slowly and methodically making their way through their the children’s confined world. What do we see? A cavern divided into sections or compartments each devoted to a particular function: In one section we see banks of wall tapes for learning; another section for geographical studies; another for learning science; still others devoted to dining, medical and sleeping quarters. An existence totally functional, structured, ordered, prescribed and programmed! And what’s it all for…...the answer may again amount to just another big lie…...
“..mine has been the fate of those
to whom the goodly earth and air
are bann'd, and barr'd, forbidden fare”
Speaking of lies, the children appear to be unaware of their situation and where they are. William states with conviction that “we're on a spaceship going to a star. They're teaching us the history of earth so we can build a civilisation when we get there.”
Bernard, the purveyor of such lies is as Freya observes, “a man with a purpose” or more specifically a man with a “secret purpose.” He has made the choice as he sees it to be a “public servant” based on his own conviction that “a power has been released that will melt those stones” that Freya uses to create her sculptures. In his mind there is no question that the end of civilisation as we know it will come to an end, that there is nothing anyone can do to prevent it and that “we must be ready when the time comes.”
The children, however are unaware that Bernard knows about their secret hideout and has allowed them to use the chamber without surveillance cameras. In the meantime, the children initiate a bit organised resistance in the form of smuggling food to Simon, Joan and King int their supposedly secret space. Unable to locate the three intruders, Bernard urges the children to give them up and informs them that he knows about their secret place. He then warns the children about what might happen to the three intruders they are sheltering by reminding them of the rabbit they they had as a pet which later died. He uses fear to convince them that the same thing might happen to the other three and as Bernard points out“ they are warm, and nothing that's warm can live with you.” He also uses fear by suggesting that if the children do not cooperate, he’ll take their hide-out away from them. As you can see from the children’s reaction, a point has been reached in which trust and order has broken down as the children rebel and set about destroying the cameras.
You can also see that a critical point has been reached in which Joan. King and Simon are all beginning to feel ill. Even one of children, Mary “is developing the same symptoms.” It is becoming evident to the adults running the project that they don’t yet “know enough about maintaining their immunity.”
Things are sure getting serious now with men in radiation suits being sent into the chamber below. Although weak from sickness, King and Simon manage to overpower them. Using a Geiger counter, Simon discovers that it is the children who are radioactive. Despite protestations from one of men sent down concerning the likely risks of exposing the children to the outside world, Simon goes ahead with the plan to rescue the children from their subterranean prison.
Is this the extent of your dream:
To set nine ice-cold children free in the ashes of the universe?
It seems that Simon has succeeded in helping the children escape the bunker and and emerge to experience the world of sun and flowers for the first time. It is not to be though as the men in radiation suits descend on the band of escapees with the intention of forcing the children back into the bunker. You’ll agree that it is a harrowing scene watching young children pleading in terror and kicking and screaming as they are being rounded up against their will.
See, there stands Bernard god-like high up on his mountain looking down on his handiwork, “the man who knows all the answers.” Simon challenges him to answer his questions: “Why are you doing this? What's it all for? What are you trying to make out of these children? What do you want with us?”
King meanwhile, accompanied by young Henry scale the cliff face and escape in a stolen sports car. King is fast succumbing to radiation sickness and orders Henry out of the car telling him to "get out now. I can't take you anywhere. Go back, Henry...Get out of the car. Look after yourself...You're poison. Don't you know you're poison? You're killing me."
Like menacing dragon flies, two helicopters intercept King’s car by descending onto the road before and behind the vehicle in order to block its progress . In another harrowing scene, Henry is kidnapped to be taken back to the bunker. After fending off a couple of base personnel, King takes off in the car and is pursued by a helicopter. While being pursued, King loses control of the car and is killed when the car careens off a bridge and plunges into the water below.
Did King decide to this deliberately? Was this an act of suicide on his part? A choice? Perhaps he realised there was no hope and no future for him and that ending his life was the only course of action open to him as an ultimate act of defiance or rebellion? Had Henry somehow opened up something inside King and that King realised that under the circumstances there was no use for him or Henry to form any kind of emotional bond or friendship?
Freya has witnessed all that just occurred and is now being informed by Bernard that he allowed Simon and Joan who have escaped by boat to go. It is not an act of compassion on his part but is instead a calculated decision as “they are dying already” and “they won't make contact with another human being. When they die, the boat will be destroyed.”
Bernard at last confides his shocking secrets too Freya telling her that he regrets the children will now think of themselves as “prisoners and as freaks.” He explains to Freya that the children “were born as they are” and that “their mothers were exposed to an unknown kind and level of radiation by an accident.” The implication is that is was an accident involving nuclear radiation and that in order “to survive the destruction that is inevitably coming, we need a new kind of man.” The accident provided the nine children, “the only human beings who have a chance to live in the conditions which must inevitably exist when the time comes.” When the inevitable holocaust occurs, these children, these “buried seeds of life….will go out to inherit the earth.”
Hear the horror in Freya’s voice as she asks Bernard “what earth will you leave them?” In her view, his project, his plan, his dream is a waste considering “ ll that man has made and still has to make!” Like her unfinished-looking sculptures, much has been done and is in the process of taking shape, but there is much more to be completed. And all Bernard has offer is “to set nine ice-cold children free in the ashes of the universe.”
Bernard pathetically insists, “I have no choice, I have no choice at all!" That of course is the question for all those involved in this tragic tale with the implication being that all of us do in fact have choices. The question is can we make the right one.
Now that Freya finally knows Bernard’s secret and has chosen to refuse to join him, her fate is now sealed. Not wanting to waste whatever time she has left, Freya returns to her sculpting and is then shot dead by Bernard. Choices have indeded been made.
What of Joan and Simon? As you can see, they have have managed to escape (allowed to escape) by boat but are both obviously succumbing to the effects of radiation sickness from being in contact with the children. A possible choice presents itself in the form of an escape to France, but can they simply escape or run from the problems that confront them? Can any of us?
As Simon and Joan realise they cannot simply run away and start again, to “go back again to the beginning,” a helicopter suddenly hovers above the boat like a malignant bird of prey. The pilot has been ordered to destroy their boat once they are both confirmed dead. Observe as the boat changes course and know that a choice has been made: “We can't leave the children"
“Help! Help! Please help us! Someone help us!”
Our view now shifts along the coastline to the beach-goers’ and holidaymakers’ idyll of Weymouth. Too intent on merriment and fun, they are unable to hear the piteous and desperate cries of the imprisoned children calling for help from their cliff side prison. Some of you might very well wonder if anyone had heard when “Jesus said, ‘Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.’ ”
Image by Chatgpt