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

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The Night Caller from Outer Space will

CHILL you…

THRILL you…

and ...

HAUNT your dreams FOREVER!

 

“It's headed straight for London….. it's changing course!”

Dr. Morley, Dr. Jack Costain, and Ann Barlow observe n object on radar that’s over a 100 miles up and coming in from space at over 10,000 mph when suddenly it slows down rapidly indicating that it may be a ‘meteorite’ that will probably “disintegrate as soon as it hits the Earth's atmosphere.”

Suddenly, upon hitting the Earth’s atmosphere, the object changes course but unexpectedly does not burn up when it’s well inside the atmosphere. Defying all expectations, the object’s actions suggest that “it's been guided down” – but how and by whom?

“There is no doubt that a large object landed here and

disappeared”

Using their to determine radar where the object has landed, Morley and Costian head out to to the landing site to investigate. Military personnel allow them to enter the area where, eventually, a basketball-sized object is found. It's surface temperature is 25 degrees below zero. After determining where the meteorite has crashed, they and their aides investigate a meteorite in the British countryside,

When they arrive at the site they find that the military have begun to cordon off the area and are are conducting a search for whatever has landed. Inevitably the word “security” is bandied about and the two scientists have to present their credentials in the form of security papers indicating that they are cleared by Army security.

Contrary to Morley and Costain’s expectations, the Major (who by the way sounds a lot like the actor, James Mason) in charge of operation Tooth Comb” informs them that “there is no 20t object and no crater” and that a helicopter search found “nothing that's extraordinary.” However, all technical evidence and calculations do suggest that a large object had indeed “landed here and disappeared.”

Eventually, an small object the size of a basket ball is located. Unexpectedly, little radiation is found to coming from the object and it is determined to be safe to approach it. Even though it is thought that the object “must have been a white hot mass of flames a few hours ago” its temperature now is well below freezing! As to the object’s origin? That is anyone’s guess…...At the moment, all that can agreed on is that “it must have been guided down with fantastic accuracy - inhuman accuracy….

“Yes, its potentialities are quite alarming”

At Falsley Park Government Radio and Electronics Research Establishment there’s a flurry of activity with preparations being made for the lodging and study of the mysterious object. Once again, the word “security” is thrown about by the Major. Preliminary investigation of the sphere with x-rays determine that it is hollow inside and the surface temperature is 25° below zero. The shell seems to be made of silicate of some kind.

So, where does the sphere come from? Mars? Or as the political and intelligence establishment would have it, “a satellite one of our friends has sent up.” Possession of the object may offer the Brits the chance to discover its secrets and possibly take their “knowledge forward 50 or more years.” More to the point though is the increasing certainty that no “human mind thought it up” and nor had “any human hand built it.”

The scientists’ deliberations are interrupted by the return of the Major and suddenly Anne, Costain and Morley go quiet. Here at once we can see the conflict between the respective priorities of the scientific community in their quest for knowledge and those of the military whose primary concern is with maintaining security.

They inform the Major that their preliminary examination has revealed that the sphere is “made of an undetermined silicone-type material” that “forms an exterior protective shell of 3 mm thick” and that the sphere’s interior consists of “a lattice of carbon filaments but the bulk of the Interior contains nothing but a vacuum.” In addition, the sphere is not radioactive. Not unexpectedly, the Major seeks reassurance that the sphere is not a weapon and is informed that it is not an atomic device and contains no fissile material.

Once again, the matter of the sphere’s origin is raised and all Costain can offer is that at the moment he has no idea. Quite a refreshing admission coming as it does from someone who is deemed to be an expert and is expected to have all the answers. How many so-called experts these days openly admit to not knowing something in their area of expertise when confronted by inexplicable phenomena.

And speaking of knowledge, its dissemination and application: who should be responsible? Scientists? The political class? The military? Private / corporate sector? As far as Anne, Costian and Morely are concerned, “the less the military knows at this stage the better.” Any information concerning the sphere’s secrets will have to be divulged “gently so they can assimilate it.” But why? Possibly because as Morley states, “its potentialities are quite alarming.”

Costain soon leaves Ann behind as she stays on at the lab to finish up some work. So far, Anne comes across as a rather buttoned up cold fish of a woman devoted to her work and her reserved and ordered appearance speaks volumes about her personality. Even her expression is pompous and superior as she rattles off technical explanations to the seemingly intellectually inferior lay person like the Major. Is that also a look of disdain on her face?

 

“I don't think I'm getting through to him”

Meanwhile, it seems that the Major’s superiors in Whitehall are having trouble understanding his and Morley’s report concerning the current situation involving the sphere from outer space. In exasperation, the major tells Morley that the big wig on the end of the telephone line “doesn't understand a bloody word I'm saying!” It appears that their political and bureaucratic masters are little more than idiots which in any era is not really all that surprising when you come to think about it.

 

“Rational explanation, rubbish!”

As Ann stays late in the lab working on her notes, something – some force - emanating from the room containing the sphere is having a disquieting effect on her. She then becomes aware of a bright light coming from the adjoining room. As if impelled to approach the room, Anne gets up and goes to check on it. Upon opening the door, a hideous clawed hand suddenly reaches for her arm and she rushes in panic to hit the facility’s security alarm. Her slightly disordered hair reflects the beginnings of an unravelling process of the logical and ordered underpinnings and certainties of her life.

When the military personnel arrive, it is no surprise that Anne has trouble convincing them of the truth of what she experienced. After all, everything appears to be alright in the storeroom, the soldier on duty outside the storeroom window saw no-one come in or out of the window and the windows themselves are fastened so nobody could have got in or out of the storeroom. Even Anne’s testimony that she felt strange and almost fainted “with a terrible pain in the head” is put down to her experiencing a migraine. Now we know why people may be reluctant to report strange and unusual experiences that defy logical explanation when the result might be having to face scepticism and ridicule. Having personally experienced just such a thing, Anne is almost forced to dispense with her treasured sense of logic and rational view of reality.

Not so the erstwhile major whose training is firmly rooted in firm realities that can be observed, explained, assessed and dealt with. After the discovery of an unusual footprint out side the storeroom window, as far as he is concerned, “it stands to reason” that the footprint couldn't have been made by any animal they know of and that therefore “it must have been made by a man.” The logical conclusion: Anne is merely “the victim of a practical joke” perpetrated by one or more of the soldiers under his command.

Despite the major’s “fairly rational explanation,” a feeling of unease remains as reflected in the Major’s attempts at levity which the the scientists don’t respond to at all. After the Major departs on an awkward note, there is a feeling that much still needs to be done considering the fact that if no-one could have gotten in or out of the locked storeroom then who stopped Anne from opening the door last night? In addition, who held the door from the other side and whose footsteps did she hear? Finally, there’s the matter about the claw Anne referred to and how “the thing” she encountered got out of the storeroom by the time the soldiers arrived!

So many questions and not enough answers! What is certain is that accepting what Anne has experienced, everything points to it having “something to do with this sphere.” The three scientists decide that they had better quickly find out what that something is “for everyone's safety.”

 

“An energy valve of incredible power - of power quite beyond

our comprehension”

The three scientists eventually come to the conclusion that the sphere is an “energy valve of complex and fantastic ingenuity.” While trying to trace the source of interference which cut the radio and television reception, it was determined that its occurrence coincided with the time that Costain left the lab and when Anne felt ill. It appears that the valve permits the transmission of matter over great distances, “from some other planet received by the sphere and converted into its original form.” It then follows that they have had “a visitor from space!” The question now remains: “what did it come for?”

“The sphere must be emitting a radiation that is injurious to the

human being”

It is the next night and Morley is determined to observe the sphere alone while the others monitor what happens in the lab. Despite the scientists’ appreciation of the gravity of the situation, the same can’t be said for the military personnel charged with providing security. The whole thing is a bit of a laugh with one of the soldiers “wondering what we do if a martian popped out of that thing,” and his Sergeant replying straight-faced, “you'd place him under closer arrest and you'd march him smartly to the guard room, that's what you do.”

With Morley alone with the sphere in the adjoining storeroom, the tension begins to mount. As the sphere starts to activate and Morley’s report comes through, The emotional strain is reflected by Anne’s expression of concern and anguidh. Given what is happening and what she has experienced, she is no longer a vision of cool emotionless calm.

The tense atmosphere of anticipation is heightened by the pervading silence and the play of light and shade within the dim confines of the storeroom. Gradually the sphere begins to emit a brilliant light which increases in intensity and it appears to be having a physical affect on Morley.

Morley then reports that he is experiencing a very great pain in his head suggesting that it is possibly a form of radiation that is harmful to the human body. Suddenly, Morley reports that it is unbearable, that he can’t stand it any longer and that even with his back to it the light it is “beyond human endurance.”

After some argument between Costain and the Major over whether or not to intervene, the latter wins the argument and they both enter to find the “poor devil” Morley slumped over his desk, dead. The expression on his face testifies to what he felt and experienced in his brave solitary quest for knowledge and understanding. In addition to the tragic death of Morley, it is now evident that the sphere is gone! So, what happened to it, you may ask?

 

The Sergeant reports that one of the soldiers “thought they saw someone jump from the store-room window” whereupon “they challenged him but he ran off.” The Sergeant then spotted him and opened fire but the target seemed to have just disappeared as if “one minute he was there, next minute – nothing.” All that could be said by way of identification of the fleeing figure is that it was “a sort of a black shape.”

Unknown to Costain, Anne and the military is that the black shape is indeed an alien who after killing Morley, escaped out of the store-room window and commandeered a vehicle which it has used to abscond from the base, but not before running down and killing the major. Somehow it had learned how to hot-wire and drive a car at speed! It had better hope it’s not a manual drive!

“Somewhere along the line there must be a bridge between

science and criminal detection”

Reports arise about young women disappearing. A common denominator to the missing girls is that they all responded to an ad placed in the "Bikini Girl" magazine by the alien who is using the name Medra. Shortly thereafter, teenage girls begin to go missing after answering an advertisement in Bikini Girl magazine

 

SPACE CREATURE

NEW DEVELOPMENT!

DAILY CLARION

RESEARCH ESTABLISHMENT BATTLE

FOUR WEEk OLD MYSTERY DEEPENS!

With reports in the media appearing concerning the disappearance of young women, Costain meets with Detective Superintendent Hartley. It appears that Costain has been been leaking his story to the Press as he felt it was the “only way to get all that's happened into the limelight,” as well as to obtain the cooperation of the police. Hartley, along with the rest of Scotland Yard, “view the whole thing with incredulity” but nevertheless “can't afford to ignore anything no matter how far-fetched.”

What is known so far:

1. “With one or two exceptions,” the missing girls don’t have any known living

relatives.

2. The perpetrator of the crimes has been seen standing outside the homes of

some of the missing girls.

3. He has “either murdered these girls or spirited them away taking them back into

space” for some as yet unknown purpose.

On the basis that all of this is true, Hartley and Costain agree to work together.

Later, in response to a letter received this morning from a Madge Lilburn indicating that her daughter has been missing for 3 days, the two men go to interview her and her husband, Reg. Exercising a commendable degree of patience as the story about their daughter disentangles itself from their verbal pin pong narration, Hartley and Costain lean the following;

• Their daughter, Jean went out at about 7:00pm and indicated that she’d return at

11.00pm.

• Next morning it was discovered that her bed had not been slept in.

• Jean was not the “sort of girl to go off without a word.”

• She was going after a very good job the nature of which she wouldn’t disclose

but was very excited about it.

• This may have been related to “that horrible man” who called Thursday night the

previous week.

• The stranger asked Mrs Lilburn if her daughter was in but as she wasn’t he left a

parcel with the mother to give to Jean.

• The stranger gave Mrs Liliburn the “creeps” as he stood in the shadows but he

did have a “nice” educated sounding voice.

• A distinguishing feature of the stranger was his heavy breathing as if he had

asthma or bronchitis.

• Jean was in possession of a 3D colour photograph,“sort of artistic,” very

unusual and “made of a sort of plastic.”

• Jean took the photograph with her when she went to the interview with someone

called Mr Medra.

• The job advertisement and interview had been obtained by Jean via the ‘Bikini

Girl’ magazine.

 

“There is nothing to be afraid of…..you must remember that no

harm will come to you - no harm will come to you - no harm will

come to….”

At a time when so far 21 girls have disappeared in under 3 weeks without a trace, we see a certain you ng and attractive Joyce Malone entering a nondescript building. No doubt another unsuspecting applicant for the sinister and elusive Mr Medra. In the foyer, Joyce is startled when a panel in the wall suddenly slides open and before her sitting behind a desk is Medra himself. Joyce’s view of him is distorted by bright spot lights positioned to shine directly at her. She is then invited to sit down by the reassuring,sonorous, hypnotic and yet vaguely sinister tones of Medra’s voice. A single lamp light positioned before Joyce then acts as a swinging pendulum and together with the hypnotic suggestions being issued by Medras’ voice, Joyce is unwittingly placed into a hypnotic trance – and presumably under his total control.

 

“That sort of AD always gets a lot of replies”

Meanwhile, the investigation continues and centres around an advertisement from an “independent television film producer” who requires “talented young ladies with looks, personality and ambition”requiring them to write with a recent photograph to a PO box number, 968.

Hard work ahead for any PC or Detective Plod to check all the missing girls homes for copies of Bikini Girl. The sense of urgency has increased with the recent two additional cases of reported missing girls that takes the total now to 23!

The investigation has so far revealed the following;

1. A common denominator between all the missing girls is that “they all read a

magazine called Bikini Girl.

2. All the girls applied for a job advertised in this month's edition of the magazine.

3. The advertised job offer in question “was used as a bait.”

4. “A regular pattern” has been established as follows:

• The girls apply for the job

• They go for an interview

• They have their photograph taken

• The photograph is delivered to the girls' homes on the night before they

disappear.

5. The man who delivers the package containing the photographs;

• always comes after dark

• always stays in the shadows

• seems to be very tall

• possibly wears a scarf across the lower half of his face

• could be an asthmatic

A link between the identity of the stranger and the creature at the research establishment at Falsley Park is strengthened with the discovery that a car parked outside the house of one of the missing girls belonged to a car that had been reported stolen months ago from that very government research facility!

Further investigation has led Hartley to an address in SoHo where a rather slimy perverted character runs a - for want of a better word - ‘business.’ Hartley had prior dealings with this creep and is there to question him about the 200 or more answers to an advertisement in Bikini Girl he received over the last 18 days

Pervert Creep confirmed a few details concerning the mysterious stranger:

• he always had a scarf covering much of his face

• he was very tall, about 6'5”

• he always had a strange way of keeping in the shadows

• he possibly wears a mask

• he has “horrible green like a snake’s”

• he paid very well for the letters

• he calls for the letters every couple of evenings

With the expectation that the stranger will call this very evening at about 6:30pm, Hartley decides to arrange to have himself and a few of his men stake out the place ready to nab him.

 

“Why has he come to Earth?

Why is he involved with these missing girls?”

Later at an official meeting, Hartley appraises Costain and Anne of his plan to capture Medra and is perhaps over-confident of its success until Costian informs him that their quarry is “superhuman” and “not born of this planet.” In fact, they are “not just up against a “criminal mind” but are instead “fighting an alien civilization, one at least 100 or maybe a thousand years in advance of ours.”

An astronomical map is then produced showing the solar system which at the time had 9 planets (bring back Pluto!). Attention is drawn to Jupiter and its then believed to be 12 moons! It is from Jupiter’s moon, Ganymede that Costain and Anne proclaim that Medra is from. Why Ganymede?

It has already been determined that the sphere at Fasley Park was a valve and that it is the slave of a “master system” which is used to transmit and receive matter and available evidence suggests that it is situated on Ganymede.

As to why Medra has come to earth and is involved with the missing girls, so far one can only speculate. Perhaps “they're being abducted for experimental purposes” such as “genetic experiments” that involve “the investigation of man under laboratory conditions.” Speculation is one thing but taking action to find out the truth is another…..

Suddenly, Anne offers the assembled gentlemen a suggestion. Good God! A woman offering up her opinion! It’s the mid-1960s after all, gentlemen! What will they say at the club? Anne informs them that she has already made an application to Medra for an interview and will be meeting him that very night at Thorin's Bookshop, the location where the trap is to be set. Of course, Costain immediately goes into protective mode but Anne’s logic and determination in the end prove to be unassailable. How else will they find out what Medra’s up to as if believed he won’t be taken alive by the police. Without Medra’s knowledge, all Costain’s work will have been wasted. Sorry Jack, you’re on a hiding to nothing trying to argue with a woman who considers herself not under yours or anyone ease’s “jurisdiction.” Yes sir, the lady will definitely be having it her way!

 

“Haven't you learned that futility of violence?”

Later that night the trap is being set up and it hinges on Hartley’s men taking up their positions ready to move in the moment Medra moves into the alley both ends of which will be sealed off.

Anne suddenly appears ahead of time. All external trappings of buttoned-up professionalism have been replaced by feminine attire and hairstyle. Anne enters the shop and completely unaware walks past the Creep’s dead body. Suddenly., Medra’s voice can be heard asking Anne why she asked for the interview. Medra doesn’t believe that Anne was intere3sted in the advertisement nor that she is a professional model. Medra then uses his powers of hypnosis to extract the truth from Anne, namely that:

• she’s frightened

• she has been lying

• she came to ask Medra ab out the purpose of his presence on Earth

• she wants to learn the secrets of Medra’s planet and to find out what has

become of the abducted girls.

Anne then discloses that scientists have been operating under the assumption that an advanced alien civilisation would not seek to destroy and would understand thew futility of violence. A very naive and dangerous assumption it turns out to be considering Medra’s actions thus far. Which begs the question: why?

By way of answer, Medra points out to Anne that his civilization “interfered with the laws of the universe” and “found it impossible to suppress the emotions of love and hate” and so slipped “back into the dark Abyss.” He then goes on to offer up a Darwinian-sounding bit of philosophising explaining that “the problem of life is that there is always an enemy who will kill or be killed” and that “there is always someone to fear.” As far as Medra is concerned, he fears what he can’t control, namely an intelligence that is almost equal to his such as a mind that Ann e possesses. Medra then proceeds to brutally kill Anne. The bastard!

Hartley and Costain burst into the premises only to find Anne lying on floor dead and Medra having just departed. Costain is distraught over Anne’s death but there is nothing for it except to continue with the task of tracking down Medra and putting an end to his crimes of murder and abduction.

 

“We're dealing with a creature not only of superhuman

intelligence and power but one also possessing a primordial lust

for violence and savagery”

Later, Costain theorizes that it is “evident that we're dealing with a creature not only of superhuman intelligence and power but one also possessing a primordial lust for violence and savagery.” In his opinion, “Medra could be the forerunner of a full-scale invasion” – an invasion that could be made all the more possible by the matter transfer device. Therefore, it is imperative that they “track down that sphere and destroy it before it's too late!”

While plans are put into effect to construct a powerful and effective means of detection, an announcement is broadcast on TV calling for “any girl who applied for a position in answer to an advertisement that appeared in this month's edition of Bikini Girl magazine under the box number 968” to contact the nearest police station immediately. The urgency of the matter is stressed by informing the public that “by answering the advertisement these girls have placed themselves in great danger.”

The new detection method will involve determining the wavelengths of the sphere and then plot its position using the Jodrell Bank radio telescope the American radar early warning system in Yorkshire and detectors in Cornwall and London. Where the lines converge that will be the site of the sphere.

 

“I can't believe I could be in any danger from Mr Medra.”

“That's just why you are in danger, because you don't believe it”

 

Learning that Joyce Malone whom we saw earlier at an ‘interview’ with Medra has just had a photograph delivered to her, it is surmised that if the established patter is adhered to then she will in all likelihood go missing later that night. Hartley quickly heads off to question Joyce.

Joyce is able to remember something of the interview with Medra , namely that it was a strange interview and something of its setting. Of Medra, all she can recall is his “wonderful voice, kind and soothing.” However, she can’t remember him standing in the room, the actual interview itself nor of the photograph having been taken. The only thing she remembers after Medra speaking to her “was being in the street outside his office.” Joyce is convinced that she couldn’t be in any danger to which Hartley replies “that's just why you are in danger, because you don't believe it.”

A raid on Medra’s office reveals that it is absolutely deserted as if he had never been there. What’s more, Joyce has succumbed to a force that appears to be emanating from then photograph she received and she appears to be under Medra’s control. Medra soon picks Joyce up and departs with her in the stolen vehicle.

A car chase ensues while a message comes through from Jodrfell Bank that a signal from the sphere has been picked up followed by another receiving station picking up the signal. It becomes apparent to Costain that Medra doesn’t care that he’s being tracked and pursued.

 

“ I don't think I've made myself clear; we're trying primarily to

destroy the sphere, not Medra.”

As to what needs to be done if and when Medra is tracked down and trapped, there is a difference of opinion between the position of the scientist, Costain and thed interests of security in the form of Detective Hartley and the military. Costain believes their task is “primarily to destroy the Sphere, not Medra on the grounds that he needs “an opportunity to communicate with him.” The destruction of the sphere will “eliminate his only means of mobility” thereby rendering him “as helpless as a genie without a lamp.”

Finally, the location of their quarry has been established and they soon have Medra surrounded with every exit guarded.

 

“Is that why you came to Earth, to find new blood?”

With flames as a backdrop, Medra emerges and informs the humans surrounding him that with his mission completed he’lll be returning to his planet soon and that there’s nothing they can do to stop him.

Medra’s mission is to seek human women for breeding purposes on Ganymede as a means of overcoming mutations and ultimately their species’ own extinction. Their civilisation had reached the stage of possessing “knowledge that could lead to eternal peace and progress but also embodying the darker powers of universal destruction.” Those who survived “were terrible to look upon” and “ it took centuries of procreation before signs of normality began to appear.” Medra assures the assembled humans that no harm will come to the women and that his people have learned their lesson. Before leaving Medra tells them that one day he may return…..if it isn't too late!

 

Points of Interest

Night Caller from Outer Space is also known as The Night Caller and Blood Beast from Outer Space. It was the first science fiction film featuring John Saxon who was a familiar face and stalwart actor in movies and series throughout the 1960s and 1970s.

The film does a quite an admirable job of combining both the science fiction and detective mystery genres with most of the first half taken up by the former and the second half by the latter. The film also effectively combines both drama and humour with a few moments of levity used to off-set the serious nature of proceedings. For instance, the Sergeant’s berating of the none too bright troops and the poor Major’s attempts at being sociable with the all too serious scientists.

I found the ending rather disappointing with the humans just standing about while the alien intruder babbles on about conditions on his home planet and vowing one day to return to earth. At least there’s not too much of the admonishing finger wagging at humanity for its perceived sins and an implied direct threat to its existence if it continues to persist with its wicked ways. Nor does the film descend into the usual happy ending with everything being resolved and redemption for all concerned. Bur seriously, did we need to have that sparkler ascending into the sky at the end?

As far as alien incursions go, if an alien wanted to find women to help repopulate its home planet, would it really resort to placing a wanted ad in a Bikini Girl magazine? If anything it serves as a statement on the power of vanity, people’s capacity for gullibility along with the predatory and exploitative nature of human beings. I guess our moder- day social media would prove to be a bonanza for the likes of any aspiring alien Medra!

One thing I admire about British film makers is their ability to produce films that, despite the lack of budget, come across as quality pieces of cinema achieved through solid acting, good pacing, competent direction and engaging dialogue. Many of the British sci-fi films in this blog manage to achieve just that as to an extent Night Caller From Outer Space manages to do.

Night Caller From Outer Space raises an interesting consideration of the means by which an intelligence species could traverse the universe without being constricted by the laws of physics as we know them. In the film, a form of matter transportation is used to move beings from one location to another. We are right now perhaps on the cusp of being able to use such technology to transport molecules but who knows what will be achieved in the future? Perhaps one day the limits imposed by distance, space and time might be circumvented by the ability to travel instantaneously by a process akin to thought-travel utilising corridors or filaments in space connecting different regions throughout the universe? It could be that other intelligent advanced civilizations may be employing laws of physics we are not even aware of.

The film was made at a time when reports began to emerge of alien abductions and alien experimentation on humans. This also raises the question of what would be the motivation of any alien species coming to our planet. The film wisely dispels the overly optimistic assumption that contact between Earth and an alien species would be motivated by a spirit of altruism or a quest for knowledge and understanding. Take out own faltering steps into the cosmos for instance. Once we might have emphasised our need for understanding our place in the universe along with our nature to explore as being reasons to venture out beyond the confines of our planet. After 50 or 60 years of attempting just that, what do we now seem to emphasize? Words like ‘knowledge’, ‘understanding’ and ‘exploration’ are being supplanted by a focus on winning a ‘race,’ the need to ‘colonize’ and the opportunity to ‘exploit.” In other words, the universe is seen as being a resource for humanity’s exclusive use. Could it be that an equally rapacious alien race would have something to say about all this and may in fact view us and our planet as a resource to exploit, perhaps for its very own survival?

 

Ganymede: Basic Facts

 

Largest moon in the Solar System: Ganymede is bigger than both Mercury and Pluto.

Size & structure: It has a thick crust of ice (≈ 150 km in places), and beneath that a subsurface ocean possibly ~100 km deep.

Unique among moons: It is the only moon known to have its own magnetic field (a magnetosphere).

Thin atmosphere/exosphere: Very tenuous; includes oxygen, hydrogen, and more recently detection of CO in a patchy exosphere. ₂

Surface features: Bright and dark regions; many craters (older surfaces are darker), ridges, troughs. The crust shows signs of tectonic-like deformation.

Temperature: Very cold—surface temperatures range roughly from 90 to 160 K in daylight in regions receiving sunlight.

(NASA Science)

Recent Discoveries

Salts & organics on surface: Data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft (especially via the JIRAM spectrometer during a close flyby in June 2021) show mineral salts and possibly organic compounds on the surface. These may be signals that briny water from the internal ocean has interacted with the surface. (NASA)

CO exosphere detection: ₂ The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has helped detect a patchy CO component in Ganymede’s exosphere. ₂

(arXiv )

Global furrows & ancient impact hypothesis: There’s a hypothesis that many of the furrow features on Ganymede are part of one massive, multi-ring impact structure (from a very large impact ~4 billion years ago), which may have shaped much of the early geology of Ganymede.

(arXiv)

Missions / Exploration

Voyager spacecraft flew by in the 1970s.

Galileo orbiter (1990s–2000) made several close passes, yielding a lot of the earlier high-resolution data.

Juno has done at least two flybys of Ganymede (including the one in June 2021), giving more recent data on surface composition and interior. (Wikipedia)

 

**************

Island of Terror (1966)

 

A competently directed British sci-fi gem with a stirring and eerie musical score,

colourful and crisp cinematography and an entertaining combination of suspense,

humour and horror.

Directed by Terence Fisher

Written by Edward Mann Al Ramsen

Based on an original story by Mann and Ramsen Produced by Tom Blakely

Cinematography: Reg Wyer

Edited by Thelma Connell

Music by Malcolm Lockyer

Barry Gray (electronic effects)

Production company: Planet Film Productions

Distributed by Planet Film Distributors, Universal Studios (US) Running time: 89 minutes

Country: United Kingdom

Budget: £70,000

Cast

Peter Cushing as Dr Brian Stanley

Edward Judd as Dr David West

Carole Gray as Toni Merrill

Eddie Byrne as Dr Reginald Landers

Sam Kydd as Constable John Harris

Niall MacGinnis as Roger Campbell

James Caffrey as Peter Argyle

Liam Gaffney as Ian Bellows

Roger Heathcote as Dunley

Keith Bell as Halsey

Margaret Lacey as Old Woman

Shay Gorman as Morton

Peter Forbes-Robertson as Dr Lawrence Phillips

Richard Bidlake as Carson

Joyce Hemson as Mrs. Bellows

 

An isolated remote island community is threatened by an attack from

something unimaginable!

Will this small community be able to fight back against the encroaching

deadly horror?

 

“He doesn't like company much”

“That's why he picked as isolated a place as this”

 

On the small isolated Petrie's Island situated off the east coast of Ireland Dr. Lawrence Phillips has recently arrived to set up a sophisticated laboratory in an out of the way mansion on the island's peninsula. Dr. Phillips and his assistant Carson supervise the unloading of their equipment.

Observing the unloading on the dock are locals Peter Argyle, the general store operator; Roger Campbell, the ‘mayor’ of the island; Constable John Harris; Dr. Reginald Landers, an ‘outsider’ who has resided on the island for a good 10 years; and farmer, Ian Bellows. It is remarked that Dr. Phillips is something of a recluse but Dr. Landers states that “he's one of the top research men in the world” and that “researchers are like that” in that they tend to shy away close from contact with any human beings who are not from their own fields of research.

The isolation and insignificance of the island and its community is reinforced by the observation that all the unfulfilled promises that the uncaring mainland has made to the islanders is due to the fact that “we don't pay enough taxes.” Apparently there are no working phones on the island and there is only one boat a week from the mainland. We can be sure that this will not bode well for the inhabitants of Petrie’s island.

 

“I've waited a long time for this moment”

“There shouldn't be any snags”

We next shift scenes to the laboratory where Dr. Phillips tells Carson that they will begin their experiment without first coordinating with the teams in Rome, New York, and Tokyo. (Wisely and slow, they stumble that run fast!) After a bit of scientific techno-babble gobbledegook, Phillips is confident that “if we're successful today, it may well be that we have the cure for cancer.”

Suddenly the screen turns blood-red followed by the sound of breaking glass suggesting that something dangerous has managed to breach containment……..

Roll main title display…..

That evening a fog rolls in, the very one predicted by Peter Argyle on the dock who stated to the doctor, "if you weren't a newcomer, you'd feel it in your bones." The irony of this comment will shortly become all too obvious. We then see Ian Bellows, carrying a lantern near a cave entrance on a cliff-face overlooking his property not far from Dr. Phillips’ residence. He is suddenly pulled short by an odd atonal sound. Curious, Bellows enters the cave to investigate only to disappear from view. Only the sight of his lantern’s light moving up and down on the cave wall accompanied by the sound of his own anguished cries followed by a sickening slurping noise offer us a clue as to his fate.

 

“I'm afraid something's happened to him”

Later, Bellows’ wife goes to Constable John Harris' house to seek his help with locating her overdue husband. In good old school small village fashion, Harris readily obliges and personally bicycles his way to the cave to investigate. It isn’t long before he locates the body of Bellows, but unlike any other corpse he might have been acquainted with, this one appears to be soft and malleable.

 

“There was no face, just a horrible mush with the eyes sitting in

it”

Realising that he is dealing with something both shocking and beyond his experience, Harris enlists the assistance of Dr. Landers. Both men then go to retrieve the body of Bellows and convey it to the island medical clinic. An autopsy is conducted on the body but not much can be determined. The clothing together with an appendectomy scar confirms its identity, but the most intriguing and unexpected discovery is that Bellows' skeleton is completely missing!

“We can't take chances”

Landers instructs Harris not to mention what has occurred to anyone until he finds out what they dealing with. He intends to see Dr. Phillips first to seek out his expert assistance as this incident involving the death of Bellows is beyond his knowledge. If Phillips is unable or unwilling to help, Landers will then take the emergency launch, the islanders’ only means of communication with the mainland in between a larger vessel’s weekly visits, and go and see Brian Stanley, “the most eminent pathologist in Great Britain” who is in London. In case they have to fly back, Landers instructs Harris to “build a signal fire on Moor Heights.”

At this stage Landers believes that they may be dealing with a disease which is “virulent and could be contagious.”

When Landers calls on Dr. Phillips, no one answers the door. Landers then implements the next stage of the plan and takes the emergency launch to the mainland, where he proceeds to London to seek out the eminent pathologist, Dr. Brian Stanley…….

 

“If that's true, it's beyond me”

Landers meets with Dr. Stanley who has just completed conducting one of his classes. Stanley appears to enjoy the respect and good will of his medical students with whom he engages in friendly banter concerning their dubious progress with their studies.

Landers quickly get to the point of his visit by informing Stanley that “we've discovered a body without any trace of bone in it.” Such a case is beyond even Stanley’s knowledge and experience. He therefore suggests they seek out the assistance of Dr. David West, the renowned expert on bone diseases and according to Stanley, “the most qualified man on bone disease that I know.”

 

“That's why we're tossing it into your lap. You're the young

genius.”

We find the good Dr. West occupied with an attractive young wealthy and socialite-type lady, Toni Merrill. She is in fact his patient after “writing off a very expensive Maserati” which led her to be taken to the emergency suite where our good doctor was in attendance.

After Toni’s discharge, what was Dr. West to do but take her back to his place for dinner? As luck would have it, West managed to spill wine on her dress which explains why Toni is clad in just one of his shirts and displaying her shapely legs in her endeavors to prove that what spoilt little rich girl Tony wants, spoiled little rich girl Toni gets.

Again as luck would have it, right in the middle of the couple’s game of lip lacrosse, the doorbell rings. While Toni fetches West’s dressing gown, the doctor answers the door to admit Stanley and Landers. It seems that Stanley is taking some delight at having interrupted West in his post-medical rehab activities.

While Toni confirms she can look just as good in a man’s dressing gown as she can in a man’s shirt, Landers and Stanley explain the situation to West. Of course, West is skeptical and initially tries to dismiss their story with sarcastic humor: “No bones? Yes, well, of course, this is quite a common....” Eventually West is intrigued by the problem and expresses a desire to see Bellows' body for himself.

It is decided that they ought to fly back and like a shot Toni offers to ask daddy to lend them his helicopter but on one little condition- she is to accompany them. What ever spoilt little rich girl Toni wants……..

 

“Looks like we'll be marooned on the island for a few days”

As preparations are made to fly to the island, the copter pilot tells them he cannot wait for them as Toni's father (due to his business commitments) will need the helicopter. This means that they will be to all intents and purposes, marooned.

Shortly afterwards, guided by the signal fire, the helicopter lands and the three doctors and Toni are greeted by Constable Harris and Dunley, a hunter.

 

“Not a very pretty sight”

Landers takes Stanley and West to the clinic to show them Bellows' body which turns out to be "not a pretty sight" what with its protruding eyes and tongue along with its grotesque mushy appearance. The tests that are performed reveal “a series of minute punctures…..all over the body” indicating that “something could have entered the body through those punctures” possibly “some kind of enzyme.” It proves difficult to determine “if they open inwards or outwards” or indeed if they are “punctures or ruptures” raising the question as to whether “something came out or some organism producing an enzyme went in.”

One thing for certain is that “there's not one trace of calcium phosphate in the whole body” indicating that “this enzyme, or whatever it is, seems to attack and break down the calcium phosphate” which is “a major component of human bone.”

What is not yet know is “if there's a connection between the perforations and the absence of bone” and whether they might “be simply two evidences of a similar syndrome.”

At this point in the three doctors’ ruminations, the lights start flickering due to apparent trouble that the island community has been having with the generator recently. The generator supplies all the electric power of the island.

Unable to continue their investigation due to the inadequate facilities of the clinic, the three men head out to the mansion of Dr. Phillips. Upon their arrival there is no response to their knocking on the front door so it is decided that a bit of breaking and entering might be in order. When the men gain entry, they discover Dr. Phillips, his butler and his two assistants dead, all displaying the same horrific physical symptoms as Bellows.

It is concluded that since Phillips had no contact with the villagers, a contagious disease can be ruled out. “Whatever it was, it must've started in this lab.” If so, “it might be moving down the peninsula towards the village.”

Judging by what they observe inside the mansion, the three men are convinced that Phillips and his staff “were fighting something, or the death throes were pretty violent.” They then decide to collect Phillips' notes and study them in the hope that it could give them a lead on what happened.

 

“At least I think it's one of my horses. It's all soft and flabby”

While Stanley and West collect Dr. Phillips' notes and take them to the inn to study, Morton, a farmer discovers one of his horses dead, also in a similar soft and flabby condition to the dead humans. Morton heads off to Constable Harris’ place to report this. Having to forgo a lovely cup of tea, Harris sets out on his trusty bicycle to seek out Dr. Landers who had earlier left him a note indicating where he and his colleagues were going.

When Harris gets to Dr. Phillips' mansion and enters, he is confronted by the same scene as that witnessed by Stanley, West, and Landers. Upon entering the cellar, he hears the strange atonal sound that is a prelude to something horrific happening. When Harris enters the room that contained test animals, an octopus-like tentacle descends on him, and hooks him under his chin. The last we see and hear of Harris is his anguished expression as he cries out in fear and pain. I for one will certainly miss the steadfast, dependable and intrepid constable!

 

“It's a bloody mess, a pile of flesh”

The next morning, Landers pays a visit to Harris’ place but does not find him there. Later on he comes across Peter and Morton at the general store. Morton informs Landers of his dead horse and of its strange appearance being of “a bloody mess, a pile of flesh.” Landers is struck by the fact that this happened on "the other side of the island." Somewhat evasively and abruptly, he rushes off leaving Morton and Peter puzzling over the "strange goings-on." Peter then decides to see the head of the island, Mr. Campbell who ought to know about what has been taking place.

While Campbell and Peter head off to talk to some other farmers before going on to see Dr. Landers, Landers himself along with Stanley, West, and Toni Merrill have gone to the farm to investigate the dead horse. During this investigation, Toni remains in the car only to be confronted by the sight of the underside of an unidentifiable creature sliding down the rear window. Toni is unable to provide the men with much detail except that whatever she witnessed had frightened her terribly and that she had heard “a strange sound.” Well, she did insist on accompanying the men and got her way – again!

 

“let's not take any unnecessary risks”

The intrepid quartet head off to Dr. Phillips house, and you guessed it, Toni gets her way yet again by convincing the men to agree to taking her with them inside the house on the basis that there’s safety in numbers. Down in the cellar they spot the grizzly remains of Constable Harris followed by the “strange sound” that Toni earlier referred to. Suddenly they are confronted by the sight of the ghastly creatures that Dr. Phillips created.

 

“Good Lord, what's that?”

The creatures are approximately two meters in diameter and possess a hard turtle-like shell from which emanates a single tentacle that serves both as a sensor and a flexible limb that can grab hold of potential victims. The creatures can also travel flat along the ground using a system of suckers instead of legs.

Toni and the three men find themselves cornered by a couple of the creatures who appear to be coordinating their actions. As they close in, Dr. Landers takes down a fire ax from the wall, approaches one the creatures and takes a swing at it but with no effect. Just as Landers is about to take another swing, the creature latches on to his ankle with its tentacle. Landers cries out in pain before falling across the creature’s carapace. To the horror of the others, Landers suffers the same fate as all of the previous victims.

Just as the creatures move in for the kill, they suddenly come a halt. They seem to have chosen that very moment to divide. As West observes, “they're inactive now because they divided, but we don't know for how long, and we can't stay here.” The process of division resembles of combination of what one might observe with cell division under a microscope and what one might throw up after consuming pasta followed by copious amounts of alcohol.

During the creatures’ present inert state and in the face of Toni’s own fear-ridden state of paralysis, the party of four make their escape from the cellar. As they exit the house, they spot another creature on the grounds. They then hurriedly get into the car only to find that it won't start. With tension mounting, West manages to fix the problem with the engine and they drive off before the creature can get to them.

At the inn, West gives Toni a sedative to help her relax. He then apologises to her for bringing her to the island and placing her in danger. West does not appear to be all that convinced that they’ll be able to “get out of this somehow” despite his assurances to Toni.

“There are creatures loose on this island. They're dangerous”

After learning at the general store that Landers hasn’t been found and that there are strangers (“two men and a girl”) on the island who arrived by helicopter the previous night and who were seen in the company of Landers at 7.00 am, Campbell and Argyle head off to the inn to find out what’s-what. They enter the inn as West and Stanley are studying Dr. Phillips' notes.

The two doctors informs Campbell and Argyle that Dr. Landers is dead, and a bit later adds the names of Constable Harris and Ian Bellows to the list of the deceased. In addition, they are told that there are dangerous creatures loose on the island and that they may be the result of Dr. Phillips' experiments. They go on to explain that “Dr. Phillips, in the course of his experiments, created some kind of living organism that kills” and that was the cause of Landers’ death.

With the entire island and its inhabitants in serious danger, Campbell agrees to summon all the inhabitants to the village meeting hall, as they’ll “need a lot of help if this island is going to survive.”

 

“I must warn you that we're faced with a very dangerous

situation”

With everyone assembled in the hall, Stanley and West address the villagers. Their message is frank and to the point with no sugar-coating. They begin by stating that “in order to understand the nature of cancer, Dr. Phillips was trying to create living cells, cells that he hoped would attack the cancer. He based his creation on the carbon atom which is the basis of all life on this planet. He did not succeed. But he probably succeeded in creating a form of life based on the silicon atom. Now these Silicates, as we call them, eat animal bone - human bone.” This last point elicits shocked murmurs of surprise and consternation. West goes on to explain that “Dr. Phillips' gave life to some kind of organism, something that we know nothing about” which possess “an external skeletal structure which is tough and resilient.”

Stanley takes up the account of their findings by admitting that they “haven't found a way to destroy them yet” but that they “intend to attack them with everything we can.” Based on Phillips’ notes and their own experience with the creatures, they “calculate that these creatures divide every six hours.” As Stanley proceeds with his account, there is a rising crescendo of shocked murmuring and mumbling among the assembled villagers. They learn that “there are about 64 silicates on the island at this moment; there'll be 128 by six o'clock this evening; two hundred and fifty-six by midnight and if the multiplication continues, until the end of the week, there'll be a million of them.”

West proposes that ‘the only ultimate way to stop them if all attempts fails, is to deny them food.” He suggests that everyone “move into this building with supplies” and “the cattle brought to this end of the island.” He concludes by reminding the villagers that they “must keep calm,” that fear and panic will defeat them just as surely as the Silicates and that they’ll need everyone’s help and cooperation with the population of the island all working together.

At the close of the meeting, Campbell begins to assemble a ten-member defence force that will launch an attack on the approaching silicates with guns, dynamite and petrol bombs. Toni now finds herself transformed from rich adventure-seeking girl to person in charge responsible for organising the villagers: making sure “that everything's handled at the meeting hall,” that “all the supplies are organised” properly” and keeping everyone from panicking.

 

“Nothing seems to get through to them”

The plan of attack involves Dunley and two other men scouting out three locations on the northern shore of the island while the rest including Stanley and West advance to meet the wave of silicates using guns, petrol bombs and dynamite. Alas, their efforts amount to nothing as the creatures seem to be impervious to the men’s weapons. They also lose Morton when he gets too close and is killed by a creature that jumps down on him from a tree! Don’t ask me how it managed to climb up the tree in the first place considering its non-simian qualities.

Dunley suddenly rushes up to inform them that he has discovered a dead silicate along with Dr. Phillips' Great Dane, also dead and half-eaten. After they arrive at the site of the dead silicate and dog, Stanley and West using Geiger counters confirm that the dead silicate and dog are both radioactive. According to Dr. Phillips’ notes, his dog had previously received an overdose of radiation – Strontium-90.

 

“If we can get enough Strontium 90 at his place, we can

contaminate the cattle”

They drive back to the clinic and meeting hall, where West informs the gathering that there might have a way to kill the silicates, but will it only succeed with the assistance of everyone there.

After an examination of the dead silicate, it is decided that West and Stanley will return to Dr. Phillips’ lab to collect a quantity of Strontium-90 isotopes along with a pressure gun to inject cattle with. In the meantime, Campbell is tasked with gathering all the cattle into his cattle yard away from the silicates until they can be injected with the Strontium.

After five minutes of watching West and Stanley don radiation suits, they succeed in their mission to recover the Strontium and the injector. I would not put money on their suits’ ability to protect them from radiation! When West returns to the lab to retrieve his radiation gloves, Stanley is attacked by one of the creatures outside at the rear of the car. It has its tentacle wrapped around his wrist which forces West to use the fire ax to cut off Stanley's left hand. In typical British stoical stiff upper lip manner, Stanley doesn’t even cry out as his hand is parted from the rest of his arm. West just manages to apply a tourniquet to Stanley’s arm before they speed off in the car back to clinic.

“One more transfusion and I'll be a full-blooded Irishman”

We next see Stanley with his arm bandaged after West had performed surgery on him. It’s not as if West has had enough to do! Our British Batman then dashes off to inject the cattle, which he succeeds in doing except that he has had to reduce the dose of strontium for the last few animals lest they run out of the isotope.

 

“We're all scared. If they go outside, it's certain death”

In the meantime a bit of trouble is brewing within the meeting hall in the form of Halsey who is all for getting out of there. He says to his small audience, “if you'd seen what that thing did to Archie, you'd swim.” Overhearing this and fearing that panic will spread, Campbell takes Halsey aside and says to him threateningly, “if I hear another sound out of you, I'll smash your face in and throw you out for those things.” These days a Halsey character would probably burst into tears and Campbell would be charged with abuse!

 

“They're dividing. That means the effect of the Strontium will be

halved”

No long before midnight, the corralled cattle fall prey to the insatiable appetite of a couple of hundred calcium phosphate craving silicates. As the creatures next make their way to the building housing the terrified citizenry of the island, they begin the process of dividing resulting in the power and effect of the Strontium being halved.

 

“If they start breaking out...”

With the generator beginning to fail and the lights starting to flicker, people are panicking while Halsey makes a dash for the door. Argyle and some others who are armed block the way while Campbell fires a gun into the air and instructs everyone to move away from the windows and doors otherwise they will be shot.

Suddenly silicates break in through a window, grab hold of Halsey with their tentacles and kill him. Another silicate crashes through a skylight and falls upon Dunley killing him. Everyone then rushes into the clinic where they hastily barricade themselves leaving some of their friends and neighbours to a grizzly fate. Sometimes the need to survive trumps all other considerations.

Those in the clinic can only await the seemingly inevitable as the creatures continue to batter their way in. Toni Merrill, by now completely overcome by terror is comforted by Stanley's remaining intact arm while West prepares a fatal dose of morphine to spare her the inevitable horror to come. Just as he is about to do so, Campbell draws everyone’s attention to the fact that the silicates seem to be weakening.

As the scene falls silent, and the tentacles slip from the doors down to the floor, the barricade is removed and West flings open the doors to reveal the sight of dead silicates lying completely inert on the corridor floor.

The next morning, with the return of the helicopter, West promises Campbell that a large crew will be sent to clean up the island and bury the dead. He believes that “Phillips was just trying to help humanity” and that “science has its risks, but the risks aren't enough to hinder progress.” He also observes that they were fortunate this incident happened on an island, otherwise they might never have been able to destroy these creatures.

But there’s always an unforeseen HOWEVER…..Other scientific teams have been busily beavering away in Rome, New York City and Tokyo, the last city in which we see a scientist enter a lab to the accompaniment of an eerie sound. As he enters, we hear only his cries of horror as he apparently faces the same kind of fate we are already far too familiar with.

 

Points Of Interest

 

Image generated by Chatgpt

Island of Terror (Night of the Silicates) is a 1966 British sci-fi / horror film released by the short=lived Planet Film Productions. The film was released in the United States by Universal Studios on a double bill with The Projected Man (1967).

Gerry Fernback's screenplay The Night the Silicates Came was the inspiration for Island of Terror. Producer Richard Gordon partnered with Tom Blakey of Planet Films to produce the film.

The film was shot on location in Wexham, St. Huberts, Buckinghamshire and (where else?) Pinewood studios.

Tom Blakely's Planet Productions made only four feature films, including Island of Terror, the vampire film Devils of Darkness (1964) and Night of the Big Heat (1967). Island of Terror and Night of the Big Heat and make excellent films to watch back-to-back due to their similar nature and the fact that they were directed Hammer director Terence Fisher and starred Peter Cushing with Christopher Lee included in the cast of Night of the Big Heat. In both films we have a focus on characters in isolated communities having to contend with dangerous situations as well as having to struggle with aspects of their own human natures and relationships.

Director Terence Fisher made many horror films for Hammer productions such as The Horror of Dracula, The Brides of Dracula, Dracula Prince of Darkness, The Curse of Frankenstein, The Revenge of Frankenstein, The Gorgon, The Mummy, The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll, The Curse of the Werewolf, Hound of The Baskervilles and more.

Edward Judd plays the scientific swash-buckling hero of the film dashing about giving orders, lobbing incendiary devices at bone dissolving creatures, procuring a hot babe, coming up with solutions to problems and making pronouncements. Although good in this role it is nowhere near as compelling as his character in the excellent apocalyptic film The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) in which he really got his teeth into that biting, acerbic and irony-laden dialogue.

I’m quite happy to watch Peter Cushing in practically anything on screen and in this film he plays his character with effortless ease and class. Carole Gray’s character is pretty much stereotypical as a woman in distress who needs protection and is there for the love interest angle. Her eyelashes certainly get to work overtime.

The less said about the 'Silicates,' their cow-pat appearance and sloth-like mobility the better. They are introduced much earlier in this film than the alien creatures in Night of the Big Heat who wisely held over until right at the end. At least the depiction of their method of division was quite effective.

The film portrays how science, no matter how good the intentions may be, can be responsible for creating its own monsters which then require science to produce solutions to those very problems. And so we see three experts tackling such a problem by assiduously studying available data before deciding on a course of action and applying accepted scientific methodology. The Covid-19 Pandemic showed what a hard sell that might be in today’s climate where everyone thinks they are an expert in everything and there’s little patience for taking one’s time, following processes and trusting scientific expert opinion.

There is definitely a danger when concepts like ‘science,’ ‘technology,’ ‘progress,’ ‘the economy,’ ‘democracy’ and so on are elevated to an almost divine status as something to be worshipped and revered. Such concepts are often presented as being sacrosanct, whole and perfect and not open to being questioned. If the products of science and technology result in the creation of ‘monsters’ that can cause death and misery or even threaten our very existence, then it is argued that is the price to be paid for human progress! But who in the end really does benefit, whose interests are really being served, who really ends up paying the price and when is the price to be paid just too high?

 

*************

 

Night of the Big Heat (1968)

ISLAND OF THE BURNING DAMNED

ISLAND OF THE BURNING DOOMED

 

A low budget but eerie, tense, gripping and effective sci-fi / horror film that let its

characters tell the story

Directed by Terence Fisher

Written by Jane Baker, Pip Baker, Ronald Liles

Based on “Night of the Big Heat” 1959 novel by John Lymington Produced by Tom Blakeley, Ronald Liles

Cinematography: Reginald H. Wyer

Edited by Rod Nelson-Keys

Music by Malcolm Lockyer

Production company: Planet Film Productions

Distributed by Planet Film Distributors

Running time: 94 minutes

Cast

Christopher Lee as Professor Godfrey Hanson

Patrick Allen as Jeff Callum

Peter Cushing as Dr. Vernon Stone

Sarah Lawson as Frankie Callum

Jane Merrow as Angela Roberts

William Lucas as Ken Stanley

Percy Herbert as Gerald Foster

Kenneth Cope as Tinker Mason

Thomas Heathcote as Bob Hayward

Anna Turner as Stella Hayward

Jack Bligh as Ben Siddle

Sydney Bromley as Old Tramp

 

In the middle of winter the island of Fara off the English coast is experiencing an oppressive, stifling and inexplicable heat wave, as if this little isolated heavily cloud-shrouded speck of terrestrial real estate was being deliberately subjected to the burning focused beam of a celestial magnifying glass.

Jeff and Frankie Callum run an inn called, The Swan. Jeff is a professional novelist who has supposedly hired a secretary, Angela Roberts who is in fact a younger woman with whom he had an affair. Angela has come to the island with the intention of re-kindling the affair, perhaps ending Jeff’s marriage with his wife and having him all to herself.

Also from the mainland is a strange and mysterious scientist, Godfrey Hanson who has rented a room at The Swan. This intense-looking, stern-faced individual with an abrupt, pompous and rude manner spends his time setting up motion-sensitive cameras and taking soil samples. For what purpose? Who knows?

As the temperature rises along with the mounting tension pervading the little island community, let’s see how the mystery unfolds…..

“Surely it can't get any hotter”

A rather attractive young lady, Angela Roberts is rapidly speeding along a coastal road in a sports car while elsewhere Godfrey Hanson checks his cameras, trip wires and a mirror. When he leaves, an old tramp shuffles onto the scene to examine Hanson’s camera surveillance set-up.

Angela’s car radiator overheats and she is forced to pull over. Luckily, Tinker Mason pulls up behind her in his van and assists Angela by adding anti-freeze to her car’s radiator. Before leaving, Mason tells Angela the location of The Swan Inn. While she waits for the engine to cool, she hears a high-pitched whining or humming sound. What on earth could that be?

Meanwhile, the old tramp has entered his abode, a cave where he too notices the same high-pitched sound. As the sound increases in volume, the tramp’s expression suggests that something horrifying is approaching him. He backs away and cowers in fright as it gets closer to him and we know that this will be the last we’ll ever see of the poor old fellow.

Angela proceeds to drive toward the inn when suddenly Hanson steps out onto the roadway just as she passes.

At The Swan, Dr. Vernon Stone and Frankie Callum listen to the weather forecast on the radio from the BBC Home Service:

“Most districts will continue to be extremely cold. Temperatures will remain below

freezing point, ranging from 24 in Northern areas to 29 in the South. However, there are

exceptional conditions on the Island of Fara. Temperatures are said to be in the

region of 90, and still rising.”

What mystifies the two listeners is the fact that their island usually experiences the same weather as the mainland and yet right now on the mainland it's winter. For them understandably, “this weather doesn't make sense.”

 

“It is hot, isn't it?”

Angela drives up to the inn to be met with appraising gazes from sweaty locals Tinker and Bob Hayward sitting outside with their drinks. Angela’s manner suggests that she may be quite used to having men stare at her and may perhaps even revel in her ability to make this happen. There’s a very ‘modern’ free-spirited, independent and almost reckless air about this young lady from the outset. As for Tinker and Bob, it’s probably too hot to offer to carry her suitcase inside! The 21st century would do them just fine.

Upon entering the inn, Angela asks for Jeff Callum but is informed by his wife, Frankie that he is away. Angela then tells her that she is Jeff’s new secretary. Not for the last time, Angela makes a show of declaring how hot it is: “God, it's hot. It's like being in the Tropics.” Frankie leads Angela upstairs to her room and after placing her suitcase on the bed, she opens a window while making an observation as to how hot it is.

Frankie then notices in Angela’s suitcase a copy of Jeff’s last novel with a picture of his face on the back cover. Angela quickly tells her that she thought it would be a good idea to read it since she would be working for him. Before leaving, Frankie tells her she will inform her husband about Angela’s arrival when he returns. Yes, it’s hot indeed and you could cut the underlying tension with a knife.

 

“He's a strange character altogether”

Hanson arrives and abruptly asks if Jeff has brought the parcel he is expecting. When informed that he is not back yet, Hanson rudely demands that Jeff deliver it straight to his room when he does get back. After he goes to his room, Frankie and Dr. Stone observe how impolite, strange and mysterious Hanson is. What with his going “out with his camera and masses of equipment,” spending “the rest of his time locked in his room” and not letting the Callums in to clean, it seems to Stone that it all sounds like “good material for one of Jeff's books.”

 

“It's this blasted heat”

As Jeff is driving to the inn, he rounds a corner and almost collides with Bob who is just standing there with his bicycle. When Jeff gets out and asks Bob why he is in the middle of the road. Bob looks confused, apologizes and claims he was not thinking. He then goes on to say that he heard a “sort of funny whirring noise.” Jeff however, thinks that it is just a case of Bob having had one too many.

At The Swan, Jeff greets Ken Stanley, a meteorological expert who is loading some items into his vehicle. They discuss what might be causing the heat, touching on the local theory that it is the result of “the bomb.” Ken, unlike most experts we are accustomed to these days frankly admits that “to be perfectly honest, one theory's as good as another….We haven't a clue.” If only the so-called expert Yapparatsi Commentariat of our own era could be as honest!

After Jeff enters the inn, he learns that Hanson demanded that his parcel be brought up to him right away. Jeff delivers it to Hanson, who not surprisingly rudely grabs it from him before closing and locking the door.

 

“She's quite the modern miss”

Of more personal significance to Jeff is the news from his wife that his new secretary has arrived and is at present at the Cove. Jeff gets a lift from Tinker and when they arrive, whose shapely bikini-clad figure should grace his view from afar?…..why none other than Angela.

As Tinker leaves, Jeff makes his way toward Angela. When he reaches her, she is greeted with, “what the hell are you doing here?” followed by “you're getting out of here” and a declaration that he’s not going through with her “special brand of madness again.” Their three month affair had led to no writing on his part and had nearly wrecked his marriage. Angela swats away his words and appeals with some dismissive and flippant remarks before telling him point blank that “you can't just have a girl and then walk away.” Angela then pulls out the big guns by asking Jeff, “what are you going to tell your wife?” followed by with, “you never did tell her about us, did you?” to which he replies, “that's my problem.”

With matters really starting to heat up between them, Angela and Jeff hear the high-pitched whining sound and wonder what it is. After it subsides, they passionately kiss before hurriedly making their way back.

 

“With this heat it's difficult to know what's going on”

As Jeff and Angela drive up to the Inn, Tinker helps Ben Siddle inside where they sit him down at a table. Tinker had “found him wandering on the road by his meadow, in a fair old state.” After being asked as to what is the matter with him, a distraught Ben tells them that his sheep are all dead. Hanson, by now not known for his empathy or tact, seems to be particularly interested in what killed Ben’s sheep.

Hanson quickly proceeds to his room and places a red infrared lens on his camera before placing it together with some film into a bag and leaves.

While Dr. Stone gives Ben a sedative and gets him to rest, Jeff phones Ben’s wife to tell her that her husband is unwell and that Dr Stone will be bringing him home. However, Jeff is unable to communicate properly due to static interference on the phone line.

After Angela goes up to her room to take a bath, Jeff enters and Angela goes into seductress mode. She seems to get her kicks out of taking risks but Jeff isn’t having any of that and warns her: “If Frankie finds out about us, I'll break your neck.” It seems like it’s touch and go as Frankie enters with some fresh towels for Angela. With Jeff hiding in the bathroom, Angela takes a towel from Frankie without disclosing Jeff’s presence. After Frankie leaves, Jeff warns Angela again by saying to her, “I could kill you.” Angela is both unfazed and pleased with the what transpired.

 

“It must be static because of this heat”

Tinker tells Jeff that the “something's wrong with the TV” and that “the phone's been playing up, too.” Jeff speculates that it might be due to static electricity built up by the heat. Bob at his own place has also had trouble with his television set. After asking his wife if she had been playing around with the TV, the set explodes. While his wife fetches a dustpan and broom and he inspects the television wires and innards, Bob hears the high-pitched noise and is so disturbed by it that he contacts Jeff and arranges to come over. While driving in his car, Bob notices his dog, Patch chasing after him. As he drives on, Bob is visibly distressed by the strange sound while his dog sensed the presence of something disturbing. Bob is so affected that he soon crashes through a fence before his car plunges over a precipice and explodes into flames.

“I expected it to cool down by evening, but it's getting hotter”

Back in the Inn’s kitchen, things are about to heat up even further despite Angela’s attempt to cool her hot sweaty body with ice cubes. (Oh Yeah!) The conversation between Frankie and Angela takes on the feel of a verbal duel between them. It begins with Angela asking Frankie if she gets bored with the isolation before leading to the circumstances of Jeff’s last secretary leaving who it turned out was sacked because she had taken a fancy to Jeff. Frankie rather pointedly suggests to Angela “that made her a complication and Jeff doesn't like complications” and that “she didn't mean a thing to Jeff.” Rather ironically, Frankie adds, “I'd have known if she had.”Angela then poses the question, “but if he were just having fun, would you know?” bringing it even closer to the circumstances of the existing love triangle. Frankie confidently proclaims that “Jeff doesn't play around. It'd be all or nothing!”

The tension mounts along with the increasingly hot atmosphere as Angela suggests that “it's a pity that such an attractive man should shut himself away” and that Jeff would need a very good reason to come to live “in a place like this.” That reason according to Angela being, “it's obvious he's running away from something.”

Living on the edge, excitement, thrills and a sense of danger seem to be aspects of life that Angela thrives on. In this case, she takes matters right up to the point of confessing that Jeff had personally asked for her as his secretary, that she more than just knew him before and that Jeff who is just like any other man, had been kissing her within half an hour of her arrival.

Angela’s apparent confession to the affair has served to elicit a sense of shock and disbelief from Frankie. Angela then tells Frankie she was lying in anger and gets her to admit that she was warning Angela off. En garde! Allez! Lunge! Parry! Riposte! Touché! The two women’s verbal duel seems to serve as a response or reaction to the events around them which are apparently beyond their control.

 

“If this heat goes on increasing, it could drive us all insane”

Hanson meanwhile has gone out to inspect the dead sheep. After taking a photo of one sheep, he removes a knife from a metal box.

Angela addresses Jeff by his first name and then corrects herself by asking him, “you don't mind if I call you Jeff?” Jeff informs Angela and Frankie that he has not seen Bob and hands the manuscript to Angela for her to type, countering her attempt at familiarity in the presence Frankie and establishing exactly what her role is supposed to be.

Angela is not to be deterred though. After Frankie goes inside, Angela returns and asks Jeff for a light. As he goes over to her and attempts to light her cigarette, she grabs his trembling hand and places it full on her left breast. Angela then declares, “you know you want me. Why try to deny it?”

The high-pitched sound is heard again and Frankie comes out and tells them that “something just landed over by the hill” and that “it landed in the field.” She also observed that “there was a glow coming from it” along with a “whirring, whining noise.”

 

“He's crazy. Whatever he's doing, he's obsessed by it”

The trio venture out to the hill and observe Hanson returning carrying a bag. They consider what Hanson is up to. Jeff then questions Frankie about what she saw before instructing the two women to wait where they are while he goes to take a look. They are not keen on doing that and prefer to get out of there and wait until the next day. Jeff says that he has “had enough of Hanson creeping around” and will go and confront him about what he is up to.

We next see Hanson developing film in his room under a red light when Jeff appears and knocks on the door to demand answers from him. Hanson refuses to open the door, and Jeff threatens to break it down. Hanson then tells him to wait a few minutes, but Jeff will have none of it and kicks in the door.

A furious Hanson shuts the door to protect the photographs from being exposed to the light. Jeff then questions Hanson about what he is doing and why he was on the hill that night. Hanson tells Jeff that for the past week he’s “been convinced this island is the centre of an invasion: A landing point for beings from another planet” and that is “what has caused this inexplicable heat.” He goes on to tell a sceptical Jeff that he has been spending his time on Fara collecting and analyzing specimens such as soil and the blood of a sheep. Hanson tells Jeff that he ruined the photos he was developing with his “crass stupidity.”

We next proceed to the location where Hanson has set up his cameras. He had not been trying to take photos in the conventional sense. Hanson had been experimenting with a special camera with a red filter lens along with a mirror reflector. The rigged shutter would be triggered by anything crossing its line of vision. It apparently worked as Hanson had been developing a picture that would have given him the proof he so desperately needed – that is until Jeff blundered into his room and spoiled it.

Hanson draws Jeff’s attention to some black cinders which he says were burned by something that produces a high frequency heat “more intense than anything we can produce, even under strict laboratory conditions” and that “there's only one place where that kind of heat exists: Out there, where the cosmic gases ferment and generate a heat greater than anything we can imagine.” Hanson concludes “that's where those beings must come from.”

Jeff then goes to investigate Bob’s dog which is scrabbling and whining at the fence. Hanson calls Jeff over to see Bob’s burned car which had earlier broken through the fence. They look at what’s left and Hanson dispassionately observes that “every particle of energy has been sucked out of it.” Jeff is all for warning others about this, but Hanson wants more time to gather new evidence to prove the existence of the aliens.

“This heat is bound to lead to irrational behaviour”

At the Inn, Angela comes downstairs under the lusting and leering gaze of Tinker and Ken, the latter who remarks, “no wonder the temperature's up. Who's been hiding her? Angela informs Frankie that she will continue work on typing the manuscript.

Not long after Jeff and Hanson return to the inn, bottles of beer suddenly begin to burst, resulting in Frankie being cut by a glass fragment. Jeff goes to get a first aid kit and enters the room where Angela is. Looking at her there with her blouse open, revealing her sweat-glistened cleavage, beer bottles are not the thing about to burst for Jeff. And wouldn’t you know it, Frankie chooses just that moment to enter and catch them kissing passionately. It’ll take more than the application of a plaster bandage to heal the hurt inflicted on Frankie.

Later, we see a clearly heat-affected Tinker enter the room where Angela is working. Tinker attacks her and brutally tries to rape her. During the attack, Angela is able to hit Tinker on the head and flees just as Ken, Jeff and Frankie come running in. While Ken goes to get Dr. Stone, Jeff and Hanson pursue Tinker. Jeff catches up to Tinker and tries to coax him come back to the Inn but Tinker strikes Jeff from behind with a stick and runs off.

As Hanson meets up with Jeff, Tinker makes his way to his garage and lights a welding torch. Peering through the door, he is horrified by the sight of something approaching, the presence of which is indicated by his terror-stricken expression, a bright light and a high volume humming sound. Tinker drops the torch, and retreats inside to hide behind a car. He then covers his ears and screams as the noise grows in intensity. When Hanson and Jeff arrive, they see only burnt areas and a gas cylinder, “split open, just like the car battery. Completely drained of every ounce of energy.”

 

“The indications are that we're approaching a crisis”

Later, while discussing what happened with Tinker, Dr. Stone declares that “it's impossible” that “he'd do a thing like that, not under normal circumstances.” Hanson counters by pointing out that “these are not normal circumstances.”

The discussion at the inn progresses on to Hanson’s theory that “the island is being used as a test base for an invasion” where the aliens “have to discover if they can survive in our atmosphere.” After all, “we probe space searching for information about other planets” so “it's logical that same thing might happen in reverse.” According to this theory, the creature that Frankie saw land that night was there to form “a spearhead to find out if life is possible for them on Earth.” If it were found to be possible “then, the main force will come.”

It is postulated that the aliens need heat energy to survive and with the temperature having risen three degrees in the last half hour to 108 degrees, the situation is becoming critical. With the telephones out of action there’s no hope of alerting the mainland. Stone suggests they go to the Met station where they can send a message for help. He offers to go and Hanson hands him a two-way radio he can use to keep in touch with them.

It isn’t long before Stone reports that his car is overheating. As he approaches the station, the car stalls and Stone reports that he will have to walk the rest of the way. While he checks the car engine, a strange and menacing force approaches. With the unnerving sound increasing in volume, Hanson and the others at the inn entreat him to “get away from that sound.” They can however, only listen in horror when Stone screams as the alien entity closes in on him.

Jeff then volunteers to go next, but Hanson convinces him that he is more qualified to deal with the alien invaders. As Hanson leaves, he pointedly tells the others to lock all doors and windows.

Angela suddenly screams and Jeff tries to comfort her as Frankie looks on. When Jeff rejoins Frankie, she accuses him of having known Angela before she came there and worked out that was the reason they moved to Fara. Behaving like a coward, Jeff lies to her by trying to deny it and fobbing it off on her being overwrought and affected by the heat like everyone else.

Jeff now has little choice but to finally admit that he knew Angela before and that they in fact did move to get away from her. When Frankie asks if Jeff loves Angela, he tells her that he doesn’t and he just “wanted her body” and that “she's no more than a common slut” who never meant a thing to him and never would. It all boiled down to being strictly a physical attraction and that there is no comparison with the love he feels for his wife.

Angela soon emerges from the study wondering where everyone is and wants to see doctor Stone. Jeff tells her the doctor can’t come but like a petulant child she insists that she needs him. Finally under duress, Frankie tells her the doctor is dead and Angela seems on the verge of unravelling emotionally. The flaws in her character and her emotional immaturity in the face of this new precarious situation are laid bare for all, especially Jeff, to see.

 

“We must destroy them before they destroy us”

Hanson, meanwhile locates Stone’s car to discover that the battery is drained. He uses the radio to report to the others that Stone is dead, “burnt to death, “just like all the others.” Hanson then spots a glowing light in the quarry and goes to investigate.

Stella with her dog suddenly appear searching the area for her husband with a flashlight. Just as Hanson is about to warn her, Stella and the dog are killed and flames are seen coming from where they were last seen. Hanson retreats, dropping his flashlight, which goes out. It then occurs to him that the aliens are attracted to the light, which for them is a source of energy. After warning Jeff to turn off all the lights at the Inn, he informs him that he will drive to the station with his car lights switched off. At the station, the radar operator notices peculiar interference patterns on the radar screen. He then proceeds to call someone about this on the phone when suddenly the screen explodes. As the electrical circuits spark, the high-pitched sound increases in volume and an intense light beams on the agonized face of the screaming radar operator.

Unable to bear staying put at the inn any longer, Jeff, Frankie and Angela decide to drive to the station. Meanwhile, Hanson, Gerald Foster and Ken are at the burned out control room at the station. Hanson tells them about his theory concerning the aliens and their method of invasion. He says that the “station is the means by which these beings got here” and that for years we have been “sending out high frequency impulses to explore space” which to the alien beings “represent a life force” that served to attract them here.

Hanson goes on to explain that the aliens being “composed of high frequency impulses in heat form” must have homed in on the scanner and “transferred here like a TV picture, from a transmitter to a receiver using the station’s scanner as a receiver. “Then they materialised on Earth.” Because “the Earth's surface is dotted with TV and radar scanners…...if these beings succeed, they'll heat up the whole surface” with the result that “Earth will be just another hot planet.”

The three men at the station decide that they must stop the aliens by destroying them before they destroy the human race. The plan is to make use of explosives located near the quarry.

With the car seemingly about to fail, Jeff, Frankie and Angela manage to run off into a ditch. Angela true to form begins to lose it and dashes off and lies face down on the road just as Ken drives up. Ken informs them about what has happened and helps them get the car out of the ditch.

The plan to destroy the aliens as proposed by Hanson will involve the group splitting up into two groups, setting fire to hayricks out on the point to bring the aliens out into the open, intercepting the aliens with dynamite and then doubling back to the top of the cliff and use the flares to alert the mainland.

Seeing that Angela is having a hard time of it, Jeff asks Ken to look after Angela if things go pear-shaped so he can be with Frankie. After a flare is spotted, they proceed to the quarry, where Hanson can be seen setting fire to the hayricks with his flare gun. Ken and Jeff then shoot flares into the sky. Gerald, meanwhile lobs dynamite at the creature who we see for the first time as a glowing blob-like entity. Suddenly, Gerald manages to get his foot stuck and can’t move away despite Hanson’s entreaties for him to do so with alacrity.

With sticks of dynamite blasting the vicinity of the alien creature, Angela begins to unravel yet again and dashes toward the fires with Ken in hot pursuit. He manages to catch up with her and practically has to cajole her into accompanying him to a stone building at the edge of the quarry. Once inside, Angela goes into adolescent mode and indignantly asks Ken, “who are you to tell me what to do? It's my life.” Like the ‘classy’ and oh so mature chick she obviously is, she concludes her pouty oration with, “I hate you! Leave me alone!” Ken tries to reassure her that they should not give up hope. As he looks out the window, Angela spots the gun in his pocket. Oh, oh….we can guess what’s going to happen!

Suddenly the area is illuminated by flashes of lightning and thunder can be heard. Hanson runs up to warn Jeff and Frankie about the storm just as the creature is making its way towards him. Jeff tries to warn Hanson but to no avail as he too succumbs to the creature’s murderous power.

Meanwhile, as we thought would happen, Angela gets hold of Ken’s gun and points it at him. He does manage to knock it out of her hand, but she grabs hold of it once again, and tells him that she doesn’t want to kill him but will if she has to. Pointing the gun at her head she goes on to tell Ken that she’d “rather die like this than be burnt alive.” Ken then turns on a bit of the old reverse psychology and calls her bluff by saying “you're right. It's hopeless, completely hopeless, so for once, do something for someone else. Go on, shoot.” She can’t shoot him first and can only respond with a bitter, “Damn you!” Ken retrieves the gun from Angela and they can only hold on to each other as the sound increases in volume.

With Jeff and Frankie huddled together in a large depression surrounded by the alien presence and with no hope of escape, rain begins to fall. The film ends on a positive note of rejoicing and hope as the rain kills off the alien intruder.

 

Points Of Interest

 

Image generated by Chatgpt Night Of The Big Heat was adapted from a science fiction novel by John Lymington. The novel had also been adapted for British television by ITV in 1960.

Filming took place at Pinewood Studios and on location in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire. The exteriors for the inn where the action takes place were filmed at The Swan Inn in Milton Keynes Village. The opening shots of the island's meteorological station are of the transmitter station at Portland Bill, Dorset.

The film has a very impressive cast that includes, Patrick Allen, Sarah Lawson (both married in real life), Jane Merrow and of course, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.

The film’s director, Terence Fisher made three films for Planet Film Productions of which Night Of The Big Heat was the last. Fisher made many fine films for Hammer productions including various Dracula & Frankenstein horror films, The Gorgon, The Mummy and Island of Terror.

Instead of relying on the use of special effects to provide its impetus, Night Of The Big Heat is very much a character-driven film. It focuses more on ordinary people who find themselves in an extra-ordinary situation where they are isolated and cut off from the rest of civilization. Within the claustrophobic setting of the inn, they are forced to confront and make decisions about the danger that’s facing them in the form of an alien invasion. The characters are also forced to confront certain truths about themselves and each other particularly in relation to the accompanying love triangle.

As the temperature rises and the sweat pours forth from every pore, many of the characters begin to lose control of their minds and emotions and succumb to irrationality, anger and lust. On that basis, the characters are really just like anyone of us: flawed human beings who under certain stressful circumstances may act heroically and unselfishly but who may also have the capacity to behave in very inhumane and abominable ways. All this despite our fabricated public personas and manufactured social media autobiographical presentations.

Take for instance the characters involved in the love triangle subplot. I’m afraid that Jeff comes across as a rather snivelling cad and bounder who seems to want to have his cake and eat it too without the consequences. Jeff doesn’t deserve either woman (especially his wife) both of whom could easily do far better. As for Angela, she does come across as a home-breaking little floozy who would have done better by putting it straight to Jeff that if he is at all serious about her he should tell his wife and leave the relationship before she will have anything further to do with him. Frankie, however should have just told Jeff to bugger off and take his little bitch with him. Under similar circumstances, how would any of us behave? Who knows?

The time of year that the film was shot was not exactly conducive to generating streams of perspiration from the actors, so director Fisher had them smear glycerine on themselves to create the sweaty effect along with them having to wear damp shirts. Why Peter Cushing's character kept his jacket on in such temperatures, I’ll never know. None of the men even bothered to put on a pair of shorts. Even I’d be tempted to wander about in my Hawaiian shirt and budgie smugglers! Perhaps not….

It is also a wonder that so much booze is being consumed during such hot and humid conditions. After all, alcohol would tend to exacerbate the dehydration process. Lots of water would be a far better option.

OK, we know about the less than impressive appearance of the aliens, but what can we expect considering the film’s budget? At least it was a good choice to create a sense of atmosphere by not allowing the viewers to see what the aliens actually look like until the end. Instead, there was a reliance on what is not seen and what is implied by focusing on the characters’ reactions to what they are confronted with together with the impressive sound effects and music to heighten the tension. Unfortunately, the final rushed climax along with the appearance of the aliens tended to be somewhat disappointing considering the build-up throughout the film.

John Lymington’s novel is set on an unidentified British island during an unnatural and unprecedented global heatwave. There is speculation that it might be due to the atomic bomb tests that have been taking place but no-one knows for sure. During the 1950s and 1960s Cold War period there were a lot of atmospheric and underground atomic bomb tests undertaken as part of an insane arms race.

Novelist and White Lion inn owner, Richard Callum meets secretary Patricia Wells who has arrived to help him edit his book. Almost straight away the two are attracted to each other, but there is one little problem - Richard is married to Frankie.

The inn is a ocal point for many of the locals. One of them, an airman from the local radar station, informs Richard that a strange radio signal is being beamed downwards onto the island. A stranger staying at the inn named Harsen keeps to himself and seems to be engaged in secretive activities in his rented room.

A story emerges that local, Bob Franker claimed to have recently seen a flying saucer along with creatures resembling spiders that emerged from it. Suspecting that something extraordinary is going on, Richard, Patricia and Frankie contact Vernon Stone, a local science fiction author to seek his assistance.

A conclusion is arrived at that suggests that aliens are beaming themselves to Earth for an invasion, in much the same way as messages are beamed by radio from one place to another. There is initial speculation by the locals that aliens are attacking Earth with a heat ray. When it is instead thought that they are being beamed to the island, it is believed that this could be a reason for the heat as well and that the aliens themselves are extremely hot due to the radiation generated by the transfer process.

It is later conjectured that the aliens have sent less evolved creatures in advance of an invasion in much the same manner as humans have sent monkeys up into space to determine if it is safe. If the advance party of creatures survive in Earth’s climate, then the intelligent aliens can follow to complete their conquest of earth. The nature of this alien species is speculated on and it is suggested that they may be similar to insects with similar evolutionary advantages.

The author never really provides us with a clear description of the creatures, instead giving the reader a sense of them via second-hand accounts and indistinct nocturnal glimpses of them. What is unseen can be far scarier and menacing than what is seen!

It is an interesting concept to have an alien invasion employ a form of terra-forming a planet so as to make conditions untenable for the original inhabitants while making it suitable for the would-be conquerors. A far more efficient process than blundering in on ships and indiscriminately blasting away at people and infrastructure. It would not an easy prospect to try and subdue an entire planet of 8 or so billion irate and desperate inhabitants.

With recent record-breaking summer time heat waves having assailed the northern hemisphere throughout southern Europe, China, parts of Asia, north America and Australia, the reader might feel some empathy toward the characters in the film considering what real flesh and blood people have and are enduringin the real world.

The dreadful conditions in our own time, however are not due to the evil machinations of fictional alien entities, but are rather a result of a combination of factors involving the process of climate change, human exacerbation of a warming climate by the addition of C02 & methane emissions as well as a shift into El Nino weather patterns. Like the characters in the film and the book, the final outcome will depend on how we respond to the challengers posed by the new changed conditions and circumstances we find ourselves confronted with.

 

***********

The Green Slime (1968)

 

A fun-filled, amateurish, juvenile but colourful sci-fi horror mixing astronauts, space

monsters, laser guns and he-man rivalry.

 

Directed by Kinji Fukasaku

Screenplay by William Finger, Tom Rowe, Charles Sinclair Story by Ivan Reiner

Produced by Walter Manley, Ivan Reineri

Cinematography: Yoshikazu Yamasawa

Edited by Osamu Tanaka

Music by Toshiaki Tsushima

Production companies: Toei Ram Films, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributed by Toei Company (Japan), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (United States) Running time: 90 minutes

Cast

Robert Horton as Commander Jack Rankin

Richard Jaeckel as Commander Vince Elliott

Luciana Paluzzi as Dr. Lisa Benson

Bud Widom as General Jonathan B. Thompson

Ted Gunther as Dr. Hans Halversen

Robert Dunham as Captain Martin

David Yorston as Lieutenant Curtis

William Ross as Ferguson

Gary Randolf as Cordier[1]

Japanese dub

Gorō Naya as Jack Rankin

Ichirō Murakoshi as Vince Elliott

Haruko Kitahama as Lisa Benson

Kōsei Tomita as Johnathon B. Thompson

 

A giant asteroid heads toward Earth.

A group of astronauts from a space station on a mission to blow it up.

The mission succeeds.

 

BUT!!!!

 

A strange slimy green substance is unknowingly brought back by the

astronauts.

The alien substance mutates into one-eyed tentacled monsters that feed

off electricity.

The station is soon infested with these alien life forms.

How will this new threat be dealt with?

Can these alien monsters be stopped before they kill all the humans on the

station and go on to threaten humanity on earth itself?

 

“Nothing exciting ever happens around here.”

The routine at the United Nations Space Command is rudely disrupted by the shocking discovery of an asteroid named ‘Flora’ that is on a direct collision course with Earth. What’s more is that only ten hours remain to destroy the rogue asteroid before it results in an extinction level event on Earth. General Thompson decides that “the only answer is to blast that thing out of the sky” and so a mission must be quickly set up to accomplish just that.

General Thompson realizes that there is nothing for it but to call on the services of the one man capable of leading the mission to avert the threat to earth posed by the oncoming space rock of doom – and that man is none other than Commander Jack Rankin!

 

“I'd have absolute confidence in him no matter what we're faced

with”

Despite the general’s confidence in Rankin there is the problem over the fact that the commander had resigned from Space Command and therefore can’t be ordered to go on the mission. He will have to volunteer. Also with so little time remaining there may not be sufficient time to escape the blast zone once the explosives have been planted on the asteroid. How can anyone be sent “on a mission where the chances of survival are zero?”

Ah! But few people really know the kind of stuff Rankin is made of as we see him alone in the general’s private office admiring a photo of himself together with another man named Vince Elliot. No doubt he’s reminiscing about the “best space team” ever which naturally he was a part of. Still, there’s a bit of a sour feeling over their partnership which he somehow feels responsible for.

Anyway it’s soon down to business as the general explains the situation to Rankin:

• An asteroid moving towards earth.

• “Close to six million tons of rock.”

• Set to collide with earth at 7 o'clock the next morning.

• The “only one solution” being to blow the asteroid to dust

In answer to the question, “who's in command of the mission?” Why, who else but Rankin? He is the man with the “necessary experience,” not to mention the chiselled jaw, the road map face denoting the mileage already traversed throughout his career and the hair-style that can withstand any number of g-forces. I bet he wishes there was a mirror in that office just so he can admire himself.

 

Of course he is the one to be “in full operational charge of gamma 3” space station which is presently commanded by….Vince Elliot. Yes, Vince Elliot. Rankin, this is sure your lucky day……

 

“Since that's the way it is, let's be sure that's the way it is”

Can there be room for two alpha male giant egos on one little space station? Elliot5 will need to swallow his pride and accept that Rankin is on the station tgo “take over” his command. However, one cannot ignore the undertone of resentment in his remark that Rankin was chosen as being the best man for assuming command and that “he'll get the job done, alright with no ifs, ands, or buts. in spite of anything or anybody.”

Added to the slight to Elliot’s pride and the tension between two former friends, there is the complication involvin Elliot being engaged to Rankin’s ex-girlfriend, Lisa Benson who is a doctor on Gamma 3. Despite her assurances to him that he has no reason to be jealous of Rankin and that he doesn’t mean anything to her anymore, her demeanor and fluttering false eyelashes seem to indicate otherwise perhaps.

With 20 mminutes to go until departure from the station, Elliot convinces Rankin to to have him included as part of the mission team. Is Rankin really all that glad to have Elliot included or is this all a part of their unstated rivalry and competitrion? It’s big of Elliot to seem to have buried the hatchet and ask to joing Rankin’s team. It’s also big of Rankin to appear to be doing the same by accepting Elliots request. I guess either wishes to appear to be an ass hole.

By the way. Guess who has come to see the crew off as they board the shuttle? None other than Lisa despite her assurances that she wouldn’t do so. Is it for the man she’s engaged to who is full of insecurities and weighed down by guilt? Or is it for the man awash with self confidence, a sense of his own worth and in possession of a giant ego and for whom she still has feelings?

 

“Are there any questions, gentlemen? Take her in”

Aboard the spaceship on the way to Flora, Rankin curtly and brusquely issues directives left, rigbht and centre just to let everyone (including Elliot) know who is in charge.

Afer landing on Flora and undertaking the mission to lay the required edxplosives, it transpires that time is now the enemy. Flora is now accelerating and at the current timed of 2.40 “detonation time has to be moved up to 3 o'clock.” All the equipment has to be abandoned and with the time change there may not bed sufficient time for the team to escape the blast effects of Flora’s destruction.

Dr Halvorsen has not yet returned and despite Elliot’s plea to Rankin not to leave him there, it seems that is just what the commander is prepared to do. Harsh? Yes, but that is the price of command whereby decisions might have to ne made to issue the order that could result in someone’s death if it means the survival of the others under the leader’s command. This scene also gives us a clue as to a possible past event involving Elliot who may have placed those under his command in jeopardy by trying to save the life of a single member of his team. This fact Rankin callously throws in Elliot’s face ion front of the others. Bastard!

Dr. Halvorsen eventually shows up bearing a canister containing of a slimy green substance. Rankin orders him to “get rid of it” despite the fact that it may prove to be a “major discovery” being the first ever proof of extra-terrestrial life! And what does the illustrious leader Rankin do? He snatches the specimen container out of Halvorsen’s hands and smashes it on the ground. The alien specimen that was safely contained in a glass container is smashed to smithereens resulting in a porftion of the slime attaching itself to one of the astronaut’s suits. We have seen what the slime does when it attaches itself to the various pieces of equipment used by the team. We can readily guess the likely consequences of Rankin’s impetuous command decision and they probably wont be good!

The crew finally make it off the surface of Flora, but with only 3 minutes unti detonation there appears to be little chance of them outrunning the blast. With their ship straining under more than 10-g’s, Rankin orders an increase of speed and then follows this up by single-handedly defying the crushing g-forces to get the ship back on track thereby proving to everyone that he’s better than Batman. His hair-style remains intact but I fear that some of his plastic surgery work may need some re-doing when he returns to Earth. Is there nothing this man can’t do? Obviously not. With force shield activated, the crew make it back safely to Gamma 3…...along with a possible stowaway perhaps?…….

 

“I get an order, I carry it out. I give one, I expect the same, right

down the line.”

The energy from decontamination causes the green slime to evolve and grow and in the middle of the celebration an alarm goes off indicating trouble in the decontamination chamber. An officer opening the door is quickly killed by an unknown assailant.

When they get back to Gamma 3 Rankin orders that all equipment be run through the decontamination procedure three times despite Elliot grousing that his men don’t have time to run such an unnecessary number of decontamination.

The successful return to Gamma 3 is greeted by applause and whoops of elation, and isn’t our hero Rankin in his element as he acknowledges the “welcoming committee” and declares that the “ job isn’t over yet.” This is followed by a verbal rebuke for Dr Halvorsen whom he holds “responsible for the decontamination of material and personnel used on the mission.” Someone please remind Rankin that it was his rash action that will lead to what happens a bit later!

Being now on an autocratic and pugnacious roll, Rankin flexes his command muscles by ordering the running the decontamination procedures three times despite the difficulty of sparing equipment for the length of time it would take and the other tasks the station personnel have to perform. Just in case Elliot doesn’t concur with his decision, Rnkin once again rebukes and embarrass him in front of the other personnel by reminding him that the command reverts to Elliot “when the mission is completed” and Rankin leaves. He further belittles the station commander by suggesting that he “bone up” on his regulations. Not exactly a very professional approach to engage in personal rivalry in the presence of subordinates who depend on the judgement of and cooperation between their commanding officers.

Speaking of personal rivalry, the one between Elliot and Rankin is fleshed out when Lisa dresses Rankin’s arm wound. There’s the matters of his ego and uncompromising attitude. He almost considers it a personal slight against him that Lisa dropped him and got engaged to his best friend. Even when Lisa tells Rankin that whatever they had between them is finished, he is conceited enough to retort with, “I wonder.” Isn’t he familiar with the notion of just moving on with his life?

Rankin’s lack of empathy and understanding of other people’s needs which is also an important element of command is evident in his attitude toward leadership as he comments on his role as a commanding officer whereby when he gets an order he carries it out and when he gives one, he expects the same. That’s fair enough up to a point but as Lisa observes, “there's no margin to let other people be wrong, to fail sometimes.”

Later while the celebrations continue, (amid a really stupid dance that reminds me of a similar dance in the sci-fi movie Ikarie ) the members of the little love triangle are having drinks where the competition between Rankin and Elliot continues with Lisa of course being the subject of their rivalry. Within a cloud of innuendo surrounding their table, Elliot meaningfully informs Rankin that “the old man” will be glad to hear that Lisa and he will be married the next week. Rankin then oh, so sincerely wishes Lisa “every happiness” and then follows this up by asking if can dance with “your fiance.” Elliot is then left with an alcoholic beverage for company while his rival sashays away with his fiance on the dance floor. Question: Why didn’t Lisa throw a drink in each of the faces of these two juveniles and walk off?

On the dance floor, we discover a bit more detail surrounding the event that soured the friendship between Elliot and Rankin. It seems that Rankin reported Elliot which led to hum having to face an enquiry. His crime in Rankin’s eyes was to have sacrificed 10 men in order to save one which he characterises as being a “pretty stupid mistake.” What Rankin doesn’t see whenever he continues to rub Elliot’s nose in this fact is how the whole incident has “almost destroyed him” and how “it's killing him.” Rather than acknowledge this Rankin side-steps to the other element of the rivalry between himself and Elliot by stating point blank to Lisa, “you're making a big mistake” and that instead of loving Elliot, she instead pities him. In reply, all Lisa can offer is that she is “very happy with him.” Well, often in a relationship that’s all you can ask for initially but to the man with the “incredible ego” it’s an indication that she loves him. Perhaps, but sometimes that is just not enough in a meaningful relationship. How will Elliot and Lisa find out if Rankin keeps blundering about like a wrecking ball?

Suddenly the joyful ambiance of the celebrations is shattered by alert of trouble in the lab decontamination area. When the senior officers arrive to investigate, they discover a crew member has been electrocuted to death. They also discover in the room the same substance that was found on the asteroid. Rankin cannot resist at having another dig at Dr Halvorsen by telling him that it is his responsibility.

Soon after at C Block Power Terminal, another crew member is found dead due to electrocution. The action then moves to the main power room where “something strange” has been discovered. The less said about the tentacled one-eyed alien the better! When thoughts turn to the use of laser guns, the good Dr Halvorsen wants this “magnificent discovery” captured alive.

What folls is yet another opportunity for the rivalry between Elliot and Rankin to play out. Rankin is all for getting rid of the creature that has already killed two men but Elliot “as commander of this station” decrees that they ought to try and capture it for which he swill take full responsibility. Surprisingly Rankin magnanimously agrees to let Elliot do it his way to which Elliot sarcastically replies “thank you very much.”

Elliot then employs sound command skills by asking for advice from one of his expert personnel, Dr Halvorsen who suggests paralysing the creature using gas guns and a net. Elliot then goes into uber-command mode and issues orders left and rightI probably showing Rankin that he can cut the mustard as a commander while Rankin probably thinks that Elliot will likely fall flat on his face.

The upshot of the resulting human versus alien melee is the death and wounding of several crew members. Enter ‘I Told You So’ Rankin who smugly suggests “suppose we try it my way now, Vince.” Just to rub Elliot’s failure in further, he declares that “now on, I'm in command.” What a dick! It is now all down to business with firing at will and doubling of guards. None of this touchy-feeling lefty mamby pamby progressive nonsense. It’s time to zap the crap outa stuff!

Rankin is now on a roll and for good measure heads off down to the infirmary to throw Elliots shortcomings into his face once more as he’s being treated for a wound he received during the struggle to capture the alien. First up, he informs Elliot that he will hang around until they find out what they are up against. Rankin, in response to Elliot’s little bitch whining about screwing up, agrees that he had in fact screwed up and that he makes too many mistakes and that he’s “not right for command.” But isn’t that what command sometimes involves, the possibility of making the wrong decisions which seem perfectly reasonable at the time. As Lisa points out, “this is the first time anything living has been found anywhere in space.”

Nothing however is perfectly black and white as Rankin retorts with “tell that to the wives of the men in the morgue.” Unfortunately, Rankin seems to be unable to acknowledge or appreciate his own share of responsibility for what has occurred, nor does he seem to understand that scientific discoveries and advancements in our knowledge often come at the price of human lives.

 

“Commander Rankin and I've doped out a plan we hope will

work.”

 

Word soon reaches Rankin and Elliot that Dr Halverson has “got something in the lab” that’s “very important.” It turns out that the fluid discovered earlier in the power room is in fact blood and that the cells it contains “duplicate faster than anything known to man.” As the implications of this “incredible” and “frightening” discovery are beginning to sink in, Halverson informs the others that he has a theory as to why the alien creature was in the transmission room ripping up wires and what it was after. By means of a simple experiment employing incremental increases of electrical charge, Halverson demonstrates that the creatures both feed on and discharge energy. In fact,“one cell, one microscopic speck left on a spacesuit….would absorb all the energy it could get.”

So Rankin, are you at least a little bit sorry that you kept on chewing out the good doctor for having the effrontery of even existing in your presence on the station? On your own orders “this stuff reproduced inside the decontamination chamber” and as the current was stepped up “it just grew.” It was the decontamination process that accelerated the creatures’ growth. If the creatures make it to the power room, (coz there’s power in the power room!) they could be all over the station in no time. However, no matter what precautions are taken, weapons cannot be used against the creatures because as Halverson explains in the midst of battle in the infirmary, “blood cells of this creature is like a seed. It can spawn new creatures from its own blood.” Also as the beleaguered crew soon discover, the creatures are able to heal themselves. How does one kill such a dangerous life-form?

In short order a couple or crucial orders are issued. One from Elliot to have power in the infirmary cut off. Rankin gazes at Elliot in surprise for having made such a “smart move.” Why? Does Rankin think that only he himself can come up with such command decisions? The next order issued is to have the station placed in quarantine which causes General Thompson back at the United Nations Space Command to have a severe bout of dyspepsia and apoplexy.

A plan is soon placed before the rest of the station’s crew by Elliot. It involves getting everyone out of c-block and sealing it off. This will be followed by further confining the creatures “right down to the storage room.” Energy will be used to get them in there by cutting off power and lighting in c-block and then running a power beam search car down the corridor stopping at a room in which a portable generator will be set up. It is hoped that the light beam will lure them into the room “right to the generator.” By this means it is intended that the creatures will be contained in one area. So what could go wrong?

The plan is soon put into effect to lure the alien creatures away from the inhabited parts of the station. In the process, Halverson is caught behind a closing bulkhead door while foolishly dashing back to retrieve his scientific notes. On a monitor poor Halverson can be seen screaming in terror while being menaced by the creatures. True to form, Elliot wants to open the bulkhead door and attempt a rescue of the doctor. Equally true to form, Rankin opposes the idea of saving the life of one man if it means risking the whole station. Elliot ignores Rankin’s order and determinedly makes his way to the bulkhead door. Rankin orders him to “get away from that panel!” and aims a laser rifle at him while ominously telling Elliot, “that’s an order, Vince.” Elliot bravely stares him down and and calls his bluff by stating “it’s your move, commander.” Before Rankin can fire at Elliot, Lisa interposes herself between the gun and its intended target and opens the panel herself. Halverson, Rankin, Elliot and Lisa: Each makes a decision to act in a way that they believe is important to them. Who is to say who is right and who is wrong? We all have to live with the decisions we make and their consequences to ourselves and others.

“Situation here beyond control. Further efforts futile.”

Later on when a section of the station is on fire, Rankin in a 180 degree shift, decides to evacuate the station using the shuttles and informs Space Command to set up a quarantine facility for the station crew. Hadn’t Lisa previously suggested something like this earlier?

When Rankin orders the destruction of Gamma 3 by having the station burn up in Earth's atmosphere, Elliot challenges him declaring, “Now I’m going to tell you something for the last time. I’m in command of this station, and when my Chief gives me an order to destroy Gamma 3 I’ll take that order from him, but I won’t take it from you!” He then takes a swing at Rankin who being the action hero he is, skillfully blocks the blow and counter-punches Elliot. Rankin then orders security officers to escort Elliot to one of the evacuation ships adding that that if Elliot resists they should consider him under arrest. All this happening between two commanders in front of the station crew at a time of peril! Doesn’t exactly instill confidence!

Elliot not being one to take no for an answer, refuses to stay under arrest when it is discovered that the greenie meanies are crawling all over the station’s exterior and hampering the evacuation. The creatures had also been making use of the solar generators’ power circuits which necessitated their shutdown. Elliot quickly dons a space suit and takes charge of a n EVA mission to do battle with the critters and clear them away.

 

“You never could take orders.”

“Everybody's got his weakness, right?”

When the station is eventually evacuated there is the added problem of insufficient power for Space Command to remotely detonate the station. There remains nothing for it but for one heroic person to go back inside and do it manually. And that heroic person is n one other than Rankin. After his successful space battle, Elliot learns from Lisa that Rankin has gone alone on what amounts to a suicide mission. Not one to be outdone in the heroics department, Elliot grabs a laser rifle, gives his fiance some meaningful looks for the last time, and sallies forth to join his rival in battle. Notice that Lisa doesn’t plead with him not to go as she had with Rankin. Rankin the egotistical so-and-so had left with the certain knowledge that Lisa still had feelings for him. Elliot left knowing this too, but what the hell, one may as well go out in style rather than show how beaten down he must have felt inside and thereby giving Rankin the final word in glory, courage, self-sacrifice, truth, justice and the American way!

As he’s dukin’ it out with a group of alien beasties, Rankin’s laser rifle runs out of zapperoonie and just when he’s about to become a legendary posthumous hero, Elliot in the nick of time charges in to try and save the day. But alas, it is Elliot who goes down fighting and consequently becomes the hero who does indeed save the day.

“I recommend the highest citation for commander

Elliott.....posthumously.”

After Rankin returns to the evacuation ship, the Gamma 3 station along with the alien creatures burns up in Earth’s atmosphere. Rankin radios Space Command and requests the highest commendation be given to Vince Elliot, “posthumously.” Well, Elliot is now out of the way as a rival for Lisa’s affections and has his fiance. Thumbs up buddy! How’s that for one-upmanship! Bastard….

 

Points of Interest

 

Image generated by Chatgpt

 

The Green Slime was shot in Japan with a Japanese director and film crew, but with a non-Japanese cast. The film certainly reflects the rollicking style of Japanese sci-fi films of the time such as Rodan (1956), Battle In Outer Space (1959) and Atragon (1963).

More specifically, The Green Slime was a co-production between Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Ram Films, and Toei. MGM provided the funding and script while Toei provided the film crew and location to shoot the film.

The Green Slime was made as an unofficial fifth entry in the TV film series involving the adventures of a space station called Gamma One by Italian director Antonio Margheriti. The only connection the film had to Margheriti's films is the space station, Gamma Three, which had a similar design as Gamma One in Margheriti's films. The Japanese release version of the film omits the complicating Lisa-Vince-and-Rankin love triangle subplot to make the film faster paced, while adding a deathbed scene for Elliot. The Japanese version runs for 77 minutes while the MGM US released version runs for 90-minutes.

The notion of a green slime menace would have been better to have been persisted with and developed instead of the resulting green tentacled alien monsters which come off as being childish and disappointing. The film is at least saved by its fast pacing, energy and the rollicking sense of fun and adventure.

At least the film lives on in the form of the annual ‘Green Slime Award’ given out for each year's worst in science fiction at Bubonicon. I guess it’s better to be known for something than not known at all!

 

*************

 

Useful Resources

 

Books (Print & eBooks)

Baxter, John. Science Fiction in the Cinema. London: Zwemmer, 1970. A highly readable overview of the genre’s development, useful for understanding the broader context behind all films in this volume.

Halliwell, Leslie. Halliwell’s Film Guide. London: HarperCollins (various editions). A dependable reference for quick, often witty assessments of each film.

Hardy, Phil (ed.). The Aurum Film Encyclopedia: Science Fiction. London: Aurum Press, 1984.

An A–Z guide covering many of the featured titles, with concise entries and production details.

Muir, John Kenneth. Horror Films of the 1960s. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2001. Particularly relevant for Island of Terror and Night of the Big Heat, placing them within the decade’s horror boom.

Newman, Kim. Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s. London: Bloomsbury, 2011.

An engaging and accessible study of horror cinema that overlaps with several sci-fi entries in this collection.

Warren, Bill. Keep Watching the Skies! American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2009.

Provides useful background to the trends and themes that shaped 1960s sci-fi cinema. Online Resources

IMDb (Internet Movie Database)

https://www.imdb.com

Comprehensive listings, cast details, trivia, and user reviews for all films featured in this volume.

AllMovie

https://www.allmovie.com

Clear, concise summaries and critical commentary ideal for general readers.

British Film Institute (BFI Screenonline & BFI Player) https://www.bfi.org.uk

Valuable for British productions, offering essays and archival insights.

Toho Kingdom

http://www.tohokingdom.com

A rich resource for Japanese genre cinema, especially useful for Matango and The Green Slime.

Turner Classic Movies (TCM)

https://www.tcm.com

Articles and historical context for classic films.

YouTube

https://www.youtube.com

Trailers, clips, and retrospectives that bring these films vividly to life.

Film-Specific

Useful resources for each featured film:

1. The Day of the Triffids (1962)

British Film Institute – Background essays and production context. AllMovie – Accessible plot and thematic overview. Hardy, Phil (ed.). – For quick reference and production details.

2. Matango: Attack of the Mushroom People (1963/1965)

Toho Kingdom – Detailed analysis, stills, and production history. IMDb – Cast, trivia, and alternate release information. Newman, Kim. – Context within horror and psychological sci-fi.

3. Night Caller from Outer Space (1965)

IMDb – Essential viewing notes and cast details.

AllMovie – Clear synopsis and genre framing.

Halliwell, Leslie. – Brief but useful critical perspective.

4. Island of Terror (1966)

British Film Institute – Insight into British sci-fi horror production. YouTube – Trailers and clips showcasing the “silicate” creatures. Muir, John Kenneth. – In-depth discussion within 1960s horror cinema.

5. Night of the Big Heat (1967/1968)

British Film Institute – Contextual essays and historical notes. IMDb – Cast and production information.

Muir, John Kenneth. – Analysis of its place in 60s genre filmmaking.

6. The Green Slime (1968)

Toho Kingdom – Production background and creature design details. YouTube – Famous theme song and trailers.

Hardy, Phil (ed.). – Reference entry and production notes.

Useful Magazines & Periodicals

Fangoria

Features retrospectives and articles on classic horror and sci-fi films.

Starburst

Accessible coverage of cult science fiction cinema, often revisiting films from this era.