The Day of the Triffids (1962)

A sci-fi film that relies on tension and imagination but is somewhat hampered by lack of budget and struggles to rise beyond the ordinary

Directed by Steve Sekely, Freddie Francis (additional scenes)
Written by Bernard Gordon, Philip Yordan
Inspired by the 1951 novel by John Wyndham
Produced by George Pitcher, Philip Yordan, Bernard Glasser
Cinematography: Ted Moore
Edited by Spencer Reeve
Music by Ron Goodwin, Johnny Douglas
Production company: Security Pictures Ltd
Distributed by Rank Organization
Running time: 93 minutes

Cast

Howard Keel as Bill Masen
Nicole Maurey as Christine Durant
Janina Faye as Susan
Janette Scott as Karen Goodwin
Kieron Moore as Tom Goodwin
Mervyn Johns as Mr Coker
Ewan Roberts as Dr Soames
Alison Leggatt as Miss Coker
Geoffrey Matthews as Luis de la Vega
Gilgi Hauser as Teresa de la Vega
John Tate as Captain — S.S. Midland
Carole Ann Ford as Bettina
Arthur Gross as Flight 356 radioman
Colette Wilde as Nurse Jamieson
Ian Wilson as greenhouse watchman
Victor Brooks as Poiret
Peter Dyneley as the narrator's voice

Introduction

On any day and even in such an idyllic setting as a pond or botanical garden in the middle of a modern city, “nature's scheme of things” can be seen to be at work if we choose to look carefully. For instance, “there are certain plants which are carnivorous or eating plants. The Venus fly trap is one of the best known of these plants. A fly drawn to the plant by a sweet syrup brushes against trigger bristles. Just how these plants digest their prey has yet to be explained. There is much still to learn about these fascinating eating plants.” Take this “newcomer” over here: “trifidus celestus.” Did you know that it was “brought to Earth on the meteorites” on the very day that initiated the events that almost spelled the end of civilization…..

Read on for more.....

Moon Zero Two (1969)

A sci-fi film that walks a fine line between being an unintentional spoof and a straightforward space adventure film.

Directed by Roy Ward Baker
Screenplay by Michael Carreras
Story by Martin Davison, Frank Hardman, Gavin Lyall
Produced by Michael Carreras
Cinematography: Paul Beeson
Edited by Spencer Reeve
Music by Don Ellis
Production company: Hammer Films
Distributed by Warner-Pathé Warner Bros.
Running time: 100 minutes
Country: United Kingdom
Budget: £500,000

Cast

James Olson as Bill Kemp
Catherina von Schell as Clementine Taplin
Warren Mitchell as J. J. Hubbard
Adrienne Corri as Elizabeth Murphy
Ori Levy as Korminski
Dudley Foster as Whitsun
Bernard Bresslaw as Harry
Neil McCallum as space captain
Joby Blanshard as Smith
Michael Ripper as 1st card player
Robert Tayman as 2nd card player
Sam Kydd as barman
Keith Bonnard as Junior customs officer
Leo Britt as Senior customs officer
Carol Cleveland as hostess
Roy Evans as workman
Tom Kempinski as 2nd officer
Lew Luton as immigration officer
Claire Shenstone as female hotel clerk
Chrissie Shrimpton as boutique attendant
Amber Dean Smith as Hubbard's girlfriend
Simone Silvera as Hubbard's girlfriend
The Go-jos as Hilton bar dancing girls

Earth’s Moon

May 2021

Bill Kemp, former astronaut pilot turned space salvager together with his Russian partner, Korminski become involved in a millionaire criminal space industrialist’s scheme to capture a sapphire asteroid and crash it into the far side of the moon for later recovery. Kemp and his partner are initially unaware of the fact that there is also a link between this job and the salvage team’s agreement to help Clementine Taplin locate her missing brother……..

Trailer

Read on for more......

Mission Mars (1968)

A rather plodding, dull and amateurish sci-fi film that eventually is redeemed by an unusual alien encounter

Directed by Nick Webster
Screenplay by Mike St. Clair
Story by Aubrey Wisberg
Produced by Everett Rosenthal
Cinematography: Cliff Poland
Edited by Paul Jordon
Music by Berge Kalajian, Gus Pardalis, The Forum Quorum
Poduction company: Red Ram Productions
Distributed by Allied Artists Pictures
Running time: 90 minutes

Cast

Darren McGavin: Col. Mike Blaiswick
Nick Adams: Nick Grant
George De Vries: Duncan
Michael DeBeausset: Cliff Lawson
Heather Hewitt: Edith Blaiswick
Shirley Parker: Alice Grant


In the last post, Night Caller From Outer Space (1965), I alluded to the fact that the British seemed to have the knack of constructing good quality films (including science fiction films) despite budgetary constraints and questionable plot lines. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for many sci-films that have come out of the US and the film, Mission Mars is just one example of a film that is on the whole rather dull, pedestrian and plainly amateurish.

When the film was made in the 1967- 68, Apollo 8 was set to herald humanity’s first breakaway from its earthly bonds on a journey to orbit another heavenly body. This mission provided the human race with a view of our beautiful but fragile planet suspended in the void of space and offered us a glimpse of our place in the scheme of things. From that mission, we then set our sights for mankind’s first physical presence on the surface of another world – our moon.

As a 12 year old at the time, I envisioned human beings establishing bases or colonies on the moon sometime in the 1970s. From this, I believed that human beings would probably set foot on Mars sometime during the 1980s. How wrong I was! Nearly 60 years later, we are possibly about to somewhat replicate Apollo 8s achievement and many in the space industry are (over?) confidently anticipating that we will have a human (American) presence on the moon’s surface by 2027. That is if the Chinese don’t get there first in the new ‘race’ to the moon. From this it is projected that we will use the moon as a springboard to having a human presence on Mars and of course – beyond. As to when? Well, pick a number, any number!

Let’s now go back to the late 60s to the film, Mission Mars as the United States prepares to launch three astronauts on a mission to land on the planet, Mars….

Traile

Read on for more.....

Night Caller from Outer Space (1965)

An intelligent well-acted science fiction thriller despite budgetary constraints and a rather ludicrous plot.

Directed by John Gilling
Written by Frank Crisp (1963 novel)
Screenplay: Jim O'Connolly
Produced by Ronald Liles
Cinematography: Stephen Dade
Edited by: Philip Barnikel
Music composed and directed by: John Gregory
Production company: Armitage Film Productions Ltd.
Distributed by: Butcher's Film Service (UK)
Running time: 85 minutes

Cast

John Saxon as Dr. Jack Costain
Maurice Denham as Dr. Morley
Patricia Haines as Ann Barlow
Alfred Burke as Detective Supintendent Hartley
John Carson as the Major
Warren Mitchell as Reg Lilburn
Marianne Stone as Madge Lilburn
Stanley Meadows as Detective Tom Grant
Aubrey Morris as Thorburn
Ballard Berkeley as Commander Savage
Geoffrey Lumsden as Colonel Davy
Tom Gill as Police Commissioner's secretary
Jack Watson as Sergeant Hawkins
Barbara French as Joyce Malone

Key Scene

From the cold void of Jupiter’s moon, Ganymede… comes a terrifying quest for Earth’s women!… SEE IT… if you dare!

A mysterious sphere crashes to Earth… unlocking a nightmare beyond imagination that will surely SHATTER YOUR SENSES!

Clawing its way out of the shadows… a hideous creature on a mission of interplanetary survival!… DON’T LOOK AWAY!

Science cannot stop it… the military cannot contain it… and young women everywhere… are its PREY!

The Night Caller from Outer Space will

CHILL you…

THRILL you…

and ...

HAUNT your dreams FOREVER!

Read on for more...

These Are The Damned (1962)

Quite a powerful sci-fi film with social commentary and philosophical / moral implications. Solid acting performances and good cinematography

Save the children

“We can't leave the children”

To face a future filled with dust

And ash, abandoned and forsaken

At the mercy of all that’s unjust.

“Help! Help! Help!”hear their cries,

Faint and muffled under the rubble

From death made smart in the skies,

Distanced, none held to be culpable. 

“Help! Help! Please help us!”

Louder now we hear their pleas,

But only choose to discuss

Cures for the disease of unease. 

“Someone help us! Someone help us!”

Anguished cries of many young souls 

Thrown under a speeding social media bus

Prey to algorithms, paedophiles and trolls.

“Please help! Help! Help! Help!”

Pay off a debt and find a home?

Feeling alone? Ask AI or try self-help!

Solution: live under a plastic dome.

“Please help us! Someone help us!”

Who takes heed as bombs and bullets fly

Resigned to it having always been thus 

All the while the children plead and cry.

“Help! Help us!” from kids who roam 

In futures drowning in deluges,

Frying in flames and chilled to the bone,

Hear them then and be their refuges.

©Chris Christopoulos 2025

**********

Directed by Joseph Losey
Screenplay by Evan Jones
Based on The Children of Light 1960 novel by H.L. Lawrence
Produced by Anthony Hinds
Cinematography: Arthur Grant
Edited by Reginald Mills
Music by James Bernard
Production company
Hammer Film Productions
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Running time 87 minutes (UK), 77 minutes (US)
Budget: £160 – 170,000 approx.

Cast

Macdonald Carey as Simon Wells
Shirley Anne Field as Joan
Viveca Lindfors as Freya Neilson
Alexander Knox as Bernard
Oliver Reed as King
Walter Gotell as Major Holland
James Villiers as Captain Gregory
Tom Kempinski as Ted
Kenneth Cope as Sid
Brian Oulton as Mr. Dingle
Barbara Everest as Miss Lamont
Alan McClelland as Mr. Stuart
James Maxwell as Mr. Talbot

The children:

Rachel Clay as Victoria
Caroline Sheldon as Elizabeth
Rebecca Dignam as Anne
Siobhan Taylor as Mary
Nicholas Clay as Richard
Kit Williams as Henry
Christopher Witty as William
David Palmer as George
John Thompson as Charles


What could the following possibly have in common?

The southern English resort of Weymouth

An American tourist

A youth gang leader

His troubled sister

A top secret government facility

A shocking experiment

A group of nine children

Trailer

“The age of senseless violence has caught up with us, too”

To find out, we’ll need to begin our journey with a bird's eye view of ocean waves crashing on the remote shore below a rocky cliff on the south coast of England. Atop the cliff and along its edge we spot a collection of bronze sculptures looking like fallen grotesque, disfigured and charred human remains: Something akin to Southern England’s version of Easter Island’s mysterious stone sentinels? What do they stand as testament to? A message to a future with no one left to decipher what they had borne witness to in the dim past?

Come now and let us descend to the land of the living at the resort of Weymouth to the accompaniment of the Black Leather Rock song:


Read on for more.....

An Ill-Wind

Image generated by Chatgpt

An Ill-Wind

While floating along on currents of thought,
My mind moves upward and beyond into the past
To where they said it all began with a Big Bang.
Straining my eyes I see what shouldn’t be seen:
Galaxies and worlds fully formed and whole
Where wondering wandering minds reach out to me!
Before I can ask how and why this can be,
I feel myself lifted aloft by a gust of wind
And carried along long ley lines of life.
It is an ill-wind that blows on this day
That sears the eyes and flails the skin,
That tastes of copper and stinks of decay.
Behind, a behemoth gradually gains ground
In the guise of a monstrous boiling roiling cloud
Black and purple lit within by bolts of orange
Along with red flashes and sheets of outrage.
It is an ill-wind that blows on this day!
Like a gnat caught in forces beyond its control
I’m swept through filaments of time and space
And buffeted by cause and effect ripples and waves
As the wind cries havoc with hyper-sonic screams
Turning cities to rubble, lives to ruin and dashing dreams.
The wind then lets slip autonomous dog drones of war;
A humming, buzzing, hovering inhuman horror
Raining terror and death and murdering moral law.
I search for answers that might be blowin’ in the wind
Only to see that cloud enshroud the bodies of the dead.
Above scattered wailing cries of “enough!” and “no more!”
The wind blares leaders’ lies for the need to wage war.
It is an ill-wind that blows on this day,
But will it ever recall all that’s lost along the way?
Hot gusts of outrage and indignation
Tempered by breezes of justification
And the turbulence of distraction
Gives us the wind’s final determination.
Looking down I watch the aimless walking dead
Google Map their way through rubble and ruin
While their leaders over head ride the jet stream
On their way to kneel before would-be emperors
To pay them obeisance and perform proskynesis,
For they know which way the wind is blowing.
Unaware of the coming cloud that wind brings,
Back they fly with butterfly bills fluttering in the wind,
To pay for bigger and better ways to kill and maim
While the walking dead scratch for ways to live.
To them the wind whispers, “march onward unto war.”
And lies about what they’ll be fighting for.
It is an ill-wind that blows on this day,
Buffeting me with hot updraughts and air currents
Fed by wild fire flames fanned by the force of the wind;
A devil’s scorched earth act to starve out all hope.
Is that the wind or the sound of screaming jets?
Or the walking dead pleading “No more, no more?”
But the wind merely blows mercy back into their faces
While their socials busily scoop up views and likes,
Subscribers and followers and gathers comments
To occupy their thoughts for only a few moments.
All the while the cloud looms larger in the wind’s wake;
The wind that cleaves and carves chasms and canyons
Through binary minds divided by thoughts and opinions
On what’s black and white, right and wrong, true and false,
Real and fake, good and bad, and innocence and guilt.
I strain to hear the walking dead shout across the divide
At one another above the wind’s roar as it casts aside
Bridges built of reason, empathy and compassion.
As I wave warnings at those below to show I’m real,
I start to shimmer and undulate in the wind’s grip,
But they just look up and through me as if I’m not there;
No flicker of acknowledgement that I even exist
And this from living ghosts – the walking dead
Who don’t yet know where they have been led
By this ill-wind that blows on this day.
Before I can ask how and why this can be
I feel my atoms being rent and dispersed by the wind.
All I’m aware of is the blackness within the cloud
Shot through with strobe-like flashes of violence.
It has finally come in the wake of the wind
And within I feel nothing but deep hollow grief
As water coalesces around each particle of my being:
A multitude of raindrops that fall and drench the earth
In a flood that soon swamps bystanders who did nothing,
Said nothing and stood by while the wind blew fiercely
In a genocidal blast of murderous cleansing criminality.
The raindrops now become tears that form a deluge
To wash human sin away from the face of the earth
So that none can ever again see what shouldn’t be seen
With only the wind knowing how and why it could have been.



©Chris Christopoulos 2025




[I have a few poems sprinkled throughout this blog in various posts often inspired by the films that are featured. You’ll also find a few in my Sci-Fi Film Fiesta The Lost Last Volume 12, “Speculations & Ruminations,” Part 3: Poetic Ponderings.]

Children of the Damned (1964)

 

A Cold War sequel of sorts with an anti-war message that doesn’t quite attain the kind of eerie atmosphere of its predecessor.

Directed by Anton M. Leader
Written by John Briley
Produced by Ben Arbeid
Cinematography: David Boulton
Edited by Ernest Walter
Music by Ron Goodwin
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Running time: 90 minutes
Box office: $1,000,000 (US/ Canada)

Cast

Ian Hendry as Col. Tom Lewellyn
Alan Badel as Dr. David Neville
Barbara Ferris as Susan Eliot
Alfred Burke as Colin Webster
Sheila Allen as Diana Looran
Ralph Michael as Defence Minister
Patrick Wymark as Commander
Martin Miller as Professor Gruber
Harold Goldblatt as Harib
Patrick White as Mr. Davidson
André Mikhelson as Russian official
Bessie Love as Mrs. Robbins, Mark's grandmother
Alan MacNaughtan as British Army officer (uncredited)
Clive Powell as Paul
Roberta Rex as Nina
Mahdu Mathen as Rashid
Yoke-Moon Lee as Mi Ling
Gerald Delsol as Ago
Frank Summerscale as Mark

Trailer

History Hearsay podcast (transcript)

Daniel: Hi there and welcome once again to the History Hearsay podcast. The podcast that deals with historical fact, rumor along with a touch of myth and conspiracy theory. I’m your host, Daniel Farnsworth and joining me as usual is my erstwhile history hound and co-host, Dilbert Dunlevy.

Dilbert: Hi folks. So Dan old buddy, tell the folks what we’ll be delving into for this episode.

Daniel: Dill, no doubt you and the listeners out there will remember a previous episode we did about three years ago on the BBC’s History's Mysteries – Fact & Fiction TV program hosted by Denis Vaughan which investigated the so-called “Midwich Time-out Incident” that supposedly occurred in 1960.

Dilbert: Oh man! I do remember. That really freaked me out. Hey, didn’t the folks of that English village of …….aaahhh...Midwich keel over unconscious one day for several hours for what seemed to be no reason?

Daniel: Yes Dill. In fact, anyone who entered the village also apparently succumbed in the same manner. Just as mysteriously, after a few hours the villagers suddenly regained consciousness, and appeared to be unaffected. Not only that, but the military established a cordon around Midwich along with the establishment of a five-mile exclusion zone around the village for all aircraft.

Dilbert: Dude, I still have nightmares about the reports of those creepy kids with the blonde hair, weird eyes and strange powers, not to mention links to….aliens, man!

Daniel: For those who are interested in that event, please revisit episode 64 or go to the link on our History Hearsay blog which has a post on the BBC program’s coverage of the 1960 “Midwich Time-out Incident.”

This leads us to today’s historical anomaly which we have managed to piece together from testimony from sources within the Ministry of Defense who wish to remain anonymous, documents secretly obtained from MI6 / Special Intelligence Service and files from government-affiliated scientific agencies, along with the findings of a closed-door unofficial inquiry held 60 years ago formed to investigate the matter. The information derived from these sources which will be available on our blog shortly, will help to form our expose of the 1964 historical sequel to the “Midwich Time-out Incident” which we call the “Southwark Church Siege Incident.”

Dilbert: So, Dan, how’s we gonna' approach this?

Daniel: Well, Dill, We’ll take our listeners through the following main elements of this incredible incident:

1. In England, a child possessing an astonishing level of intelligence is discovered.
2. The investigation as to how this young boy came to possess such extraordinary intelligence and mental abilities.
3. The discovery of several more children around the world who also possessed the same abilities as the English boy and together shared a collective consciousness along with dangerous psychic powers.
4. The military’s attempt to study and experiment on the children.
5. The children’s escape from their embassies and take over of a small church.
6. The army’s besieging of the church and its intent on eradicating the perceived menace.
7. The manner in which the stand off was resolved.
8. Implications.

Dill, why don’t you start us off with what you managed to dig up concerning the unusual young boy and the investigation surrounding him and his strange abilities?

Read on for more....