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

Trailer

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…..

Read on for more.....

Spoilers follow below....

“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, apologises 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 analysing 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 agonised 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

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 civilisation. 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.

My 1961 Corgi Edition

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.

At the time of writing this blog post, with the record-breaking summer time heat waves assailing the northern hemisphere throughout southern Europe, China, parts of Asia and north America, the reader might feel some empathy toward the characters in the film considering what real flesh and blood people are enduring right now in the middle of 2023 in the real world.

The dreadful conditions that exist now, 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.

Full Film

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