VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED [1960 / 2018] [Warner Archives Collection] [Blu-ray] [USA Release]
Beware the Stare That Will Paralyze the Will of the World!
From its seemingly placid opening, ‘VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED’ keeps piling one eerie and disquieting detail upon another, creating the rarest of achievements – an utterly believable masterpiece of horror!
Starring the ever-imperturbable George Sanders (who does not remain that way for long). This classic, havoc-filled take of mind reading and hypnotism will have you complete hypnotized . . . and shaken to the core! The "monsters" of this film are a band of innocent-faced, platinum-blond children, all of whom are born in a small, peaceful village on the same day. Their rapid physical development is matched by their fast-growing mental powers, and with calm, bloodcurdling efficiency, they are soon terrorizing the tiny hamlet. They can read the thoughts that are forming in your mind . . . which makes them an altogether unstoppable enemy. Capped by a mental "tug of war" you will never forget, ‘VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED’ is "an extremely compelling, startling picture!" (New York Post).
FILM FACT: The film was originally an American picture, to be filmed at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios in Culver City, California when preproduction began in 1957. Ronald Colman was contracted for the leading role, but M-G-M shelved the project, bowing to pressure from religious groups that objected to the sinister depiction of virgin birth. The film was transferred to the M-G-M British Studios and shot on location in the village of Letchmore Heath, near Watford, which is approximately 12 miles (20 kilometres) north of London. Local buildings such as The Three Horseshoes Pub and Aldenham School were used during filming. The blonde wigs that the children wore were padded to give the impression that they had abnormally large heads. Given an 'A' certificate by The British Board of Film Classification censors. The film opened in June 1960 at The Ritz cinema in Leicester Square, London. According to director Wolf Rilla, it soon attracted audiences, and cinema goers queued round the block to see what all the fuss was about.
Cast: George Sanders, Barbara Shelley, Michael Gwynn, Laurence Naismith, John Phillips, Richard Vernon, Jenny Laird, Thomas Heathcote, Martin Stephens, Richard Warner, Sarah Long, Charlotte Mitchell, Pamela Buck, Rosamund Greenwood, Susan Richards, Bernard Archard, Peter Vaughan, John Stuart, Keith Pyott, Alexander Archdale, Sheila Robins, Tom Bowman, Anthony Harrison, Diane Aubrey, Gerald Paris, Bruno (The Dog), June Cowell (Village Child), Linda Bateson (Village Child), John Kelly (Village Child), Carlo Cura (Village Child), Lesley Scoble (Village Child), Mark Milleham (Village Child), Roger Malik (Village Child), Elizabeth Mundle (Village Child), Peter Preidel (Village Child), Teri Scoble (Village Child), Peter Taylor (Village Child), Howard Knight (Village Child), Brian Smith (Village Child), Janice Hawley (Village Child), Paul Norman (Village Child), Robert Marks (Village Child), John Bush (Village Child), Billy Lawrence (Village Child), Denis Gilmore (uncredited), Aidan Harrington (uncredited), Arnold Schulkes (uncredited) and Jack Silk (uncredited)
Director: Wolf Rilla
Producer: Ronald Kinnoch
Screenplay: Ronald Kinnoch, Stirling Silliphant, Wolf Rilla and John Wyndham (novel)
Composer: Ron Goodwin
Cinematography: Geoffrey Faithfull, B.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Black-and-White)
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Audio: English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Stereo Audio
Subtitles: English SDH
Running Time: 77 minutes
Region: All Regions
Number of discs: 1
Studio: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer / Warner Archive Collection
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED’ [1960] is adapted from John Wyndham’s chilling novel “The Midwich Cuckoos” [1957], who came up with an original alien invasion in his novel, and Wolf Rilla's directed film, and we have a script by the American Stirling Silliphant (who uses a few American expressions that should have been changed “General store” for “Village shop”), and sets out as a very low-key dramatization and all the better for it.
Director Wolf Rilla really taps into fears of an alien invasion and mind control. Set in a quiet, unassuming English village Midwich (which is supposedly based on the Sussex town of Midhurst), and the first half of the film deals with a bizarre blackout which causes all those in the area to inexplicably fall asleep. From then on the village is never the same and Wolf Rilla allows the uncanny and spooky scenario to play out to its full effect and keeps you on the edge of your seat. This is a piece of horror legend, which confronts humanity with its fear of the unknown and its storyline is unique and well-executed.
After multiple attempts by those outside to reach various individuals inside the village, and an army unit conducting exercises in the area investigates the phenomenon. Through trial and error they determine that anyone who passes through the perimeter of the town loses consciousness then regains it once pulled out. Inexplicably, everything returns to normal in the community by mid-afternoon. About a month later, it is discovered that several women of child-bearing age all became pregnant during the episode. Their children, once-born, mature rapidly and develop similar appearances, which spookily includes blond hair and strikingly magnetic eyes, and transfixes the people in the village in a very strange way, to the point of being hypnotised and nobody can quite make out what is happening to the residents of Midwich.
The crux of the film ‘VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED’ is the mystery of the village children. Their eyes are intense and hypnotizing, they develop at an obviously accelerated pace-both mentally and physically. They seem to be able to communicate with one another via a kind of automatic advanced telepathy. The audience can sometimes be totally sympathetic and at other times can be totally 100% unsympathetic towards the children.
In the film ‘VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED’ the children are not only more developed and advanced than their adults around them, but they also possess genuine control over everyone. In Midwich, it is the children who discipline the grownups. At the rate these children are growing, they will soon be able to reproduce as adults themselves. The film ‘VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED’ examines female angst in regards to the role of control and the pursuit of whether to have children, but ironically by not giving the women in the film a choice, the children that result, then, can be seen as exaggeratedly evil in order to justify the decision to not want to bear offspring in the first place.
‘VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED’ succeeds mainly because of its unsensational, low-key approach to its subject, where the horror is given extra impact by being so carefully understated, plus of course of the eeriness of the children themselves, which is helped along with a very strong cast, who play their parts without a hint of over acting. ‘VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED’ also possesses powerful direction from Wolf Rilla, where the scenes are crisp and subtle. On top of all that, that is unique to this horror film, is that there very little onscreen violence, but suspense and suggestion are used very successfully, to the point of edge of your seat suspense and also the best non-Hammer Horror British strong and subtle horror film of the 1960s.
For the most part, ‘VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED’ remains tight and captivating throughout its 77 minutes length. However, one brief section-towards the middle of the film, right after an ingenious, dialogue-free section that conveys the horror of the Midwich Village men's dilemma on the Village children’s birthday celebration, temporarily slows down the film's momentum, still, this is a minor flaw. The wonderful George Sanders gets to play a very sympathetic and heroic character from his usual roles in films, and he does it with terrific grace as the children’s chief advocate. Faithfully adapted by the German director Wolf Rilla from John Wyndham’s very spook novel “The Midwich Cuckoos,” and the film is enhanced in gorgeous glorious Black-and-White images, so making this eerie classic horror film still has the power to chill, and especially right up to the very last scene in the film . . . will have you holding your breath. So all in all it has a great plot, excellent spooky atmosphere and a very solid, but subtle storytelling style that should be viewed by all serious genre horror fans and the film is very faithful to the novel by John Wyndham.
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Blu-ray Image Quality – Warner Archives Collection bring us a stunning 1080p black-and-white image presentation of the film ‘VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED’ and of course is enhanced with the 1.78:1 aspect ratio, that really shows off the purity of the good work that Warner Archives Collection continues to achieve with their Blu-ray disc releases and this new scan is light years ahead of the old inferior DVD double bill release, and hopefully in time they will release the follow up film sequel ‘Children of the Damned’ [1963]. ‘VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED’ shows us an impressive clean image transfer with superb stunning black-and-white image contrast that really shows off its superb visual presentation. You also get great visual spooky shadow visualis that is really superb, and wait until you view the photographic night-time shoots, especially the shadows on the ground, that gives you a very nice eerie atmospheric atmosphere and far outweighs the old inferior DVD release, so you must make this the ultimate version for your Blu-ray collection.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – Warner Archives Collection presents us with an audio presentation of 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio Stereo, and is surprising a very good spooky audio ambience experience for the age of the film, and especially the subtle fidelity with small audio sounds, especially like the like a ticking clock, a steaming iron, running water and flaming torches, but the scene with the crumbling bricks are silent; and really makes the scene a very edge of your seat moment, especially if you have never seen this film before. It also has very good crisp dialogue audio presentation, which makes watching this horror film of great enjoyment. What is also spectacular is the composed film score music by Ron Goodwin, which adds to the totally spooky atmosphere of this brilliant horror film and all in all is well worth purchasing this brilliant 1960 film release that has always been a firm favourite of mine, ever since I saw it in the cinema.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
Audio Commentary by Steve Haberman, author of Chronicles of Terror: Silent Screams: Here we are personally introduced to the film historian and screenwriter Steve Haberman’s audio commentary and informs us loads of decent amounts of information about this film on what is essentially a “B-movie” genre and is privilege to guide us through the particulars of the making of Wolf Rilla’s film ‘VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED.’ Steve feels the film is fairly faithful adaption of John Wyndham's "The Midwich Cuckoos" novel to the big screen and even going so far as to explaining the analogy of the book's title, which of course is set in the quaint village of Midwich, where the story takes place. On top of that, Steve goes into great detail about the nature of the Cuckoo bird, that lays their eggs in another birds nest, and the parent bird of that nest raises the Cuckoo without realising it and the Cuckoo of course pushes out the other birds to their death, so making the alien children of Midwich the Cuckoos. Steve Haberman audio commentary provides lots of interesting information and some astute analysis of the film's technical accomplishments, especially relating to the fact that aliens impregnated the women of Midwich, and the parents raise these children as their own, who of course eventually become very dangerous and threat the survival of the humans on planet earth. Steve also goes into great detail about the author John Wyndham, who was born in 1903 and passed away in 1969, especially ten years after the film was released. John Wyndham aka John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris was a very well respected English science fiction writer in the Second World War and best known for his written works using other combinations of his names, such as John Beynon and Lucas Parkes and today his novels were classed as “crossovers” and had a massive success in the United Kingdom and of course John Wyndham had another massive success with the novel “The Day of The Triffids” where this time alien plants want to eliminate people on the planet earth and another hidden fact we hear is that John Wyndham believed in H.G. Wells theory of science fiction, like an invisible man or the invasion of aliens from the planet Mars, and on top of all that John Wyndham’s novels like to have a realistic scenario and to develop the impact and an implication of a fantasy element, but with a twist of a horrific conclusion. Steve really loves the start of the film where everyone falls asleep and feels the director Wolf Rilla did a really good job, especially the way the camera glides all over the village and especially completely silent and allows us to view the mysterious happening in the village of Midwich. Steve also gives a good rundown of the history of the screenwriter Stirling Silliphant, who has won several awards for his writing skills, especially for the brilliant film ‘In The Heat Of The Night.’ Steve also mentions the mystery of how the women became pregnant, and in the John Wyndham novel the fathers were actual aliens and a plane happen to fly over the village of Midwich and observed a flying saucer in the middle of the village, but M-G-M insisted that the pregnancy of the women remain a mystery, and throughout the film, the word pregnancy is never mentioned. Steve also goes into great detail about the history of the director Wolf Rilla (1920 – 2005), who was originally from Germany, but moved with his family to the UK during the Second World War, and apart from the film ‘Village of The Damned,’ his other films he directed were not a great success and quite unforgettable, like for instance ‘The Black Rider’ [1954], ‘The Blue Peter’ [1955], ‘Noose For A Lady’ [1953], ‘The Black Rider’ [1954], ‘The Scamp’ [1957], ‘Bachelor of Hearts’ [1958], ‘Cairo’ [1963], ‘Bedtime with Rosie’ [1974], ‘Piccadilly Third Stop’ [1960] and also did some well-known TV series in the UK. Steve also informs us about the life of the star actor George Sanders (1906 – 1972), who was born on the 3rd July, 1906 in Saint Petersburg, the Russian Empire at the time to British parents, and all of his family returned to England when in 1917, at the outbreak of the Russian Revolution started, and then George Sanders went to Brighton College, which is a boarding and day school for boys and girls aged 11–18 in Brighton on the South Coast of England. George Sanders then went on to Manchester Technical College after which he worked in textile research and then travelled to South America where he managed a tobacco plantation. The Depression sent him back to England, where he worked at an advertising agency, where the company secretary, the aspiring actress Greer Garson, suggested that he take up a career in acting. By the middle of the decade, started to appear in several films and in 1936 went to Hollywood and was cast as the suave dapper man and his first appearance was in the American drama film ‘Lloyd's of London’ [1936]. Alfred Hitchcock wanted him for a supporting role in ‘Rebecca’ [1940], a huge success. Also in the film ‘After The Saint Takes Over’ [1940], and again Alfred Hitchcock used him again in the film ‘Foreign Correspondent’ [1940]. Steve felt his best performance for George Sanders was in the film ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray’ [1945] where he played Lord Henry Wotton and also for his role as the acerbic, cold-blooded theatre critic Addison DeWitt in ‘All About Eve’ [1950], where George Sanders won an Academy Award® for Best Supporting Actor. Steve then remarks of the real George Sanders, when he made some famous quotes, like very acerbic quotes include “I hate interviews, because I do not get paid.” “I hate to give autographs and I never do.” “I am always rude to people.” “I am not a sweet person, I am also a disagreeable person, a hateful person and I like to be hateful.” Steve also goes onto say that George Sanders married four times, and with his fourth marriage only lasted 12 months. While George Sanders was filming ‘Village Of The Damned,’ his third wife Benita Hume passed away on the 1st November, 1967 in Egerton, England, of bone cancer. In 1970, George Sanders became very depressed and after a couple of attempts to end his life, he finally succeeded in Barcelona in Spain on the 24th April, 1972, especially after a drunken and incoherent interview for Spanish Television and left a note saying, “Dear World, I am leaving because I am bored. I feel I have lived long enough. I am leaving you with your worries in this sweet cesspool. Good luck.” Steve goes into the life and times of Barbara Shelley and her prolific acting career, especially appearing regularly in the now famous Hammer Horror films. Barbara Shelley had a serious problem with the screenplay for the film ‘Village Of The Damned,’ and Barbara noted that the women who gave birth to the alien children, were given little screen time, compared to the men of the village, especially fighting against the alien children, and in the John Wyndham novel, it does not dwell on the conflict between the men in the village and the alien children. Steve feels the mysterious pregnancies of the women in the village, especially the underage girls, who of course were virgins, is a very spooky development that the director gets the tension spot on, especially when it comes to those husbands who have been away from the village more than 9 months and causing quite a dilemma in the village, and was quite shocking subject matter for people in the United Kingdom in the 1960s, especially having a baby out of wedlock, and especially for the executives of M-G-M, and what also amazes Steve and I suspect viewers of this film, is seeing the doctor smoke in his surgery, that of course would not happen in modern films today. M-G-M had a British branch set up, especially when a films scenario is set in England or the films had to have a very tight budget, because at the time it was cheaper to make a film in England, and as per example, three years after this film was shot, Robert Wise was able to direct the film ‘The Haunting’ in England, where originally Robert Wise wanted to direct the film in America, even though the film is set in New England, and of course the locations were exactly like that in America. Steve talks about the alien child David, who of course was played by Martin Stephens [former child actor] whose voice was over dubbed at a higher speed to make his sound like an alien, and after this film, appeared again as a very eerie character in the horror film ‘The Innocence,’ but also appeared in 14 other films between 1954 and 1966, but as he grew older, then chose to drop out of acting and made his adult career outside the profession and went on to study architecture at Queen's University Belfast. Then Martin Stephens went on to have a career as an architect and currently lives in Portugal. Steve also feels horror films made in England were so ideal, especially for a spooky atmosphere, and especially filming in black-and-white, and on top of all that it had a wonderful pool of very professional British character actors, especially most of them had worked in William Shakespeare plays, and did not feel they were slumming it in these low budget films, as it was just another job and were kept in employment and showed their best ability. Steve feels the film ‘Village Of The Damned’ was such an International success, was that children were not only frightened by the alien children in the village, but they wanted to be them, and that is one of the fantasises of youth, to have that power to influence other people and control them and make the do your will and take vengeance on the adults. Steve comments that the director Wolf Rilla felt very resistant to showing violence in a grotesque way, whereas showing violence in a subtle way is far more effective, especially when it comes to suicide, like in the film and the dramatic impact of the people viewing the incident after the tragic event. Director Wolf Rilla remarked, that when the film was finished, the distributors felt so uncertain about the initial release of the film, that the reels of the film were left on a shelf because they were reluctant to have it go on general release, and M-G-M believed they had a dud on their hands, and to test the water, showed a print to their British M-G-M circuit distributors, and not one of them would take up the offer of the film, and for ages the reels of film started to collect dust in their store room, but due to a very lucky chance accident, because one of their M-G-M cinemas in London happen to have a gap between their film schedule releases, so by chance they run the film ‘Village Of The Damned’ and was a massive immediate box office hit and of course eventually it was a total financial success, but of course stupid ignorant critics at the time condemned the film, especially Frank Rich an American essayist of the New York Times, felt the film was totally sick and just shows you what a mindless jerk he was, but on the other hand, the British critics praised the film, especially as it was totally faithful to the John Wyndham novel, and they also felt the director Wolf Rilla gave the film a totally chilling effect and also having the alien children adding to the tension and felt it was at the time the neatest science fiction film yet to come out of the British M-G-M studio, high praise indeed. However Howard Thompson an American journalist and film critic whose career of forty-one years was spent at The New York Times, wrote, “As a quite civilised exercise on the fear and the power of the unknown, this picture is one of the trimmest, most original, and serenely unnerving little chiller in a long time and the picture will get you, we guarantee and anyone coming to it cold, will exist even colder.” As we see George Sanders enters the school near the end of the film with the alien children in their class, is a very suspenseful scene, because we the audience know things that the alien children do not know, and this is actually the classic scenario that the director Alfred Hitchcock would use to illustrate the difference between surprise and total suspense. As the end credits appear at the end of the film, Steve thanks you for listening to his audio commentary and hopes you enjoyed it, as Steve did, especially as he has viewed the film several times, and to be honest, I also really enjoyed this audio commentary very much, so why not you have a listen to his audio commentary and see if you agree with me.
Theatrical Trailer [1960] [1080p] [1.78:1] [2:01] This is the Original Theatrical Trailer for the film ‘VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED.’ It also reflected the tension around the world with the threat and domination of communism and also the threat of cold war rhetoric. It made things worse with the trailer, when they announce “BEEWARE THE STARE, THAT THREATENS ALL MANKING, AS IT NOW MENACES! COULD ANY FORCE ON EARTH STOP THEIR SUPERNATURAL FURY??”
Finally, ‘VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED’ is a horror milestone, not just for its unique concept, but also for the director’s willingness to push the boundaries of the day when it comes to the conclusion at the end of the film, which was and still remains anything but formulaic and also keeps you on the edge of your seat. The 1995 John Carpenter remake does nowhere near compare to this classic black-and-white 1960 horror genre film, especially if you absolutely cannot sit through the paltry John Carpenter so called horror film that does not even have modern photography, or special effects to make it a worthwhile viewing project and of course the M-G-M original is a far superior horror film. For any true horror fans out there, this is must trip back through time once again to remind themselves how the genre horror film progressed through the ages and appreciate the particulars of this bygone classic horror film genre, and this particular Blu-ray disc release is a must have purchase. Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
