The Damned (1963) - British sci-fi drama, on last night

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/britishfilm/summer/films/thedamned.shtml

This film was on BBC2 about 1.40 last night. I was pretty tired and it very very nearly got turned off, but something about it stuck.

It's a very unusual film, starting off in utterly non sci-fi surroundings, with a bunch of teddy boys terrorising people on the promenade of Weymouth. The girl in their gang, sister of the gang leader is used to entice men they can then mug. However she develops an interest in an American who she sets up, and goes to meet him. The first half of the film really explores her relationship as an orphan and her dependency on her violent brother, while he tries to convince her of starting a new life. What's interesting about it is his actions are all very hurried and rushed. He is over in England for unknown reasons that are never explained, and she chides him for running away. We never find out what happened, but there is a tacit acknowledgement that she's right. The relationship between the two of them never works really, because she is too scared to change her life, and doesn't trust him and never really loves him enough to start with.

The link above mentions the lack of chemistry but I think it's entirely deliberate. We're supposed to be watching two people who aren't perfect matches but are drawn together out of the hope they offer each other.

---SPOILERS BELOW--

So, her brother gets jealous of their relationship and hunts them down with the gang. They hide out in a cottage up on the clifftops, and this is the beginning of a complete change in tone for the film. Earlier on there is a set-up of other characters, a scotsman who does 'secret public service work' and an old flame, a french sculptor who happens to work in the cottage up on the clifftops. The chase between the teddy boys and the couple leads them to trespass onto the grounds of the secret base. It gets very dramatic at this point, and the couple slip off a cliff in the dark.

They are rescued by a group of children, who we earlier see in the film in one scene being taught via a television screen. The scene is quite normal but for that, though it deliberately builds intrigue. The couple are horrified when it turns out that the children are cold, they have no warmth. They live in a sealed bunker where they are being prepared to repopulated the human race when it ultimately ends in a nuclear holocaust. The children are the result of accidents, and are radioactive. However they would survive an apocalypse and be the only people left alive.

The film is then about their rescue, and one of the most harrowing, understated scenes of cinema I've ever witnessed as boiler suited men chase after the 9 children as they break out. All the people exposed to the children's radioactivity are doomed to die, and the film plays out to the sound of them shouting 'let me go'. There's something about the matter-of-fact nature of the direction that makes it even more chilling. It doesn't ever become melodramatic. The children have their own odd personalities that avoids it becoming sentimental. But it's all the more horrifying for it. The film ends to that, despite a series of unanswered plot lines (which the viewer is left to assume ends in death.)

So, a very unusual film, in structure. Unlike the vast majority of films my expectations were continually wrong-footed. Has anyone else seen it?

I need to really pay tribute to Shirley Ann Field who was probably the sole reason I didn't turn off and go to bed, playing a tempting split-personality between a rough scally and a demure lady.

[Absorb the anus burn]

Joseph Losey never made an entirely satisfying film (IMHO and all that) but there's always something in his work I find intriguing, so much that I keep returning and finding more onion layers to puzzle over. The Damned is no exception. The biker story / sci-fi radioactive children / stilted romance between the mature Yank & Shirley Ann Ghostman (or whatever) is a mess of badly matched genres and suspense cliche, but the whole film actually belies this. It walks a fine line between silly and serious and is fairly jaw-dropping when you see it for the first time.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Yeah, the final 5 minutes is one of the most harrowing things I've ever seen. And it doesn't juxtapose light and dark elements, it just changes tone. For instance the guy reacts surprisingly blazé afterwards about being mugged and beaten up despite that scene being rather dark, then acts all slapstick. And it doesn't help to have Oliver Reed's weird performance in the middle of it all. He plays a presumably alcoholic (probably just Reed) violent stroppy virgin, and stomps over every scene as a result. Having him there at the end in the middle of it all didn't really work. He didn't really care about the kids.

There's so much in there though- the main relationship, the relationship between the teacher and his long-time mistress, the relationship between brother and sister, and of course the 'school'. Yet none of it feels entirely satisfactory.

I suppose being generous, the final fallout is making statements about the brevity of life and relationships, the inevitability of destruction and the relative meaninglessness of it all. Bleak, but the interesting plots within the film lose out ultimately.

[Indie-Schmindie]

I usually scan the Radio Times each week to see what films are on in the afternoon or late at night to record on my Virgin+ box thing, and noticed that they had only given this two stars (out of five), so glossed over it, but Philip French in the Observer flagged it up as being interesting so give it a go.

And what an odd film it is. I love the black leather song at the beginning, the sculpture bits (the sculptures are the work of a British artist - Elisabeth Frink I think); and the stilted nature of the relationships. It's like a new wave take on sci-fi.

It's great to think that there are so many undiscovered gems out there which I've yet to come across. Caught 'Seance On A Wet Afternoon' the other day (1964 - directed by Bryan Forbes - think he wrote the script too) and that's also well worth seeing, especially for the performances of Richard Attenbrough and Kim Stanley as a pair of kidnappers...

[Ambient Sheep]

I really wanted to see this, but I fell asleep. :-(

Nice to see the Beeb showing offbeat old films like this again, though; they haven't seemed to for years.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

Just heard about this, if anyone recorded it please do PM me!

[Ignatius_S]

Just heard about this, if anyone recorded it please do PM me!

Not sure if this helps, but there was a DVD reissue not that long ago and it's available for rental.

Joseph Losey never made an entirely satisfying film (IMHO and all that) but there's always something in his work I find intriguing, so much that I keep returning and finding more onion layers to puzzle over. ..

I'd be inclined to agree with you on that one - have you seen The Criminal? If not, it's one that I find rather more satisfying than most of Losey's work.

Also, I think I would say The Go-Between to be an exception as well. Thinking about it, I personally would have found the main weakness in King & Country was Dirk Bogarde – I'm a little biased perhaps, as I think he was fine as a light leading man, but wanting in any other capacity, but for someone else would have made the film more satisfying.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

Not sure if this helps, but there was a DVD reissue not that long ago and it's available for rental.

Hmm, LoveFilm didn't seem to have it.  Will have to try somewhere else, thanks.

[Ignatius_S]

Should be at Lovefilm - but worth checking a decent bricks and mortar rental place.

[Santa's Boyfriend]

Well bugger me, it's there!  I'm sure it wasn't before.