House sitting for a friend who has Amazon Prime, I stumbled on this and decided to give it another look after so many years.
John Gilling directed this strange film that can't decide if it wants to be a serious sci-fi film, comedy or social drama. Paul Douglas stars as Mike Wilson, an American reporter who along with a friend, Howard Meade (Leslie Phillips) is stranded in a small country behind the iron curtain due to their train car coming un-hitched.
They discover the country is very, very under the control of a dictator named Boronski (Walter Rilla). Mike and Howard try to leave and are blocked at every turn. They soon discover why Boronski is doing this. He is conducting very secret experiments involving gamma rays and children. Very few of the children turn out for the better. Most are turned into hulking goons and killers.
Eva Bartok also stars as a young woman who is working with Boronski but eventually sees the error of her ways. There are several scenes including the deformed henchmen chasing both Wilson and Meade which will always stick with me, but I do wish the film had a more stable way of telling the story.
The social drama angel works ok, the comedy is extremely strained, but the Sci-fi aspect works great. Gilling shows his ability to handle the confused material. It was nice to see this again, however, much like visiting an old friend.
No comments:
Post a Comment