Redundant and unnecessary.

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Losey or no Losey, I immediately thought I was in trouble when the credits rolled and the hypnotic and ominous theme song lit up the room: "Black leather, black leather, crash, crash crash.,.." I was almost sure of it when evil, violent, Oliver Reed showed up with his glowering and sneering and his ominous hissing whisper of a voice. I could hear the book slamming closed when he coshed poor old MacDonald Carey over the head and then stomped him for daring to flirt with Shirley Anne Field, his virginal sister. It looked like a Black Leather story of Teddy Boys run amok, full of social relevance, a chronicle of the times.But no. Carey manages to whisk Field off on his boat and Reed swears to kill Carey as the boat disappears into the distance. The relevance issue remains but its entire character changes. We're soon rid of the Teddy Boys and it's just Reed tracking down Carey and Field to a hidden government laboratory nestled among some hills overlooking the cliffs near Weymouth. The laboratory, run by Alexander Knox with a fake Scots accent, remains background while Carey and Field have some elliptical conversations of the sort Losey was so fond of. Nobody looks anybody in the eye. They answer a question with a question or a non sequitur. Once the now loving couple are ashore and have mussed up the bed of a nearby cottage belonging to a sculptor, Viveca Lindfors, the banter disappears too and a new and disturbing track appears in the narrative. I don't think I'll reveal more of the plot except to say that the government turns out to be involved in some dicey stuff of questionable value. It's probably no more than a curious coincidence that Losey himself was kicked out of Hollywood and settled in England in 1953, after being investigated by the FBI, the House Unamerican Activities Committee, and Howard Hughes, for being a communist sympathizer and wearing white after Labor Day. If you've seen "Children of the Damned" or "Village of the Damned", you'll know the source of this semi-science-fiction plot. A dozen kids are raised from birth in complete isolation from the rest of the world. They are, in a sense, "home schooled" by the government. We never find out what they're being taught about anthropogenic global warming, evolution, international terrorism, or the Beatles but, locked away in secret solitude as they are, they do get a very apt dose of Lord Byron's "Prisoner of Chillon.""My hair is grey, but not with years, Nor grew it white In a single night, As men's have grown from sudden fears: My limbs are bowed, though not with toil, But rusted with a vile repose, For they have been a dungeon's spoil, And mine has been the fate of those To whom the goodly earth and air Are banned, and barred -— forbidden fare."Oddly, the little kids aren't particularly cuddly. I didn't feel any rush of joy when they got a peek at the outside world. But I got a rush every time Viveca Lindfors as the sensitive and intelligent sculptress appeared on the screen. She's delightful. Shirley Anne Field, an ex model, is so beautiful that she gets a pass on her inability to utter a single believable line of dialog. But Lindfors more than makes up for it. She has strong and attractive features, even here in middle age, and is radiant with femininity. And her voice has exotic ups and downs that the American and Brit actors wouldn't dream of. Losey gives her a close up while she's considering something she's just been told and every one of her tiny facial muscles -- her narrowing eyes, her slightly pursed lips -- form a kind of visual chamber music whose power is irresistible. Her character is a kind of series of grace notes within the film itself. Alexander Knox, by contrast, seems unable to change his expression at all, like some stroke victims.

Hammer sci-fi drama is something of a Village of the Damned knock-off that takes awhile to get going. First half is devoted to drama of American Macdonald Carey romancing British Shirley Anne Field, who is the sister of a biker gang leader (Oliver Reed). This is all fairly tedious with only a hint or two of the sci-fi elements coming later in the film. So make sure you sit with it through all this. Also be prepared for a very annoying song to get stuck in your head. "Black leather black leather smash smash smash" repeats over and over. Anyway, Carey and Field go to a clifftop house to get away from her psycho brother. But Reed and gang show up and chase them. The two eventually find themselves among a group of weird children who are part of some kind of government experiment. It's here where the movie gets interesting.Macdonald Carey always seemed like a weak leading man to me and I'm not surprised his movie career never took off. He would find his biggest success on TV soap opera Days of Our Lives for decades. Oliver Reed is fine, though his biker gang seems a somewhat laughable threat today. Shirley Anne Field is alright for a rather flimsy part. Veteran actor Alexander Knox brings some class to the film. Viveca Lindfors offers a strange performance where she seems oddly flirtatious with every male she shares a scene with, though nothing ever really comes of this. I don't even think it was part of the script. It just seemed to be something Lindfors threw in there. A decent drama with sci-fi themes and a powerful ending. Worth a look but requires effort.

This movie is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand its a quite maintaining and also original movie within its genre but on the other its also a quite messy one, that screams wasted potential.Seriously, in the hands of a more capable director and with some more money behind it, this movie could had been such a fascinating and classic one within its genre. Lots of the right ingredients are there but they are however often wasted by its messy way of storytelling.This really is the biggest problem of the movie. For about 80% of its running time, I had absolutely no idea what was happening. It's because the 'mystery' of the movie gets revealed and explained really late on into the movie and before that, the movie is filled with lots of moments that in the long run have absolutely nothing to do with the story at all. Same goes for some of the character really. It makes the movie at times really messy and unnecessarily confusing to watch. It takes away lots of the pleasure from watching this movie but even worse is that it kills off lots of the potential that this movie showed with its concept.The movie is being the type of science-fiction thriller that became mostly popular later in the '70's. It's a story that tries to pick a more realistic approach to things, as if in nothing that gets featured in this movie couldn't potentially happen in real life as well. I honestly like these sort of movies but this movie just really isn't the best example of the genre its possibilities and its great and most fascinating aspects.It could had all worked out much better within this movie if it had only been more tense and mysterious. The movie now is only mysterious in the sense of not ever really explaining anything, until the end. But this just doesn't really work out well for the movie. The tension and mystery of the movie just often falls flat, which perhaps is also being somewhat due to the fact that the movie doesn't really have strong or likable characters in it. The only really good character in this movie is played by Oliver Reed but he's being somewhat of a villain, so not one of the main 'heroes' or leading characters.But still, the movie remains a mostly good watch. This is mostly due to its concept, that is being still original, despite the fact that it doesn't get exploited and used to its full potential. Nevertheless, the movie remains a good 'different' watch and I think that the lovers of science-fiction thrillers shall still most likely enjoy this movie, just like I, despite everything, still did.Just don't expect, just because the Hammer studios name is attached to this, that this movie is going to be a tense, atmospheric one. The atmosphere and setting have basically nothing in common with the typical and distinctive Hammer studios atmosphere or style of film-making. In a way this movie is being much more like Hammer's earlier production, such as all of the 'Quatermass' movies.Just give it a shot. Chances are you might end up liking it, despite all of its flaws and all of its obvious wasted potential. It's still an interesting and honestly also, good watch.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

I made a point of checking this one out primarily because the average rating was so high when I was going through Oliver Reed's work...I think it's currently at 6.9 or something... Unreal.This thing is a mess from start to finish. The only person who does even passable acting is Reed, and it's hardly his finest work. He successfully comes across as crazy, which is kind of required because the script is so jumpy, illogical and disjointed.The script seems like two unrelated short stories stapled together and the whole opening third of the movie just seems like a vehicle to get that lousy "Black Leather" song in there.Did the producer's nephew record it and they wanted it to be a hit single or something? The gang of hoods wasn't the least bit scary. I don't imagine they would have been intimidating even in the early 60s. They would have probably got beaten up at Woodstock.I understand that some people might want to recognize this movie as some sort of prototype for government conspiracy films... But really it is kind of like studying extensively all the old rationales for why the world must be flat. Filmmaking and writing have moved way beyond The Damned. It is of marginal value even as a historical footnote.I only suffered through to the end because the rating was so high and several reviewers on here had suggested I would be left thinking and pondering after the movie's conclusion.I am pondering...but I am only pondering why I bothered.One star for Oliver Reed, one star for decent cinematography, one star because the final 30 minutes is better than the first 60. But why did we have to sit through all that crap to get there? Imagine if they had condensed the Wizard of Oz to 30 minutes and then added 60 minutes at the start of Dorothy and Toto getting harassed in Kansas by a barber shop quartet for no reason.Alternatively, I could give this movie 10 stars and just deduct one for every decade of age difference between the male and female leads. Also gives us 3/10.Oh, whatever. One more star out of charity. If you watch it, just start at the 45 minute mark. You'll get more out of what the movie wanted to and should have been.