THE ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD (1974) - high adventure

THE ISLAND AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD

(1974, USA)

A lost world adventure written by Joss Whedon's grandad!

A British adventurer (Donald Sinden) sets off in search of his son, lost on an Arctic expedition. He enlists the help of an American expert in ancient civilisations (David Hartman) and a French pilot (Jacques Marin) who can quickly take them over the frozen wasteland in a huge airship. They're expecting a dangerous trip, but not a lost civilisation living above the Arctic circle...

This is adapted from the novel 'The Lost Ones', written by Ian Cameron. Wikipedia reveals that this is a pen name for Donald G. Payne, who also wrote as James Vance Marshall. His novel 'The Children' was filmed by Nicolas Roeg as Walkabout (1971), starring Jenny Agutter. As Ian Cameron he also wrote a sequel to 'The Lost Ones' called 'The Mountains At The Bottom of the World'.

The script for Island at the Top of the World is credited to John Whedon. The name looked suspiciously familiar and, sure enough, it's Joss Whedon's grandad. Currently basking in the success of Cabin in the Woods and Avengers Assemble, I hadn't realised that Joss Whedon's dad and grandad were both screenwriters...

UK teaser art

As a child in the 1960s and a young teenager in the early 1970s, I soon decided that Walt Disney's animated films were too immature for me. I was already enjoying the violent, flashy adult fantasies of the Sean Connery James Bond movies by the age of ten. Back then, Disney's publicity was aimed squarely at young children with friendly, unthreatening, simplified poster art which severely undersold their classic animated re-releases.

I'd still go and see the live-action Disney films if it was a slow week, like The World's Greatest Athlete or The Love Bug, as long as the cast hadn't any annoying children in the cast (when's the last time you saw a children's film with only adult characters?). But when The Island at the Top of the World arrived, it was a must-see for me, promising spectacular adventure with some lengthy, action-packed clips on a couple of episodes of Disney Time.

UK quad poster

In the early 1970s, there was a continued enthusiasm for 'lost world' adventures, set around 100 years ago, where adventure was found in unlikely places around the world, or under its surface. Ray Harryhausen's films had dominated this genre with Sinbad's adventures, Mysterious Island and many others, but Britain's Amicus studios had started adapting Edgar Rice Burroughs novels with unconvincing men-in-rubber suit dinosaurs (which I still wanted to see!). But here, Disney threw a hefty budget and superior visual effects at this Jules Verne-inspired variant, which was less far-fetched than most, but more spectacular.

While I baulk at recommending The Land That Time Forgot (though I may yet attempt to), Island stands up far better today. Indeed it compares favourably to two other airship dramas of that decade - The Hindenburg (1975) and Zeppelin (1971), which offer little besides a trip in an inflammable balloon.

Some of the visual effects have obviously dated, particularly the blue-screen compositing of live-action with model work. But the large-scale miniatures, huge functional sets (extended by many beautiful matte paintings) stand up pretty well. The briefly-glimpsed full-size animatronic killer whales are still superb, (just) predating good old 'Bruce' from Jaws, who surfaced the following year. But these look more realistic because of the shiny skins of their real-life counterparts. I honestly thought they were real at the time I saw this on first release (in the UK in January 1975).

David Hartman, Donald Sinden and David Gwillim

Besides the engaging storyline, whose research into ancient societies and animal behaviour still stands up well today, the cast are just as much fun. There's all-purpose Asian Mako (the voice of Aku for Samurai Jack), a Japanese actor portraying an Eskimo. David Hartman, another likable American actor, is convincingly stoic and knowledgeable. I've not seen him in anything else but understand he was something on US television. Great voice! My favourite though is Donald Sinden, a well-known British actor, mainly known for his sitcom work, but here proving his worth as an eccentric adventurer, fearless, fallible and indignant that the rest of the world doesn't speak decent English. He's great fun throughout and I'm at a loss why he didn't get more leading roles, if only in Disney comedies.

I've loved the rich soundtrack ever since first hearing it, composed by no less than Maurice Jarre (Lawrence of Arabia). The recent debut of the score on CD (that I thought would never happen) prompted me to revisit the film. The music is quite superb with a variety of themes, some of which I'd forgotten. Until now, the only album release was on vinyl, with the music smothered by dialogue, sound effects and a 'storybook' narration. It's a gem, mixing in ancient instrumentation with a classic orchestral soundtrack.

I watched the UK DVD (above) which is presented in 1.85 widescreen anamorphic. It's good enough, but I'd still like to see a project of this scale treated with a Blu-ray.

Amazon list a few extras on the US DVD that aren't on the UK release.

 



The beautifully-designed airship 'Hyperion' from the film has actually been recreated in quite a large-scale as the centrepiece restaurant of Discoveryland in Disneyland Paris. I was surprised to see it when visiting the park when it first opened as EuroDisney in Easter, 1992, and I trust it's still there.

VOICE: WHISPERING CORRIDORS 4 (2005) - a bloody, ghostly mystery

VOICE (WHISPERING CORRIDORS 4)
(2005, South Korea, Yeogo gwae-dam 4: Moksori)

Fourth in the Whispering Corridors series, Voice has the most lavish budget so far and delivers a stylish, bloody ghost story. All five films are linked by similar themes rather than ongoing characters. Each is set in a girls’ high school ‘with a history’, the stories involving suicides, lesbian relationships, and hauntings. 

Whispering Corridors (1998) got the series off to a shaky start. But Memento Mori (1999) has become a favourite of South Korean cinema, as an excellent drama, with convincing naturalistic performances depicting school life. The arrival of a ghost character almost spoils the film by returning it to a more predictable story. It’s a good film, but not an essential horror. Then Wishing Stairs (2003) fell back on Ring for horror ideas and also failed as drama because of the lower standard of acting. Other Korean films, like Bunshinsaba, use similar story ideas to greater effect, if horror is what you’re hoping for.

Then there's Voice, another high point in the series, with fresh new ideas for scares, ghosts and twists. The close friendship of two schoolgirls is shattered when one of them disappears from the music room. The ongoing mystery is why and how...

There’s a bigger budget here for some unique visual FX flourishes. The cinematography is stylish and beautiful, adding saturated colours to some scenes, that defy the glassy cold look of the school. The cast are all excellent and the characters almost all women. The depiction of school life isn’t as realistic as Memento Mori, but Voice succeeds admirably as a ghost story, a mystery, and almost a slasher... with the added slant of having the ghost take centre stage.

There are some startling death scenes and extensive FX to depict the various complications of being dead, for instance a ghost being confined to the school building. These are ambitious and imaginatively done, but look more scientific than spiritual, as if the afterlife were a natural phenomenon.

It all makes for a very different and eventful ghost story, the modern design of the school building reinforcing that this has nothing to do with gothic. If you're after horror, this is the best in the series so far.

The back cover of the US DVD release promises a 5.1 mix, but there's only stereo on the disc, at the expense of the subtle but intricate sound design. Otherwise, this is a well-produced DVD, presented 1.85 anamorphic with great picture quality and well-translated English subtitles, though they're overlarge. I'd hoped for 5.1 audio, but also upgraded to the US DVD because my Thai disc had been censored, not for violence, but scenes of schoolgirls smoking!

The downside to the US DVD is the cover art (above) which is pretty stupid. If you're expecting the extreme horror depicted, it's not in the film and nothing to do with the story. 

There's also a four-movie boxset of the Whispering Corridors series released by Tartan in the UK, under the title Ghost School Horror, and the fourth film is unfortunately retitled The Voice.

The soundtrack of Voice is available on this Korean CD.

Here's an interview with one of the lead actresses and the director of Voice over on KoreanFilm.Org 



Here are my reviews of the first three in the series:

Whispering Corridors (1998)

Memento Mori (1999)

Wishing Stairs (2003)

Soon I'll review the fifth film Blood Pledge.



(This is an update of my review of Voice from April 2006.)

The soundtrack to DRIVE (2011) - possible 80s routes

The Drive soundtrack is "80s-inspired", but which bands exactly?

From the opening track, Drive (2011) took me back to the synthesizer soundtracks of the early 1980s. Throughout the film, most of the music has an electronic element, using old synthesizer voices and early, simple rhythm machines. I couldn't wait to hear it again.

I've always been strongly drawn to electronic music. Electro-pop, rock, soundtracks - anything with synthesizers in - and especially the bands that went the whole way, using keyboards instead of guitars, drum machines instead of drums. Having collected this music since the 70s, with much of it from the 80s, I thought that identifying the possible influences on the Drive soundtrack might be easy...

Drive, the movie, is hugely impressive. The crystal-clear cinematography of nighttime L.A., the dark surprises, the precise characters, the extreme violence, all made it unforgettable. I'd deliberately delayed listening to the soundtrack until after I watched the movie, which certainly increased its impact.

But listening to the album, it was initially hard to pinpoint any precise musical references. So I began rifling through my playlists of 80s electro pop, Eurodisco, post-punk, and movie soundtracks for anything that sounded similar. At the very least, you'll have some suggestions for further listening.

Googling interviews and reviews only yielded the phrase "80s-influenced" and the only trustworthy interview I've seen was director Nicolas Winding Refn's amusing lengthy chat on the UK Blu-ray. He vaguely mentions 80s Eurodisco as a musical influence, which wasn't quite what I was expecting and proved to be completely unhelpful (though I feel easier about suggesting the song by Berlin).

The album starts with several existing songs by various bands. Then, bridged by an instrumental from The Chromatics, settles into Cliff Martinez's original background score.

A couple of sound-alike songs I picked out could possibly be described as "eurodisco", but they're bleaker, slower, downbeat. Far more like early 80s post-punk, where the bands rejected drumkits and guitars for a totally electronic sound apart from voices. Interestingly, none of the guest tracks were written specifically for the film. The songs are all very recent tracks, with the exception of 'Oh My Love'. Luckily for Refn, there's been a resurgence in early-80s electro completely suited to his needs. 

I've attempted to match the pace, synth sounds, or aural atmosphere of each track, or even just sections of them. Numbers in brackets (1'12) refer to moments that are minutes and seconds into a track. To illustrate, I've embedded YouTube clips purely for their musical content (please try and ignore the visuals). I avoided film clips or pop videos because we're only talking music here. In the interest of simplicity, I've not included any YouTube clips from Drive, because you already have the soundtrack, don't you?

'Nightcall' by Kavinsky & Lovefoxxx (2010)

This opening number hit me with a huge 80s stick, a decaying twangy synth sound, plodding drumbeat, a scarily processed male vocal with a downbeat counter-vocal, and a sweet female chorus. But this was the hardest track to match with an 80s counterpart.

Berlin's 'Take My Breath Away' (1986) has similar drums, electro sounds and sad female vocals, but I could not find an example of that main keyboard sound.

Kavinsky's scary vocals sound like a Vocoder, an electronic effect orignally used for novelty 'sweetening', for example Herbie Hancock's 'Tell Everybody' and 'You Bet Your Love' (both 1978) and of course the Electric Light Orchestra's 'Mr Blue Sky' (at 2'21) from 1977. But closer to Drive, I remembered the especially scary Vocoder voice (at 4'45 below) in Godley & Creme's 'Wind' off their 'Consequences' album, also from 1977. This track was used in a famously expensive Benson and Hedges advert, where a mysterious helicopter glides over the desert to drop it's cargo into a swimming pool.

'Under Your Spell' by Desire (2009)

Synth drum beats, electro rhythms and keyboards with a downbeat female vocal, further distinguished by looped echoing guitars.

Yes, this all sounds very 80s, but more specifically the first few years of the decade when post-punk and gothic bands were trying out newly-affordable synthesizers and similar gadgets. The first Cocteau Twins album 'Garlands' (1982) used drum-machines and guitar loops to similar effect as this Drive track, with Elizabeth Frazer's vocals soaring sadly over it all. I picked 'Shallow Then Halo' from the album 'Garlands' for the similar tempo and structure.

'A Real Hero' by College featuring Electric Youth (2009)

A sweet and impassioned voice floating over a stomping bassy synth. But dare I say the lyrics are too obvious at underlining the action. 

The intro with the lone keyboard is a closely matched by 'Summer Spies' (1985), a single by Fatal Charm, which also has a heart-rending female vocal. Incidentally, they were the first band I ever saw live, as a support act for Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark.

'Oh My Love' by Riz Ortolani and Katyna Ranieri (1971)

This is the Joan Baez song in the pack (I'm thinking of the end of Silent Running) with simplistic lyrics about the beauty of nature. The track also jars against the rest of the album by being devoid of synths. But the lush orchestration is growing on me, providing a similarly beautiful everything-stands-still moment as 'Llorando', sung by Rebekah Del Rio in David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. If only 'Oh My Love' had been sung in Spanish, the lyrics wouldn't have been so distracting...

'Oh My Love' was originally used in a controversial film... find out more here in this great Drive article on A Fistful of Soundtracks.

'Tick of the Clock' by The Chromatics (2007)

The album goes completely instrumental at this point, but before Cliff Martinez' original score takes over, there's this great mechanical track from The Chromatics. It sounds like a very early rhythm machine with a sparse drum machine pared down to a light metal chink.

If the track had been built up into a song, it might have sounded like John Foxx's 'Burning Car' (1980). Foxx was the original lead singer for Ultravox before Midge Ure took over. He had several hits at this time when his synth sound was ahead of the game.

Also from the early 80s is this more laidback track from Pink Industry - suitably sparse, but with a female vocal befitting the Drive vibe. The emphasis is again on a simple drum machine. 'Pain of Pride' is listed as hitting vinyl in 1985, but had been recorded years earlier in BBC sessions for John Peel's radio shows, maybe as early as 1982.

The core of Cliff Martinez's score, which makes up the rest of the album, is actually very modern. Roughly half of it is ambient - daunting atmospheric sound that refuses to betray what instrumentation is being used, often devoid of drumbeats. Some tracks are like single notes stretched and held until they transform into the next, reminiscent of the ethereal music made by rubbing wineglass rims. The overall vibe is similar to the albums of Jon Hopkins, who provided a gorgeous, melancholy soundtrack to Monsters (2010). 

Several tracks give way midway to synthesizers that recall the sound of specific 80s soundtracks. Drive's thematic parallels with Michael Mann's Thief (UK title Violent Streets, 1981) leads us logically to the work of Tangerine Dream, among others from the early to mid 80s.

'Rubber Head'
(all the remaining tracks are by Cliff Martinez, 2011)

This begins with ambience and then, after a minute, brings in a rolling electronic rhythm. 'Love On A Real Train' by Tangerine Dream from the Risky Business (1983) soundtrack roughly matches the rhythm, but 'No Future' from the same album would be more apt for the dark tone of Drive. If memory serves, this is playing over the scene where Tom Cruise, um, pleasures himself...

'I Drive', 'He Had A Good Time', 'Wrong Floor'
 

Completely ambient tracks with mournful chords that occasionally offer hope, and a subtly celestial backing. I'd offer 'Olancha Farewell' from Harold Budd's album 'Lovely Thunder' (1986) in comparison. Harold Budd was a collaborator with the Cocteau Twins and continued to work with Robin Guthrie from the band, most notably on the beautiful soundtrack to Greg Araki's Mysterious Skin (2005).

'They Broke His Pelvis' 

Similar to 'Rubber Head', but with a slightly lighter mood. 'Love On A Real Train' by Tangerine Dream, also from Risky Business (1983), has a similar rhythm. But Klaus Schulze's 'Lecter's Cell' from Michael Mann's Manhunter (1986) is similar in tone.

'Kick Your Teeth'

Again the ambience gives way to a strong driving rhythm (at 0'44) and then a gently rolling guitar (1'45), reminiscent of U2's 'Where the Streets Have No Name' (1987).

'Where's the Deluxe Version?'

Starts with ambience but builds into the defining 'driving' music of Drive, with the bubbling rhythm that kicks in (at 2'30) and what sounds like passing trains. The rolling synth seems to echo the guitar from 'Where the Streets Have No Name'. But the kings of dark 'driving in L.A.' music are again Tangerine Dream. Try 'Diamond Diary' from their soundtrack to Thief (especially at 2'15).

'See You in Four'

Ambient, but incredibly dark. An echoing murk with (at 1'04, 1'24, 2'08) the sound of a scary clanging feedback. This drifts from note to note like this track 'Spores' from Jon Hopkins' score for Monsters (2010).

'After the Chase'

An electro foghorn opening and then spooky jangling keys. At (3'08) a rolling synth in a dark mood, a little like Tangerine Dream's 'Betrayal' from their soundtrack to William Friedkin's Sorcerer (UK title Wages of Fear, 1977).

'Hammer'

This ramps up with a gentle snare drum at (1'21) and then a wonderful bubbling rhythm at (1'39). There's a scary blasting (at 2'24) which again sounds like the punctuations in Tangerine Dream's 'Diamond Diary', from Thief (1981) at (2'50). 'Diamond Diary' is already embedded further up the page.

'Skull Crushing'

A murky, industrial sound, with bassy bursts at (1'12, 1'44) reminiscent of the skull-crushing scene in Blade Runner...

'My Name on a Car', 'On the Beach'

Ethereal, cold downbeat tones and an echoing rushing sound. 'On the Beach' has an unnerving metallic tone that gives way to a very downbeat murk, eventually relieved by more hopeful chords at (5'03). Here I'll offer another track off the 1986 'Lovely Thunder' album, Harold Budd's 'Ice Floes In Eden'.

'Bride of Deluxe'

The last track on the album starts off like 'Wrong Floor', with those 'wine glasses' vibes, then (at 0'47) guitars come in and build until (at 1'30) the electro rhythm kicks in brilliantly. A close electro-match would be the intro to Freddie Mercury's 'Love Kills', which he recorded with Giorgio Moroder for the soundtrack to Metropolis (1984), an early restoration of Fritz Lang's 1927 sci-fi epic.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Before I started listening to the Drive soundtrack more intently, this 1985 instrumental track from the Cocteau Twins was an early contender. It has always suggested to me moving through a darkened L.A. sometime in the near future. It might work with the cityscapes of Blade Runner, but it could easily complement the nighttime scenes in Drive. So finally, why don't you also try 'Ribbed and Veined'...

APOLLO 18 (2011) - found footage from outer space

APOLLO 18

(2011, USA/Canada)

Effective scares, scary effects, but a familiar story...

I've not gone after many 'found footage' horror movies because I baulked at cheap video formats being used to shoot feature films. But though this is relatively low budget, Apollo 18 challenges itself by presenting the whole story as if filmed on the various formats available to a NASA Moon mission 40 years ago - early video recording, small film formats, large photo formats, long-range satellite video transmissions.

Aged 8, I was hustled out of bed early one school morning to watch Neil Armstrong set foot on the Moon live on TV via a blurry black-and-white video link. The idea that two people could travel so far to an airless rock was exciting enough. Apollo 18 compounds the dangers they faced with a new threat...

Like Apollos 11 to 17, a three-man crew reaches Moon orbit, then two astronauts descend to the surface in a detachable landing vehicle. Their mission is simple: deploy a few experiments, pick up a few rock samples and take some photos. Onboard video cameras watch the crew (their picture's a too clear for video from the 1970s) and they also take film cameras out on their 'Moonwalks'. Cutting between these, time-lapse photography and external surveillance videos keeps the mood unsettling.

Not knowing anything about the story, I was in a considerable amount of suspense from not knowing where any threat was going to come from. The uncanny-looking footage, cleverly integrated with actual NASA archives, is really impressive. The jumpy scares repeatedly worked on me after a steady build-up, hugely aided by the eerie sound effects and complete lack of music.

It helped that I wasn't expecting a big flashy movie. This is a carefully claustrophobic ghost story, reminiscently small-scale to 'The Invisible Enemy' episode of The Outer Limits, but with a very different story. This could also make a good companion piece to Moon, with its small cast and isolated location.

After a few effective reveals, I felt that the writers could have gone a little further with their premise to give us a totally original story. Falling back on familiar imagery lessened the final impression and made the big pay-offs too predictable. Plus there's a huge plot-hole left unanswered. But the build-up is very enjoyable and almost all the visual effects are really convincing - fascinating to watch if you're a fan of the original Moon mission footage.
But I certainly wasn't expecting so many echoes of Thunderbirds Are Go...

Producer Timur Bekmambetov is the most familiar name on the project, also the director of the dark Russian vampire fantasy Night Watch (2004), the Angelina Jolie assassination bureau Wanted (2008) and the forthcoming Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

I watched this on Blu-ray and it looked and sounded... scary!

TOMIE: UNLIMITED (2011) - she keeps coming back!

TOMIE: UNLIMITED

(2011, Japan)

This J-horror franchise has longevity, just like Tomie...

No matter how awful her predecessors have been, I can't resist seeing her again. I must see her again. It's obsession. No matter how hard I try to erase Tomie from my memory, new versions keep springing up. Just when I thought I'd never see her again...

Junji Ito's female nightmare began life in his horror manga, becoming an early recurrent subject. His artwork portrays fright to the highest level of hysteria. Some pages of his stories Uzumaki and Gyo literally give me the chills, usually something only movies can manage. The difficulty lies in filming 'visual hysteria', as well as convincingly portraying distorted human forms. Uzumaki made a fantastic film, but falls very short of the epic scale of the manga. Gyo, a tale of sea creatures on the attack, has just been made into a (short) feature-length anime that I'm really excited about. But the premise of Tomie is potentially endless.

Tomie is a simple but unique monster - a supernatural, psychic sado-masochist. A personification of the problems of obsessional love. A likely predecessor could be Kumi Mizuno's character from Matango: Fungus of Terror (1963). A femme fatale with a monstrous secret.

Miu Nakamura is the new Tomie

You'll be relieved to hear you don't have to watch any of the previous eight Tomie 'episodes' to understand Tomie: Unlimited, the story isn't a saga. More like a string of serial killings. Her methods and motives are consistent, she just keeps finding new victims...

The story starts with a bang (the scriptwriter must have been really impressed by the original version of The Omen) and Tomie is soon up to her old tricks. This time, the focus of her attention is a small Japanese family, in particular a teenage schoolgirl. Tomie usually picks men as her prey, and her victimisation of her younger sister also involves her father and the boy she fancies.

Tomie is also a glutton for punishment and keeps coming back for more, no matter what her loved ones do to her. Her method, divide and conquer.

All I'll say is that this film delivers plenty of body horror, but more in the style of Frank Henenlotter than David Cronenberg. I was initially alarmed that the director of RoboGeisha and Machine Girl was tackling this, because I hadn't enjoyed either of those. They were visually inventive but were overplotted, had too much cheap CGI and not enough laughs. But here he's consciously aiming for a horror film, with fairly restrained CGI in favour of practical prosthetic effects, though they're low-budget enough to look retro.

It begins as dark as any Tomie, creepy and psychotic, but then tips over-the-top to a frenzy, almost resembling a Re-Animator comedy for a few scenes. This is a shame, because it then regains its creepy balance for a very dark climax. Overall, this is the best Tomie for years, and certainly a good start for those who dislike their horror slowly-paced.

One of director, Noboru Iguchi's, aims with the film was to visualise ideas from the manga which had previously been too difficult to film. He's succeeded in bringing many more of Tomie's wildest talents to the screen, while other scenes are simple and effective evocations of Ito's 'hysterical horror'. One involves Tomie's hair...

The UK DVD and Blu-ray have a simple but extended interview with the director. At first glance, it's a little round man sitting by an office window, but the revelations about his start in the porn industry are both fascinating and beguiling, because of his honesty. Talking about his non-porn films, I was intrigued by the mentions he makes about not being able to show blood in his films, even recently. Presumably this has been a big problem because of mainstream Japanese film censors. But something must have just changed because this Tomie is incredibly bloody. Very, very.

Iguchi mentions that the actress playing Tomie's victim, Moe Arai (above), is a major pop-star from the J-pop girl-band AKB48. Only in Japan could a fifteen-year-old girl be cast in such a warped horror film and directed by an ex-porn director. (Enough hyphens for ya?)

He talks about his serious approach to Tomie and also about the films that have impressed and influenced him. He saw Jigoku (1960) and Hausu (1977) at an impressionable age. When asked about his favourite American films I nearly fell off my chair. The Devil's Rain, Flesh For Frankenstein, Who Can Kill A Child?, Dead And Buried, Zombie Flesh Eaters... Surely he can't like all the same films as me? I almost suspected that he'd picked this list to appeal to horror fans. Otherwise he has great taste... in films. As fanboys go, he actually deserves to be called anal-obsessive...

Here's my look at the first Tomie (1998) and links to reviews of the first seven sequels...

Here's a roughly-subtitled trailer...

"Goodbye for now..."

PUPPET ON A CHAIN (1971) gets a widescreen DVD in the US

I'm delighted that this brash, brutal action-thriller has finally been remastered widescreen and released on DVD in the US by Scorpion Releasing. Previously only available around Europe in full-frame, I'm hoping this will find a new, wider audience.

Follow the links below for more details:

I've updated my review of Puppet on a Chain here, including the original trailer

DVD Talk have this review of the new DVD


Scorpion have also released the atmospheric teen survival chiller Humongous (1982) and then, in April, the Australian plane crash horror The Survivor (1980).

Peter Cushing as DOCTOR WHO for Amicus Films

From Dr. Terror to Dr. Who...
With talk of an impending Doctor Who movie, it's worth remembering that two feature films have already spun off this BBC TV series that first appeared in 1963. Two stories from the William Hartnell era (the very first doctor) were each made into 2.35 widescreen colour movies, when TV was still shaped 4:3 and in black and white.

'The Daleks' was the second ever Doctor Who story and ran seven episodes starting at the end of 1963. 'The Dalek Invasion of Earth' ran six episodes and transmitted at the end of 1964. These TV scripts were then adapted into two brisk storylines for the cinema.

The films have always played on British TV, but would perhaps be better known to cult movie fans if they were explicitly credited as Amicus productions, one of Hammer Films main rivals in creepy horror. But the 'AARU' production credit hides this, because producers Max Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky didn't want to confuse audiences that they were getting horror.

 

DR. WHO AND THE DALEKS
(UK, 1965) 

In Dr Who And The Daleks, one of the Doctor's granddaughters brings her boyfriend home to the Tardis, a police phonebox. Inside he finds himself in the time machine of Dr Who. By accident, they're whisked far into the future to a distant planet that's been decimated by nuclear war. The time travellers befriend the peace-loving, shiny-haired Thals but soon encounter a huge metal fortress inhabited by the fearsome and hostile Daleks...

Peter Cushing and Roy Castle starred in Dr Who and the Daleks the same year they appeared together in Amicus Films' Dr Terror's House of Horrors (also written and produced by Milton Subotsky). But of course both actors tune their performances for an audience of young children, the main fans of the Daleks on TV. Cushing does a great 'kindly old grandfather' turn, similar to his Grimsdyke in Tales From The Crypt, and a forerunner to the more scatty Dr Perry, in At The Earth's Core (1976).

Roy Castle had mainly been a musical entertainer (hence his trumpet-playing in Dr Terror), but soon demonstrated an empathy with younger audiences in the long-running children's TV programme Record Breakers. His accomplished gifts for dancing, acting and physical comedy made him a natural choice for light entertainment but strangely not many more film roles.

Roberta Tovey plays the Doctor's younger granddaughter - none of the actors in the TV version appear in the film adaptions. She later cropped up in bit parts in Beast in the Cellar and Blood on Satan's Claw (with another early Dr Who companion, Wendy Padbury).

Jennie Linden as elder granddaughter (a change from the TV character), was drafted in as a romantic foil for Roy Castle, but was usually in far more adult material, as the star of Hammer's psycho-thriller Nightmare (1964) and later starring in Ken Russell's controversial Women In Love (1969) opposite Alan Bates, Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson.

In this concentrated form as a single short film, the story betrays its debt to H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. The peaceful Thals, like the Eloi, are exploited by the ruling Daleks who, like the Morlocks, live locked away from post-war radiation in a windowless stronghold.

The movie version breaks a cardinal rule by referring to the title character as "Dr. Who", when on TV he's called "The Doctor". Aside from this, Subotsky abbreviates six episodes into a snappy adventure, with one of the best-looking Amicus films dominated by the giant Dalek city sets that contain a host of surprises, including lava lamps.

 

There aren't many dated special effects other than a few matte paintings, but unintentional laughs may arise from the Thal men wearing silvery wigs and a lot of make-up. The young might find the Daleks as scary as ever. Or funny. Find some children who've seen it and ask them.

 

Composer Malcolm Lockyer provides the air of menace for this inhospitable planet, later scoring two more Peter Cushing horror films Island of Terror (1966) and Night of the Big Heat (1967). For this and Island of Terror, Lockyer also used Barry Gray to supply electronic sound effects, even though Gray was an accomplished musician himself (composing for most of Gerry Anderson's series and movies). Both Dalek movie soundtracks have recently been released on CD (above), providing a close substitute for the Island of Terror score which I'd still like to have. 

 

This adaption by David Whitaker of the TV story 'The Daleks' was re-released in 1965 to double as a tie-in for the films, hence the obscuring of the Doctor's face. The first Doctor Who paperback, it includes a number of black and white illustrations. It was several years later that novelisations of other stories began to regularly appear.

Doctor Who was originally aimed at children, shown between the Saturday afternoon sports programme, and the evening's adult entertainment. The response from young fans was huge, Daleks soon appearing in children's comics and toyshops. The tone of the first film is of a slightly scary fairy tale, while the second film is more bitter and adult-oriented.

DALEKS INVASION EARTH 2150 A.D.

(UK, 1966)

This second Doctor Who movie quickly followed, aimed more at adults and teenagers. There's more action, young trendy rebellious Ray Brooks, lots of fighting, explosions and an unsubtle World War II motif - a dark fantasy of England if the Nazis had won.

Again the movie begins in England, present day. This time a hapless police constable stumbles into the Doctor's police box and the gang are whisked forwards in time to a post-apocalyptic London. Among the ruins, they find a resistance movement against the Dalek invasion. If anyone is captured, they'll be robotised into remote control zombies. But while the resistance is being kept under control, the Daleks' actual mission on Earth is far more deadly...

While I've always thought that this scenario is more exciting than the first film, and I'd never pass up the chance to see inside a Dalek spaceship, the story attempts to summarise all seven episodes of the TV series, rattling through all manner of subplots and minor characters, often not involving the Doctor or the Daleks. On reflection, the first has a tighter storyline with the best characters driving the action. Set in outer space, it feels more futuristic than the many building sites and quarry locations of the second. I confuse the ending with the Bond film, A View To A Kill...

 

The cast keep it watchable, with angry rebel Andrew Keir stalking London's rubble ahead of similar scenes in Quatermass and the Pit (1967). To his credit, this is a markedly different character, reckless, impulsive and downright rude! A great contrast to his portrayal of the professor.

Andrew Keir and Roberta Tovey

Again, Peter Cushing plays the Doctor, Roberta Tovey plays his granddaughter. But Jennie Linden's young female second fiddle is now played by Jill Curzon, and Roy Castle's comedy relief provided by another popular children's entertainer, Bernard Cribbins (below left). Cushing and Cribbins had just appeared together in Hammer Film's remake of She. Cribbins continues to appear in the present TV incarnation of Doctor Who.

 

The cast is further bolstered by Ray Brooks (Pete Walker's The Flesh and Blood Show), the late Philip Madoc, and Sheila Steafel (who also popped up in Quatermass and the Pit). Christopher Lee's regular stuntman Eddie Powell performs a nasty fall early in the film, a stunt in which he broke his ankle. There was one take and it's in the movie! Powell later performed many difficult scenes as the creature in Alien (1979).

Strangely, considering the huge popularity of Daleks and Doctor Who at the time, this didn't do financially as well and a third film was scrapped. I think I remember seeing the first film in the cinema, but definitely not the second. Did parents think it looked too violent for kids?
While Amicus Films initially shunned the idea of confusing children's films with their house style of adult horror, the two Dr Who movies led to them making a successful run of family-friendly adventure films throughout the 1970s, including three based on Edgar Rice Burroughs novels - The Land That Time Forgot, The People That Time Forgot and At The Earth's Core.

The Dalek Pocketbook was a fun Dalek tie-in. Also published in 1965, it was written by Dalek creator Terry Nation and while it features the movie Daleks on the cover, mostly delves into the fantasy world he elaborated on in comics, of the Daleks on their futuristic home planet of Skaro. It makes an apt companion for the 2002 Dalek Survival Guide.

 

The two Dr Who/Dalek movies have been re-issued several times in the UK and Australia, always in good-looking 2.35 widescreen transfers and often as a 2-DVD double-bill pack. The Anchor Bay DVD releases for the USA are long out of print though.

 

More Dalek movie posters here at Wrong side of the Art.