The Whip Hand

Sustained fear can lead to paranoia. The Soviets had The Bomb too. Senator McCarthy burst on the scene in 1950, waving his piece of paper purported to have the names of 200 State Department employees who were members of the communist party. In addition to worries about incoming bombers, America began to fear enemy agents inside the country. Many 50s sci-fi films were expressions of this "enemy within" angst. The Whip Hand (WH) was one of the early spies-at-home movies. It is a noteworthy hybrid in that it has some scifi ( a mad scientist attempting germ warfare), commies, and conformist "pod people" (of a sort). Add to all this, that it was directed (and designed) by William Cameron Menzies who gave us Things to Come ('36) and would give us Invaders From Mars ('53), and there is notable sci-fi connections.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Matt Corbin, magazine journalist, is in Minnesota on vacation. While fishing, a rain storm brews up. He slips on a wet rock and cuts his forehead. He gets lost trying to drive back to town. Instead he arrives a gated compound, is told (at gunpoint) to go away. Once in town, residents act strange and nervous when he asks about the compound. A virus killed off all of Winnoga's fish years ago, so it's little but a ghost town now. Matt was ready to leave, but the peculiar townsfolk have him asking more questions and getting peculiar answers. Smelling a story, the keeps poking around. He sneaks into the compound property and sees patients in wheelchairs and a doctor he recognizes. Guards catch him. He says he was just hiking. Back in town, his car won't start and he can't call out. Matt convinces the general store owner, Luther, to help him by smuggling out a message. Luther does, by hiding the message in the delivery driver's clipboard. When the wholesaler calls Luther to ask what the message was all about, Loomis (the inn owner and chief thug) knows. Luther is killed by lethal injection from Ed, the town doctor (and in on the conspiracy). Tensions rise. The mystery man from the compound, Mr. Peterson, meets Matt at the inn. Peterson tries to reassure Matt that nothing is going on and invites him to tour his compound in the morning. Matt agrees, but sneaks out of his room that night. He gets Janet, who was on her way to her brother Ed, with a vial of heart drug. Matt tells her they plan to kill her for helping him. They slip out of town in a canoe and cross the lake to the compound. Matt peeks in a window and overhears the discussions about germ warfare to be unleashed on America. He and Janet planned to slip away into the night, but Janet's absence is noticed. All the bad guys are on alert, looking for them. Matt and Janet overturn the canoe to evade the boat with a search light. Armed me watch points along the shore. Matt creeps up behind the meanest one and strangles him. Matt and Janet trek through the pine woods a long way. They finally come to a cabin. The old woman inside offers to drive them to the next town. All seems to be getting better, until she drives them up to Loomis and his men. She was one of them! Matt and Janet are taken to the compound. In the compound is Dr. Bucholtz, a former Nazi germ expert now working for the communists. He plans to experiment on Matt and Janet too. Ed, unable to give his sister a lethal injection, pulls out a gun and shoots Peterson, who also shoots Ed. Just then, two car loads of G-men with machine guns come storming in. Matt's message to his editor worked. Bucholtz, in a room with bulletproof glass, threatens to blow up the whole compound, spreading his germs anyway. Matt sneaks up behind him, breaks the wires, then knocks him down. Bucholtz is surrounded by sick and disfigured victims of his experiments, and is pummeled to death. Everything is fine now. The story is out. The plot is stopped. Matt and Janet smile and kiss. The End.

Insidious Infiltrators
The grabby theme of WH is that evil communist agents, plotting the downfall of the United States, could be working secretly in remote locations. WH plays up the paranoia of not knowing who you can trust. Enemy agents can look and sound like regular people. They could be friends or even family! The most famous of this genre of sci-fi is Invasion of the Body Snatchers (56). Many other films took up the alien-takeover theme too. The taken-over become conformists, obedient subjects to the will of their authoritarian masters, even to the point of betraying loved ones.

Impact on Sci-fi
Menzies does a good job of working the unknown traitor angle. The best of these is Molly, whom Matt and Janet talk into driving them to a larger town for help. She plays along, but drives them back to Winnoga. She was "one of them" all along. This theme of "becoming one of them," would get used many times in classic sci-fi. The most famous example of this is: Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('56), but there are many other alien-takeover films. All of them convey via metaphor, that Cold War angst that enemy agents could be right beside us.

Notes
A Tale of Two Films -- Several sources say that WH started out as a different movie. Menzies shot a film entitled "The Man He Found," The "Cambridge companion to science fiction," by Edward James, says the original movie was completed in 1950. In it, the vacationing reporter discovers a compound of Nazis hiding the not-dead-after-all Adolf Hitler. That movie was completed and awaiting release. Howard Hughes, the head of RKO Radio Pictures, wanted it reworked so that the enemies were communist agents. Menzies shot new footage, inserted it and cut out the too-nazi parts. It's said there was a brief scene (cut) in which Matt spots Hitler on a balcony in the compound. Others have written that all the scenes with Bucholtz (played by Otto Waldis) were new. Supposedly, the reworked second version started out with Russian leaders in the Kremlin pointing to spots on a US map. The version I saw (taped from TV) did not have this scene. Perhaps it was cut to shorten run time. Bad dubbing of the guards shouting to find Matt and Janet, suggest a post-production dialogue change.

Cast of Regulars -- The screenplay of WH contains several of the usual movie character roles. There is the dashing young hero, who happens to be single. There is the pretty and unattached love interest who needs rescued. Bucholtz is a blend of Evil Villain and Mad Scientist who suffers the typical fate: killed by his creation. In this case, the victims of his germ experiments. Ed plays the repentant traitor who atones for his sins by being killed by the bad guys. The G-men play the role of cavalry, rescuing the situation in an almost Dies ex Machina sort of way.

Silly Red Fears? -- It is all too easy for folks raised well after the Cold War fear had subsided, to look with smug derision on the whole Red Scare phase of American history. But, swap out Al Queda for Commies and the fear doesn't seem as silly. Spy Fear has been a cultural foible that phases in and out of remission from time to time. Back during World War One, the angst was over (presumed) German spies. Novels such as, "The Spies of the Kaiser" and "The 39 Steps" were popular, even if the actual amount of German intrigue was tiny.

Rocky Details -- Having lived in northern Minnesota, "Two hours from Duluth" as Matt's editor said. it was amusing to see the big craggy rocky landscapes in WH. Actually, the lakes country is mostly flat, sometimes mild hills. What rocks there are, tend to be shoebox sized, round and loose in the soil. Now, it turns out there is a Winnoga Resort, on Lac Seull in Ontario, about 4 hours drive north of Duluth. That lake does have some craggy rock shores. Trouble was, for a commie-spies-in-America story, that lake is in Canada. Oh well.

Bottom line? WH is an interesting blend of Red Scare and sci-fi. It is also a good example of the people-acting-strangely trope which forms the core of many old sci-fi movies. As a B-grade noir "thriller", it's okay, if populated by stereotypic characters. Raymond Burr actually does a nice job of the fake-jovial, insidious schemer Loomis. WH can be harder to find, but instructive for the roots of 50s sci-fi.

2001: A Space Odyssey

Like the other big movie of 1968 (Planet of the Apes), vast quantities have already been written about Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. As such, this review will not cover everything. 2001 is a huge milestone in sci-fi. It has a few genuflections to its 50s ancestry, but it is the first of the modern sci-fi epics. In it, you can see the foundations of Star Wars and beyond. Yet, 2001 is as enigmatic as it was monumental. With a plot as sweeping as the evolution of man from animal to star child, it is very ambitious. It can be too ambitious and artsy for some.

Quick Plot Synopsis
2001 comes in four distinct "chapters". Here they are in very brief form:
Chapter One: Superchimps -- Dawn comes in earth's ancient past. Clans of chimpanzees graze on plants with other animals. They fight with other chimp clans over a water hole. One night, a big black obelisk appears near one chimp clan. They freak out, but get curious and touch it. They learn to use clubs. With them, they kill animals for meat and drive off the rival clan from the water hole. Man is created.
Chapter Two: Moon Discovery -- Mankind has routine PanAm flights in space, space stations, and bases on the moon. Dr. Floyd travels via these modern wonders to the moon. Men have discovered a strange magnetic anomaly. Excavated in a pit is a big black obelisk (just like the chimps got). When the astronauts touch it, a piercing tone erupts (along with a radio beam to Jupiter, we later learn).
Chapter Three: Hal Goes Mad -- The interplanetary ship Discovery One is en route to Jupiter. Aboard are three researchers in hibernation and pilots Dave Bowman and Frank Poole. The HAL9000 computer runs the ship's systems. All is routine to the point of boring until Hal reports the imminent failure of a component of their antenna array. Frank replaces the unit, but the old one checks out fine. Suspecting that Hal is malfunctioning, Dave and Frank conspire to switch Hal off. Hal figures this out. While EVA to check the antenna again, Hal causes Frank to spin off into space. Dave goes after him in a pod and retrieves his body. Hal won't let Dave back aboard. Dave gets in anyway and shuts Hal down.
Chapter Four: Jupiter and Beyond -- Once at Jupiter, Dave leaves the Discovery in a pod. He encounters another obelisk floating in Jupiter orbit. He goes through a veritable orgy of colored lights and colorized landscapes. Eventually, he encounters himself in a rococo bedroom as an older man. Then he's on his deathbed. The obelisk appears at the foot of his bed. Dave turns into a star child (fetus with big eyes). The End.

Why is this movie fun?
2001 is too big of a movie not to find something to like. The sets and models work is impressive, even in today's world of CGI. The many loose ends of the plot add intrigue. Kubrik's sense of visual art is impressive. The visual "ballet" of ship and station, or the careful steps of the stewardesses, all to Straus's Blue Danube, was fun to watch too.

Cold War Angle
Though not as evident in the movie, Clarke's novel was more overt. In his 2001, the Cold War is still raging. The satellites orbiting in the beginning of Chapter Two were warhead platforms (in the book). Kubrick made them less obviously so. At the end of Clarke's novel, nuclear armageddon is about to start, but Dave as Star Child intervenes. Kubrick glossed over this too with his floating star child not doing much more than staring at the earth.

Notes
Companion Book -- Clarke's novel was developed at the same time as the movie's screenplay. As such, the stories in the two are very close. They deviated on a few inconsequential points -- such as Discovery's destination being Saturn in the book, Jupiter in the film. Most of the differences can be chalked up to the nature of print vs. movies. Books can use third person omniscient narrators to fill in details and back story. Movies are primarily visual and action-oriented. Kubrik could only suggest back story concepts with visual symbols. Clarke could monologue details.

The Cusp -- Kubrik's production marks a turning point from old Golden Age sci-fi space dramas, to the modern Star Wars age and beyond. Yet, as that link, it has its feet on both sides. The various space ships and shuttles are all very 70s and 80s. Yet, the big spinning wheel space station is a legacy to the 50s, Conquest of Space in particular. By the late 60s, NASA no longer thought an orbital station was a necessary step to the moon. The Apollo program, then only a year away from landing on the moon, would fly there directly. Yet, Kubrik and Clarke kept the old big wheel.

Evolution's Third Strike -- 2001 was the third movie in early 1968 to inadvertently undermine the popularly held theory of man's evolution. That is, of the slow and steady progress via random mutations and natural selection eventually leading to sentient man. All three movies propose that something from outside interfered and caused mankind as we know it. In Planet of the Apes, it was a nuclear war that sparked all three ape species to sentience. In Five Million Years to Earth, it was the highly advanced Martians who genetically altered earth apes to produce men. In 2001, it was a vague "higher power" that provided the change. Before the appearance of the obelisk, they were just animals -- hungry vegetarian chimps. After the obelisk, they used tools, walked more erect, and they learned to kill. (some might argue that this was not an improvement.) Even 2001's continuing "evolution" of man into a Star Child, is due to the unseen divine hand. Bowman doesn't evolve himself in some Neitzschian way (as implied with Kubrik's choice of "change" music: "Also Sprach Zarazustra", Richard Strauss's tone poem inspired by Neitzche's book of the same name.) Nor does Bowman evolve in the Darwinian way. Instead, he is transformed by a power outside himself and nature.

Classic Technophobia -- The showdown with HAL is the classic battle of man vs. total automation. People did not trust computers, even though in 1968 most people had little contact with them. 2001 is (partially) a cautionary tale about giving automated systems too much control, or people too little. An early foreshadowing of HAL was the self-aware supercomputer in The Invisible Boy ('57). Another precursor to HAL was the super computer NOVAC in Gog ('54). It began killing off the base's scientists because it controlled all of the base's systems. HAL's undoing was the dissonance from being ordered to lie to Bowman and Poole about the nature of the mission. Clarke elevates a human flaw into a virtue. People can handle lying. Logically pure computers can't.

Invitation to the Stars -- Unlike the other two spark-volution movies, Clarke's 2001 frames it as an invitation. It wasn't a nuclear mistake, or a self-serving experiment gone awry. Instead, a "higher power" injects an exception to nature. Even at the last, the obelisk appears before dying old Dave, standing at the door, as it were. Transformation is not forced upon Dave. It's only when he lifts his hand to it, beckoning, that he is reborn by that higher power (not by his own power) -- made a new creature.

Parallel Pits -- Perhaps it is a coincidence, and perhaps not, but the scene of the obelisk on the moon is very reminiscent of the BBC's Quatermass and the Pit ('59). In both, the alien item, buried millions of years ago, is discovered. The object is excavated and sit in the bottom of a square pit, with ramps leading down into it. In both, the object suddenly emits a powerful sound (or influence) on the people in the pit. Had Kubrik (or Clarke) seen the BBC series nine years earlier?

Bottom line? 2001 is a must-see movie for its landmark value alone. It is a deeply thoughtful movie, but has long stretches of little action. As such, it will frustrate viewers accustomed to fast-paced action films. For example, the "orgy" of lights and colors as Dave enters the obelisk lasts for ten full minutes. At 2 hours and 20 minutes, 2001 may be too long for the young and restless. Still, for its cultural impact alone, its worth the time.

Duck and Cover

After the autumn of 1949, when the Soviet Union had "The Bomb" too, anxiety grew in the American public. Hometown America was in danger like never before. New York, San Francisco or Chicago, all could become Nagasaki. Mostly to quell the rising public anxiety, the federal government commissioned a series of educational films intended to show the public that there was something they could do. The most famous of these informational films was Duck and Cover (D&C). Millions of school children in the 50s were shown this film, as part of the usual "mental hygene" film cycle. The practical value of the films' advice was questionable, but then, the intent was not so much training in proven techniques (as there was little real-world testing of civilians and bombs). The primary goal seems to have been to reduce the growing sense of helplessness and doom.

Quick Plot Synopsis
You can watch this film itself. It's only 9 minutes long. A copy is at the Internet Archives. In lieu of that, here's how it goes: The film opens with animated Bert the Turtle ambling along a tree-lined lane. A monkey dangles a lit stick of dynamite right behind his head. Bert gasps, and ducks into his shell, the monkey and tree are blown up. Bert is reluctant to emerge. The narrator tells us, over footage of a school class practicing duck and cover drills, that we must be prepared if the bomb falls nearby. At the sight of the flash, duck and cover. An animated farmhouse is wrecked by an offscreen blast. Bert is safe inside his shell. Over footage of a mom rubbing ointment on her son's back, we're told the radiation could give us a "really bad sunburn." Sometimes there will be a warning, sometimes not. Kids playing baseball, or in their yards, hear the air raid siren and flock indoors. Other kids doing what most kids do: walk to school, ride the bus, ride their bikes, see the unannounced flash. They all huddle on the ground near a wall. Even a poor farmhand, at the sight of the flash, cowers under his manure spreader. The film concludes with more animated footage of Bert. "Remember what to do, friends. Tell me right out loud. What are you supposed to do when you see the flash? (Kids in unison.) "Duck and Cover." Bert does. The End.

Apocalypse Survived
The government wanted head off a citizen to panic or a slip into nuke malaise. Aiding the government was human nature. People tend to want and look for positive possibilities too. The basic message in D&C was that through quick action and well-stocked shelters, the average Joe could survive the unthinkable. Whether realistic or not, the notion of making it through armageddon had its appeal.

Impact on Sci-fi
The notion of mankind surviving a nuclear war -- even if mutated or diminished, etc. -- shows up in a great many sci-fi plots. From Arch Oboler's Five ('51) to Planet of the Apes ('68) and beyond, there is the background optimism that despite the terrible destruction, somehow, a remnant of mankind would live through it all. Apocalypse Survived is one of the most common sci-fi themes. Yet, a parallel theme is that of imminent danger from the skies. Compare D&C's warnings with that of Scotty's in The Thing from Another World ('51) "Watch the skies. Keep watching the skies!". It's not hard to see the Cold War playing out in sci-fi.

Notes
Bert The Star -- Archer Productions had hoped that Bert the Turtle would catch on and become a famous cartoon character. This didn't happen, but then, having only one film appearance makes stardom tough. Archer Productions didn't last long enough to give Bert another film.

Mixed Signals -- While the intent of D&C (and other Civil Defense films) was to quell public worries by giving them something they could do, laced within the narration of D&C were phrases that stuck in kids' memories, fueling that sense of impending doom from unseen sources in the skies. In one scene, kids are playing baseball when siren sounds) "Remember, the flash of an atomic bomb can come at anytime, no matter where you may be." In another scene, Paul and Patty on their way to school. "They always try to remember what to do if the atom bomb explodes -right then-. (Flash!) "It's a bomb! Duck and cover!" In yet another scene, Tony is riding his bike to Cub Scouts. "He knows the bomb can explode any time of the year, day or night. He's ready for it. (Flash!) Duck and Cover." The lingering message? There were no save moments. Doom could strike anytime. Now, go on with your lives, citizens.

Early Ethnic Mixing -- Long before political correctness mandated that crowds of school kids must be ethnically diverse, the classrooms in D&C are racially mixed. Note the little black boy, often prominent in the center of the scene. An hispanic girl is there too, and a black girl further back. It was a classroom ahead of its time. School desegregation was yet many years in the future.

Cool Cars! -- Ok, aside from the sociological value, fans of old cars get quite an eye full of late 40s sedans, encrusted with chrome, and even a cool old fire truck! D&C is an inadvertent time capsule of postwar prosperity.

Bottom line? D&C is a cultural landmark of the 50s. Its subtle (and not so subtle) messages were fuel on the fires of American Atomic Angst. It's well worth the 19 minutes it takes to watch it, to get a feel for what was in audiences' heads as they watched sci-fi movies.

Planet of the Apes

This is, perhaps, the second biggest movie of 60s sci-fi. The biggest is 2001: A Space Odyssey, which set the benchmark for future cinema sci-fi. Planet of the Apes (PoA) would provide sequel fodder for the 70s and beyond, but was, in its first iteration, an A-level grand culmination of 50s sci-fi. PoA had big names: written (mostly) by Rod Serling, and starring Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, James Whitmore, etc.. Its director, Franklin Schaffner was big stuff too. He would go on to do Patton and The Boys From Brazil. This was no cheapy B film. Much has already been written about PoA, in books, magazines and internet articles, so this review won't try to cover everything.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Taylor, Dodge, Landon and Stewart are astronauts on an interstellar flight. Taylor (Heston) is making last log reports before entering his sleep chamber. They are rudely awakened when their ship crashes into a lake in a desert. Stewart died of old age, due to a leak in her chamber. The three men clamber out and make it to shore. The desert is lifeless, but they finally encounter vegetation, then people too. A tribe of cavemen steal their clothes. All are caught by gorillas on horseback, with guns. Dodge is killed. Landon lost. Taylor shot in the neck. Back in Ape City, a surgeon saves Taylor, but he cannot speak. He becomes the pet project of Zira, a chimpanzee animal psychologist. Taylor struggles to understand this "upside down" world in which apes are the civilized masters and humans are the beasts. Zira and her fiancee Cornelius are convinced Taylor is intelligent and proves their theories that apes evolved from men. Taylor escapes and causes mayhem in the city. He is recaptured, suddenly able to speak again. All the disturbance invokes a hearing in which Zira and Cornelius are up on charges of heresy. The sentence is handed down. Zira arranges for Taylor to escape. She and Cornelius leave the city too. They travel to an archeological dig site in the Forbidden Zone. They are followed by Dr. Zaius and his armed thugs. Cornelius shows Zaius archeological proof that man predates apes, but Zaius argues all the evidence away. Taylor holds Zaius hostage, demanding a horse, supplies and a gun. He rides off down the beach with his mute girlfriend, Nova. Zaius has the cave blown up to hide evidence that man was there first. Taylor discovers the half-buried Statue of Liberty in the beach sand. He then realizes that they landed back on earth somehow, in the far future. A nuclear war reduced mankind to brutes and elevated the apes. Fade to black. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
PoA is a classic bit of story telling and turned tables. There's enough food for thought to spawn several sequels. It has action, adventure and drama.

Cold War Angle
This is classic 50s mind-set. A nuclear war escalated to the point of destroying civilization as we know it. It was the Cold War nightmare come true.

Notes
Iconic Ending -- The twist ending of PoA is one of the most famous. It's final form was shaped by many hands, including the second script writer, Michael Wilson and director Franklin Schaffner. Yet, the idea was clearly Rod Serling's. He had done many rewrites of the script since he began in 1963. Boulle's twist ending, was that the astronauts reading the tale as flashback, turn out to BE apes. A movie couldn't withhold info like a book could, so Serling's twist was to reveal that the planet of the apes was actually earth. He used the Statue of Liberty as an earth-only icon. His endings had the statue in fragments, or just an arm, or the upper part of the head, overgrown in a jungle, etc. Serling was good at twist endings in his Twilight Zone episodes. One that is similar in theme to PoA was the 1959 episode, I Shot an Arrow into the Air, in which a crew of astronauts suffer some technical trouble and think they've crashed on a distant desert planet. The twist ending is that they discover they landed on earth. In that case, it was telephone poles that served the role of proof.

50s Roots -- One PoA's primary plot premises is a close copy to that used in World Without End ('56). A crew of astronauts inadvertently travel into the future, but they don't know that (yet). They crash land on a planet which turns out to have two populations -- bad brutes and good but "soft" humans. The spilt into those two populations was the result of a nuclear war. The iconic ending (see above) is solidly in the 50s' Atomic Angst idiom. Nuclear war would destroy our world. What survived would be bad. Serling had written several stories for his 1959 and 1969 Twilight Zone episodes with that moral underpinning.

Based on the Book -- Pierre Boulle's 1963 novel "Planet of the Apes" is essentially the same story as the movie, in it's middle portion. Astronauts find the earth of the future to be run by apes. Man has been reduced to an animal. Boulle's beginning, with a message-in-a-bottle, and two astronauts basically reading the story as flashback, was not screen-friendly. Boulle's ending in which the earth man flies back to find earth ruled by apes, had its problems too. Serling opted to leave Taylor stranded and alive. (a few early variations had him killed at the last). The novel's subtle commentary on oppressed working classes (in this case, apes made to work as slaves for humans, then visa versa) has been in sci-fi for decades. The movie did not delve into that theme as much.

Evolution's Popular Hole -- The Spring of '68 saw three big movies in a row incorporate the evolution of man into their plots. In all three, the slow-and-steady theory (held popularly, but not so much by scientists) is punctured by some outside influence. In Five Million Years to Earth, it was the Martians who tampered with earth apes, bestowing intelligence. In 2001 it will be aliens to mess with earth apes to start intelligence. In PoA, the surface of the plot suggests a lampooning of religion (in favor of evolution) but beneath that is the sting. Again, slow-and-steady did not do the trick. In PoA, it was a nuclear war which mutates apes into sentience, and degrades humans into beast-hood. All three movies play on the nagging doubt that slow-and-steady just couldn't have produced humans from apes. There had to be something outside that did the trick.

Bottom line? Planet of the Apes is a big-time classic of 1960s sci-fi. The original is better than the many sequels, though it's hard to recreate the power of the twist ending nowadays. Still, PoA is very much worth watching, for sci-fi fans and people who like action adventures.

Seven Days to Noon

America (and the West) had a few years of peaceful basking in the victory of WWII. That came to and end in the August of 1949 when the Soviet Union detonated their first A-Bomb. Now, the specter of Hiroshima could come to Western cities. So, it was no coincidence that 1950 was the start of Atomic Angst movies and the start of sci-fi's Golden Era, in which Cold War worries found so many metaphors on screen.

Seven Days to Noon (7DN) was a London Films production played in the UK in October of 1950, and in the US in December. The premise of there being a British atomic bomb for a rogue scientist to steal, was a bit of futurist setting. The British didn't join the "Nuclear Club" until 1952. Yet, London becoming a wasteland like Nagasaki, was a frighteningly real possibility. This point wasn't lost on American audiences either.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A letter arrives at the Prime Minister's office at 10 Downing Street. Unless the government stops all it's nuclear development, the author would detonate an a-bomb "at the seat of government." He gives them seven days to comply. Scotland Yard puts Superintendent Folland on the job. Calling around to various nuclear labs eventually reveals that a professor Willingdon has gone missing. Also missing is one of their UR12 bombs, which (handily enough) is small enough to fit in a suitcase. Folland and Lane (Willingdon's assistant) and Ann Willingdon (daughter) search for clues among his papers. Meanwhile, Willingdon meditates in a London church still damaged from The Blitz. Newspapers carry his photo as a wanted man, so he has a barber shave it off. He rents a room from an old woman. He acts strangely, so she is suspicious. Next day, he throws away his overcoat because the papers mention it. He buys another in a pawn shop. There, he meets Goldie, an aging burlesque performer. The police and army begin searching for Willingdon. He eludes them, but it gets harder to do. He chances to meet Goldie again. She invites him to sleep at her flat. He does. (All is gentlemanly and proper.) He leaves in the morning before she's up. Since he refused to negotiate with the government, officials finally tell the whole story. Goldie now knows who he was, so she tells the police. Evacuation plans are set into motion, to clear everyone out of the center of London. Goldie goes to her flat to pack and visit friends in Aldershot before the evacuation begins. Willingdon is hiding in her flat. He holds her hostage and hunkers down. The evacuation begins the next morning. A montage of many scenes tell how everything is orderly and calm. Even street people are rounded up. When the city center is cleared, brigades of troops start searching house by house. Eventually, they get to Goldie's building. Willingdon escapes out a window, but the ring of troops is getting tighter and tighter. Finally, on Sunday morning, they find him at the altar of the bombed out church. Lane and Ann try to reason with him, but he is resolute. His work for the betterment of mankind is being used for destruction. It must stop. He unintentionally gives away the location of the bomb. Folland restrains Willingdon. Lane moves to disarm the bomb. Willingdon panics and runs from the building. A jittery soldier shoots him when he emerges. Lane succeeds in disarming the bomb with just seconds to spare. Big Ben strikes noon. London is saved. The End.

Apocalypse Avoided
7DN coming to the brink of atomic destruction, but is saved in the final seconds. This is due to the tireless efforts of the government and army to find the threat. In this case, it was a rogue scientist who was the threat, not the communists. The savior was the government who resolutely protected the people and tracked down the bomber.

Cold War Spotlight
Even though the population and authorities are handling everything with a (self-promotional) stiff upper lip, note the fear depicted by the characters. The prospect of nuclear destruction was dawning in the cultural consciousness.

Notes
Homegrown Terrorism -- Even though produced in 1950, 7DN's scenario of a threat-from-within is remarkably salient for today. In our post-Cold-War world, waves of Russian planes or missiles are a thing of the past. A disgruntled loner, a Timothy McVeigh sort, is a more realistic threat.

Moral Misgivings -- The Professor Willingdon character serves as a sort of everyman conscience. Now that the A-bomb was a reality (and in the hands of "others"), there was a lot of remorse, but the genie was out of the bottle. As much as people wanted to, there was no going back. This played out in metaphor, with the death of Willigndon in the end.

Iconic Empty City -- 7DN is one of the earliest Atomic Angst films (and sci-fi) to feature many shots of an empty city. Scenes such as these will be repeated many times in later movies. The scenes of evacuations will be repeated many times too -- though usually with more stress and chaos, as in Godzilla, for instance.

Hawk Voices -- While sheltering in the pub (to avoid police patrols), Willingdon is disturbed by loudmouth with a hawkish attitude. Before the government revealed that the threat was Willigndon and his one bomb, the public took all the hush-hush cabinet meetings and evacuation plans as evidence that the Russians were planning to bomb England. Mr. Hawk says, "It's time they do somethin' about it. Load up fifty A-bombs in bombers and strike first. I know we got 'em. Been churnin 'em out like pineapples. Load the ruddy planes and blast their big cities to 'ell." Mr. Hawk and Willigndon are the classic opposite poles in the nuclear debate.

Bottom line? 7DN is a well-done drama film on its own. It is significant for being the first to show a Western city having to face a possible nuclear destruction.

Five Million Years to Earth

Nigel Kneale's original story (Quatermass and the Pit) ran as a serialized TV drama in 1959. Hammer Films produced a feature film version of the same story (and the same title) in the UK in 1967. 20th Century Fox marketed the movie in America a year later with the title Five Million Years to Earth (FMYE). This is the third in the Quatermass series. Even though it is a sort of sequel, FMYE is an altogether different story, drawing nothing (beyond Professor Quatermass) from the prior two.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Workers expanding a London subway station at Hobb's End unearth skulls and bones of odd large-headed ape men. Dr. Roney dates them at 5 million years old. Workers then uncover a strange object. Professor Quatermass, saddled with the smarmy Colonel Breen, investigate. The military think it is an unexploded Nazi bomb. Locals and newspaper archives tell of strange goings on in that neighborhood dating back to medieval times, whenever the soil was disturbed. Soldiers and workers around the hull report visions of goblins. A hole appears in the ship, revealing decaying insect creatures. Roney and Quatermass are convinced they are dead Martians. Their theory is that 5 million years ago, the Martians could see that their planet would no longer be habitable. They couldn't live on earth. So, they took ape creatures from earth and genetically altered them to have high intelligence and other martian qualities. The Martians would live on (genetically, at least) in a proxy colony. The British government and military scoff at this theory. They claim the ship, insect things and bones were all a Nazi propaganda ploy. Work at the station will resume. Television crews setting up to cover the resumption, inadvertently supply the ship with high voltage. It starts to glow and hum and control people. Supplied with vast electrical power, the ship projects its "race memory," beams. It triggers genes grafted into the human DNA -- though not everyone has the genes. Riots break out. Killings. The earth rumbles. Buildings break. Quatermass himself is affected. He tries to kill Roney, who is immune to the ship's projections. Part of the martian genome was to instinctively kill anyone who was "different," to keep the colony pure. Only by concentrating on his "human" identity, can he keep the urges in check. A huge glowing projection of an insect martian appears over London, as if to spread its control over a wider area. Roney thinks it can be neutralized if grounded, because of legends that the devil didn't like iron. (?) He maneuvers a construction crane to touch the apparition. In the fiery discharge, Roney succeeds, but dies doing so. London is badly damaged, but saved. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
FMYE is a great bit of story telling. The topic fresh and there is plenty of action. Yet, there is much to mull over with Kneale's notions of the roots of human evil. For 50s sci-fi fans, it's fun to dabble in another martian invasion (even if by proxy).

Cold War Angle
The primary theme is an exploration of racial issues, particularly the intolerance of difference. The Cold War is more of a background hum than clear theme. All three of Kneale's Quatermass tales were built around fear (of some outsiders) and paranoia (who could you trust?). In this case, smug and pompous bureaucrats and military leaders, ignore the danger signs of big trouble brew right at their feet. It is more of an "enemy within" tale.

Notes
As Seen on TV -- This story originally aired on BBC television in December 1958 and January 1959 in six half-hour episodes. Kneale himself adapted his teleplay into the screenplay, so it's little wonder the movie follows the TV series very closely. Some lines exactly the same. Sometimes they're delivered by other (peripheral) characters. Some scenes remained (such as the knocking-out of Barbara), though not in quite the exact same place in the story line. The movie's special effects are, naturally, better than the teleplay. The original title made more sense for the TV series, in that the ship was found while excavating for a building's foundation -- a pit. The movie's setting of a subway station doesn't fit "a pit" as well. Perhaps that's why the title change for American distribution.

Space Roots -- Where the Stargate television series imagined that ancient earth "gods" were really encounters with egotistical aliens, Kneale imagines, in FMYE, that legends of demons and the devil, and psychic powers all had a common extraterrestrial source -- the Martians!

Undermining Darwin -- Despite the typical overtones of evolutionary theories ("apemen", etc.), Kneale cuts the legs off the popular notion of steady-state evolution. Human intelligence was not the result of slow and steady mutations and darwinian survival of the fittest. Instead, he posits that earth apes got a serious genetic upgrade from the Martians. Humans didn't evolve from apes, we're martian halfbreeds! At one point, Barbara even says, "We ARE the Martians."

Inherited Evil -- The Martian genetic "gift" had it's benefits and drawbacks. Earth apes got the intelligence boost, but also inherited the martian urge to destroy anything different. In this, Kneale aimed at social commentary -- intolerance of other races -- opens a much larger can of worms. He suggests that most (if not all) of humanity's dark side, stems from ancient "race memory". That, in itself, is a controversial notion base on racist theories. Via this plot device, Kneale seems to be absolving humanity of direct responsibility for its evils. The human genes were basically "innocent" animal. It was the goblin-like horned "devil" martians that introduced the bad genes. This has a coincident parallel to the Biblical account, in which it was the devil which introduced sin to innocent Adam and Eve.

Good Old Mars -- Firmly in the 50s idiom, Kneale pictures Mars as a planet which was once more comfortably habitable and hosted a flourishing civilization. In this, he is good company with H.G. Wells and others. Mars is also still the "Bringer of War" in that martian genes cause human belligerence. Note the nod to H.G.Wells in that the martian bug creatures walked on three legs. This was more apparent in the TV series, but is still in the movie's screenplay.

Bottom line? FMYE is a well-done, well paced sci-fi with 50s roots (a '59 TV series). It also has many thoughtful twists, turns and nuggets to muse on. By modern CGI standards, the special effects can seem dowdy, but FMYE was not a movie to show off special effects. For fans of old sci-fi, it's a must-see.

Golden Age Motivation

Having thus far watched over 250 sci-fi movies made from 1950 to 1967, it's clear that Cold War themes did animate a majority of the sci-fi of the 50s and 60s. These themes fall into a few shared categories: armageddon imagined, invasion fear, radiation dangers and spy worries. Science fiction movies certainly gave an artistic expression to these fears, but they were not the only movies doing so.

There were non-sci dramas, thrillers and docu-dramas focusing on similar themes. Those films were not included (initially) in this study because they were not sci-fi. No saucers, no aliens, no monsters. Yet, looking back, they seem helpful for understanding the "fire in the belly" that drove much of Golden Era sci-fi. For children who practiced Duck and Cover in school, and families who practiced bomb shelter drills when the sirens blared, the Cold War was not a vague geo-political notion. It was unavoidably center stage.

Non-sci-fi Atomic Angst films fit into similar categories of Atomic Angst themes as did Golden Era sci-fi. These are, briefly:

Armageddon Imagined -- Some films explored the "what if" of a global nuclear war and the end of civilization as we know it. There were pessimists who prophesied doom and optimists who imagined a phoenix among the ashes. Rocketship X-M ('50) was an early example of the former. Five ('51) was more optimistic that some remnant of mankind might survive to rebuild. Classics such as When Worlds Collide ('51) were both.

Invasion Fear -- Some films played out scenarios of enemy invasion -- often with aliens or monsters standing in as metaphors for the anticipated communist hoards. The Thing ('51) kicked off this theme which carried through into the mid 60s. The invaders were sometimes humanoid, but often monsters -- giant dinosaurs, giant bugs, robots, etc. No matter the form, the terror was the invasion.

Radiation Danger -- School children during the 50s and early 60s (the audiences of matinee movies) were routinely shown "educational" films about terrible things radiation could do. Duck and Cover. Build Your Own Bomb Shelter. The movie monsters were outlandish, but even in their exaggeration they expressed the almost crippling fear people felt about the dangers.

Insidious Infiltrators -- Enemy spies and fifth columnists were bringers of all the fearful things mentioned above. Spy themes hooked adults more than children. McCarthyism was more of an adult phenomenon. The most gripping movies in this theme were the alien-takeover stories. Invasion of the Body Snatchers ('56) is the classic of this sub-genre. Yet, the theme had such power that it was made, remade and rehashed many times.

Coming Up: The Bad Old Days
Between the upcoming reviews of sci-movies, I will be inserting reviews of related Atomic Angst films. They dealt with the same fears, the same anxieties, but they had a couple other theme categories of their own. There were "Apocalypse Averted" movies, in which mankind pulled back from the brink, and "The Trigger Pulled" movies in which he didn't.

Modern (younger) sci-fi fans place great importance on a movie's special effects. So, they usually kvetch about the older movies. The quality of the special effects was not their prime value consideration. Giving voice to the fear was. Review of these movies can help sci-fi fans born after the mid-60s to better understand the power and magic of old sci-fi.

I hope you'll agree.