Trog

In a surprising number of ways, Warner Brothers' Trog is like the half-brother to the films Bigfoot and Horror of the Blood Monsters. They have many similarities and parallels. Trog is the last big-screen appearance of acting legend Joan Crawford. The rest of the cast are British, a few have been in sci-fi films. Michael Gough, for example, was the lead alien in They Come From Beyond Space ('67). As a story, Trog lies at the periphery of sci-fi, but has just enough to merit inclusion in this study.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Three young men are exploring a cave. One of them goes deeper and is attacked and killed by an ape-headed shaggy man. The second boy tries to help but is hurt. He's taken to the lab/clinic of Dr. Brockton (Crawford). She's convinced there's something prehistoric in the cave. She and the other spelunker check it out. She takes a photo of it. Later, Trog comes out of the cave and into the media spotlight. Dr. Brockton tranquilizes him with her hypo-gun. Scientists study him. She tries to civilize him. They plant a chip in him that lets them (somehow), see what he sees in his mind. After showing him photos of dinosaur skeletons from a museum, Trog remembers live dinosaurs fighting. Doc thinks Trog lived millions of years ago but froze in a glacier. He only recently thawed out. Dr. Brockton spouts mumbojumbo about Trog being a missing link and proof of evolution. A court of inquest is held over the matter of Cliff's death. A local civic leader, Sam Murdock (Gough), has been fomenting to have the creature killed as it's bad for his housing project. The court adjourns for a few days. Meanwhile, Dr. Brockton and her scientists operate to give Trog a voicebox. He wakes up and almost sort of speaks. At the resumed inquest, Murdock objects one too many times and is ejected. The court adjourns again. Later that night, Murdock sneaks into the lab. He knocks out a guard, trashes the place and sets Trog free to take the blame for the damage. Trog beats up Murdock (to death) then flees into the foggy woods. He kills a couple of villagers. He comes upon a playground and captures a little girl with blond hair -- like the doll Dr. Brockton let him play with. He carries the fainted child to the cave and goes inside. The army arrive to kill the beast. Dr. Brockton goes into the cave and sweet talks Trog into surrendering the child. The army go in, guns ablating, and shoot up Trog as he stands on a ledge. He falls to his death on a sharp stalagmite. Roll credits. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
What is essentially another remake of the King Kong story on a lesser scale, gives Trog some interest. Other features of interest are cited below.

Cultural Connection
Missing Links, cavemen and dinosaurs were, apparently, hot stuff in the early 70s. It is interesting to note how many of these films posit that cavemen and dinosaurs were contemporaries. These date back to Lost World ('25) through One Million B.C. ('40) to Dinosaurus ('60), to One Million Years B.C. ('66) with many more in between them all.

Notes
Bigfoot Parallels -- Both this film and Bigfoot are remixes of the old King Kong story. In both films, the ape-man is touted as the "Missing Link" between modern man and Neanderthal. In both films, the ape-man is far more ape than even Neanderthal. Both ape-men take a shine to a platinum blonde. Both carry off their blonde to their private lair. Both are shot dead with many bullets after surrendering their blonde.

Horrors Parallels -- This film and Horror of the Blood Monsters, another film of 1970, share a significant stylistic parallel too. Both feature recycled footage from the mid-50s, which was tinted various colors to integrate it into the modern color footage. Horror used a black and white 1956 Filippino fantasy/adventure film about cavemen and really strange cavemen. For Trog, Herman Cohen arranged to use clips from a 1956 documentary by Irwin Allen titled The Animal World, also from 1956. It contains the museum skeleton shots and the stop-motion animated dinosaurs -- which were done by Ray Harryhausen.

Soames Parallels -- There are even some social commentary parallels to The Mind of Mr. Soames (another 1970 Brithish film). Both feature a primitive human who becomes enmeshed in a social tug-o-war. On the one hand, are the soft-hearted liberals, the doctors, who want to study him, rehabilitate and nurture him with toys. On the other hand are the hard-nosed conservatives who insist on justice, protecting the public and punishment. In both cases, the hapless subject gets loose into the 'civilized' world and runs afoul of civilization. Like Soames, Trog becomes an unfortunate pawn in the political power struggles. This trope will surface again in Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange.

Darwinian Blather -- As with most all missing link movies, the writers try to dress up their scenario with blather about evolution which usually makes an unintended mockery of Darwinism. For one, they all seem to accept that cavemen and dinosaurs walked the earth together. This gives modern evolutionists fits. Then there is the (now) quaint notion that modern humans descended in a single chain -- therefore the need for "links" missing in the chain. Evolutionists had long ago given up on the chain model, yet, such notions of evolution have percolated down into the culture such that even science-minded laymen will spew similar equally flawed darwin-blather with smugness. They may well have learned it from the movies.

Bottom line? Trog is not particularly good film. It has little science beyond evolution fluff. The caveman makeup is poor. Joan Crawford lends dignity to the film, but cannot save it. Trog is more interesting when viewed in context with its sibling films cited above. On its own, it's not worth much effort to find.

Horror of the Blood Monsters

Director Al Adamson was akin to a resourceful mother who could take several unrelated leftovers from the back of the fridge, toss in a few new ingredients and call it supper. His 1970 film, Horror of the Blood Monsters (HBM) was an ultra-cheap mashup of other people's movies, repurposed with some new footage. John Carradine stars in the glue segments as Dr. Rynning. Adamson's new space travel segments turned the old Filippino caveman film into a sci-fi. The story in HBM wanders, sometimes inserting unrelated material, but amounts to a spaceflight mission to a planet of vampire cavemen. HBM is an odd film.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Vampirism is spreading on earth. (Several people bite other people and become a vampire gang). The lurid narrator, speaking as one of the vampires, tells how the vampire virus came from a distant planet. A mission is sent to that planet to discover the cause and find a cure. Bryce, Willy, Bob, Linda and Dr. Rynning fly in a rocket to this planet. They encounter the usual random meteorite which damages their ship. They must set down for repairs. It just so happens that the nearby planet is the one they seek. Rynning must stay in the ship due to poor health. The other four trek around the planet with varying monochrome color. They see two tribes of cavemen fighting -- the Tagani and the Snake Men. They see some cavemen chasing a pretty brunette in a white one-piece swimsuit-cavegirl outfit. They shoot the pursuers and save the girl. They plant a communication chip at the base of Malee's brain so she can speak and understand english. Malee tells how the Tubaton, the vampire cavemen, always attack her peace-loving tribe, the Tagani, in order to suck out their blood. She was on her way with Sukie (Tagani boy) to the cave of the fire water, as only the fire water keeps away the Tubaton. Bryce figures out that "fire water" is crude oil. They can distill some crude oil to get the fluids they need to fix the ship. Malee shows them the way. We get to see the other Tagani group also headed for the cave. They encounter lobster men in the river and are attacked by Tubaton. Despite all this, they reach the cave. Inside, they are attacked by Bat Men. Sukie, Ramir and the other Tagani defeat the Bat Men, and carry off bags of fire water. Bryce and Bob go in after them to get some too. Meanwhile, at Ground Control, Colonel Manning and his wife (also a mission control engineer) are enjoying the electronic orgasmatron while they wait for word from XB-13. (?) Bryce and Linda carry back the oil cans. Bob and Willy go to help Malee's people. Bob is speared by a Tubaton. Willy gets sick from radiation (the colored world). Too late for Bob, but Bryce carries Willy back to the ship. They fuel up and blast off. Malee watches, all forlorn and fondling the necklace Willy gave her. Rynning theorizes that the planet once had intelligent life, but they developed thermo-nuclear fusion weapons and wiped themselves out. Watch the model ship "fly" over green-screen stars. Fade to black. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
HBM is a very scattered and zany film. At times, it almost makes sense -- but this doesn't usually last for long. But, how can you go wrong with Snake Men, Lobster Men and Vampire Cavemen? It's not cerebral, but it is certainly different.

Cold War Angle
The moral of the story -- if indeed there is one -- is that advanced thermo-nuclear weapons will destroy a civilization.

Notes
Filippino Footage -- Most of HBM comes from the 1956 Filippino film by Rolf Bayer. The original title, in Tagalog was Kahariang Bato. This film was then dubbed into english and retitled as Tagani. This original story was about a fight for survival by the peaceful Tagani tribe, beset by various evil fantasy tribes, such as the vampire Tubaton, the Snake Men and the Lobster Men. Amid all that, one Tagani named Takil has turned traitor. He helps the Tubaton kidnap the lovely Leela. Brave Ramir comes and rescues her. Bayer shot his film in black and white. It would seem that Adamson used the english-dubbed version. A few times, the original cavemen are speaking, but obviously dubbed. A few of the cavemen, such as wise grandfather, are voiced by Paul Frees.

Stock-osaurus -- The many "dinosaur" segments, Adamson lifted from the 1940 film One million B.C. These include the classic lizard vs alligator with fin glued on his back, both doing the death roll. Also, sharp-eyed viewers will see the "wooly mammoth" footage reused too. HBM then becomes just another in a long line of films which put cavemen and dinosaurs in the same time. Some evolutionary purists have a hard time with this.

Recycled Wizard -- Also recycled are all the space-travel segments. These were repurposed from The Wizard of Mars ('65, aka Horrors of the Red Planet). WoM also featured John Carradine as said wizard. Some of the rocket interior sets were either reused or built to match. (note the diamon-shaped-holes in the many tape reels). Some interior footage was reused if it didn't have any actors in it.

Orgasmitron? -- One of the total non-sequitur bits has Colonel Manning and Valerie -- who dutifully man the ground control consoles -- in bed under black satin sheets with electrodes stuck to their temples. They make out mildly, but overdubbed are heavy breathing and moaning, as the lights on the ograsmitron blink away. Manning has to go check and see if XB-13 had called in or not, but he promises to come back and turn the dial up to full, to give her the satisfaction she deserves. He does and she moans more. What has this got to do with anything? Did Adamson really wish to be making soft porn? These are very odd scenes.

XM Becomes XB-13 -- Fans of old sci-fi will note how the story (some of it) in HBM is a rehash of Rocketship X-M ('50). A rocket is diverted by a damaging impact. On the planet, they find mutant cavemen and some pretty ones. They find traces of a civilization that wiped itself out with nukes. One of the party is killed and left behind. Two of the crew are in love. Their repaired ship returns them to earth with the warning to lay off the nukes. Seem familiar? 20 years later, the basic story of RXM was still good enough to copy.

Bottom line? HBM is a very strange movie. It really can't decide what its story is. It starts out being about vampirism spreading on earth, but that gets forgotten. It's about a mission to another planet to find the cause of the vampirism, but they forget this and just try to come home. It's about modern electronic love. It's about cavemen and pretty cavewomen. It's about vampire cavemen. It's a love story. It's a film that somehow fails to equal the sum of its many parts. Yet, it has a train-wreck fascination to it. Don't watch HBM with any expectations. Just enjoy its eccentricity.

Bigfoot

Robert F. Slatzer wrote and directed Bigfoot. This film would normally fall outside of this study of science fiction movies, since there is virtually no "science" involved. It squeaks in as a James Craig double-feature, as he starred in the Frankenstein-with-plants film The Revenge of Dr. X. He plays a secondary role here. Bigfoot starred John Carradine, star of many other low-B-grade sci-fi from the 50s and 60s. He was the Cosmic Man ('59) and Wizard of Mars ('65) among others. Then too, there were other Yeti films in the ranks of semi-sci-fi. So, it is by these peripheral connections, that Bigfoot is included here. Completed in 1969, it was released in late October of 1970.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A buxom blonde pilot (Joi Lansing) has engine trouble over the rugged California mountains. He bails out. Once on the ground, she quickly strips off her functional jumpsuit, down to a skimpy deep-v micro-dress. (perfect for surviving in the woods!) A bigfoot comes out of the woods. She faints. It captures her. Meanwhile, a "gang" of youths ride their buzzy Yamaha motorcycles through the woods. One couple stop to neck. The buxom Chris is also captured by a bigfoot. Her boyfriend Rick is knocked out. Both Joi and Chris are tied to small trees. A group of "female" bigfeet clamor nearby. Rick comes to and goes for help. The sheriff (Craig) is condescending. A traveling peddler (Carradine) and his partner agree to help because they sense a lucrative carnival attraction. The rest of Rick's motorcycle friends eventually join in too. (apparently you can call a gang of bikers in the woods from a pay phone) Long scenes of searching through the woods pad out the runtime. The female bigfeet take Joi up the mountain to be "given" to the big bad bigfoot. While she is tied to trees, a bear "attacks". Big Bad Bigfoot (BBB) fights the bear. Joi gets loose and runs away. BBB wins and chases Joi. She faints, so he captures her. Jasper, Elmer and Rick have been captured by the female bigfeet and tied to trees beside Chris. The biker youths arrive and rescue them. Jasper and others go to save Joi and/or capture BBB for fun and prizes. BBB carries the unconscious Joi up into the mountains. When he stops to throw a foam boulder at them, Joi runs off again. BBB chases her again, and again captures her. The gang catch up and wound BBB in the leg. He sets down Joi and is shot several more times. One of the youth throws dynamite at him which blows him up. All walk away happy. Jasper tries to recruit Joi as an alternate sideshow attraction. Beauty and the Beast. Pan up. Fade to black. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Aside from the visual appeal of Joi Lansing, John Carradine's hammy portrayal of a grizzled southern "Johnny Reb" traveling pot salesman, is quite amusing.

Cultural Connection
The Patterson film, shot in 1967, purported to show "actual footage" of a bigfoot. This amateur footage invigorated a whole new round of bigfoot-mania. Slatzer's story and movie (only two years later) sought to capitalize on the craze. Slatzer tried to align his film with the new Patterson-film meme by filming his men in ape suits in the same sort of rocky woodlands that Patterson had shot his film. The fact that Slatzer and Patterson's imagery look so similar, actually undermines Patterson somewhat. We know Slatzer's bigfeet are men in ape suits.

Notes
Shallow Joi -- Slatzer cast Joi for her obvious and ample cheesecake qualities, but his script leaves her character hugely under-developed (irony intended). On the one hand, she's a pilot, which takes some brains, courage and skill. She also seems to know some anthropology, so she's well-read. Not a bad start. Modern intelligent women could be cute too. No rule against that. But, she's also written as a shallow "blonde". Where was she flying to, dressed in a skimpy micro-dress? Her line about the bigfeet is an enigma. "They're subhuman, but they live like animals." Huh? On the one hand, she's plucky and athletic enough to keep escaping and running through the woods barefoot, but she passes out more often than a fainting goat. In the end, this amateur anthropologist pilot had nothing better to do with her life than be a sideshow attraction? Seriously? Joi deserved so much better. Sadly, she died of cancer only a few years after this film.

They're After Our Women! -- The age-old trope was still going strong. That ancient tribal anxiety that rival tribes are out to steal out prime womenfolk, is told without any subtlety in Bigfoot. Rather blatantly, (it's even on the poster) the purpose of Bigfoot stealing OUR buxom babes, is to breed with them. Quite a few Abduction Scenes are sprinkled through the film. Big Bad Bigfoot even gets to capture Joi several times. One suspects that the writer was himself intrigued with the Abduction trope. The three "other" bigfeet were supposed to be females (you can't tell), but apparently, Big Bad covets the same thing human males covet -- a very buxom blonde in a skimpy micro-dress, or a pretty brunette in a bikini (this was her idea of motorcycling in the woods attire?). The baby bigfoot is then hinted to be a crossbreed human-bigfoot from a prior abduction of "a pretty young thing," told as backstory. Apparently, Big Bad liked "our" women better than his own.

Kong Gone Wrong -- There is more than a passing resemblance to King Kong in Slatzer's story. A large ape-like creature is "given" a pretty platinum blonde, tied to trees. The creature abducts pretty blonde and tries to climb high to get away. In the end, the creature puts down his blonde and is shot dead. Jasper even says, once the creature is dead, "Twas beauty that killed the beast." All too Kong-like. Slatzer's script, however, makes his mini-Kong so unsympathetic (he's basically a furry serial kidnapper/rapist) that there is no remorse at his death.

Small Star Gazing -- Judy Jordan, who plays the first captive girl, Chris, also played in The Love War ('70) as the (uncredited) perky information girl. Christopher Mitchum, who plays her boyfriend Rick, is the son of actor Robert Mitchum. Christopher's acting would get better, but after this film.

Scant "Science" -- What little science there is in Bigfoot lies in how Slatzer advanced the mythos of "bigfeet" that they were clearly primitive humanoids -- with enough DNA similarity to allow cross-breeding. They bury their dead and make tools (stone clubs). They can, apparently, make their own rope and can tie knots! Joi muses to Chris that the bigfeet were the "missing link" between Neanderthal and modern man. The shaggy ape costumes, however, look more a step before Neanderthal, if one buys the whole "steps" notion.

Bottom line? Bigfoot is a poorly done film, typical of low-budget B grade drive-in fodder. Yet, after watching The Revenge of Dr.X, a film like Bigfoot seems more polished…or at least coherent. The far-too-abundant filler scenes of trudging through the woods (real and sound stage), and motorcycles buzzing annoyingly along woodland paths, get tedious. There is precious little for a sci-fi fan. Fans of John Carradine or Joi Lansing get healthy doses of both. Otherwise, Bigfoot is a fairly forgettable film from the silly early 70s.

The Revenge of Dr.X

This review is a bit out of chronological order. The Revenge of Dr. X (RDX) was released in February of 1970. As such, it would have appeared at the same time as The Horror of Frankenstein, which is fitting. RDX is a variant on the Frankenstein trope, and a very low B-grade production that looks like a poor quality made-for-television movie. RDX went by many titles (see below). Some copies have the wrong credits. The film appears aimed at the drive-in market, as the topless pearl divers would obviously not have been television fare.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Dr. Bragan is an over-stressed NASA scientist. His rocket lifts off successfully, but he suffers a bit of a breakdown. His associate, Paul, suggests a summer vacation in Japan to dabble in botany, as a way to relax. Driving up to New York from Florida, he has car trouble. At the country gas station and snake pit, he collects a venus flytrap plant. He flies with it to Japan. Paul's niece, Noriko, will be Bragan's guide and assistant for the summer. She's a botanist. They travel to a remote abandoned hotel owned by her father. The caretaker is a creepy hunchback who like's to play Bach's Toccata in D on the pipe organ. Bragan sets up shop in the greenhouse, nurturing his venus flytrap. He also seeks a sea plant of similar habits. He and Noriko dive around but can't find one. Noriko enlists the aid of a group of topless pearl divers. They find one. Bragan packs it off to his lab. There, he grafts the two together surgically to create a human-sized plant man. He brings it to life with lightening from a storm. They figure out that it eats animals. Noriko worries about the monster, but Bragan sees it as his triumph. All it needs is the blood from a human heart. He sneaks into a sanitarium and withdraws a syringe of blood from a bare-chested patient. Once he injected the blood, the monster can move. It emits a sleeping gas which knocks out Noriko and Bragan. It escapes, terrorizes the village and kills some hapless villagers. The villagers turn out as a mob with torches. Bragan says he will destroy the monster, but really wants to rescue it and flee. He finds the monster in the rocky hills, but the two of them fall off a cliff and presumably die. Noriko carries the baby goat down the mountain. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
RDX is so low budget that it's almost fun to watch for its lack of production value. James Craig's manic over-acting can be amusing too. RDX is just bizarre enough to have a sort of eccentric charm.

Cultural Connection
The Frankenstein story was an easy sell (and easy to write). The market for really cheap second features for drive-ins was still there in 1970.

Notes
By Many Names -- RDX went by many names. Ed Wood Jr. is said to have listed a film called Venus Flytrap among his works. This film has also gone by the benign and cryptic title of The Double Garden. It has also appeared with the title Body of the Prey. The copy for this review carried the title The Revenge of Dr. X -- which doesn't fit very well, as Dr. Bragan is never called Dr. X, nor does he have any wrong to be avenged. He's just mad -- and angry.

Frankenstein Roots -- Much of RDX is a remake of Frankenstein, but with the mad doctor being a botanist instead of a biologist. Matching features include: The doctor sewing up various parts to make his man-like creation. The use of lightening to animate it. The creature is hoisted to the roof on a tilting table so the lighting can strike. It emerges off of a tilting lab table. Noriko says, "It's alive!" The doctor has a hunchback minion. The hunchback taunts the monster. The monster escapes and kills some villagers. The villagers assemble a mob with torches. The monster and its creator die.

Intriguing Loose Thread -- Nothing is made of it, but apparently Bragan was turning into a plant monster himself, after getting some plant juice in an open cut. He covered up one hand with a big black rubber glove, and put a mouse into it. The mouse never came out. His other hand is turning green. Curious that nothing was made of this thread.

In the Woods? -- The credits on some copies of the film are for a completely different film -- the Mad Doctor of Blood Island. Conventional wisdom says that Ed Wood Jr. wrote the story. The tale certainly has its bizarre quirkiness enough to have come from Ed.

Budget Gable -- James Craig, who usually played in westerns, looks vaguely like Clark Gable after a hard life. Craig plays his part with exaggeration and hamminess all the more obvious by the sedate acting of the japanese actors. His manic bouts of being a total jerk have a sort of morbid fascination to them.

Car Nuts -- There are many late 60s japanese cars on display. The nice red Honda S600 gets almost as much screen time to get third billing in the credits.

Bottom line? RDX is a deservedly obscure film with such low production values that early 50s TV shows look slick. The "music" is canned generic stuff that only occasionally fits. Most of the time is jarringly wrong. Fans of Ed Wood-style films will find plenty of what they like. Frankenstein fans might be amused at the parallel universe remake. RDX must be seen to believe such a film could exist.

No Blade of Grass

Apocalyptic movies were still much in style in the early 70s. Nuclear armageddon had to share time with other causes, though. Bio-geddon was a popular second. An obscure member of this group was No Blade of Grass (NBG). Based on the 1956 novel by John Christopher, the screenplay was co-written by, then produced and directed by Cornel Wilde. Nigel Davenport (who we had just seen in The Life of Mr. Soames) stars as the hero father trying to save his family amid the collapse of civilization.

Quick Plot Synopsis
People in a London pub carry on their consumption while the television, barely noticed, tells the backstory. A virus emerged in China which kills off plants in the grass family -- such as rice. Failure of the harvest caused massive famine and riots. The Chinese were rumored to have bombed their own cities to reduce the population. The virus has spread to wheat, oats, barley, etc. (all grasses) and to other areas. Roger, a government worker, tells John Custance (Davenport) that the government is taking the virus seriously and has some severe plans. That night, Roger calls John, telling him to get his family out of London immediately, as the city will be closed in the morning. He packs his wife, Ann, and teen daughter Mary into the car. They and Roger get out just in time. Their goal is John's brother's farm in the north. They get their young son, David, from his boarding school. En route, they pass through rioting mobs. They try to buy some guns but don't have the proper papers. They get the guns anyhow, and joined by Pirrie and his wife Clara. Rapists ambush John's car, raping his wife and Mary. All but one rapist are shot -- one by Ann herself. Another band steal their cars so they have to proceed on foot. Along the way, Pirrie's wife plays the flirty tart with John. Pirrie shoots Clara in jealous rage. Suddenly single, Pirrie takes a shine to Mary. Much tension, resolved by Mary accepting his attentions. (Despite his recent track record.) Their group merges with another, larger group, as John tells them of the wonderful valley of his brother. After much trudging though bleak Yorkshire hills dotted with dead animals, the group is best by a biker gang. The well-armed group takes cover amid boulders and holds off the circling bikers and even thwarting a biker charge. Once they get to the valley, John's brother won't let the group in. There's not enough food to support them all. He offers to let John and family sneak in, but John declines. Instead, he rallies his group to attack his brother's wall. John and Pirrie pick off several sentries in the pre-dawn light. Pirrie shoots the brother, but dies of a gunshot. The rest of the men storm the wall with ladders and take it. The men defending the valley surrender. John brings his group in and is the new leader. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Apocalyptic movies aren't "fun" per se, but they have become common enough to invite some compare-and-contrast exercises which can be fun. NBG shares features with many other films. More on those in the Notes section below.

Cultural Connection
Environmentalism was just starting to be a hot-button issue. It would grow to rival Radiation as the bugaboo of choice in the post-Cold-War world. For example: Toho Studios used Godzilla as a metaphor for nuclear war in 1954. In 1971 Toho would bring us Heorah: The Smog Monster. Pollution would assume many of the same magical qualities that radiation did in the 50s. It could create, transform things, and even think -- in villainous ways, of course. Watch for the magical new moister as the 70s progress. Much later, we'll see The Day the Earth Stood Still remade, but with mankind's sin being pollution instead of nuclear arms.

Notes
By The Book -- The movie version of NBG follows the novel fairly well, with some of the usual necessary deviations when going from print to screen. The most significant deviation, however, was the heavy-handed insertion of pollution as the ultimate case of doom. In the novel, the Chung-Li virus arises in China with no described cause. There is little, if any, preaching about pollution. The virus became the global scourge through bureaucratic bungling.

Themes Familiar -- NBG has a lot in common with the 1962 film Panic in the Year Zero ('62), which also features a strong father trying to preserve his family amidst the collapse of civilization after an apocalyptic event. PYZ also has a conflicted (soft) mother, a gun shop scene, a rape scene, and ends with the family making it to safety. Then too, you have the Valley of Safety in Day the World Ended ('55), which also featured a strong father, a lovely daughter, a tough guy and a floozy. The flight to safety is also reminiscent of Wilde's own 1966 film, The Naked Prey, in which a lone European is pursued through the African savannah by natives until he reaches his own Valley of Safety -- a colonial fort.  Of course, both NBG and PYZ harken to Moses leading the Israelites from Egypt (the bad place with famine and death) to the Promised Land, while encountering hostiles along the way (The biker gang as Amalekites, etc.) and even the crossing a river and fighting the original inhabitants (Canaanites) to posses the Promised Land.

Tedious Eco-Brimstone -- Wilde inserted FAR too many ecology harangues. Smoke stacks belching smoke, industrial runoff, dead fish, oil-soaked birds, and dead animals, etc. They weren't salient to the plot, but just there to browbeat the audience with how nasty pollution is. Shame on you all! The shaggy street corner "prophets" of the new Mother Earth cult would be every bit as strident, preaching eco-hell for our enviro-sins. Juxtaposing images of starving Africans with close-ups of Brits chewing big mouthfuls was such flagrant "liberal" nagging that it bordered on comical. Comedy was probably not Wilde's intention.

Early Global Warming -- An interesting tidbit, almost tossed in offhand, is the whole (current) global warming topic -- but 35 years before Al Gore took it mainstream. Young David says (as voiceover) "The earth is getting warmer because all the pollution is keeping the heat in and the polar ice caps will melt. Everybody will be drowned." This was more of a deluvian doom, (ala Noah) than is currently in vogue, but NBG had Global Warming back in 1970!

Flash-Forward Flaw? -- Many viewers have been put off by Wilde's use of flash forwards, feeling that they ruin the surprise or break the viewer's sense of experiencing the story alongside the characters. Awkward as they are, Wilde had a reason for them. For instance, early on, Mary is coyly telling Roger that she doesn't think she needs her virginity anymore. She says he should make her "a woman." Wilde then inserts a flash-forward clip of the rape scene. She would lose her virginity alright, but not at all the way she presumed. Wilde inserted many other flash forwards, using them as an exo-narrative commentary, undermining the characters' presumptions. The terrible new world was not going to work the way they imagined.

Bottom line? NBG has its flaws, but is still an intriguing look at the collapse of civilization due to global famine. Some of the film's flaws may stem from the usual pitfalls when the same man writes, produces and directs. The author's original premise remains thought-provoking. NBG is obscure, but worth the effort for fans of post-apocalypse movies.

The Mind of Mr. Soames

Late in 1970, Columbia distributed an Amicus Productions film that was not overtly sci-fi, yet fits well in that Oort Cloud movies that have a smidgeon of sci-fi. The Mind of Mr. Soames (MMS) is thoughtful drama that explores, at least in part, some threads inherent in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. It also explores, in subtle ways that rift between a tightly structured society (via science) and humanity. To American audiences, the cast of british actors were unknowns. The exception was Robert Vaughn (of Man from U.N.C.L.E. fame). For the most part, though, MMS made a minimal impression when released and quickly sank into obscurity.

Quick Plot Synopsis
John Soames has been in a coma since he was born, 30 years ago. He has been kept alive at a research institute by intravenous feeding and respirator. A talented neurosurgeon, Dr. Bergen (Vaughn) arrives to attempt to awaken him. The institute's director, Dr. Maitland (Nigel Davenport ) is keen to use John as an experiment to prove his theories of education. Right off, there is a clash in philosophies between the two doctors. The operation is a success. John awakens, some days later, like a newborn infant in a man's body. Maitland begins his strict regimen. John progresses, but eventually matures to the "terrible twos" stage with some tantrums and refusing to cooperate. Maitland pushes for tight discipline. John goes into a funk, refusing to do anything. Maitland frets that John is lapsing back into a coma. Bergen thinks it's more a case of pouting. He uses toys and games to win over John. Maitland is not keen on the wasteful frivolity, but the improvement in John undermines his complaints. One day, Bergen lets John out onto the grounds and gardens. John loves the freedom and sensations. Maitland has him rounded up like an escaped prisoner. Later, John seizes an opportunity to get outside again, by cracking a chair across the head of one of the aides. Now John is loose in the country. He gets picked up by a chatty salesman and dropped off near Chelsea. He is chased out of a pub for not paying for his sandwich. He takes a coat from an unlocked car, and is chased into the woods. He is grazed by a car on a back road. The husband and wife take him to their house to nurse him back to health. Newspapers clue them in that he is the escaped "baby." John escapes the Bannerman home before the police arrive. He found money in the coat pocket, so buys a ticket to London. In the train compartment, the young woman music student mistakes his friendliness for an assault and stops the train. John runs and hides in a barn. The police, Maitland, Bergen and a news crew come to the barn. Maitland tries to order John out, or theater him out, to no avail. Bergen goes in and coaxes John out. When the TV crew switch on the flood lights, John is frightened and tosses the pitchfork he was using as a crutch. It flies and stabs Bergen in the leg. John is reduced sobs, in a fetal position in the rain-soaked mud. He is taken away. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Actor Terrence Stamp does an excellent job of playing Soames -- an infant or young boy in a man's body. He's quite believable. The conflicting philosophies of human nature are interestingly explored. Neither is entirely right, nor wrong. Many scenes are shot from John's POV, which add depth.

Cultural Connections
Several films around this time, explore the rift between Science (harsh, demanding, inflexible) and Humanity (emotional, variable). Exploring this conflict has been part of sci-fi for years. (Orwell's 1984, for instance). The early 70s would spawn several films -- some obscure, some famous -- that explore that oil-and-water mix of Science and Man

Notes
Shades of Shelley -- MMS plays out a facet of Mary Shelley's famous Frankenstein. Like Soames, her monster was "born" a full grown man, but a tabula rasa. Her monster escaped and taught himself, more or less, the basic life skills and speech. John is taught by others, yet his chief teacher, Maitland, has that Frankenstein quality of an unrelenting scientific pursuit, ignoring the human cost. MMS is like a glimpse between the lines of what Shelley's monster had to go through.

Hint of Passion -- A nice subtle element in MMS is how "love" (or at least, the desire for love) is handled. Seems that modern movie formulas demand full-tilt bedroom scenes. MMS was able to broach the topic in delightfully understated British way. When John is convalescing at the Bannerman's home, he strokes the side of Jenny's face while she talks to him. A 30 year-old would come with a libido, which toddlers don't (if you except Freud). She doesn't mind and tells him how her husband is a drunk and a jerk. Clearly, she is attracted to the innocent affections of John. She even gives him a kiss goodbye shortly before he escapes again.

Homo Guinea -- At the core of MMS is John, the victim of unrelenting science to mold him into the image the scientists think he should have. In this way, John is the guinea pig, rather like a "good" parallel to Alex in Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange ('71). Like Alex, his humanity is driven into rebellion by the process. Other films coming up will also feature this flavor of technophobia -- men as guinea pigs of Science.

Bottom line? MMS is not a fast-action popcorn munching film, which may explain its obscurity. It is a slower paced, more thoughtful look into the nature of mankind. The sci-fi elements are there, but overshadowed by their ramifications. If you want aliens or monsters, MMS will seem boring. If you want something to muse over for a few days, check it out.