Soylent Green

This is the big sci-fi film of 1973 and one of the major landmark films of the 70s. Soylent Green (SG) is a quintessential 70s sci-fi, with its blend of environment messages, dystopia, overpopulation themes and counter-culture suspicion of big corporations. It stars Charlton Heston as Detective Thorn and Edward G. Robinson, in his last film. Other famous actors in supporting roles include: Joseph Cotton, Whit Bissell, Chuck Connors and Dick van Patten (in a very minor role). The mood is very dystopic -- so popular in the early 70s.

Quick Plot Synopsis
In the year 2022, the earth is over crowded and resources depleated. A wealthy man named Simonson (Cotton) is assassinated in his luxury apartment. He expected it. Detective Thorn investigates and has a hunch it was not a robbery gone bad, but murder. Thorn suspects the bodyguard (Conners) is somehow in on it. He concludes that the young and voluptuous Shirl (Simonson's leased-babe) is just voluptuous. Thorn also knows he's onto something because he's being followed. Thorn lifted a couple books (and fresh food) from Simonson's apartment too. Thorn's old roommate Sol (Robinson) puzzles over the oceanographic reports. Various leads provide only tantalizing small pieces of the puzzle. Simonson was on the board of directors of Soylent Industries to make most of the world's synthetic food. Governor Santini was also his partner. A priest herd Simonson's last confession, and is found dead. Tab, the boddyguard, is in on it and out to get Thorn. The simpleton assassin who killed Simonson is also after Thorn. Sol and his circle of elderly book readers have deduced the truth. It is too horrible for Sol to bear, so he checks in to a euthanasia clinic to end it all. In his last moments, he whispers to Thorn the truth. Thorn follows Sol's body on trash trucks to a Disposal Plant, but it turns out they don't dispose of the bodies, but melt them down and make Soylent Green out of them. Thorn is discovered, but escapes. Tab finds him and almost kills him before Thorn kills Tab. As the wounded Thorn is taken out of the crowded poor-house (a church), he shouts that "Soylent Green is people!" Freeze frame. Roll credits. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Truth be told, SG is kind of a depressing film. Nothing gets better. The interesting part is all the layers of prophesying about the doom awaiting mankind. Greenberg's screenplay and Fleischer's directing give a powerful dystopic image of our future.

Cultural Connection
One of the significant things about SG, is that it manages to be a pupu platter of so many popular 70s activist issues without letting any one of them hijack the story into a maudlin polemic. Within SG, viewers will find: income inequality, oppression of women, global warming, environmental crash, evil corporations, evil politicians, police corruption and euthanasia. (More on those below.) These issues would remain hot button issues for the political-left for decades afterward. Many would get their own cause-celebre films, but SG managed to have almost all of them

Notes
Based on the Book -- Stanley Greenberg's screenplay is only loosely based on a 1966 novel by Harry Harrison, entitled "Make Room! Make Room!". The two are quite different stories, but have several elements in common. Overpopulation and poverty are there, but no cannibalism. The book has "soylent steaks" but they're veggieburger made of soy and lentils. Greenberg's story really stands on its own.

Rich v Poor -- The contrast between rich and poor is old in sci-fi. Metropolis (1927) featured the two worlds of the rich elite and the poor workers. The poor are shown sleeping on tenement stairways and in abandoned cars. The rich are shown with clean, spacious apartments. The poor wait in long lines for a half a kilo of synthetic food. The rich have an underground market for real vegetables and meat. The aspiring middle class, typified by Tab's apartment, is just a little bit less shabby, somewhat private, and since he's in cohoots with "the man," he's rich enough to buy $150 strawberry jam. Viewers are subtly encouraged to pity the poor and despise the rich.

Overpopulation -- This had become a more mainstream issue in the late '60s with Paul Ehrlich's book, "The Population Bomb." This trope showed up in several other films already. Z.P.G. was the more blatant of them. Ehrlich, and his disciples, gloomily predicted terrible doom within a decade, In '68, doom would come in the mid-70s. His doom never came. In fact, the opening text in SG announces that by 2022, the earth has 7 billion inhabitants, so in the movie, there's nowhere to put them and they sleep on the stairs and in parking lots, etc. But, the earth reached 7 billion in March of 2012 -- 10 years ahead of SG's dire prediction. Yet, social order has not collapsed into dystopia.

Global Warming -- This issue doesn't get much screen time, but it's there. Watch for allusions to it always being hot. When Shirl suggests turning on the air conditioner, she enthuses that they can make it snow (indoors), like the snow of the before-times. In 2022, it is always hot.

Police Corruption -- Even though Thorn is a dedicated cop and essentially on the side of law and order, it is apparently routine for cops to skim some graft wherever they go. While checking out the crime scene, Thorn takes some food, demands whisky, etc. He takes soap and towels and books for Sol. Later, he takes advantage of Shirl's furniture status. All part of the system. Viewers are expected to be shocked at the immoral cops.

Women as Property -- Shirl, and many others, are property. Thorn calls them "furniture." They come with the apartment, for use by the renter. All of the apartments in the building (run by Charles) have their own female furniture. They are so accustomed to being servile property that Thorn only has to suggest a bit of casual graft on his part includes sex with Shirl. She goes along with it, answering his questions, as if it were of no more import than peeling an orange.Even Tab, the aspiring middle-class man, has his own 'kept' woman' -- Martha. She flirts with Thorn, as if her only real reason to exist is to please a man -- any man. Viewers are expected to be shocked at seeing women as commodities.

Euthanasia -- An erie part of the screenplay is that old people are encouraged to commit suicide for the betterment of mankind. There is a large, clean facility call "Home" which checks in the elderly as if at a hotel. They get to pick their favorite colors, music and images. They lay on a raised bed, sip the poison, the lie back and enjoy the widescreen-surround-sound show for their last comfortable 20 minutes. All quite routine.

Corrupt Power -- The crux of the movie, is that the (evil) corporate and political establishment have lied about making Soylent Green out of plankton. The truth is that mankind polluted the oceans and killed the plankton too. On top of that, they figured out a way to recycle dead people to make food. Thorn rightly warns people that this means the (evil) authorities' next step is to regard the poor as livestock to be tended and harvested.

Riot Control -- In an era of war protests, the intervention of The Scoops is a chilling visual. Trash trucks with front-end loader scoops drive into the mass of protesters. The trucks scoop up a load of people and dump them in their boxes. The masses have been devalued to the point of being rubbish which must be cleared away. Viewers are expected to horrified at what lengths The Man will go to.

Appropriate End -- As a footnote, SG was Edward G. Robinson's last film. While SG was filming, he was dying of cancer. This lends some real and unintended poignancy to his final scene in the euthanasia chamber. His last few feet of film, are him acting out his own death. He died a couple weeks after filming was done.

Bottom line? SG is one of those must-see films -- even for those who aren't sci-fi fans. It is a powerful story and much more of a social commentary than a monsters-and-aliens film. Heston and Robinson provide good performances. Director Richard Fleischer provides compelling visuals. Screenwriter Stanley Greenberg provides a deep story with many layers of subtext. SG is not only worth watching, it's worth watching several times to explore it's many minor threads.

The Big Game

This independent film, one of three produced by Stanley Norman, appears aimed more at the international market than the American. The Big Game (TBG) goes by many other titles. "Todesgrüße von Gamma 03" in Germany. "La macchina della violenza" in Italy, and even three different titles for the english version (though usually with the same four-heads art). In addition to TBG, there was "Control Factor" and "Explosion". TBG is more of a spy-thriller (low on thrills) in which a sci-fi gizmo is the McGuffin. The film stars many familiar actors, such as Stephen Boyd, Ray Milland, Cameron Mitchell and France Nuyen. It is also shot in several locations: Rome, Hong Kong, Capetown, etc.

Quick Plot Synopsis Diplomat, and erstwhile playboy, Jim Handley, finds himself drunk in a Rome nightclub. He wakes up in a hotel room with a woman he doesn't know (France Nuyen). Atanga passionately proclaims her love for him. He takes all this in stride. He gets a phone call and must leave. They go shopping and tour some sights in Rome. Elsewhere, his brother Mark is the guinea pig in a test. He's flying a Lear Jet. A ground radar thingy takes control of his brain. Success. Mr. Handley (Milland) calls off the test. He, inventor Layton van Dyke (Boyd) and his security man Bruno (Mitchell) brief a room full of generals. Their radar thing can override the will power of the human brain. Just think of it's power to bring world peace! (really?) Back in Rome, Jim is told get his father's project cancelled, or his family may die. He resists, but gets beat up. Back at the project, Professor Handley puts on another demonstration for General Stryker. They use the radar to make drivers of a half dozen old cars drive an intricate choreography, then makes them drive demolition derby. Then the radar makes them get out of their cars and fight. Then the radar makes a line of soldier shoot at the cars, thinking they're tanks. (Yes, this proves the unit will be useful for world peace). Meanwhile, Jim flies to Hong Kong where he is followed, threatened some more, and beat up some more. His new girlfriend, Atanga, is brought in as captive. The bad guy's shoot her as a warning. Meanwhile meanwhile, Professor Handley has arranged for his radar gizmo to be loaded aboard a big industrial fishing ship and headed for Capetown. Jim, under duress and drugs, joins the ship. He is also a tool, letting down boarding ladders, so boat loads of ninja types with machine guns can board. The ninjas take over the ship. Some good guys are coming in two orange helicopters. They land aboard and there is much gunfire. It turns out that Atanga was not dead, but one of the bad guys. Surprise! She stabs Jim and he dies. Eventually, she is the last ninja standing so surrenders. When she identifies Layton (the inventor), she hugs him and pulls a grenade ring on her belt. Layton quickly pushes her down a stairway and she just blows up alone. Her (rubber) hand is all that's left, wearing Jim's family ring. Poignancy! Mark wonders if the invention will really bring world peace. Layton says no. Zoom out. The end.

Why is this movie fun?
Much about TBG reeks of 70s ethos. The hair, the clothes, the music. Survivors of the 70s might be amused. The mind control radar gizmo is woefully underdeveloped as a plot device, but shares the sci-fi stage with other films like Creature With the Atom Brain. France Nuyen has nice legs.

Cold War Angle
Hadley's radar mind control device is yet another surrogate for nuclear weapons. The creators naively imagine that if one side "has control", it will ensure peace. This would be Pax Romana of course, which is fine if one is Roman, but less fine if non-Roman. There are clearly Two Sides, the have-not side thinking that peace can only be maintained if BOTH have the awesome power. The "haves" disagree, of course. The nuclear deterrent factor, seen in yet another guise.

Notes
Based on the Book -- Ralph Anders penned what must be a rather banal and minor spy novel titled "The Two Sides." Anders adapted it to a screenplay, with help from the producer, Stanley Norman, and director Robert Day. At several points, Anders' experience as a novelist (not a screenwriter) is evident. He has the Jim character narrate descriptions or exposition instead of using visuals to tell the story. Sometimes, the prose is flowery and turgid, in a pulp novel sort of way. "Hong Kong: the checkpoint-charlie of the east...the melting pot of races...."

You Call Yourself a Diplomat? -- One of the major weaknesses in the plot of TBG is the character of Jim Handley. This would-be-Bond is supposed to be a professional diplomat, but lets himself get drugged/drunk, then is completely accepting of this and bedding a woman he doesn't know (who obviously slipped him his mickey). This woman he didn't know the day before says she's soooo in love with him and he believes it without question. (?) Then, a total stranger says he'd like to talk to him privately, so what does the careful professional diplomat do? Invite him up to his room -- alone. When the bad guy demands the combination to his briefcase, Jim refuses, until a tall thug slaps him around a little. Then he caves and gives up the combination. His other blunders await viewers fond of spy thrillers. Poor Jim is a weak link.

Mind Control -- The minor sci-fi element in TBG is the radar remote control device. The mumbo-jumbo at the "briefing" really explains nothing. The writers had little sci-fi imagination. ("And here, a miracle occurs...") The device amounts to a sci-fi gizmo to make people into obedient zombies (in the old sense) and do the will of their computer-controlling masters. This is a favorite old trope in sci-fi. The Man From Planet X ('51) had an alien mind-controlling the villagers to repair his ship. Invaders From Mars ('53) had the martians control people with little implants in their necks. Creature With the Atom Brain ('55) had remote-controlled thugs doing the bidding of a master. There are many more, better, films with this trope.

McGuffin, To Go -- The sci-fi part is only a nearly-interchangeble McGuffin. It could have been a rocket fuel formula, or special periscope lens, or even super-nutritious MREs, for that matter -- anything that would have given one side an advantage over the other. It's an excuse to have spies do mean things. Like a classic McGuffin, the radar-mind-control device has no impact on the plot. It's simply something to fight over. The good guys don't use it on the bad guys. The bad guys don't capture it and use it to cause mayhem. Such a wasted opportunity.

Elaan: The Spy -- Fans of Star Trek, TOS, will likely recognize the female star, France Nuyen, as the Dohlman of Elas from the episode, "Elaan of Troyius." In TBG, they get to see her in her real hair (not that braided wig), being all smiles and smooches, and even a few long shots of her in the requisite early 70s micro-skirt. Too bad she turns out to be an enemy spy.

Bottom line? TBG is a mediocre spy "thriller" that comes up short on just about everything. The sci-fi element is potentially intriguing, but never developed. TBG's scant appeal is thanks to the hard work of the Second Unit teams who shot ample atmosphere footage of Rome, Hong Kong and Capetown. Yet, even these have only the limited entertainment value of old National Geographics. Spy movie fans might find something to like. For sci-fi fans, however, TBG is fairly skip-able.

Genesis II

Gene Roddenberry tried (a few more times) to launch another sci-fi television series. Genesis II (G2) is the pilot approved by CBS. The premise is a 20th century man wakes up 154 years later to find a post-WWIII world. Things looked promising. A season's worth of scripts were written. But the nod went to a rival project, a series based on Planet of the Apes. G2 wasn't a theatrical release, but a made-for-TV movie. (hence the script cover in lieu of a poster) TV movies are normally outside the scope of this project, but G2 is included as a nod to Roddenberry and his Star Trek creation that would be many theatrical releases. There is also a root, in G2, to the 1979 film, Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Alex Cord and Mariette Hartley star. Many actors from the original Trek series also appear.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Scientist Dylan Hunt has new suspended animation process which might allow people to explore distant stars or save sick people until cures are discovered. He tests the chamber out himself. While suspended, an earthquake buries the chamber (in Carlsbad Caverns). He is found in 2133. He is nursed back to health by a pretty woman, Lyra-a (Hartley). She tells him how after a third world war, the underground-dwelling people who found him are called The PAX, but are really war mongers trying to repair 20th century weapons so as to dominate peaceful surface dwellers, the Tyranians. She is a Tyranian spy (and a 'mutant' with two belly buttons, for no good reason). She convinces Dylan to escape PAX. They travel on horseback to her city of Tyrania. Dylan surprised and put off by how the Tyranian underclass are fearful of their masters. The Tyranian council demand that Dylan fix their aging nuclear reactor. He refuses, so becomes one of the slave class. There he meets a revolutionary cell, by PAX spies. They want to spirit Dylan back to PAX. Dylan tricks Lyra-a into admitting that she loves him. So, now she's conflicted. Using a chaotic uprising as cover, they flee. Dylan lets himself be captured so the PAX team can escape. He agrees to fix their reactor. Later, Dylan shows up at PAX headquarters. They fret that the Tyranians will be arming old nukes that will destroy PAX. Dylan says he rigged a warhead to blow up nuclear plant. It blows up. The PAX leaders scold Dylan for taking any lives. He somewhat agrees to become a pacifist, and flirts up a new girlfriend. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The look and feel of G2 is very reminiscent of Star Trek, TOS. For fans of TOS, that's fun. Many of the actors and actresses had parts in TOS episodes, adding to the reunion feel. Roddenberry's wife, Majel Barrett, for instance, has a minor role as female Primus. She played nurse Christine Chapel in TOS and many of the movies. In TG, the ambiguity of just who can be trusted, adds some depth that is rare in television scripts. The zoomy "sub-shuttle" was clearly Roddenberry's new solution (in lieu of a starship) for getting his characters into far-flung adventures around the globe.

Notes
Frozen Roots -- The opening premise, that of a man 'frozen' and awakened later in the future, was far from new. Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle slept 20 years and awoke to a post-revolutionary America. H.G. Wells wrote of his time traveler who zaps into earth's dark future. A technology race lives below and a 'rustic' race lives on the surface. Comic strip Buck Rogers, of 1928, was frozen (suspended animation), to awake in 2419 A.D. Rogers finds a rebel group who want his help fighting the oppressor group, the Hans. Just Imagine ('31) had "Single-O" wake after 50 years to the amazing world of 1950. The Man With Nine Lives ('40) had Boris Karloff waking after 10 years. Return of the Ape Man ('44) had a caveman thaw to a new world. World Without End ('56) had a crew of earthlings zap ahead in time to a post-WWIII world, which also featured a group of sciencey 'normals' living underground, and cavemen / mutants living above. Of course, the whole Planet of the Apes cycle began with another crew of earthlings zapped ahead to earth's post-WWIII future. The second film, Beneath also featured a group of science-y humans with cavemen on the surface. Roddenberry wasn't blazing any new trails with G2, but reviving a traditional trope.

Sex is Saved -- It is amusing to see 70s swingerism reassert itself. The people of PAX were all happy with their "unisex" culture. No more lust, passion and all the conflict that caused. So says the mousey Harper-Smythe. Perhaps the children Dylan heard singing were all in-vitro. Dylan's hunky shirtless bod (scientists must have done some serious gym time back in the 70s, apparently), manages to melt the ice queen, Lyra-a, into a blabbering doubt-riddled school girl. Then, not long after Dylan, the leaven of lust, contaminates the sexless PAX society, young people start necking again. Though it's worth noting that the Primus who points out the neckers did not seem too upset at sudden abandonment of their decades-old sexless philosophy. Oh well. Even the formerly frosty Harper-Smythe, looks Dylan up and down, smiles and blushes at Dylan's flirtations. Yay, sex is saved by a hunky 70s scientist !

Mariette's Two Navels -- Legend has it, that network executives would not let Roddenberry show Mariette Hartley's navel in the Star Trek episode "All Our Yesterdays." As a sort of inside-joke comeuppance, Roddenberry directed makeup to give Mariette TWO navels this time and he showed them. The whole double-circulatory system bit had no other role in the story. It seems it was all just a tweak to get a full-frontal shot of Mariette in a plaid bikini, showing off TWO belly buttons. Take that, network execs!

Roots of V-Ger -- G2 provided some material for 1979's Star Trek, The Motion Picture. One of the (unused) episode scripts, "Robot's Return," featured cyborgs coming to 2133 earth looking for the "gods" that created them. The cyborgs were 20th century astronauts who got cyborg-ized along the way. Even this 'lost' episode seems to draw from a TOS episode, "The Changeling" (1967) with hybrid space probe "Nomad" finding (it thought) its creator. All this factors into the plot of ST:TMP and the return of long-lost Voyager.

Try Again, and Again -- Roddenberry did not give up on his future-world series idea. Undaunted that CBS chose apes over his idea, he went to ABC. They liked the idea enough to authorize a pilot. Roddenberry reworked one of G2's scripts. It aired in '74 as Planet Earth. A falling out between Roddenberry and ABC execs scuttled the series. A third iteration was created, retitled as Strange New World ('76). Still, no series. But, it was clearly not for lack of Gene trying.

Bottom line? G2 is very Trek-like in many ways, including the cast, so Trekkies will find things to like. It's a notch above average for a made-for-TV sci-fi movie. The pacing is brisk enough, and the plot twists enough to keep it from being too predictable. It's not cinematic art, but it is entertainment.

The Crazies

George Romero's The Crazies (TC) came out between his more two famous zombie films, Night of the Living Dead ('68) and Dawn of the Dead ('78). TC shows many affinities to them in settings (rural Pennsylvania farm houses) and scenarios. TC is yet another horror/sci-fi hybrid, with only trace elements of sci-fi. It's not as gory as the zombie films, but has more than its share of shoot-outs and splattering red paint. The plot is an adaptation of the sci-fi thriller The Andromeda Strain ('71) and also harkens to The Last Man On Earth ('64). While TC itself was not particularly profitable, Romero's zombie films would go on to be quite successful.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A farmer goes crazy one night, kills his wife and burns down his house. His two children are pulled from the fire. Judy, a nurse, is called to the doctor's office. Her husband David is called to the firehouse. He and his old highschool buddy "Clank" are firemen. Judy finds the doctor's office overrun with military men in white jumpsuits and gas masks. Everyone gets an injection of antibiotic. (It is later revealed that a military plane crashed north of town. Aboard were vials of a weapon virus code named Trixie. It causes insanity and/or death.) Judy's doctor boss helps her escape with antibiotics to go run away with David. They try to run, but end up getting captured. Meanwhile, Major Ryder is joined by Colonel Peckhem to round up all civilians and quarantine them in the high school. Those outside, in "no man's land" must surrender or be shot. A cranky scientist named Watts is a Trixie expert sent in to study the outbreak and maybe develop a solution. He has only the high school's chem lab, so is even more cranky. Presidential advisors agree that if the virus cannot be quickly confined to the town, they will have to drop a nuke on it to burn out the virus. A cover story of a nuke on the crashed plane is loosed. David, Judy and Clank are in an army van with Artie, his teen daughter Kathy and an older man, clearly crazy from the virus. The old man bolts out the door, allowing David and Crank to overpower the guards and escape with the van. They ditch it and proceed on foot. They come to a farmhouse some soldiers are occupying (they killed the farmer and his wife in gun battles). David wants some answers, but Clank manages to kill all the soldiers. He's going crazy. Kathy has gone crazy (super spacey). Artie goes crazy too. First ranting about kids nowadays, then later, mistakes Kathy for his dead wife and 'rapes' her. He later hangs himself. Soldiers come. Kathy is outside and scares them, so they shoot her. David, Judy and Clank escape out the back. Clank holds them off, killing many, but is eventually shot. David tries to hide Judy among concrete blocks at a block factory. A soldier discovers him in his tower hiding place. David kills him and puts on his white suit and gas mask. The others leave. Judy, going crazy, mistakes David for a soldier and screams. Some teens come running up shooting, thinking David is a soldier. They shoot Judy. David shoots all but one of them, who at the last minute recognizes David as his coach. Judy dies in David's arms. Col. Peckhem reports the town contained. All citizens accounted for: dead or alive (crazy). His commander says Trixie may have escaped in the water to Louisville, so he is extracted by helicopter to head up the operation there. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Romero managed to capture a topic which is quiet salient to today -- government confiscation of citizen firearms. This is a sub-text within the plot, and perhaps more relevant to today's audiences than the evil-military theme popular in the 70s. The ambiguity of just who is infected and which actions were not rational, adds some depth that the story needed.

Cultural Connection
Distrust of the government and military had been growing as the American public soured on the Vietnam War. Suspicion that the authorities (whom the hippy-era youth never trusted anyhow), was becoming almost a cultural "given" -- both on the farther left and farther right ends of the political spectrum. The "government" are depicted as heartless technocrats, who are portrayed as some slouching older men. Even the President, seen on by the back of his head, is willing to blow up an American city to cover up their bumbling. The prestige of the American government would never really recover from the downward slide of the early 70s.

Notes
Andromeda On $5 A Day -- Writers Paul McCollough and George Romero have borrowed heavily from 1971's The Andromeda Strain for the basic plot. Instead of a space bug, though, the virus is an insidious creation of the reckless (evil) military. Romero's Andromeda remake is ultra-low-budget. Instead of a gee-whiz high tech bunker, he uses the actual town of Evans City. Instead of focusing so much on the scientists trying to discover a cure, Romero focuses on the refugees trying to escape.

Double Quasi-Zombies -- TC has two sets of "zombies". One is the citizenry insane with the virus. They destroy and kill without rationality. The second are the soldiers. They're quite un-soldier-like in white jumpsuits and almost always wearing the scary-face gas mask. These, like Jason's hockey mask, make them "in-human". Also a bit like zombies, the soldiers are clueless pawns who kill without really understanding why. The film then has the two groups of quasi-zombies battling each other, with our protagonists caught in the middle.

Another Omega Man -- Romero's story also borrows from Richard Matheson's "I Am Legend." David, as the sole surviving "normal" person, battling the inhuman hoards, is very much like Vincent Price fighting his zombies in The Last Man on Earth ('64) and Charlton Heston battling his virus-spawned zombies in The Omega Man ('71). In both of those movies, the protagonist in somehow immune to the virus. His blood holds the cure. David doesn't die like Price and Heston, but the implication is that he is an opportunity wasted by the inept government.

Remake -- The story in TC was apparently deemed good enough to merit a bigger budget remake. Overture Films produced and distributed their own The Crazies in 2010. The plot was close to Romero's '73 script. Between the original and remake are dozens of films picking up on the killer-virus-on-the-loose trope. 28 Days Later (2002) being a more recent iteration. But, the deadly virus trope was not invented by Romero. In addition to Matheson's 1954 story, there was No Place to Hide ('56) with a germ-warfare virus potentially getting loose and a manhunt by the military. The Omega Glory episode of Star Trek ('66) had a deadly virus. No Blade of Grass ('71) had a virus that killed food, so people turned on each other. The virus idea has been popular for a long time.

Bottom line? TC is not particularly sci-fi, and besides the ample red paint and almost-amusing spurting blood effects, not particularly "horror" either. It is more of a thriller with heavy-handed vilification of the military and government.

The Asphyx

This first sci-fi film of 1973 is a British sci-fi / horror hybrid. Glendale Productions created a visually rich film with a sort of epic feel, but that did not catch on with audiences. Robert Stephens and Robert Powell star as the 'mad' scientist and his adopted son assistant, as they first detect, and then capture the spirit of death, the Asphyx. This was the only film Peter Newbrook directed. He had been the Producer and cinematographer on Glendale's only other film, Crucible of Terror ('71).

Quick Plot Synopsis
A contemporary british police car responds to a traffic accident. The two drivers are dead, but the old man in the middle of the crash is alive! Flashback to the late 1800s. Sir Hugo Cunningham and his fiancee, Anna, arrive at his mansion via carriage. Sir Hugo's adult children, Christina and Clive, take to Anna. So does Sir Hugo's adopted son Giles. Anna asks about Sir Hugo's work. It's psychic phenomena. His hobby? Photography, of a sorts. He's reticent. Sir Hugo and Sir Edward show the Society photos they've taken of people just as they were dying. The three separate photos each show a 'smudge', which Sirs Edward and Hugo think is the human soul departing. Later, Hugo is using his new-fangled movie camera to take film of his children in boats on the river. Clive's pole gets stuck in the mud. He hits his head on a branch, upsetting the boat. He and Anna drown. Distraught, but in need of distraction, Hugo develops the film. It shows the smudge near Clive, but traveling towards, not away. Sir Edward arrives later still, with news of a public hanging the next day. Both are, apparently, opposed to captial punishment, so Edward wants Hugo to film the travesty so as to shock others into reform. Hugo uses his movie camera, but also his new-fangled floodlight that uses water dropped onto special blue crystals. The trap door is opened, and Hugo light traps a specter trying to get to the dying man. Hugo theorizes that this specter is the spirit of death, which the greeks called The Asphyx. To see if trapping an Asphyx would prevent death, they try it on a guinea pig. They poison the pig, but trap its Asphyx. The pig does not die. They try this with a poor man dying of TB, but it fails. Hugo tries it on himself. This almost fails, but they do trap his Asphyx and lock it in the basement. He is now immortal. Hugo wants Christina and Giles to be immortal too, for the usual vainglorious reasons. They reluctantly agree. The attempt with Christina goes wrong (the guinea pig chews through the rubber hose, so the light goes out). She dies. Giles somberly agrees to proceed. He is to be gassed to near death. Giles sabotages the floodlight beforehand. When the gas is on, he lights a match and blows himself up. Hugo, distraught at killing all his children and fiancee, imagines it will take forever to heal from his guilt. Fast forward to 1972, a shabby Hugo, with his immortal guinea pig, step out into traffic. Freeze frame, but sound of crash continues. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The story in Asphyx is a bit more Lovecraft-ian than sci-fi, but the steampunk elements keep it from getting too mystical. The photography and sets lend a sort of elegence that the old Hammer films used to have. The plot has several points to muse on, so it's more of a thinking-person's story.

Cultural Connection
Immortality is one of the oldest plot threads in science fiction. It was part of the motive that drove young Frankenstein to try to cheat death. Many other films dabble with man's misplaced desire to never die. Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray" was another early example, in which the Faustian wish was not all-knowledge, but immortality. Early sci-fi films play with immortality, such as The Man Who Lived Again ('36), The Man With 9 Lives ('40) and others which feature someone frozen. More recently reviewed were the two-headed movies and The Resurrection of Zachary Wheeler ('71). Of course, immortality underpins the many zombie and vampire films too. Man's obsession with avoiding death gets a lot of film.

Notes
Faustenstein -- Sir Hugo follows the time-honored missteps of Dr. Faust and Dr. Frankenstein. Like Faust, Hugo is willing to risk all (his children) for his goal of immortality. LIke Frankenstein, he attempts to play God, tampering with things man is not meant to.

Mini Monster -- A curious twist on the Frankenstein theme, is the immortal guinea pig. In the Frankenstein idiom, his monster returns to bring doom back upon the 'mad' scientist whose hubris led him where he shouldn't be. In this case, the guinea pig (as a sort of anti-monster) chews the rubber hose feeding water to the spotlight that trapped Christina's Asphyx. This chaos caused her death (by guillotine, no less). Both Hugo and his guinea pig were together 100 years later (1972), and both survived the car crash. The immortal guinea pig!

Old Hammer -- This film has much of the look and feel of the early Hammer Horror films of the 60s. That is, before Hammer decided that films needed gratuitous sex and gore. Those additions didn't save Hammer. But then, the old Hammer style was not the draw it once was, either. Asphyx did not get much of a reception. Horror films would follow the path set by The Exorcist, released just a month later. Disgusting gore would become required. Thoughtful topics were passé.

Playing God -- When Christina learns of her father's work, she protests that man was not meant to be immortal. Indeed, this was why man was evicted from the Garden of Eden. He could not know evil (the rebellion of sin) and remain immortal (in the Garden). Hence God's warning, that to eat of that tree, "you will die" (not be immortal anymore). Christina represented the pre-humanist Christian understanding, that life on earth was temporary, that eternal life (heaven) was the goal, not eternal occupancy of the waiting room (earth). Hugo represents the humanist understanding, that all there IS is life on earth, there is nothing else BUT the waiting room, so he wanted more. He learns of the curse of his choice. Others move on through the waiting room, but he remains stuck there forever.

Bottom line? There's not much science in the fiction of Asphyx. It is, nonetheless, a respectably told tale in a more Faustian mode. The steampunk elements are nice, but too few to be an attraction. The pace can be a bit slow in spots, and a bit talky. Modern audiences, accustomed to buckets of gore in the 40 years since, will likely be bored or disappointed. Those willing to do more thinking may find it more agreeable.

Project M-7

The original title for Arthur J. Rank's 1953 British film was The Net. For it's American release in very early 1954, it was retitled, Project M-7 (PM7). The film is essentially a spy thriller, with romantic subthreads, and a big shiny MacGuffin. Most of the cast are obscure to Americans. James Donald stars as the obsessed designer, Michael Heathley. Donald would be better known to American audiences in war films like Bridge over the River Kwai and The Great Escape.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Professor Michael Heathley chafes at the plodding pace his research program is allowed. He wants to fly his supersonic float plane, Project M7, but the director refuses. The next stage will be radio control from the ground. No pilots in danger. That night, however, the director takes a fall from one of the slipways and is gravely injured. Dr. Bord deliberately withholds medicine, and the director dies. Sam, the security chief worries about classified info leaks. Heathley's wife Lydia worries that her husband is more obsessed with his work than about her. Alex, the chief engineer, has designs on the lovelorn Lydia. Other love dramas exist too. In the confusion, Heathley bamboozles the team into thinking they have approval for a piloted test. He flies the amazing M7 through its paces. Pushing it too far, however, causes Heathley and his copilot to black out. Only a feeble switch to ground control saves them and the M7. Perhaps the pressure suits failed under stress. More drama and intrigue. Alex makes moves on Lydia, who doesn't resist too hard. Dr. Bord is clearly the spy. The government man, Sir Charles, appoints young Brian (the copilot) to be the new director. This outrages Heathley. Dr. Bord convinces Heathley that the new director doesn't take charge until the next day, so he should take the M7 up again. He, Dr. Bord will come along as copilot to make sure the pressure suits don't fail. They zoom up before anyone can stop them. While in flight, Bord draws a gun on Heathley to hijack M7. Heathley dives at the ground as a game of chicken. Bord caves and drops the gun. They still struggle. While reaching way back for the gun, Bord breaks his oxygen hose, screams and dies on the controls. Lydia pleads with him to recover. Heathley regains control and reports that he's coming back (to her). Happy triumphal ending.

Why is this movie fun?
PM7 is primarily a romance drama, but the technology manages to assert itself in a sort of gee-whiz mood about jet airplanes. The airplane model is kind of cool in a 50s ways. The aerial model shots were actually well done for the day.

Cold War Angle
The dark-side thread in PM7's plot is espionage and attempted hijacking by "Them." While the sponsor behind Dr. Bord is never mentioned, the directions he gives Heathley for where to fly the M7, is towards Russia. The M7 itself is a sort of analogue to a nuclear bomb.

Notes
British Title -- Originally released with the title The Net, this seems a sort of double reference. Early in the script, Heathley complains that the director and all the high-security measures were stifling his urge to make progress. He felt like he was trapped in the bureaucrat's "net." (visual metaphor with the wire mesh fencing he stands behind.) The second allusion is the enemy spy's "net" of intrigue. The spy almost catches Heathley and the prized M7 in his net, but again, Heathley and the M7 get away.

Delta The Future -- When released, PM7 was cutting-edge techno stuff. The British were especially keen on the delta-wing configuration for their ultra-modern jet aircraft. The Avro 707 and its big brother, the Avro Vulcan (seen here at an airshow in late 1953) were THE latest thing in ultra-modern aircraft design. The model of the M7 (shown here "in flight") was right in line with what the British public imagined the future would look like. Though, it is an odd bit of anachronism that the M7 was configured as a flying boat, amphibious aircraft. Perhaps this was a melding of British air-enthusiasm with it's centuries of naval tradition.

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For Good or Evil -- The M7 is a second-generation stand-in for the bomb. It has "nuclear motors" so we've already got nuclear power used for something other than bombs. However, that doesn't solve the perennial problem. At one point, Heathley is telling his wife how he hopes the M7's speed will bring the peoples of the world closer together and foster peace. On the other hand, if it fell into the wrong hands, it would be a terrible weapon. There's your nuclear conundrum. A tool for peace, or a weapon of war. The debate continues.

Overshadowed by Gill Man -- PM7 is not all that well remembered, but this may be because it was marketed as the B-feature to Creature from the Black Lagoon, in early 1954. While PM7 is a reasonably well-made film with some appeal, it could not compete for "mindshare" with the unforgettable Gill Man. It's rather a pity. Had PM7 been released a little sooner, or later, it might have caught more of the public's attention.

Bottom line? PM7 is a nice little story about an advanced technology. The human drama in the technology team is the intended focus, but for sci-fi fans, the zoomy M7 is a fine co-star.