"These are the Damned" Review

 

by Daniel White

I have always been a trifle dismissive of British cinema. I liken it to Irish cuisine: does such a thing really exist, and if so, how good can it be? Of course, I'm kidding (well, not about Irish cooking!), I know the English are responsible for some terrific film work. They may have been overshadowed by Hollywood during its Golden Age but since the decline of the studio system, the Brits have equaled and often surpassed the stuff Tinseltown dishes out.

Researching Robert Altman's Images (which was a joint U. S./U. K. Production), I discovered one of the reasons Altman created the movie was to "make a film similar to Joseph Losey." It seems Mr. Altman held Mr. Losey in high regard. The English produced These are the Damned (released as The Damned in the U.K.) is Losey's unusual mixture of sci-fi, gang violence and hinted at incest issues. It's a must-see film for anyone interested in oddball, hard-to-classify cinema. A Hammer Films fright flick, shot in 1961, it didn't make it into British movie theaters until 1963 (1965 in the U. S., where an edited version showed up). I'm not sure if that was because of its content or its difficulty in being categorized.

It opens with one of the catchiest tunes ever heard in film, "Black Leather Rock." As the song plays, strumpet Shirley Ann Field saunters through the center of an English seaside town. Picking up American tourist, Macdonald Carey (possibly the dullest leading man in movie history), she lures him to a side street. There he is beaten and robbed by her brother, King (Oliver Reed), and his crew of leather-jacketed thugs (King prefers wearing a Herringbone sports coat).

A tale about disaffected youth? Nope. A story about an overprotective brother who secretly yearns to get into his sister's knickers. Well, maybe in part. But what These are the Damned really concerns itself with is a group of radioactive children being held captive by a British research team. Say what?!?!

The flick may feel a bit disjointed at times but it's never dull and contains an above average, intelligent screenplay by Evan Jones (based on the novel The Children of Light, by H. L. Lawrence).

American-born director Losey keeps things moving and even when he stops to deliver his anti-nuke message, it goes down fairly painlessly.

I'm just so pleased to stumble across a screwy, hard-to-pigeonhole peculiarity like These are the Damned that I'm willing to embrace it, warts and all - even if it is a product of those staid, dull, unimaginative denizens of the British Isles. With the sexy, edgy, over 40 Viveca Lindfors holding her own with youngster Field, These are the Damned is available on YouTube (unfortunately the high quality copy I watched today was taken down shortly after I viewed it).