Actor Oliver Reed recalled that during roduction of The Damned, Joseph Losey, the blacklisted U.S. director who exiled to London, used to take the cast out to dinner and “preach anti-Bomb stuff to them.”
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Theatrical release poster
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Losey directed the Brotosh sci-fi horror, starring Macdonald Carey, Shirley Anne Field, Viveca Lindfors and Oliver Reed, just before he embarked on a new chapter of his career as an arthouse fimmaker, beginning with the 1963 The Servant.
The screenplay of this Hammer Film production was by Evan Jones, based on H. L. Lawrence’s 1960 novel “The Children of Light.”
Simon Wells, a middle-aged American tourist, recently divorced, is on a boating holiday off the south coast of England, leaving his career as insurance executive.
In Weymouth, he meets Joan, who lures him into a brutal mugging by her brother King and his motorbike gang.
The next day Joan joins Simon on his boat, and defies her overprotective brother who attempts to keep her from leaving.
visited by men in radiation protection suits.
They find a network of caves leading to an underground bunker attached to the military base, where they meet the children.
Although Bernard is forced to keep the children under watch, he allows them one chamber without cameras. The children are unaware that their “secret hideout” is known to their captors. Joan and Simon plan to rescue the children and they pressure King into helping them.
It turns out the children were born radioactive, a result of nuclear accident. This enables them to be resistant to nuclear fallout and survive the “inevitable” nuclear war to come.
The final scene depicts holidaymakers enjoying the beach, unable to hear the desperate cries of the imprisoned children.
Hammer, which had enjoyed great success with such horror films as Dracula and The Curse of Frankenstein. But Losey was hesitant to accept an assignment from Hammer Productions, a studio associated with a gry horror genre. However, the commercial failure of his 1960 The Criminal limited his options.
The British censors gave it an X certificate without any cuts, due to violence amd what they perceived as incestuous overtones. The film was not released in Britain until May 1963, when it was shown at the London Pavilion as the second half of a double bill of X-rated horror films.
When it was released in the US 1965, as These Are the Damned, it had been cut to 77 minutes. It was originally shown as part of a double bill with Genghis Khan. A complete print was released in US art house cinemas in 2007.
Film historians James Palmer and Michael Riley call The Damned “an effective polemic against the horrors of nuclear warfare.” But other critics felt that the blend of sci-fi and message-oriented narrative was not effective.
Cast
Macdonald Carey as Simon Wells
Shirley Anne Field as Joan
Viveca Lindfors as Freya Neilson
Alexander Knox as Bernard
Oliver Reed as King
Walter Gotell as Major Holland
James Villiers as Captain Gregory
Tom Kempinski as Ted
Kenneth Cope as Sid
Brian Oulton as Mr. Dingle
Barbara Everest as Miss Lamont
Alan McClelland as Mr. Stuart
James Maxwell as Mr. Talbot
Credits:
Directed by Joseph Losey
Screenplay by Evan Jones, based on “The Children of Light,” 1960 novel by H.L. Lawrence
Produced by Anthony Hinds
Cinematography Arthur Grant
Edited by Reginald Mills
Music by James Bernard
Production company: Hammer Film Productions
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release dates: 16 Nov 16, 1962 (Australia) May 19, 1963 (UK); 23 June 23, 1965 (USA)
Running time: 87 minutes (UK); 77 minutes (US)
Budget £170,000
