Robert J. Maxwell Losey or no Losey, I immediately thought I was in trouble when the credits rolled and the hypnotic and ominous theme song lit up the room: "Black leather, black leather, crash, crash crash.,.." I was almost sure of it when evil, violent, Oliver Reed showed up with his glowering and sneering and his ominous hissing whisper of a voice. I could hear the book slamming closed when he coshed poor old MacDonald Carey over the head and then stomped him for daring to flirt with Shirley Anne Field, his virginal sister. It looked like a Black Leather story of Teddy Boys run amok, full of social relevance, a chronicle of the times.But no. Carey manages to whisk Field off on his boat and Reed swears to kill Carey as the boat disappears into the distance. The relevance issue remains but its entire character changes. We're soon rid of the Teddy Boys and it's just Reed tracking down Carey and Field to a hidden government laboratory nestled among some hills overlooking the cliffs near Weymouth. The laboratory, run by Alexander Knox with a fake Scots accent, remains background while Carey and Field have some elliptical conversations of the sort Losey was so fond of. Nobody looks anybody in the eye. They answer a question with a question or a non sequitur. Once the now loving couple are ashore and have mussed up the bed of a nearby cottage belonging to a sculptor, Viveca Lindfors, the banter disappears too and a new and disturbing track appears in the narrative. I don't think I'll reveal more of the plot except to say that the government turns out to be involved in some dicey stuff of questionable value. It's probably no more than a curious coincidence that Losey himself was kicked out of Hollywood and settled in England in 1953, after being investigated by the FBI, the House Unamerican Activities Committee, and Howard Hughes, for being a communist sympathizer and wearing white after Labor Day. If you've seen "Children of the Damned" or "Village of the Damned", you'll know the source of this semi-science-fiction plot. A dozen kids are raised from birth in complete isolation from the rest of the world. They are, in a sense, "home schooled" by the government. We never find out what they're being taught about anthropogenic global warming, evolution, international terrorism, or the Beatles but, locked away in secret solitude as they are, they do get a very apt dose of Lord Byron's "Prisoner of Chillon.""My hair is grey, but not with years, Nor grew it white In a single night, As men's have grown from sudden fears: My limbs are bowed, though not with toil, But rusted with a vile repose, For they have been a dungeon's spoil, And mine has been the fate of those To whom the goodly earth and air Are banned, and barred -— forbidden fare."Oddly, the little kids aren't particularly cuddly. I didn't feel any rush of joy when they got a peek at the outside world. But I got a rush every time Viveca Lindfors as the sensitive and intelligent sculptress appeared on the screen. She's delightful. Shirley Anne Field, an ex model, is so beautiful that she gets a pass on her inability to utter a single believable line of dialog. But Lindfors more than makes up for it. She has strong and attractive features, even here in middle age, and is radiant with femininity. And her voice has exotic ups and downs that the American and Brit actors wouldn't dream of. Losey gives her a close up while she's considering something she's just been told and every one of her tiny facial muscles -- her narrowing eyes, her slightly pursed lips -- form a kind of visual chamber music whose power is irresistible. Her character is a kind of series of grace notes within the film itself. Alexander Knox, by contrast, seems unable to change his expression at all, like some stroke victims.

SnoopyStyle Older Yank Simon Wells (Macdonald Carey) is vacationing on the south coast of England. He is lured by the lovely 20 year old Joan (Shirley Anne Field) into a mugging by her brother King (Oliver Reed) and his gang of black leather clad bikers. Wells is badly beaten. Meanwhile there is a top secret mysterious military plan going on. There is a group of nine children hidden away living in isolation. Wells takes to his boat. Joan jumps on board after getting tired of her domineering brother. They return to shore to find an empty cliff top house. They are chased by King and his gang to a military base. They escape with the kids' help to their underground hideout. Then the kids rescue King as well.It takes way too long to get to the heart of the movie. The first part almost feels like a fake out on the audience. I don't really understand the need to take that long to set up the characters. It is excruciating to sit through. It picks up a little when the kids get on the screen. At least the mystery of the kids is interesting. It helps to keep the last half of the movie watchable. However that's all that could said about this movie.

AaronCapenBanner Joseph Losey directed this bizarre crime and sci-fi hybrid that stars Oliver Reed as a brutal gang leader who pursues his runaway sister, who has fled with a former victim of his, whose boat they attempted to rob. They eventually all land on an isolated scientific/military base, where they discover a group of children who were born radioactive, and are being studied to see how they got that way, since if there were a third world war with nuclear fallout, the children would be immune, and the inevitable future. Trouble is, the children also have a high mortality rate as well...Definite cult item failed to connect with me at all, lurching unconvincingly from crime to sci-fi with a most unappealing story and characters.

orbitsville-1 I thought I was watching Brighton Rock, but then it turned into The Chrysalids or something.If there's something off-putting for me, it's that all the hard work put into the characters' relationships in the early part of the film doesn't seem to matter one whit once the science- fictional aspect of the movie comes roaring to the forefront, with those darn kids. We have a rowdy street-tough, King, who is just a little too possessive of his lovely sister, even while using her as bait to distract potential mugging victims for him and his gang. We have Joan's attraction to a much older man, Simon, the American tourist who's vacation is about to blossom into danger. We have Freya the sculptress, who borrows this fellow Bernard's cliff- top hideaway to mold her weird visions. The characters begin to intermingle, the connections are forged, Simon and King seem destined for trouble over Joan, Freya's isolation seems destined to be spoiled...and then suddenly the quandaries of the regular people all become completely irrelevant as these bizarre kids with the cold flesh but the good manners show up and take the movie into a whole other realm. A realm of mad science, soldiers in space-suits, and a futuristic secret lab, plus eerie caves, hidden from civilization.I just feel that the downside to creating all this tension between Simon, Joan, Freya and King which is all grounded in regular stuff like jealousy, sexual attraction, and hooliganism (plus some sculptures) is that the movie doesn't need it for the second half, which has a completely different agenda. Sure, we know these characters and what makes them tick; their interactions in relatively normal circumstances (if occasionally violent or traumatic circumstances!) give us a handle on who these people are in daily life. But then daily life goes out the window, and BAM!, everyone's hip-deep in Science Gone Wrong. Does it even matter that Simon is maybe a tad old for Joan, or that King wants to smack Simon around? All that juicy stuff is built up...and then dropped for good when the movie unveils a Sci-Fi type of menace that threatens anyone climbing fences clearly marked No Trespassing and poking around where they shouldn't be. Kids always need so much attention, don't they! If you build up relationships that coagulate into a discernible plot and then just thrust those characters into a situation that has no bearing on any of the pre-established dynamics, or doesn't even require that any of those dynamics even be there--well, I think you've got a plot problem, a broken-backed movie. It's like if you were setting up a nice divorce scenario in Kramer vs. Kramer and then switched halfway through to Mars Attacks!, on the theory that showing people struggling with divorce issues makes the audience care about them more when the Martians are chasing them. Okay, it sorta works. The people seem real and we get to know them, but if we get too far into custody-battle details, then it's a custody battle we kinda expect to see resolved...not an alien invasion.Am I nitpicking? Anyway, interesting film in its intent, well acted, and it's marvelously edgy throughout--whether a street gang is bullying a tourist, or super-powered kids are fleeing from scientists in rubber suits. But this is not my favorite approach to a Sci-Fi premise. Things are a little off. Oh, and I hate the song.