Village of the Damned (1960)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Wolf Rilla

Writers:

Stirling Silliphant (screenplay) &
Wolf Rilla (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

7 December 1960 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

What Demonic Force Lurks Behind Those Eyes?

Plot:

In the English village of Midwich, the blond-haired, glowing-eyed children of uncertain paternity prove to have frightening powers.

Plot Keywords:

Village | Children | English | Pregnant | Pregnancy

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

George Sanders	...	Gordon Zellaby
Barbara Shelley	...	Anthea Zellaby
Martin Stephens	...	David Zellaby
Michael Gwynn	...	Alan Bernard
Laurence Naismith	...	Doctor Willers
Richard Warner	...	Harrington
Jenny Laird	...	Mrs. Harrington
Sarah Long	...	Evelyn Harrington
Thomas Heathcote	...	James Pawle
Charlotte Mitchell	...	Janet Pawle
Pamela Buck	...	Milly Hughes
Rosamund Greenwood	...	Miss Ogle
Susan Richards	...	Mrs. Plumpton
Bernard Archard	...	Vicar
Peter Vaughan	...	P.C. Gobby

Runtime:

77 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

UK:12 (re-rating) (2005) | UK:A (original rating) | West Germany:16 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Letchmore Heath, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios

Trivia:

The eerie effect of the children's glowing eyes was created by matting a negative (reversed) image of their eyes over the pupils when they used their powers.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: Just before the credits, there's a long crane shot which ends in the trees. It's obvious that the crane snagged a branch on its way up, because a branch suddenly snaps into the frame. They follow the shot with a brief view of other branches waving around, as though to cover the mistake...but the first branch was *not* blowing in the wind.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Prof. Gordon Zellaby: [on telephone] Good morning. Uh, would you get me Major Bernard at his Whitehall number? Thank you.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Invasion: The Dredge (#1.9)" (2005)

Them Their Eyes

A small countryside village in England experiences a time period of several hours where all living things lie lifeless and helpless. Anything living that connects within this sphere of lifelessness gets the like treatment. Everyone soon awakens from whatever happened, and soon the women of child-bearing years all get pregnant and are all due on the same day. Village of the Damned is one of those discerning, intelligent science fiction films of yesteryear that tends to leave much to your imagination in terms of gore and violence as well as make you think and ponder important questions about the limits with which humanity should go to procure knowledge. The children are decidedly very creepy as their eyes glow when they are angered. Martin Stephens as George Sanders' boy is particularly good as he looks and speaks with such class and distinction yet has the conscience of a cold-blooded, calculated killer. Sanders is also very good in his role as a man torn between bridging the field of knowledge with the unknown and protecting mankind from foreign/alien harm. His wife, played with credibility, is Hammer beauty Barbara Shelley. A great British science fiction film and certainly one of the more thought-provoking ones around.