Children of the Damned
| Children of the Damned | |
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 Theatrical Poster |
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| Directed by | Anton M. Leader |
| Produced by | Ben Arbeid |
| Written by | John Briley |
| Starring | Ian Hendry Alan Badel Barbara Ferris Alfred Burke |
| Music by | Ron Goodwin |
| Cinematography | David Boulton |
| Editing by | Ernest Walter |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | January 29, 1964 (U.S.A.) |
| Running time | 90 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Children of the Damned is a 1963 science fiction film, a thematic sequel to the 1960 version of Village of the Damned. It is about a group of children, with similar psi-powers to the original seeding,[1] but without the obvious 'alien' differences in the earlier film.
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[edit] Plot
Six children are identified by a team of UNESCO researchers investigating child development. The children have extraordinary powers of intellect and are all able to complete a difficult brick puzzle in the exact same amount of time.
British psychologist Tom Lewellin (Hendry) and geneticist David Neville (Badel) are interested in Paul, a London boy whose mother Diana (Allen) clearly hates the child and insists she was never touched by a man. This is initially dismissed as hysteria and it is implied she has 'loose' morals. But after a while the two men realize that all six children were born without a father and are also capable of telepathy.
The children, from various countries — China, India, Nigeria, the Soviet Union, the USA and the UK, are brought to London for a collective study into their advanced intelligence. However the children escape from their embassies and gather at an abandoned church in Southwark, London. They intermittently take mental control of Paul's aunt (Ferris) to help them survive in the derelict church. Meanwhile, the military debates whether or not to destroy them. The children have demonstrated the capacity for telekinesis and construct a machine which uses sonic waves as a defensive weapon, which kills several government officials and soldiers. But the military realizes that they only fight back when attacked. After world leaders to ask the group to return to their respective embassies, the children murder the governments' representatives and return to the church.
Lewellin urges the government to give the children leeway. His team of scientists observe the difference between an ordinary human blood cell and the cells of one of the children. One of the scientists postulates that the childrens' cells appear to be human, advanced by a million years.
When authorities try to take control of the children, they are forced to protect themselves. The situation escalates into a final showdown between the military and the children. The church is destroyed and the children are killed when a field communications officer misunderstands a command.
In both this story and in the original "Village of the Damned", the children are destroyed as a result of the adults' paranoia and fear. The powers that the children exhibit are beyond the adults control and their fear of the children results in the youngsters' deaths.
[edit] Cast
- Ian Hendry as Col. Tom Lewellin
- Alan Badel as Dr. David Neville
- Barbara Ferris as Susan Eliot
- Alfred Burke as Colin Webster
- Sheila Allen as Diana Looran
- Ralph Michael as Defense Minister
- Patrick Wymark as Commander
- Martin Miller as Prof. Gruber
- Harold Goldblatt as Harib
- Patrick White as Mr. Davidson
- André Mikhelson as Russian official
- Bessie Love as Mrs. Robbins, Mark's Grandmother
- Clive Powell as Paul
- Yoke-Moon Lee as Mi Ling
- Roberta Rex as Nina
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Children of the Damned at the Internet Movie Database
- Children of the Damned at AllRovi
- Children of the Damned at the TCM Movie Database
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