The Day the Fish Came Out
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Day the Fish Came Out | |
|---|---|
 The original movie poster |
|
| Directed by | Michael Cacoyannis |
| Produced by | Michael Cacoyannis |
| Written by | Michael Cacoyannis |
| Starring | Tom Courtenay Colin Blakely Sam Wanamaker |
| Music by | Mikis Theodorakis |
| Cinematography | Walter Lassally |
| Editing by | Vassilis Syropoulos |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century-Fox |
| Release date(s) |  October 2, 1967 |
| Running time | 109 min. |
| Country | Greece / U.K. |
| Language | English |
The Day the Fish Came Out (Greece: Otan ta psaria vgikan sti steria) is a 1967 Greek- British comedy film directed and written by Michael Cacoyannis who also designed the film's costumes. The film stars Tom Courtenay, Colin Blakely and Sam Wanamaker.
[edit] Plot Summary
The film is based on an actual incident where a collision occurred between a B-52G Stratofortress and a KC-135 Stratotanker over Palomares, Spain on 17 January 1966. The four B-28 FI 1.45-megaton-range nuclear bombs on the B-52 were eventually recovered, but for some time they were missing. Title designer Maurice Binder shot an opening sequence with a chorus of Spanish dancers explaining why the film has moved from Spain to Greece.
Life on a remote Greek resort island called "Karos" is forever changed when two atomic bombs are dropped there by a NATO plane rapidly losing power. Life on the island is so bleak that the inhabitants stage a mass exodus once Denmark announces that they have opened Greenland to Greek emigration. The pilots drop their payload - which includes includes atomic weapons, but also a mysterious package called simply "Container Q" - over land, because they are under orders not to drop at seas. When the pilots realize they've lost their load, they bail out of their plane and head for the island to get help. The government has beaten them to the punch though and has already sent out an agent disguised as a resort developer. Lacking resources, money to buy food (or pay for a long distance call to base) or even their clothes, the pilot and navigator of the lost bomber scour the island like vagabonds. The are apparently clueless as to the fact that American agents are also on the island searching for their cargo.
Meanwhile the island is suddenly filled with clamoring, hedonistic tourists who believe the developer is going to build the best resort in the area first. Unknown to all of them, a poor farmer and his wife find Container Q and, presuming it holds some treasure, they try to open it. Unsuccessful at first - because Container Q is virtually impregnable - the farmer eventually steals a device that sprays acid that will eat through anything. Expecting gold, the farmer and his wife instead find strange looking rocks. The Americans are eventually led back to the farmers, but not before the panicking farmers ditch Container Q into the sea, and the rocks into a cistern that provides water to the rest of the island. The contents of Q - presumably highly toxic - thus contaminate all the water used by the islands inhabitants.
By nightfall, as tourists revel, the waters surrounding Karos are dotted with the bodies of dead and dying fish. The Americans sent to recover the lost payload of the stricken jet realize that they are too late. The pilot and the navigator, having saved enough small change to call home, are shocked to be booted from the long distance phone in the post office by the American developers. The revellers continue dancing wildly as a voice from a PA system vainly pleads for their attention, presumably to warn them of their unpleasant fate.
[edit] Cast
- Tom Courtenay as The Navigator
- Colin Blakely as The Pilot
- Sam Wanamaker as Elias
- Candice Bergen as Electra Brown
- Ian Ogilvy as Peter
- Dimitris Nikolaidis as The Dentist
- Nicolas Alexios as Goatherd
- Patricia Burke as Mrs. Mavroyannis
- Paris Alexander as Fred
- Arthur Mitchell as Frank
- Marlena Carrer as Goatherd's Wife
- Tom Klunis as Mr. French
- William Berger as Man in Bed
- Kostas Papakonstantinou as Manolios
- Dora Stratou as Travel Agent
- Alexander Lykourezos as Director of Tourism
- Tom Whitehead as Mike
- Walter Granecki as Base Commander
- Dimitris Ioakeimidis as Policeman
- James Connolly as Tourist
- Assi Dayan as Tourist
- Robert Killian as Tourist
- Derek Kulai as Tourist
- Alexis Mann as Tourist
- Raymond McWilliams as Tourist
- Michael Radford as Tourist
- Peter Robinson as Tourist
- Grigoris Stefanides as Tourist
- Peter Stratful as Tourist
- Kosta Timvios as Tourist
- Herbert Zeichner as Tourist
[edit] External links
|
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||
|
||||||||
