Artivels Undescribable Perfection

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Leofwine_draca THE GAMMA PEOPLE is a weird and unsuccessful science fiction B-movie of the mid 1950s, shot in the UK substituting for Eastern Europe. It was directed by John Gilling, a man with a respectable career whose highs include the excellent double bill he made for Hammer Studios, THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES and THE REPTILE. Sadly, it's one of his lesser works, a film which all over the place tonally and which is more laughable than anything else. A couple of characters board a train and head into an Iron Curtain country, where they discover a mad plot to mutate children with radiation. Said children aren't remotely scary and British viewers had to wait until VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED until the story subject was done properly. Paul Douglas is way too old and bloated to be the hero, although Leslie Phillips does the comedy well (of course) and Eva Bartok is very fine.

hwg1957-102-265704 Two reporters, one American and one British, have their train car (not the train itself) accidentally diverted into the tiny country of Gudavia where their arrival causes excitement. Once there they eventually discover nefarious goings on performed by the evil Boronski, namely subjecting people to gamma rays to make them brainy or brain-dead. It sounds strange and it is but I found it enjoyable and watched all the way through. It starts off like Ruritanian comedy then moves into a more sinister direction. There are some creepy scenes, comic scenes and dramatic scenes. There is a classic in there somewhere but unfortunately it didn't come out.The reporters, Paul Douglas as Mike Wilson and Leslie Phillips as Howard Meade are chalk and cheese but actually they make a plausible pairing. Philip Leaver is good as the chief of police with the elaborate headgear and Michael Caridia as the boy Hugo is quite scary. Eva Bartok is adequate but Rosalie Crutchley gives another good intense performance. Walter Rilla makes a fine villain but is not in it enough.There are two scenes that impressed me a lot. The first is when the reporters hear a child playing the piano really well and on seeing her the are delighted with her skills but hovering over her is Hugo and it becomes apparent that the child hates being a brilliant player and when she makes a mistake Hugo berates her in a cruel fashion. What began as a charming scene develops into something a lot darker. The other scene is the carnival where amidst the revelry is drama and danger. The carnival is also wonderfully edited by Jack Slade.All in all an odd one but worth seeing nevertheless.

zehaas My impression of this wonderful tale is colored by my experience seeing it for the first time at age ten on the late late show in NYC. Although there are lighthearted moments, to me, it didn't (and still doesn't) play for laughs. I find it well-constructed, written and acted by all involved.The scene on the train is nice, as I especially enjoy scenes on trains. The action continues at a perfect pace through the whole movie. There is the usual mysterious mad scientist.A mark of quality in a film like this is that the principal players are in roles that make them accessible; they are real people and not just cardboard cutout characters. You feel as though you could at least strike up a conversation with them and try to figure out this mystery.The movie is not currently in copyright, so is available on www.archive.org for viewing or downloading, which I highly recommend. Invite some friends over, pop some corn, make some nachos, and have a great time.

LeonLouisRicci This one will leave your head spinning like an Ed Wood film. It is a surreal stew of so many styles and symbolism that a reference point is reticent.Ten years after WWII the fascist fear was forever present. Here we have science-fiction mind control based on factual events that instill a real life horror and remembrance of a not too long ago plague of pathology.Hitler youth, enslavement encampment, and a mad scientist are at work here along with foreign journalists and feather headed throwbacks in this offbeat and mind-boggling concoction that almost but doesn't quite work.The movie also, for some reason, throws in a bit of slapstick humor and coy dialog that got lost on its way to some other film and found its way into this sometimes sombre scenario of tortured children and monstrous and zombified men who were victims of the villains.The result is a jigsaw made up of pieces from different puzzles. Interesting and never dull, but occasionally so twisted and ill fitting that one is left with a jaw dropping experience that will have you shaking your head, and that just might be the effect of that mind-melting gamma ray gun.