‘Children of ice and darkness…’
The Damned is a 1962 sci-fi film about an American tourist who becomes entangled with a British biker gang and stumbles upon a chilling government secret—nine radioactive children imprisoned in an underground bunker, kept alive as potential survivors for a post-nuclear apocalypse future that the authorities believe is inevitable. It was released in the US as These Are the Damned
The movie was directed by Joseph Losey from a screenplay by Evan Jones based on H.L. Lawrence’s novel The Children of Light. A script was originally written by Ben Barzman, Losey’s frequent screenwriting collaborator, which was reasonably faithful to the original novel. Losey disliked it and had it completely rewritten by Jones two weeks prior to filming.
Initially, expat American director Joseph Losey was hesitant to accept a directorial assignment from Hammer, a studio “internationally associated with the horror genre and work of a deliberately provocative nature.” Losey had previously been attached to direct Hammer’s X-the Unknown (1956), but left during pre-production because lead American actor Dean Jagger refused to work with him over political differences. Losey’s 1960 film The Criminal (1960), a “box office failure”, limited Losey’s options and he reluctantly accepted the offer despite objecting to screenplays requiring “explicit physical violence.
The Hammer Film production stars Macdonald Carey, Shirley Anne Field, Viveca Lindfors, Alexander Knox, Oliver Reed, Walter Gotell and James Villiers.
The soundtrack score was written by Hammer regular James Bernard who also composed the catchy song ‘Black Leather Rock’ with lyrics by Evan Jones and arrangement by Douglas Gamley.
Plot:
Simon Wells, a middle-aged American tourist, is on a boating holiday off the south coast of England. He has recently divorced and left his career as an insurance executive. In Weymouth, he meets twenty-year-old Joan, who lures him into a brutal mugging at the hands of her brother King and his motorbike gang.
The next day Joan joins Simon on his boat, and defies her overprotective brother who attempts to keep her from leaving.
Simon is willing to forgive and forget; Joan implies that the beating was inevitable after Simon attempted to pick up Joan in a bar. She describes the abuse she suffers from King whenever men show interest in her. Simon urges her to run away with him but she insists upon returning to shore. Meanwhile, they are observed by a member of King’s gang using binoculars.
Meanwhile, within the caves of the nearby coast live nine children, all aged eleven, whose skin is cold to the touch. They appear healthy, well-dressed and intelligent but know little about the outside world. Their home is under continuous video surveillance and they are educated via closed circuit television by Bernard, who deflects questions about their purpose and their isolation with promises that they will learn the answers someday. The children are regularly visited by men in radiation protection suits.
That night, Joan and Simon meet at a cliff-top house where they have sex. The house is surrounded by King’s gang but the couple escape and reach the relative safety of a nearby military base. The couple descend the cliff to the beach, pursued by King. They find a network of caves leading to an underground bunker attached to the military base, where they meet the children.
Although Bernard is forced to keep the children under watch, he allows them one chamber in the caves without cameras. The children are unaware that their “secret hideout” is known to their captors and they keep their mementos of people that they believe are their parents. The children host Joan, Simon and King in this “secret” room and smuggle food to them. Joan and Simon plan to rescue the children and they pressure King into helping them; the visitors soon feel unwell.
Bernard urges the children to give up their new friends and reveals his knowledge of their secret place. The children refuse and destroy the surveillance cameras. Bernard sends men in radiation suits but King and Simon overpower them. Simon uses one of their Geiger counters and discovers that the children are radioactive. The intruders lead the children out of the caves but they are ambushed by more men in radiation suits and most of the children are taken back to the bunker.
King grabs one of the boys and escapes in a stolen car. He is overcome by radiation sickness and orders the boy out of the car. The boy is immediately recaptured. King is pursued by a helicopter, loses control of the car and is killed. Joan and Simon escape by boat but they are also overcome by sickness. A helicopter hovers above as their boat drifts off course; the pilot has orders to destroy it once the occupants are confirmed dead.
Bernard confides in his mistress Freya that he regrets the children now know they are prisoners. They were born radioactive, the result of a nuclear accident. This enables them to be resistant to nuclear fallout and so they will survive the “inevitable” nuclear war to come, according to Bernard. When Freya rejects him and his plan, he kills her.
The final scene depicts holidaymakers enjoying the beach, unable to hear the desperate cries of the imprisoned children nearby.
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Choice dialogue:
Joan [Shirley Anne Field]: “Never seen a clocktower before?”
Production:
The film was shot in May and June 1961, at Hammer’s Bray Studios and on location around Weymouth, the Isle of Portland and nearby Chesil Beach in Dorset. The $500,000 film went over budget by £25,000.
The sculptures featured were all by British artist Elisabeth Frink. Frink not only lent these but also was on location for their shooting, and coached Lindfors on performing the sculptor’s method of building up plaster.
The film was reviewed by British censors the BBFC on 20 December 1961, who gave it an ‘X’ certificate without any cuts. However, producer Anthony Hinds demanded re-edits, fearing the film’s bleak and cerebral tone would hurt its commercial prospects. Losey eventually relented, cutting approximately eight minutes. The film was also retitled from Losey’s preferred The Brink to The Damned, to link it to Hammer’s Village of the Damned which had been a box office hit.
Cast and characters:
Macdonald Carey …. Simon Wells
Shirley Anne Field …. Joan
Viveca Lindfors …. Freya Neilson
Alexander Knox …. Bernard
Oliver Reed …. King
Walter Gotell …. Major Holland
James Villiers …. Captain Gregory
Tom Kempinski …. Ted
Kenneth Cope …. Sid
Brian Oulton …. Mr Dingle
Barbara Everest …. Miss Lamont
James Maxwell …. Mr Talbot
Nicholas Clay …. Richard
Release:
The Damned was first released in Australia on November 16, 1962. It was not released in Britain until 20 May 1963, when it was shown at the London Pavilion as the second half of a double-bill with Hammer’s Maniac.
When it was released in the United States in 1965, as These Are the Damned, it had been cut further to 77 minutes. A complete 95-minute print was released in US art house cinemas in 2007.
Tech specs:
1h 27m (87 min)
Black and white
Aspect ratio: 2.35: 1
Home media:
On 15 January 2010, it was released on DVD as part of the Icons of Suspense Collection from Hammer Films and has since been restored and released on Blu-ray.
Free to watch online on YouTube:
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