The Damned (1962)

• Year: 1962
• Released: 07 Jul 1965
• Country: United Kingdom
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056576/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/these_are_the_damned
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: English
• MPA Rating: Approved
• Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Horror
• Runtime: 87 min
• Writer: Evan Jones, H.L. Lawrence, Ben Barzman
• Director: Joseph Losey
• Cast: Macdonald Carey, Shirley Anne Field, Viveca Lindfors
• Keywords: experiment, government, radioactivity, youth gang,

	6.6/10
	72/100
	86% – Critics
	52% – Audience

The Damned Storyline

Legal and illegal criminality. An American tourist with a boat is robbed by a gang of teenager boys, assisted by the leader’s sister. But soon afterward she jumps to the victim’s boat to escape her brother’s incestuous jealousy. The couple fly together and is hunted by the entire gang. Both happen to enter high-classified military territory. There might be a third and atomic world war, after which no ordinary man could survive. But now and then children are born who are “naturally” radio-active and have cold blood. They might survive in the post-war world and carry on mankind. They are fetched and brought to an underground construction where they are educated by TV. They are told that they are on a space ship moving toward the earth, which they should eventually colonize. This military project seems to be a failure because of a high mortality among the children. – The military soon finds the gang. The couple finds the children and tries to help them to escape. This situation will develop into psychological and other horror.

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The Damned Movie Reviews

Black Leather, Black Leather … Smash! Smash! Smash!

Of all the Hammer films I’ve seen so far, and they are quite numerous, “These Are The Damned” definitely ranks as their strangest and most curious effort. This legendary British production studio specialized in straightforward monster movies and gorier updates of classic horror tales, but this particular film is something entirely different and actually quite hard to categorize. There are two principal – and extremely opposite – story lines in this film and, even though they seem impossible to blend, director Joseph Losey pulls it off without much effort. The first half (approximately) of the story is more or less reminiscent to such films as “West Side Story” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”, and … NO, I’m not kidding. Set on a small and isolated British island community, we’re introduced to King (the phenomenal Oliver Reed), his oppressed sister Joan and their docile gang of youthful thugs. The gang targets tourists, like the unfortunate American boat owner Simon Wells. Joan seduces and lures Simon to a quiet alley, where King and C° are waiting to rob and attack him whilst whistling a really awesome tune (“Black Leather, Black Leather … Smash! Smash! Smash!). But Joan is fed up with her life-style and dominant brother and returns to Simon the next day, hoping to escape together. As you’re subsequently expecting the rest of the story to revolve on an exciting chase & battle between the two parties, the tone and atmosphere of the film suddenly changes completely and turns into an awkward Sci-Fi ploy! Fleeing from King, Joan and Simon end up in a cave where a bunch of children are apparently kept prisoners by the military and the government. There’s something odd about these kids as they all share birthdays, feel extremely cold and respond mysteriously to Geiger counters… The sudden change in atmosphere is unusual, but very original and fascinating! The second half of the story is clearly influenced by the success of “Village of the Damned”, which happens to be one of my favorite Sci-Fi tales and easily of the greatest classics in the genre. A fairly high level of suspense is sustained throughout both story lines and there are several genuinely creepy moments to enjoy. The acting performances aren’t superb, but Losey’s direction is surefooted enough to compensate. The stylish black & white photography adds tension to the already grim atmosphere and – as said – the theme song is truly terrific. I read about “These are the Damned” before, but it’s an obscure and hard-to-find film. So, thank you very much good people of the BBC, for programming this beauty!

A bit confusing in its narrative, but underneath it all is something….

“These Are The Damned” is a very difficult film to watch. In some ways, it is fascinating…but the fascination is often lost because the plot is so unnecessarily complicated and confused. It’s a shame, because if the film had cut out most of the first 30 minutes, it would have been a lot better.

The film begins with a plot that has NOTHING to do with the later portion of the movie. The American actor, Macdonald Carey, owns a boat and lands in London. There, he’s beaten up by a gang led by the freaky Oliver Reed. I say freaky because there’s a kinky undercurrent of incest between himself and his lovely sister–and yet this, like the Carey portion of the story, is never capitalized upon and the film is confused in its focus. Eventually, the sister and Carey run off and are pursued by Reed and his gang. But then, the film does a complete turnabout–as the pair are rescued by a group of radioactive mutant children living in a weird British government lab!!! Believe it or not, it’s like two completely different films are just tossed together–and both major stories get short-changed in the process. I wanted to see more about Reed’s kinky relationship or the new relationship between the sister and Carey–but what about the paranoid radioactive mutant story?!?! The bottom line is that the film has a lot of interesting portions but the whole is a mess. In addition, a few little things in the film are sloppy–such as the SUPER-annoying “Black Leather” song and the angle outside window at 25 minutes that is completely impossible and poorly integrated. An interesting failure.

Government sanctioned mad scientists.

You know the most frightening thing to me about These Are The Damned is had this film been done by some private mad scientist it might have qualified as one of those old PRC or Lippert films. But as the experiments were done apparently with the sanction of the British government and their best scientists you can gasp at the sheer inhumanity involved.

MacDonald Carey is an American tourist who gets picked up by Shirley Anne Field, but she’s a shill for her brother Oliver Reed’s leather clad Teddy boy gang who mug Carey. But when her brother who shows the most obsessive incestuous interest since Paul Muni had for Karen Morley in Scarface she flees with Carey on his boat to a mysterious island which is in reality a government facility where Dr. Alexander Knox is conducting some frightening experiments with children. Children by the way who think they’re on a spaceship.

He’s injecting them with radiation and looking for ways they can survive with radioactive bodies in a post atomic war world. Interesting also that only white kids are chosen. An interesting commentary in that while kids are experimented no one seems to care if other races survive.

I agree with one other reviewer in that MacDonald Carey is too old for the part. Still he gives it his best shot as he and Field and Reed all trapped on the island.

These Are The Damned is one far out, freaky, frightening film.