Village of the Damned (1960 film)
| Village of the Damned | |
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U.S. Film poster
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| Directed by | Wolf Rilla |
| Produced by | Ronald Kinnoch |
| Screenplay by |
Stirling Silliphant Wolf Rilla Ronald Kinnoch |
| Based on |
The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham |
| Starring |
George Sanders Barbara Shelley Martin Stephens Michael Gwynn |
| Music by | Ron Goodwin |
| Cinematography | Geoffrey Faithfull |
| Edited by | Gordon Hales |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
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Release date
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Running time
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77 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $320,000 |
| Box office | $2,175,000 |
Village of the Damned is a 1960 British science fiction horror film by German director Wolf Rilla. The film is adapted from the novel The Midwich Cuckoos (1957) by John Wyndham. The lead role of Professor Gordon Zellaby was played by George Sanders.
A sequel, Children of the Damned (1963), followed, as did a remake, also called Village of the Damned (1995).
The inhabitants of the British village of Midwich suddenly fall unconscious, as does anyone entering the village. The military establishes a cordon around Midwich and sends in a man wearing a gas mask, but he, too, falls unconscious and is pulled back with rope. The man awakens and reports experiencing a cold sensation just before passing out. The pilot of a military reconnaissance plane is contacted and asked to investigate. When he flies below 5,000 feet, he loses consciousness and the plane crashes. A five-mile exclusion zone around the village is established for all aircraft. The villagers regain consciousness and apparently are unaffected.
Two months later, all women and girls of child-bearing age in the affected area are discovered to be pregnant, sparking many accusations of infidelity and extramarital sex. The accusations fade as the extraordinary nature of the pregnancies is discovered, with seven-month fetuses appearing after only five months. All the women give birth on the same day. Their children have an unusual appearance, including "arresting" eyes, odd scalp hair construction and colour (platinum blond), and unusually narrow fingernails. As they grow and develop at a rapid rate, it becomes clear they also have a powerful telepathic bond with one another. They can communicate with each other over great distances, and as one learns something, so do the others.
Three years later, Professor Gordon Zellaby (Sanders), whose wife Anthea (Shelley) gave birth to one of the children, attends a meeting with British Intelligence to discuss the children. There he learns Midwich was not the only place affected; follow-up investigations have revealed similar phenomena in other areas of the world.
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Wikipedia