The Night Of The Big Heat

All my reviews will contain spoilers. Just so you know.

Firstly, work and study rather took over my usual free time for a while, hence the long gap between postings here.

I had some vague, happy memories of this sixties film from my early teenage years, although I remembered the special effects for aliens being terrible, and the usually very engaging Christopher Lee being rather keen on shouting. The (short-lived) Planet Film Productions persuaded Terence Fisher, Peter Cushing and Lee to work on it, which must have given Hammer some concerns for awhile! Anyway, this film largely focuses on that most British of obsessions – the weather.

Initial Thoughts:

• Cheesy as hell freeze frame for the opener, but the soundtrack is killer good
• Fast lady in a fast car, dusty professor on dusty ground
• Victim number one, depending on what happened to the anonymous guy in the pre-credits sequence.
• Leering Englishmen? In a pub? Surely not?
• Whilst everyone rolls their sleeves up, Peter Cushing keeps his jacket on. What a trooper!
• Dirty, sweaty men. But still no topless shots of Christopher Lee. Grrrr...
• Swimsuit heaven with dirty girl Angela.
• Jeff: “You were no untouched virgin when we met...”
• Handy hint for those filmmakers on a low budget – when you can’t afford special effects, show plenty of shots of people peering behind the camera. It never, ever, looks really cheap and naff.

Moving On:

• Victim number two, unless we count the sheep. Or the anonymous guy in the pre-credits sequence. Who the hell was that?
• Frankie: “Jeff! Jeff!”
  Viewers: “Shut. Up.”
• Some day-for-night fun
• I simply can’t help thinking they didn’t mean for Jeff and Hanson to be such unbelievably aggressive idiots. Sod the heat – these guys are clearly arseholes whatever the weather
• Not many female characters got the chance to fight off male aggressors in genre films of this time. Perhaps the filmmakers realised audiences would like to see at least one of these men get slapped with an ashtray?
• Oh, why did they send Peter Cushing out alone? Run man – run!
• Grieving means a lot less when one of the male mourners is attempting to win a wet shirt competition (his bosoms are soaked)
• Frankie: “You knew her before, didn’t you?”
  Watch yourself Jeff- the missus is on to you.
• · Jeff: "She was a slut and I wanted her"!!
  Way to bail yourself out, you douche-nozzle.
• I’m think the torch might have been a mistake.
• Victim number six - and it’s the anonymous guy from the pre-credits sequence. Eh?

Final Moments:

• Hanson: “Has anyone got any better ideas?”
  Er, no – sadly
• Our first sighting of the aliens...is tragic
• One down, and only five to go
• NOOO! Not him – you bastards!
• The great British weather – beautiful

Aftermath:

The temperature, rising steadily on a rural island (whilst the rest of the UK is having typically wet and cold weather), drives locals to distraction, though they remain annoyed by conditions they would otherwise enjoy rather than fearful of the reasons behind this strange development. The mainland seems largely disinterested (curious, since I would have expected the number of holidaymakers flooding out there to total several thousand at this turn of events!). However, a mysterious, unsociable man named Godfrey Hanson (Christopher Lee) has arrived to investigate. Hanson stays at a pub run by a writer named Jeff Callum (Patrick Allen) and his wife Frankie (Sarah Lawson), where several locals go to while away the hours with attempted rape and sharing gossip when casually encouraged to do so by Doctor Stone (Peter Cushing). A woman named Angela Roberts (Jane Merrow) arrives to kick some drama into the lives of the Callums, but the developing love triangle she brings to proceedings soon becomes a matter of little importance – aliens are on the island, drawn there by a radar experiment designed to try to communicate messages into space (a shame it worked really!). These aliens both have a need to eat – and to generate – energy, which leads to their starting to burn people alive. A rapidly dwindling number of the isolated (English!) survivors start to figure out the danger, fight back and attempt to warn the mainland of the growing threat.

This film, adapted from a book, has several similarities to Island Of Terror – another Planet Film Productions movie involving Fisher and Cushing, and one which has some stunningly obvious ties to the earlier Fiend Without a Face. To my mind, this cheaper effort is far more entertaining. One of just three films that Planet Film Productions made, it shows that their little-island-in-terror formula deserved to find a bigger audience and become a better loved sub-genre.

The actors look sweaty and set to pass out from exhaustion even though faint appearances of their breath can be made out in a several scenes – the weather was obviously bloody cold, and it’s a credit to all involved that this fact is not only quite well disguised, but that the result is a film which made me feel like I was baking watching it. A shame, then, that Cushing obviously felt the chill and keeps his jacket on even when displaying a supposedly fevered brow as he dabs away at it! Along with the great atmosphere, the slow, deliberate pacing allows time for the threat to grow and our understanding to the depth to each character to develop, cranking up the terror as we and the islanders figure out what is going on, and letting relationships established by eventually minor events stream over into how the people try to escape from or end the invasion.

The script, whilst talky, keeps things ticking along without ever truly dragging. Night of the Big Heat also benefits from some excellent set design (the pub looks just like the sort of locations I dream of most nights!) and tight editing, along with the usual solid direction from Fisher and superb performances by most of the cast.

Ah, sweet Christopher Lee. Even as a grumpy professor, you still rock my world. He paces about, lecturing one and all, and is extraordinary as the unlikable but intelligent and lonely character Hanson. The character is so effective at controlling scientific situations and technology that he cannot seem to comprehend why people should not automatically follow his every command. But the disagreeable nature does not prevent the viewer rooting for him to save the day – his observations and curious behaviour gives the dwindling number of survivors something to work with, and he tips them off as to the threat in the first place. His death makes the desperation of the remaining characters escalate to near madness, and creates a genuine sense that all has been lost. It strikes me as a unique role within a fine acting career. Odd, then, that he does not seem to appreciate this fact now, expressing some discomfort not just with the film (which is better than most such efforts he appeared in) but an interesting role that gave him some room to show his range again.

Peter Cushing gets very little screen time – although he easily becomes the gentle focus of attention whenever he appears on screen - and it is shocking to an unsuspecting viewer to learn he barely make it two thirds of the way into the movie before his character starts waiting around to see what that creepy noise is. His death is the first to shatter the cast into obvious panic.

It is rather odd for both Cushing and Lee characters to die before the end of a film. I cannot think of another film where this has happened.

The rest of the cast are generally excellent, although Patrick Allen is unfortunate enough to be playing such a cranky and self-concerned hero that he does rather grate whenever he is on screen. Jane Merrow could very easily have let her character been a one note, eye candy providing bitch – but there is an emotion behind her eyes that makes her both vulnerable and determined, which means she more than holds her own against the other actors and actresses. Initially a predatory stalker, the character of Angela swiftly realises she is up against a very determined wife, that the object of their affections is too difficult to attract the attention of, and then suffers an attempted rape, the heat, and then the understanding that they are under attack from aliens. Small wonder she starts losing her mind – although she finds herself comforted in the arms of another man by the end of the film.

Basically, slutty Angela is one of the most entertaining characters in the history of film, and is well worth a look for straight male sci-fi nerds. Enjoy!

One more positive to mention – the bombastic soundtrack is wonderfully overblown, and a classic piece of work from the funky times in which it was created. I absolutely adore it and have had trouble getting it back out of my head again.

The film does have some flaws. A few quick observations about the plot; the meteorological office should be far more curious about developments than they are, Hanson could really use a back story to explain how he came to be involved in events, and the interesting character of a weepy sheep farmer might look like he could have an important role to play, but he just disappears from the films, never to return. Did the aliens mean to attack the island and kill the humans? These all suggest that something more was planned, but not filmed. Since this film was an adaptation, I am tempted to seek a copy of the book out to see what changes were made.

As with most of science fiction films of the sixties, a low budget was not used to justify restricting either the concept or the general craft of the film, but everything is slightly let down by the need for plenty of talk (however good the dialogue) to save money for what rarely, if ever, ends up being an impressive special effects climax. There is a brief action break whenever the audience could feel like they have been drowning in dialogue, but this rarely raises much above one character staring past camera, gawping, falling over and screaming. Even a woman burning alive is suggested by a distant shot of a static flame and an actress screaming on the soundtrack. The effect is rarely intrusive when watching the film – the dialogue is snappy and there is so much of it that even a weak break from it proves diverting – but even Fisher is unable to cover over all the cracks, and the low level of action in the first three quarters of the film feel like more of a disappointment after the film has ended.

The aliens seemingly cost a few pence and took a few minutes to make - they look like oversized Jelly Tots with a flashlight inside – so very cheaply made and so stupid in appearance as to be almost, but not quite, laughable. The film delays showing them for at least 90% of the running time though, for which we should all be rather thankful (given the terrified reactions of the earliest victims though, the eventual appearance of them is still rather unfortunate), The alien make a bass sound that just about, but not quite, sustains the element of fear even after the viewer sees them.

I think the strengths greatly outweigh the problems here, but I can understand how let down some viewers may be by the rather rushed feel of the ending, dispensing with all the great dramatic tension that been built up. Indeed, the biggest problem here is the abrupt and poorly thought out conclusion, where the pacing suddenly goes completely mental. Everything is roaring towards an unfortunate end to all the cast, desperation giving into a frustrated, screaming failure. Then things get stormy in a different way and everything is fine again. Hmmmm. Perhaps financial issues or overrun on the filming schedule led to this, but it rivals the similarly great Howl’s Moving Castle example for slapping everything together in a very “will this do?” manner for the last twenty or so seconds (I-was-he-all-along-will-you-marry-me-no-ok-never-mind-goodbye-moving-on-quick-hug-haha!-credits).

Personally, I find something quite darkly comic in the utterly out of the blue revelation as to how the aliens can be defeated, especially since (a) it suggests nothing the people were doing or could logically thought to do would have saved them from the aliens anyway and (b) the poor aliens landed close to a radar centre that happened to be located in one of the worst countries in the world for the aliens to visit. That said, the twist means more here than in the likes of the M. Night Shyamalan film Signs.

This is a film that genuinely deserves a big budget, traditional style of remake. I fear at least a hundred films less deserving of such attention are ahead of it on various production lists though. The Night of The Big Heat is corny, cheesy, largely talky, and slow and cheap – it is also one of the better sci-fi films from the period, and deserves far more recognition than it gets.

Grade C+ (Take The Time)