The Damned

The Damned - 1963 | 96 mins | Science-Fiction | B&W

The Production Team

Director: Joseph Losey.
Producer: Anthony Hinds.
Script: Evan Jones and H.L. Lawrence. (from the story Children of the Light)
Cinematography: Arthur Grant.
Editing: Reginald Mills.
Art Direction: Don Mingaye.
Production Design: Bernard Robinson.
Costume Design: Molly Arbuthnot.
Make-up: Roy Ashton and Frieda Steiger.
Sound: Malcolm Cooke and Jock May.
Original Music: James Bernard.

The Cast

Macdonald Carey - Simon Wells
Shirley Ann Field - Joan
Oliver Reed - King
Alexander Knox - Bernard
Walter Gotell - Major Holland
Viveca Lindfors - Freya Neilson
Kit Williams - Henry
Rachel Clay - Victoria
James Villiers - Captain Gregory
Tom Kempinski - Ted
Kenneth Cope - Sid
Brian Oulton - Mr. Dingle
James Maxwell - Mr. Talbot
Caroline Sheldon - Elizabeth

Plot Synopsis

The Damned is a not entirely successful adaptation of H.L. Lawrence's novel The Children of Light, which had actually been made back in 1961, but had been held up by Columbia - who didn't release it in America until 1965, minus ten minutes of footage.

Director Joseph Losey and writer Evan Jones fashioned an intellectually chilling story of a group of children reared in an artificial, radioactive world by scientist Bernard (Alexander Knox), who hopes to enable them to survive in the aftermath of an atomic war. The children are discovered in a cave under a nearby military base by young couple Simon (MacDonald Carey) and Joan (Shirley Ann Field), both are on the run from Joan’s brother King (Oliver Reed), the leader of a violent motorcycle gang. The cold-blooded children have all become radioactive during the blundered experiment and unwittingly kill anyone who comes into unguarded contact with them. Simon and Joan free the youngsters and are unwittingly exposing themselves to massive doses of radiation. The climax sees the scientist and the military recapturing the children as a helicopter hovers over a small boat containing the young couple, waiting for them to die.