The Gamma People (1956)

An American reporter smells a story when he is stranded in an Iron Curtain country where the local dictator is using gamma rays to transform children into mutated henchmen.

Director:

John Gilling

Writers:

John W. Gossage (screenplay), John Gilling (screenplay),

Stars:

Paul Douglas, Eva Bartok, Leslie Phillips

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Paul Douglas	...	Mike Wilson
Eva Bartok	...	Paula Wendt
Leslie Phillips	...	Howard Meade
Walter Rilla	...	Boronski
Philip Leaver	...	Koerner
Martin Miller	...	Lochner
Michael Caridia	...	Hugo Wendt
Pauline Drewett	...	Hedda Lochner
Jocelyn Lane	...	Anna (as Jackie Lane)
Olaf Pooley	...	Bikstein
Rosalie Crutchley	...	Frau Bikstein
Leonard Sachs	...	Telegraph Clerk
Paul Hardtmuth	...	Hans (as Paul Hardmuth)
Cyril Chamberlain	...	Graf
St. John Stuart	...	1st Goon

Storyline

An American reporter smells a story when he is stranded in an Iron Curtain country where the local dictator is using gamma rays to transform children into mutated henchmen.

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Plot Keywords:

gamma ray | reporter | american | iron curtain | dictator | 

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Taglines:

Gamma-Ray Creatures Loose!

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Genres:

Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English German

Release Date:

December 1956 (USA)

Also Known As:

La gente gamma

Filming Locations:

MGM British Studios, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warwick Film Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

79 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Goofs

When the train car becomes decoupled, the car with the two men is now supposedly traveling backwards. However, the scenery visible in the window is still moving in the same direction - it should have changed direction with the travel of the train car.

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Quotes

[looking at the castle]
Mike Wilson: Sinister looking dump isn't it.

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Connections

Referenced in Daria: Psycho Therapy (2000)

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Soundtracks

"Traumerei"
(uncredited)
Music by Robert Schumann

User Reviews

A Head Shaker...A Mind Melter

This one will leave your head spinning like an Ed Wood film. It is a surreal stew of so many styles and symbolism that a reference point is reticent.

Ten years after WWII the fascist fear was forever present. Here we have science-fiction mind control based on factual events that instill a real life horror and remembrance of a not too long ago plague of pathology.

Hitler youth, enslavement encampment, and a mad scientist are at work here along with foreign journalists and feather headed throwbacks in this offbeat and mind-boggling concoction that almost but doesn't quite work.

The movie also, for some reason, throws in a bit of slapstick humor and coy dialog that got lost on its way to some other film and found its way into this sometimes sombre scenario of tortured children and monstrous and zombified men who were victims of the villains.

The result is a jigsaw made up of pieces from different puzzles. Interesting and never dull, but occasionally so twisted and ill fitting that one is left with a jaw dropping experience that will have you shaking your head, and that just might be the effect of that mind-melting gamma ray gun.