Village of the Damned (1960)

In the English village of Midwich, the blonde-haired, glowing-eyed children of uncertain paternity prove to have frightening powers.

Director:

Wolf Rilla

Writers:

Stirling Silliphant (screenplay), Wolf Rilla (screenplay)

Stars:

George Sanders, Barbara Shelley, Michael Gwynn

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
George Sanders	...	Gordon Zellaby
Barbara Shelley	...	Anthea Zellaby
Michael Gwynn	...	Major Alan Bernard
Laurence Naismith	...	Doctor Willers
John Phillips	...	General Leighton
Richard Vernon	...	Sir Edgar Hargraves
Jenny Laird	...	Mrs. Harrington
Thomas Heathcote	...	James Pawle
Martin Stephens	...	David Zellaby
Richard Warner	...	Harrington
Sarah Long	...	Evelyn Harrington
Charlotte Mitchell	...	Janet Pawle
Pamela Buck	...	Milly Hughes
Rosamund Greenwood	...	Miss Ogle
Susan Richards	...	Mrs. Plumpton

Storyline

In the small English village of Midwich everybody and everything falls into a deep, mysterious sleep for several hours in the middle of the day. Some months later every woman capable of child-bearing is pregnant and the children that are born out of these pregnancies seem to grow very fast and they all have the same blond hair and strange, penetrating eyes that make people do things they don't want to do.

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Plot Keywords:

village | english | weird pregnancy | knocked out | mind reading | 

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Taglines:

STRANGE STORY OF THE WEIRD CHILD-DEMONS! (original print ad-all caps)

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Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 December 1960 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Village of the Damned

Filming Locations:

Haberdashers' Aske's School, Aldenham Road, Elstree, Hertfordshire, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

$200,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer British Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

77 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Italian censorship visa # 33420 delivered on 23-11-1960.

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Goofs

Alan Bernard drives to Midwich on a clear, sunny day when he stops to talk to a policeman. But in the next shot of the road, it's overcast and misty.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Prof. Gordon Zellaby: [on telephone] Good morning. Uh, would you get me Major Bernard at his Whitehall number? Thank you.

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Alternate Versions

Also available in a computer colorized version.

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Connections

Referenced in Bridge of Spies (2015)

User Reviews

Them Their Eyes

A small countryside village in England experiences a time period of several hours where all living things lie lifeless and helpless. Anything living that connects within this sphere of lifelessness gets the like treatment. Everyone soon awakens from whatever happened, and soon the women of child-bearing years all get pregnant and are all due on the same day. Village of the Damned is one of those discerning, intelligent science fiction films of yesteryear that tends to leave much to your imagination in terms of gore and violence as well as make you think and ponder important questions about the limits with which humanity should go to procure knowledge. The children are decidedly very creepy as their eyes glow when they are angered. Martin Stephens as George Sanders' boy is particularly good as he looks and speaks with such class and distinction yet has the conscience of a cold-blooded, calculated killer. Sanders is also very good in his role as a man torn between bridging the field of knowledge with the unknown and protecting mankind from foreign/alien harm. His wife, played with credibility, is Hammer beauty Barbara Shelley. A great British science fiction film and certainly one of the more thought-provoking ones around.