Running on empty… The Body Stealers (1969)

You could argue that this film makes the most of its obviously limited budget and it does feel as if they either used up the funding too quickly or had it cut abruptly! At the start we see parachutists in the air, helicopters taking off and landing and a variety of locations but, as the story progresses we spend more and more time in studio. Dialogue and not special effects leads the way and even the alien spaceship had to be rented from the Daleks*.

But there’s a quality cast who do their best to keep things going, hampered as they are by a patchy plot that desperately wants to achieve far more than it actually does. You can’t really dislike such a film: its intentions are good and it does have some splendid sixties skirts, cardigans and slacks along with shots of the Red Arrows to redeem itself even if its ideas eventually collapse in on themselves due to a lack of aliens with motivation…

Watching parachutes

Things start promisingly enough as a group of military top brass led by General Armstrong (George Sanders) gather to watch a test dive for some revolutionary new parachutes designed by Jim Radford (Neil Connery brother of Sean…). All is going well until there’s a glow in the sky and the three men completely disappear leaving their back backs and chutes to fly to earth without them.

Top brass

It’s a situation the government wants to keep as quiet as possible and as the men gather in government offices they are left in no doubt by Hindsmith (Allan Cuthbertson) that answers must be found before any fuss is made. Hindsmith is an archetypal smug man of power who seems to view his hapless secretary, Joanna (Sally Faulkner – who featured in the classic Doctor Who serial, The Invasion – another link!) as part of his rights and privileges.

Allan Cuthbertson and Sally Faulkner

An investigation is duly launched but before long abduction takes place, this time in full view at a crowded airshow. There’s some great stock footage of the Hawker Hunter era Red Arrows followed by one of the film’s few special effects as a parachutist is zapped by a heat beam before vanishing.

A special effect

As the crisis grows it is decided that freelancer Bob Megan (dynamically-voiced Patrick Allen) is the best bet for reaching a swift conclusion without too much fuss… Jim finds him enjoying an amorous picnic with a young blonde called Paula (Carol Hawkins) having flown to the middle of nowhere… Bob’s twin passions being “birds” and aviation.

Patrick Allen and Carol Hawkins

Bob agrees to help his mate especially when he discovers that he knows many of the missing men: all of them highly trained parachutists and flyers. He is taken to a NATO research facility where he meets the scientists leading the analysis, Dr. Matthews (Maurice Evans) and Julie Slade (Hilary Dwyer) with whose biology he immediately takes a concern. Interesting point on the sixties mind-set here: sexual combativeness seems to have acted as a signifier of heroic tendencies… and Mr. Bond, I blame you.

Bob sets his sights on the attractive scientist... (Neil realises it's all Sean's fault...)

Doctor Slade rebuffs Bob’s efforts to establish how she’s “doin’” and tries hard to keep in on the point and it’s now that the talking really begins as the action shifts to focus on the research facility. Doctor Matthews hints at possible interstellar intervention whilst one of the missing men is found, his body chemistry altered and with a radiation level high enough to power a small nuclear submarine.

Meanwhile Bob has taken up digs in a local pub at which he shares a few doubles with a landlord called Mrs. Thatcher (Shelagh Fraser) – if only she could have been snatched and used to replace the other Mrs. T… the school milk would still have been taken away but it would have been replaced by gin.

Lorna Wilde

From the pub Bob goes on a late night walk along the beach where he encounters an ethereal beauty staring out at space and the sea. She is Lorna (Lorna Wilde) and, in addition to being a woman of obvious mystery is unable to resist Bob’s charming directness… the two embrace before she picks herself up and runs away… Bob and Lorna meet again the next evening and she happier to linger longer… there’s something strange about her and not just her instant attraction to Bob’s knitwear…

Don't worry, Julie's only being knocked mildly unconscious...

The team investigates the parachutes finding similar levels of radiation… and then the chutes go missing after Julie is knocked unconscious…. But still the mystery seems as big as ever although the situation is now so serious that it is ruining Hindsmith’s ability to concentrate on his extra-curricular activities involving Joanna who, disappointed for some reason, tells him to look elsewhere for extra tea and biscuits.

The answer – it seems – is to send Bob up in a special radiation-proof costume to see if he can avoid the teleportation and discover more about the process and the people involved.

Bob is assailed by alien rays!

Whilst this ramps the tension up from “de-frost” to simmer, it hardly brings things to the boil: Bob is duly assailed by the red rays but survives the jump in order to tell the tale and to land himself in brave convalescence nursed by Julie… but events are moving quickly now and they just might be onto something…shocking!

Dusty verdict: Gerry Levy directs this patchy affair with efficiency – probably his only way forward in the circumstances and his actors keep straight faces in their attempt to make a drama out of the crisis of the script. The music by Reg Tilsey is also good value; providing dramatic impetus when the lack of effects begins to intrude…

Patrick Allen and George Sanders

 Patrick Allen strides manfully through his scenes and is a believable hero if an unconventional love interest. Neil Connery looks a lot like brother Sean but he cannot act like him even though he does well. Sanders, Cuthbertson and Evans provide solid character-acting whilst the array of pretty actresses from Sally to Lorna and Hilary all manage to bring some trace sense of being more than just adornments to the plot.

Hilary Dwyer

As I said The Body Stealers is not an unlikeable film and is ideal - undemanding - rainy afternoon viewing when you want to be taken back to a time when technology was more respected and the future was approaching with far greater certainty than it is now…

The film is now available on good value DVD from Odeon Entertainment from MovieMail or Amazon – but I think I’ll keep hold of my old VHS.

*Re-used from the Doctor Who film Daleks Invasion Earth: 2150AD

The Red Arrows!

A woman of mystery...

Joanna's had enough...

Neil impersonates Sean...

Stranger on the shore

Spot the difference: Dalek ship on the right

Play in a day… Secrets (1971)

Director Philip Saville main background had been in television plays and had pushed the technical boundaries by mixing film and video in support of a more flexible camera work within studio space as well as for external shooting.

This explains why Secrets feels  very much like a sauced-up Play for Today with a good deal of the action shot in tight focus on the main players giving an almost claustrophobic feel although there are some key sequences in London in and around Hyde Park… The film has had a limited release and has been noted chiefly for Jacqueline Bisset’s protracted nude scene but there’s far more to the film than this… really!

Jacqueline Bisset

The story takes place over a single, pivotal day in the lives of the Wood family. Allan Wood (Robert Powell) is a struggling actor who, realising his time is up, has decided on a career change and a move into the bold new world of computer programming. His relationship with his wife Jennifer (Bisset) is under extreme pressure: they married young with their daughter Judy (Tarka Kings) evidence of the reason why…

Under pressure

Pushing 30 with money worries and no career of her own, she makes a dispiriting trip to the laundrette with Judy a girl of about ten who has the look of someone used to caring for themselves… So it proves as Jennifer leaves her to her own devices and goes off for a walk to clear her head.

She heads towards Hyde Park and is spotted by a bearded man driving a Rolls Royce. He can’t take his eyes off this woman and Saville’s camera cleverly follows the car’s twists and turns as its driver tries to keep track of her movements.

Per Oscarsson and Jacqueline Bisset

Eventually he pulls up and walks over to talk… he is Raoul Kramer (Per Oscarsson) a Swedish textile millionaire and, after failing to win Jennifer over with a request for directions ot Stone Henge he hands her his card asking for her to call him…

By the time he has got back to his Rolls his car phone is ringing (yes even in 1970) and it’s Jennifer. He goes back to meet her and the couple end up going back to his house…

Meanwhile young Judy has started helping a young man Raymond (Thomas Ellice as Martin C. Thurley) wash his clothes at the laundrette – she travels with him back to the garden he is due to tend – his sister’s.

Robert Powell

Allan is having adventures of his own after completing the verbal interview he is now sitting the written paper under the watchful eye of pretty personnel officer Beatrice (Shirley Knight). He struggles with the questions, obviously intelligent but short on focus. Beatrice explains that mostly they are looking for conformists but that there is always room for more maverick mind sets…

Shirley Knight

And so the day goes as Jenny finds out that Raoul’s fascination is based on her resemblance to his late wife who died of cancer before the birth of their second child. He is still clearly heartbroken and has thrown himself into business. Raoul is continually interrupted by important business phone calls and as she explores his plush house and his sad past, Jenny finds his wife’s clothes still were she left them…

The empty life of a millionaire...

Judy is getting on with gardening with Raymond a diffident young man who seems harmless enough. His sister is a painter and he is at pains to make sure that the youngster doesn’t trespass into her workshop. Whilst his back is turned Judy sneaks in and hides, he finds her and she clings onto him as children do… confused by the contact he tries to kiss her, recoiling in horror when he realises what he’s done. He offers Judy a plant if she will keep their secret trying to make light but also to bind her to silence through apparent kindness.

Raymond is shocked with himself

This is a shocking sequence and I’m not sure what it means in the context of the girl’s parents: is it their fault she’s not better prepared and specifically, Jenny should have been on duty but she’s off finding herself and someone else…

Allan goes for a drink with Beatrice and ends up back at the nervous young woman’s flat providing her with neck massage to help calm her down. There’s an attraction between them even as they discuss fidelity and the state of his marriage.

Jacqueline Bisset

Meanwhile out of pity and attraction, Jenny makes herself up as Raoul’s wife and, once he has discovered this impossible doppelganger in his bedroom the two make “mad passionate love” in that early seventies way… I can see why Ms Bisset may frown on this aspect of the film as it’s a fairly lengthy and lingering event. It does perhaps show the depth of his loss and her compassion.

Consciously coupled

Allan and Beatrice have also moved things on  but I’m not sure they consummate their relationship – Allan offers her comfort and, as with Raoul and Jenny, you get the feeling that the “givers” have awoken something in themselves. This is how they can help each other – they have love left over in the course of their routines.

The family return home with gifts which they pass on to each other: Allan with Beatrice’s silver pill box (she may need them less, she hopes…), Jenny with a roll of finest cloth (something Raoul had been saving for his wife) and Judy with the plant.

Happy families?

All seems well as Allan reads the bedtime story although Judy turns her mouth away when he pecks her goodnight… something now makes her wary of male attention: is this a lesson learned, an awakening or just confusion she’ll suppress for ever?

Allan and Jenny go to bed and realise their love for each other is renewed… have they regained their focus after their altruistic sexual adventures and like their daughter learned the distinction between love and physical desire. I think Jenny should spend more time with Judy.

Dusty Verdict: Saville went on to great success on screens both small and large with his CV including The Boys from the Black Stuff and The Life and Loves of a She-Devil along with many films in a career stretching from the 1950s to 2000s. This film deserves more attention than it has had or at least credit where its due for its unusual structure and themes.

It's not available on DVD so guess I'll have to stick with my old VHS...