8mm Forum: The Gamma People

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Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on April 24, 2010, 10:12 AM:

Absolutely awful Columbia digest.

Director John Gilling has a number of his films available on 8mm (Plague of the Zombies, The Mummy’s Shroud, The Reptile, The Night Caller) but none suffer as much from poor editing as Columbia Pictures 8mm Films release of his 1956 feature “The Gamma People”.

On a train en route to Salzburg, American reporter Mike Wilson (Paul Douglas) and British photographer Howard Meade (Leslie Phillips) are so engrossed in playing chess and engaging in semi-amusing banter that they fail to notice their passenger coach has become detached from the rest of the train. The Columbia narrator, never the subtle type to begin with, actually tells us the car becomes uncoupled before it happens! He’s quite prescient throughout this entire digest, annoyingly informing us of events prior to their occurrence.

Mike & Howard

After smashing through a border crossing gate, the lone passenger car comes to a halt in the kingdom of Gudavia. Our two dumbfounded friends are arrested and jailed by the local militia led by Colonel Koerner (Philip Leaver). When the Colonel’s superior discovers that Mike and Howard are with the fourth estate, they are freed. Later, Mike and Howard witness a crowd running away from something (The narrator intones “The town runs wild!”) There is a rumor that a murder has been committed. The Colonel arrives to declare it was only an accident and he tells the pair that they have the honor of being invited to meet Boronski, their most celebrated citizen and educator, at his castle.

The evil Boronski

Mike and Howard meet Boronski (Walter Rilla). Now I have to stop here and say I have no real understanding of what happens next. The plot becomes totally incomprehensible. There’s a scene involving Howard taking a photo of a mask and Boronski telling a kid to steal the film. After leaving the castle, Mike sees a funeral procession and talks with the widow. She gives Mike a diary that her late husband took from Boronski. Mike reads the diary and tells Howard that Boronski has been using gamma rays to increase the intellect and abilities of the children of Gudavia. The gamma rays can create geniuses or imbeciles.
Of course they are unaware that they are being followed by Hugo, one of Boronski’s young test subjects. The military chases after our heroes, who escape and go to the castle (why?). Mike and a young woman (who?) are trapped and brought to Boronski’s lab where they will be exposed to gamma radiation.

Watch out! Gamma rays!

Howard storms the castle with angry townspeople. It is here that the gamma people finally show up. Men in black rush out to fight the villagers. Hugo calls Boronski over to take a look out the window at the approaching mob and he rebels against his master, tossing him off a ledge onto the gamma machinery saving Mike and the girl, and at the same time starting an out of control fire in the castle. Boronski is still alive and he fights with Mike. It is here that our psychic narrator returns to tell us “Boronski is destroyed.”, right before we see the scientist perish in the fire.
If you have difficulty understanding the previous paragraph, then we have something in common.

"Boronski is destroyed."

The first few minutes of the digest starts off promisingly, actually fairly funny, but for a movie about a scientist creating zombie type creatures, it would make sense to actually include footage of them! We never see the gamma people until the very end, and they are just a quick blur. They’re in the feature, just not in this digest. The edit uses way too much time to set things up, at the expense of the horror aspect of the film.

The print from Mountain (Columbia’s UK distributor) is dark and contrasty with soft definition. This was among the first wave of the studio’s 400’ releases in 1975 and it’s worth noting that Columbia did not include this title in their 1979 catalog. Columbia did a much better job with the somewhat similar “Creature with the Atom Brain”.

The survivors. Notice it's daylight here.....

...but in the reverse angle it's night! There's something peculiar about time in the land of Gudavia.

Doug

Posted by John Hourigan (Member # 111) on April 24, 2010, 11:04 AM:

Thanks, Doug -- great review of a terrible digest.

Another Columbia entry that takes way too much time to set up the plot for a 20-minute digest is SON OF JEKYLL. The Columbia narrator never shuts his yapper during the entire digest, and by the end of the digest, it's really not worth all the effort. It all adds up to an exhausting endeavor for what should be a simple 20-minute digest.

The narrator is pretty much the reason I stear clear of Columbia 400 footers -- and it's something I'd never show to an audience anyway. (However, 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH is a good digest, and the narrator isn't as obtrusive.)

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 25, 2010, 03:10 PM:

This is a first for this forum: I don't think anybody has ever had the guts to sit down and review a print that they don't like. I've done something like fifteen reviews so far, and when I read back through them I'm astounded by how many of them can be "my favorite".

Let us sing the praises of crap film: how often it is we suspect there's just something not quite right with that machine. All the perfect prints, all the rare ones and the ones that have any entertainment value at all won't ever step forward and take one for the team. It's every lousy, faded Ken Sound of Music and Niles...pretty much everything that dies a horrible, mangled death while we sort it out. It’s all they are good for!

So don't think of them as a waste of polyester: they are just film-heroes waiting for their time!

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 26, 2010, 06:41 PM:

Could this be one of those rare Ed Wood editions?

The bold rejection of continuity was his trademark!

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on April 27, 2010, 08:55 PM:

John & Steve,

Thanks. I don't know about guts, but it sure took perseverance. When I realized I'd have to watch that digest again to get the synopsis correct I almost gave up. It's much easier for me to write about a film I like. But.....someone has to warn unsuspecting collectors!

Doug

Posted by Paul Spinks (Member # 573) on April 28, 2010, 08:21 AM:

I love bad films. This review is great. Many thanks Doug. If I ever track down a print I will definitely buy it. The worst Super 8 film in my collection is the 4 X 400ft "The Mighty Gorgah." I love it but I have to watch it alone. Ah well....

Posted by Steve Klare (Member # 12) on April 28, 2010, 10:13 AM:

A bad print of a good film is a shame.

A good print of a bad film is a tragedy!

Posted by Gary Crawford (Member # 67) on April 28, 2010, 01:22 PM:

Always liked the Gamma People ....as a feature....I can't imagine trying to get it down to 17 minutes. I'm sure with imagination...some time spent with a creative editor who knows the film....it could be done. But yes..the Columbia folks really dropped the ball on this one. in all respects. For full appreciation of the film as a feature, I suggest you would have had to live your childhood in the scary fifties...as I did. The fear of the Communists...the fear of Russia in general....it was pervasive....and that's the kind of fear this film runs on. Without some perspective on the times...the paranoia that was rampant ....the Gamma People rather falls flat. It's pretty flat , anyway, but just good enough to warrant watching...even for a kid who saw it on TV in the early 60's.

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