Christopher
Lee Sci-Fi Special!
By
Kristin Battestella
Who
needs Count Dooku when you can revisit these preposterously retro
Christopher Lee science fiction adventures?
Night of the Big Heat –
Christopher Lee (Horror of Dracula)
and Peter Cushing (Curse of Frankenstein) anchor
director
Terence Fisher's (Frankenstein Created Woman)
1967 sci-fi island heat wave based on the John Lymington novel. Big
satellites, giant perimeter cameras, and spinning radar gizmos
immediately give this a decade too late feeling, and initially it's
tough to tell who is who among the British quaint. Snooping vagrants
mysterious killed and bespectacled scientist Lee checking his big
listening equipment are slow to start despite ominous swanky music
and sweet roadsters. The cars are overheating amid radio weather
reports of 90 F in winter and rising, oscillating fans, glistening
foreheads, and ice melting at the local inn. Buzzing sounds and
crackling noises over the phone acerbate wife versus bikini clad
secretary hostility, ogling men, and past dalliances. Ties are off,
ice is being dripped down the blouses, and people are leaning inside
the refrigerator. It doesn't cool off after dark, and the crazed
buzzing begats car accidents and explosions. Something is said to
land on the hill as dark room developments and then new infrared
photography gather proof for our novelist who doesn't believe in
extraterrestrials. Do they warn the villagers or would that cause a
panic? Beer bottles break in the heat while juicy kisses lead to
who's getting caught, rowdy assaults, and more fiery ends. The big
boob tube gets weird signals before blowing up, dogs are barking, and
a delirious farmer's sheep are killed, yet it's tough to tell if the
tension and now tame cigarette steamy are the main story or if the
underlying sci-fi build is the priority here. The increasingly
congested inn stifles with arguments about what to do – like who
are you supposed to contact anyway if you suspect an alien invasion?
More sweaty clothes and giant walkie talkies accent the look of fear
and victims' screams as the screen goes white, and it's nice that we
don't see the alien wither tos and why fors until attempts to contact
the mainland fail. Unfortunately, flashlights and dynamite plans to
divide and conquer get confusing before thunderstorms and an easy,
contrived end that really had no where to go. The staged, mid century
television design is fine, but the uneven hammy science and would be
saucy do a disservice to the compelling ensemble. It might have been
interesting had there been no explanation to the sci-fi or just a
heat induced killing spree, for all the postulating that our
satellites signals lured the extraterrestrials to come heat up the
earth feel tone deaf today considering how we
are
making the planet hotter right now with our own stupidity no aliens
needed. This is fun for the cast – if you can accept that this is
neither groundbreaking or actually all that steamy.
End of the World
– Pleas to use the telephone from Father Christopher Lee open this
1977 romp before sparks, broken windows, and explosions prevent the
call. The Spanish Mission convent and organ music peppering the score
contrast the then new Model 82 computers and dot matrix printouts as
our Communications Professor traces ominous space signals. These
beeping messages predict “Large Earth Disruption” as earthquakes,
droughts, volcanoes, and noxious cloud reports are heard on the radio
yet the Professor and his Mrs. fool around and go to a swanky banquet
while the viewer wonders if any of the driving to and fro or walking
through the NASA lab talking about lecture tours are important. Even
wife Sue Lyon (Lolita)
serves no purpose but to scream a few times. There are contamination
suits and pulsing crystals, light up gizmos, lots of techobabble, and
all of it could have been cut by time they get to the mission where
the signals are emanating amid prayers, roses, and nuns in black
gardening. Buzzing fences and flashing lights lead to secret bunker
men catching our couple, but all the scientists know each other so
it's all good! They trade some more sci-fi barbs before going back to
the mission, and it might have been better had we not seen the church
opening but only explored the convent with the professor and his
beeping gizmos as Father Christopher jokes that the signals are just
a nun's transistor radio. The entire premise could have been the
Professor snooping around the convent for SF unknown as technology
and religions clash, but you can't expect that much here. Grabby old
lady nuns attack in the dark – whisking victims to their
underground alien lair with advanced gadgets, colorful tubes,
whirring machinery, and flashing controls. Repairs needed to achieve
sub warp speed contrast Lee's white robes as he recites The Lord's
Prayer. He hesitates on “give in to temptation” and “deliver us
from evil” before escape attempts and fiery overkill amid
interstellar travel hyperbole, cloning, time warps, and murder. The
aliens are stuck on earth and desperate to get back to their own
utopia but need the Professor to fix their gear, so he sneaks back to
the lab for his snazzy crystal – wasting time going up and down
ladders, running in the dark, and blowing up the place with his
coworkers within. Oopsie! So much for being better than the killer
aliens just trying to get home amirite? Once we get to the alien
morality debates, the movie's over, and the whole story would have
been better from the extraterrestrial perspective. Now that they can
leave, the aliens intend to destroy earth for all the problems we
will cause in the galaxy, which is pretty much spoiled by the title.
At least the special effects while disaster befalls the planet and
the nuns peace out through the portal are pretty bemusing. With four
minutes of slow credits, this becomes eighty minutes of meandering
that could have been an interesting warning as a half hour anthology
episode. Instead, it's only enjoyable if you add some MST3K
lampooning.
To think, this came out the same year as Star
Wars.
