You have to be taught to leave us alone. – Village of the Damned (1960)
Village of the Damned (1960) – Still Creeps Us Out Today
Imagine an entire village falls unconscious in the same instant, Men, women, and children collapsing where they stand. Hours later, they awaken to find every woman of childbearing age mysteriously pregnant. Months pass, and the children who arrive are anything but normal. With glowing eyes, a hive mind, and a chilling lack of empathy, they radiate menace from the moment they’re born. This isn’t simply a story of invasion; it’s a warning about fear of the unknown, the fragility of human society, and how innocence itself can be twisted into the most dangerous weapon of all.
Hello to all of the classic people who are returning. I am glad you are back. I want to welcome any new visitors and let you know there will be spoilers ahead. Today on Classic Movie Review, we are taking on Village of the Damned (1960).
On IMDb.com, this film has a decent 7.3 rating[1]. On RottenTomatoes.com, the film has a great 93 percent rating on the Tomatometer and 78 percent audience approval[2]. In the part of the review that is accessible online, New York Times film critic Howard Thompson said in a December 8, 1960, review:
“’Village of the Damned,’ which arrived yesterday at neighborhood theatres, doesn’t rank with the horror classics of the screen, not by a mile-long, werewolf’s whisker. But as a quietly civilized exercise on the fear and power of the unknown this picture is one of the trimmest, most original and serenely unnerving little chillers in a long time.”[3]
I remembered this movie as being darn scary when I saw it as a youth. However, it is not your average monster ripper. It takes a more subtle view, as the attacker slips in when you are not looking. And that’s the really scary part.
Actors – Village of the Damned (1960)
Returning
Michael Gwynn played Alan Bernard, a military man who is also the brother-in-law of Gordon Zellaby and brother of Anthea Zellaby. I first mentioned Gwynn in The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958), where he played the reanimated Karl in a new body. But I knew him from somewhere else. He looks similar to the British actors who said “madness, madness,” or similar in a few other movies. But that’s James Donald, from The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957). It turns out he was the Greek god Hermes in the absolutely fantastic Jason and the Argonauts (1963).
Peter Vaughan has a small role as P.C. Gobby. I recognized him from his very short role as the drunken miner in The Razor’s Edge (1984), and there is a link below.
New
George Sanders played Gordon Zellaby, a professor, the stepfather to an alien, the liaison with the military, and the village leader. Sanders was born in 1906 to English parents in St. Petersburg, Russian Empire. He is the brother of actor Tom Conway, with whom he shared roles in the Falcon movie series.
The family left Russia when the revolution began. As an adult in England, Sanders worked in a few industries before landing in advertising. His precise diction and upstanding manner would have been assets in that career.
Sanders was in the cabaret, radio, and finally the theater. In 1936, maybe 1934, he made his film debut. In the 1930s, Sanders appeared in Lloyd’s of London (1936), Allegheny Uprising (1939), Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939), and The Saint Strikes Back (1939), the first of many roles as Simon Templer. He boomed in the 1940s, with Rebecca (1940), Foreign Correspondent (1940), The Gay Falcon (1941), the first Falcon role before he turned it over to his brother, Tom Conway, The Black Swan (1942), Hangover Square (1945), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), as the perfect cad, Lured (1947), There is a link below, the Otto Preminger directed Forever Amber (1947), with the beautiful Linda Darnell, and Samson and Delilah (1949).
The 1960s saw him in All About Eve (1950), Ivanhoe (1952), as a stinker, The Scarlet Coat (1955), Noir Horror The Seventh Sin (1957), the campy From the Earth to the Moon (1958), A Touch of Larceny (1960), and today’s film, Village of the Damned (1960).
Sander was a bad redcoat in television’s “Daniel Boone” 1964, he was on “Batman” 1966 for three episodes as Mister Freeze, and one of my favorite movie roles of his was the voice of Shere Khan the tiger in Disney’s The Jungle Book (1967). Look at the movie, as the tiger is drawn to look like Sanders.
Oddly, in his personal life, his first and third wives were sisters, Magda Gabor and Zsa Zsa Gabor. In 1937, Sanders confided in actor David Niven that he planned to take his own life when he was older. In 1972, just short of his 66th birthday, Sanders died by suicide in Barcelona, Spain.
Barbara Shelley played Anthea Zellaby, Alan’s sister, David’s mother, and much too young and gorgeous to be Gordon’s wife. Shelly was born in England in 1932. This beauty began modeling at 19. This soon led to acting roles in Italy beginning in the mid-1950s. In a search for better roles, she returned to England.
Shelly appeared in The Little Hut (1957), a light-hearted sex farce. She was noticed among the stellar cast from the film. Cast in a horror role as the title, Cat Girl (1957), she found her lane. She began working for Hammer Studios and was later known as the First Leading Lady of British Horror and the Queen of Hammer.
Other films include The Camp on Blood Island (1958), Blood of the Vampire (1958), today’s film, Village of the Damned (1960), The Shadow of the Cat (1961), The Gorgon (1964), The Secret of Blood Island (1965), Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966), and Quatermass and the Pit (1967). With film work waning, Shelly turned to television for the remainder of her acting career.
In retirement, Shelly worked at movie conventions. She suffered a stroke in 2007 and attended her last con in 2019. She passed away in 2021 in England.
Martin Stephens was cast as David Zellaby, the son of Barbara and Gordon’s step-alien. As the son of the film’s stars, he was the spokesman for the other children. Stephens was born in England in 1949. Along with his sisters Judy and Sally, he was a child actor in 1950s-60s England.
His best-known films include A Touch of Larceny (1960), today’s film, Village of the Damned (1960), both of which starred George Sanders; The Innocents (1961), and The Battle of the Villa Fiorita (1965). As an adult, Stephens left the acting profession. He studied architecture in Ireland and worked professionally in England. He is still alive.
Laurence Naismith played Doctor Willers and the advisor to Gordon. Naismith is a British character actor you see in a lot of films. He was born in 1908 in England. As an adult, he worked in the Merchant Marines until he began working on the London stage in 1927. About three years later, he joined the Bristol Repertory, where he remained until World War II began.
Naismith served for nine years in the Royal Artillery before returning to the stage. He had his first film role in 1948. I won’t say he had a better film career than the other actors discussed in this review, but he had many small parts in movies that piqued my interest. The films include Vampire Over London (1952), a vampire comedy with Bela Lugosi, The Dam Busters (1955), a good war film, Lust for Life (1956), with Kirk Douglas as Van Gogh, The Man Who Never Was (1956), another good war movie, The World of Suzie Wong (1960), my second or third favorite William Holden film, today’s movie Village of the Damned (1960), Sink the Bismarck! (1960), another sharp war movie, Greyfriars Bobby: The True Story of a Dog (1961), an interesting tale, see what I did, that you should look up, but if you don’t, I talked about it in The Body Snatcher (1945), and there is a link for that, Jason and the Argonauts (1963), as the not so young guy, Cleopatra (1963), The Valley of Gwangi (1969), with dinosaurs, Bond film Diamonds Are Forever (1971), and the pretty good as I remember, Young Winston (1972).
After retiring, Naismith moved to Australia, where he ran a pub. Naismith died in Australia in 1992 after a long convalescence.
Story – Village of the Damned (1960)
The perfect English village is shown. Midwich is idyllic and picture perfect. Elder gentleman Gordon Zelleby (George Sanders) is on the phone with his brother-in-law Alan Bernard (Michael Gwynn). Alan is planning to visit the village and will be on leave from the military. Suddenly, Gordon collapses to the floor.
Throughout the village, people drop as they pass out. A few cars crash, and the bell tower stops at ten minutes to eleven. Why did they come at an odd time? This threw me off a bit. Alan becomes concerned when he can’t reestablish the call. He asks his commander for and is granted permission to begin his leave early. Alan mentions that one of the brigades is maneuvering in the area and will reach out for help.
Alan is driving to the village when he passes a local policeman, Gobby (Peter Vaughan), biking in the same direction. Gobby is investigating a late bus. When the pair continues, they soon find the bus has crashed by the side of the road. Gobby, seeing all of the bodies slumped over, goes forward to investigate. As soon as he gets close to the bus, he passes out as well.
Realizing there are major problems, Alan goes to another town and calls his commander for help. Soon, the area is surrounded by military, police, and stranded travelers. The Army men are probing the boundary with caged carneys hanging from long poles. When the birds pass out, the boundary is marked. Holy carney in a coal mine. As soon as the birds are pulled back over the line, they recover.
There is a “Beware of Children” sign in the background.
Still trying to reach the bus crash site, a military volunteer dons a gas mask. The others tie a rope around his waist. As soon as the volunteer walks past the boundary, he passes out. The other soldiers use the rope around his waist to pull him back. These guys are smarter than the guys I served with. Oh man, how we gonna get Bobby back?
After watching the volunteer pass out and be pulled back, local doctor Dr Willers (Laurence Naismith) examines the soldier. Dr. Willers finds nothing wrong with the man, aside from the patient’s report of extreme cold.
The Army sends a plane over the town. The pilot reports that there is no movement in the village. They ask the pilot to fly lower. When he approaches the ground, the pilot passes out and crashes in a field.
The military men are formulating a plan when people in and around the bus start waking up. People throughout the village of Midwich are shown waking and standing. They are all dazed.
Anthea Zellaby (Barbara Shelley) wakes from what began as a nap before the attack. She finds her confused husband Gordon in the den. She asks why he let her sleep until almost 3 p.m. Gordon thinks he fell asleep on the floor, and they both report being very cold.
Alan arrives at the house and is happy to find his sister, Anthea, and his brother-in-law, Gordon, safe and awake. He explains what little they know about the force field or barricade. Military personnel in protective gear examine the village and its inhabitants. They find nothing wrong, and life quickly returns to normal in the small village.
Shortly afterwards, Gordon is invited to London to meet with officials about the incident. Still having no clue as to what happened, they have little idea what to look for in long-term effects. Alan asks Gordon to monitor the village for anything unusual. They have kept the incident quiet in the press.
When Gordon returns from London, Anthea announces that she is pregnant. Great, playing catch in the backyard with a toddler when you’re 70! Gordon is substantially older than Anthea.
Doctor Willer begins getting visits from pregnant women. Some of the younger ones claim to be virgins. But that’s a hard story to sell. I saw a Civil War Minie ball in a museum in Mississippi that produced an immaculate conception. The woman’s story is that the bullet must have traveled through a man’s testicle before hitting her in the uterus.
At another house, a woman is pregnant, despite her husband having been at sea for a year. Concerned by all the pregnancies, Gordon and Dr. Willers visit the town vicar. Under pressure and against his vows, the vicar says he knows of three additional pregnancies, with one girl being only 15. Dr. Willer soon realizes that all the women capable of bearing children are pregnant, and the conceptions date back to the day of the mysterious event.
Fetal development progresses rapidly, reaching 7 months by the 5th month. Anthea has a freak out about possibly carrying an alien child that is not her husband’s. Gordon takes it all in stride. A little bit of a Frankenstein vibe is going on here, wondering if your child will be a monster.
The women all go into labor around the same time. Anthea’s baby is a normal boy with weird glowing eyes and strange fingernails. They name him David, and he is one of twelve children born in the village.
Four months later, Dr. Willers examines a hair sample from David and finds it normal. However, the child is at an 18-month developmental level.
One day, a commotion is heard in David’s nursery. Anthea places her hand in a pot of boiling water. It seems she was punished for giving the child a bottle whose milk was too hot.
After a year, toddler David can spell his name with blocks and other things a child that age should not be able to do. Gordon gives the toddler a Chinese puzzle box that, if opened correctly, reveals a chocolate. David easily opens the box. Gordon takes the box to a neighbor’s house, and that child opens it quickly.
When a third child is being tested, an older stepbrother steals the box. The third child’s eyes glow, and the older sibling mechanically returns the box.
As the years pass, the children’s group becomes inseparable. They dress alike and stand close together to communicate mentally and read others’ minds. It’s all very goth-like. David (Martin Stephens) is clearly the group’s leader.
Around the three-year mark after the incident, Gordon is invited to London for a special conference concerning the children. Gordon believes the kids need to be taught morals. Alan is getting increasingly concerned about Gordon’s laissez-faire attitude. The group tells Gordon that other groups of children were born at the same time.
In Australia, the children died within 10 hours of birth. That’s a wild and dingo-infested place. In Mongolia and Greenland, the tribal communities killed the children shortly after their birth. There are rules for a reason. The group in the Soviet Union is being educated, giving the only hint of the Cold War in this film.
Scientists at the meeting speculate on reasons for the occurrence. One thinks a beam from outer space may have hit them, while another thinks this may be some form of human evolution, like the X-Men mutants.
A child drowns after having a run-in with the children, and many of the villagers feel the children are to blame for the death. Gordon maintains that the children should be studied and helped. Gordon recommends that they all be housed at a single location, and the committee agrees to give him another 12 months.
The children are housed at the school, and Gordon is their teacher. They no longer hide the fact that they can read minds. Gordon asks about outer space, but David advises against asking such questions.
Anthea sees one of the children almost get hit by a car. She is safe. There is also a sign saying, “Beware the Children.” When the man gets out of the car, the children huddle and control his mind, forcing him to drive the car into a wall, killing the man. When Anthea is asked to testify, her memory is scrambled.
The dead driver’s brother brings a shotgun to kill the children. Gordon tries to stop him. When the children see the man with the gun, they control his mind, forcing him to shoot himself. Gordon is beginning to catch a clue about what he has gotten himself into.
Gordon and Alan are discussing the issue when they receive word that the Russians have nuked their village, where the children were killing everyone. The villagers become enraged and set out to attack the children Frankenstein-style with torches and pitchforks. David confronts the mob leader. At the same time, the children force the mob leader to set himself on fire.
Alan goes into the school to talk to his nephew, and the children are aware of the Russian attack. David tells Alan that the group must live. He then takes control of Alan’s mind and drives home the point about survival. Later, when he is found, Dr. Willers examines Alan and finds him to be in a state of catastrophic shock.
David goes to the home and tells Gordon they are leaving so they can spread out for protection. He then assigns Gordon several tasks related to their future movement. After David leaves, Gordon finally realizes how dangerous the children are and begins to formulate a plan to use a mental brick wall to protect his mind from being read or controlled by the children.
An emotionally distant Gordon says goodbye to Alan and Anthea as they are leaving for London. Gordon builds a bomb before traveling to the school while focusing on the brick wall. When he enters, David knows something is wrong, but they can’t penetrate his mind.
On the road to London, Anthea realizes something is wrong and has Alan turn around.
They slowly break the mind block, but it is too late. The bomb explodes, killing Gordon and all the children. Anthea arrives in time to see the explosion.
Conclusion – Village of the Damned (1960)
One important note about the era. In a later interview, Barbara Shelley (Anthea) said the movie was misogynistic as the women gave birth to the children but were completely removed from any meaningful action involving their offspring.
The movie is based on a novel by John Wyndham, “The Midwich Cuckoos.” Cuckoos are birds that lay their eggs in the nests of other birds, shifting the parental duties to the other birds.
The 1960 movie is not the only version of the story. There is another film titled Children of the Damned (1964). This film has a 6.2 rating on IMDb.com[4] . As far as I know, I have not seen it, but the plot roughly goes that six alien children from different countries take refuge in an English church, and trouble ensues.
Also, Director John Carpenter released Village of the Damned (1995). I don’t remember ever watching it, but it is only rated 5.7 on IMDb.com[5] , so I won’t be tracking it down. With Carpenter and writer Stirling Silliphant, it should have been good, but the tale was never driven by explosions or blood. The film stars Christopher Reeve, my Superman, Kirstie Alley, Star Trek or “Cheers,” Linda Kozlowski, who was forced on us by Mick Dundee, good action actors Michael Paré, Meredith Salenger, the wolf girl Nattie Vance, if you are of that age, and Mark Hamill, still the best Jedi.
The children’s glowing eyes were created by overlaying a negative image of their eyes on the original image. The British Board of Film Classification considered this effect too frightening, and it was removed in the original English release.
World-Famous Short Summary – Beware the Cuckoos!
Beware the moors.
[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054443/
[2] Village of the Damned | Rotten Tomatoes
[3] Screen: Little Monsters in ‘Village of the Damned’; M-G-M Film Opens at Neighborhood Houses – The New York Times
