A young man, in love with a woman who can never be his, discovers a way to fulfil his dreams. In their childhood the three were the best of friends, the perfect triangle. But years later when Lena returns to her sleepy home the tone of the relationship changes and it is Robin she loves. Bill has discovered a method of duplication and decides to make an exact replica of the woman he cannot have... .with disastrous consequences for them all.
四面三角, Четырехсторонний треугольник
USA
USA
Quaint little sci-fi romance, focusing on a love triangle that creates a machine capable of duplication. When two of them decide to get married, the other decides to create an exact replica of the woman he loves. The main problem with this is that it's a bit too quaint for its own good - successfully staying away from any lurid details. The "science" behind the machine is briefly glossed over, the whole duplication is mostly free of complications and once complete, the film doesn't interject the implications of the experiment into the actual love triangle itself, which really leaves the whole thing feeling a bit flat. There's some attempt at a commentary on relationships. You can't control how other people…
Spoilers ahead but they're in the LB summary anyway.
First of all, Four Sided Triangle is basically 80 minutes of "listen up, fives, a ten is speaking," because even put together, these two dudes aren't worthy of a single Barbara Payton (of whom there just happen to be two).
Second, this movie is absolutely wild. Starting out with two dorky boys (Bill and Robin, respectively played as adults by Stephen Murray and John Van Eyssen) and their galpal Lena, who grow up into two really boring men and, well, Barbara Payton, who is spectacular, the story quickly turns into a science show, with the dudes teaming up on a mysterious project. (Though she starts out fiercely independent and great, Lena…
"Four Sided Triangle" is an early Hammer film directed by Terence Fisher (who'd go on to be their premier director). It tells an interesting if slightly worn out story of a love triangle that goes wrong.
The simple romantic concept is infused with a "Weird Science" plot, as three childhood friends build a replicator, yeah, I know. However, when one of the scientists is put in the friendzone he decides to replicate his love interest leading to disastrous circumstances.
Again, this is going to be a short review as I really don't have much to say about this film. It's basically "Frankenstein" meets "Weird Science" and it's not that good. The characters are boring and don't have much personality. The…
Certainly a very charming earlyish Terence Fisher movie. But the plot leaves a lot to be desired. It's definitely a problem that it doesn't occur to anyone involved that when you clone a woman with all her memories and personality intact, she will still be in love with the same person as the original, and won't magically fall for her creator. I'm torn between thinking it's a deeply flawed woman-as-prize story and giving it the benefit of the doubt and thinking it's a skewering of precisely that kind of narrative - only the woman in question is so terribly pliant that that reading seems a stretch (plus the two men in the love triangle get to be scientists, while she…
“I didn’t ask to be born so I have the right to die.”
Hammer’s 1953 sci-fi drama Four Sided Triangle stars Barbara Payton as a childhood friend of two British scientists and the center of a love triangle hinted by the title of the film.
Directed by Terence Fisher who would become the stalwart at Hammer, the movie bounces along energetically, cast in retrospect from the experience of Dr. Harvey (James Hayter), an old friend of the young trio.
When Payton returns to England, the boys have been working on a replicator that can replicate absolutely anything, and she joins them as an assistant. When their success is imminent, she shows her preference for Robin (John Van Eyssen), which turns…
Science and the sublimation of sexual frustration is rarely a healthy combination. A nifty little early Hammer sci-fi film directed by Terence Fisher. It's 78 minutes long and can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube. What are you waiting for?
well then. early hammer sci fi/ horror hybrid "the four sided triangle" - if you're favourite bits of "the man in the white suit" were the joan greenwood bits then you're in luck. but i have yet to meet anyone whose favourite bits of "the man in the white suit" are the joan greenwood bits... so...
An unusual British sci-fi story that could nestle comfortably alongside The Fly, Frankenstein or The Prestige, Four Sided Triangle is darker than its coy, rural tone initially suggests although it's still restrained by its era. The pace is slow but it's engaging enough, if nothing else by virtue of the fascinating moral conundrums it presents with its unexpected twists and turns. Curiously, the poster is infinitely more salacious than the film itself ever becomes and it's interesting to think how this same story could be dealt with now, as some kind of psychosexual sci-fi mindfuck. Maybe some wayward disciple of Cronenberg somewhere should take a shot at it...
An incredibly weird narrative framing device ("look at our village! Isn't it beautiful! We have domestic violence here... I, a middle aged man, am going to spy on the play habits of these three children – watch them grow to adults as I befriend them!") and a plot that could be interesting but spends fully two thirds of the film's runtime to even get to its weird science premise, before not doing much with it.
Weird science. I found this film very Buñuelian- if Buñuel had directed a ‘Bride of Frankenstein’ remake for Hammer Films.
Also, Barbara Payton looks like a ‘Twin Peaks’-era Sherilyn Fenn!
(YouTube)
Terence Fisher’s British science-fiction romance. When they both fall in love with the same woman, an inventor creates a replicating machine and make another of her.
Adapted from the novel of the same name by William F. Temple, which was published four years earlier, the story concerns a young man, trapped in a love triangle with his previous best pal and a woman who can on no occasion be his, finds out a way to achieve his dreams when he notices a method to replace the woman.
Stephen Murray and John Van Eyssen both give okay performances in their respective roles as Bill and Robin, the two boyhood friends battling for the affections of Lena, but Bill believes he has…
