Popular reviews

• 

  Review by sakana1 ★★ 5

  Paul Douglas sounds so much like Brian Donlevy that, while watching The Gamma People, I finally had to conclude that, for some unknown reason, Donlevy had dubbed his character. But I checked to see what Douglas actually sounds like (thank you, YouTube), and it turns out they just have exactly the same voice. (By coincidence — OR IS IT? — Donlevy was slated for the role Douglas plays in 1951, when the film was first announced.)

  The fact that I spent essentially the whole movie obsessing over the question of whether or not Paul Douglas was talking for himself does, perhaps, give an indication of how interesting (or not) it is. The story, about the disruptive arrival of two outsiders…

• 

  Review by Stefan Birgir Stefans ★★½

  The Gamma People was a joint venture by the USA and UK, and reeks of “them commies are up to something sinister, I tell you what” cold war fears. That’s not special, since that describes most Sci-Fi films in the 1950s. Thankfully, it’s an entertaining trope, especially when done competently and with good actors as is the case here. The film is mostly men talking and gets a bit boring, but it’s sufficiently interesting to be worthy of a watch.

  www.sbs.is/movie-review/the-gamma-people-1956/

• 

  Review by kennelco ★★★ 2

  The Gamma People, a British-American sci-fi yarn directed by John Gilling, sprung originally from a story by Robert Aldrich. How much of Aldrich remains in the film is probably impossible to say. From the Wikipedia story of its production, the film bounced around a lot before getting made.

  The Aldrich angle interested me because of the Cold War milieu. Produced a year after Aldrich’s Cold War film noir classic, Kiss Me Deadly, The Gamma People is deeply infused with direct tropes of WWII and fantasy fears of Eastern Europe.

  A British and an American reporter find themselves in the unknown burg if Gudavia when their train accidentally detaches while traveling to an Austrian music festival. The leader of Gudavia is…

• 

  Review by Ira Brooker ★★★★ 2

  An acerbic American journalist and a rakish British photographer get stranded in an obscure European nation and quickly find themselves butting heads with the polite but technology-averse local gentry. Oh, and also with the local rogue geneticist and his dual armies of brainless zombies and violent fascist children.

  This is weird as heck and a whole lot of fun, shot-through with a dry humor that doesn't distract from the overriding creepiness. Paul Douglas circa 1956 doesn't fit the leading-man mold, especially for a quirky Nazi zombie horror-comedy, but this is a movie that calls for lumpy competence more than dashing heroics. He bounces off Leslie Phillips's ever-so-British bounder so nicely that I wish they'd been paired for further adventures.

  Director/co-writer…

• 

  Review by coles84 ★★

  My favourite film community event of the year has kicked off for 2022. The wonderful Hooptober. I thought I would start with something short and sweet this morning before building up to my most anticipated. A very interesting premise and story lights up this sci fi/horror/light comedy hybrid but sadly outside of a notebook of great ideas, the direction and delivery feel like a minefield of constant disruption and missed opportunity. I did love the ludicrous opening and the invention of a mysterious town full of danger and intrigue. Steady yet not solid.

• 

  Review by Callisto ★

  For my first British B-movie, I am left disappointed. It's a fun little movie, but it lacks terrible acting or funny dialogue to make it really amusing to want to watch again.

• 

  Review by Paul D ★★

  A pair of journalists, one American, one English, on their way to report on a music festival in Austria find themselves diverted and arrive in a tiny country which doesn't appear on any maps where, wouldn't you know it, something strange is afoot.

  Much to the annoyance of the American, his colleague has decided that they will travel across Europe by train. He's upset that it's taking so long, but little does he know that that is the least of his worries.

  As the train is making it's way along the coupling attaching their carriage which just happens to be the last one and of which they just happen to be the only passengers, breaks, presumably because it's made out…

• 

  Review by Niall Urquhart ★★½

  The unlikely pairing of Paul Douglas and Leslie Philips meant it was hard to turn this one down and for a while it was enough to keep the film entertaining. But it got worse as it went. The actual plot about Gamma People was barely relevant and it was mostly an excuse to wallow in WWII nostalgia as the fictional country was made up to look like a mini Nazi Germany filled with Bavarian barmaids, men in lederhosen and Hitler youth. There was enough to justify watching this but it's certainly not one to rewatch.

• 

  Review by Craig Martin ★★★

  This science fiction oddity dabbles in Cold War anxieties but without the hysteria that characterises some of the other films of the period. This may be due to its comedic undertones and lightness of touch that make its more dramatic moments all the more effective. Although parallels with the Soviet threat are clearly legible, the film cleverly collapses ideological differences between the extreme left and right to demonstrate that oppressive totalitarian regimes, regardless of what side of politics, are all the same; a dangerous proposition for a Hollywood film to be expounding in McCarthy-era America. The film mines Nazi iconography with its quaint Bavarian folk costumes juxtaposed against Aryan children in uniforms reminiscent of Hitler's Youth movement. Four years later,…

• 

  Review by DocShadow ★★½

  The characters and the actors work in that 1950s way where everything is a little stagier and a little less funny what we’re used to.

  It almost feels like some kind of feature-length Conan O’Brien sketch as this period satire goes after Eastern Bloc countries. The scene where the zombified brutes chase the doughy business-suit wearing protagonist down the hill, hurling rocks at him, is hilarious, and I don’t know if I can explain why. It’s a cold war satire not quite on the level of Top Secret! but the parody of this postwar culture IS there.

  Paul Douglas has to be one of the strangest choices for a leading man in a scifi horror film I think I’ve ever…

• 

  Review by Rick D ★★½

  A fun little mid-50's sci-fi thriller that had a slight Frankenstein-feel to the story. Enough light comedy kept this interesting without ruining the tale.

  Paul Douglas and Leslie Phillips are journalists (they played off each other very well) on their way to Austria to cover a music event when they are stranded in Guldavia (which is very funny.)

  A scientist/dictator runs the country with an iron hand using his gamma machine to turn people into the Incredible Hu.. Ooops. This was B&W and his machine turned people either into geniuses or imbecilic goons.

  The reporters befriend the lovely Eva Bartok (which is the reason I watched this flick.) and they vowed to help rescue her and her family, and maybe…

• 

  Review by Chris Browning ★★★½

  what a fantastic surprise: a corny sci fi cliche is given new life, just through an unusual setting (it's basically a sci fi/ horror spin on "the mouse that roared") and some imagination in direction. there's a great festival/ fancy dress march which seems like a prototype for the procession in "the wicker man" (seriously, look at the bear doing cartwheels). there's a truly despicable villain and his snotty child sidekick. there's some quite menacing zombie men. there's some beautiful landscape shots (where did they film this? it's obviously a pretty cheap production so i doubt they could afford europe, but it actually does seem accurate at times). it balance humour and menace really nicely. and although douglas is one…