Night of the Big Heat (1967 film)
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| Night of the Big Heat | |
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| Directed by | Terence Fisher |
| Produced by | Tom Blakely |
| Written by | Jane Baker Pip Baker |
| Starring | Christopher Lee Patrick Allen Peter Cushing Sarah Lawson |
| Distributed by | Planet Film Distributors |
| Release date(s) | 1966 |
| Running time | 94 m |
| Language | English |
Night of the Big Heat is a 1967 British sci-fi horror film released by Planet Film Productions, based on a 1959 novel of the same name by John Lymington. It was released in the United States in 1971 under the title Island of the Burning Doomed and was double-billed with Son of Godzilla.
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[edit] Story
Jeff and Frankie Callum run the Swan, a popular inn and tavern on the remote Scottish island of Fara. Jeff, a novelist in his spare time, hires a secretary named Angela Roberts. Unknown to Frankie, Jeff and Angela are former lovers. The Callums moved to Fara Island so that Jeff could escape Angela's amorous advances (although as far as Frankie knows, it was simply to escape the tedium of city life on the mainland). Angela wants to resume her fling with Jeff, despite Jeff wanting nothing to do with her. Not helping matters much is the fact that despite the fact it's the middle of November, Fara Island is experiencing a stifling and inexplicable midwinter heat wave, with temperatures in the 90s and rising daily. It's gotten so hot that cars are stalling out, beer bottles pop, TVs explode, and telephones won't work.
Into this decidedly bad situation steps Dr. Godfrey Hanson, a mysterious scientist from the mainland who rents a room at the Swan. Hanson spends his time exploring the island, setting up motion-sensitive cameras and taking soil samples. The locals, including the Callums, find this suspicious, especially since quite a lot more is going on on Fara than just the heat and Hanson's snooping. First, a homeless man is burned to death in a cave by an unseen menace emitting a high-pitched whirring sound. Then, farmer Ben Siddle is found on the road by local mechanic Tinker Mason, claiming that his sheep are all dead. Hanson examines the dead sheep without anyone's knowledge, and discovers their corpses are blackened and burnt.
Unknown to anyone else, Swan regular Bob Hayward, attempting to drive into town to buy a new TV after his explodes due to the heat, is attacked by something on the road. He crashes his car after being blinded by a flash of bright light which generates enough heat to ignite the gas tank of his car. Jeff finally corners Hanson and demands answers from him. According to Hanson, Fara Island is the site of a (relatively small-scale) invasion by extraterrestrials from outer space, who generate enough bodily heat to burn alive any living creature that gets too close to them. After Tinker Mason goes insane and tries to rape Angela, only to be chased off by Jeff and Hanson and to be killed when he encounters one of the aliens, Jeff and Hanson attempt to stop the aliens with the help of local physician Dr. Vernon Stone.
Stone attempts to make a run up to Fara's radar station so he can alert the mainland of the invasion, only to be waylaid by one of the aliens and killed in a similar manner to Bob Hayward. Hanson makes a go at it next. Although he makes it, en route he witnesses the death of Stella Hayward, Bob's wife, out searching for her missing husband, an event that clues Hanson in to the fact the aliens are attracted to light (Stella had a flashlight with her). Once at the radar station, he learns from operators Ken Stanley and Gerald Foster that the aliens have destroyed all their communications equipment, making it impossible for the islanders to call for help.
Quickly formulating a plan of action, Hanson summons Jeff, Frankie and Angela up to the radar station. He and Foster will set fire to bails of hay in a field, attracting the aliens, whereupon the others will lob them with dynamite and hopefully destroy them. But will they succeed? Or will they all die from the ever-increasing heat, leaving Earth open to the invading, malignant extraterrestrials?
[edit] Cast
| Actor/Actress | Role |
| Christopher Lee | Dr. Godfrey Hanson |
| Patrick Allen | Jeff Callum |
| Peter Cushing | Dr. Vernon Stone |
| Sarah Lawson | Frankie Callum |
| Jane Merrow | Angela Roberts |
| William Lucas | Ken Stanley |
| Kenneth Cope | Tinker Mason |
| Percy Herbert | Gerald Foster |
| Thomas Heathcote | Bob Hayward |
| Jack Bligh | Ben Siddle |
[edit] Similarities to Island of Terror
Night of the Big Heat shares many elements, in both its plot and its characters, with 1966's Island of Terror, a film which many consider to be this movie's unofficial companion piece.
| Element | Night of the Big Heat | Island of Terror |
| Local doctor sacrifices his life doing something heroic (and ultimately futile) | Dr. Vernon Stone makes a run up to the island's radar station and is waylaid by one of the aliens | Dr. Reginald Landers attackes one of the silicates with an axe attempting to protect his friends |
| Take place on a fictional island in the British Isles | Fara Island, off the coast of Scotland | Petrie's Island, off the coast of Ireland |
| The first known victim is killed in a cave after hearing a strange noise | An elderly homeless man | Ian Bellows |
| The monsters are a mostly unseen, otherworldly menace that emit strange noises | Glowing, blob-like aliens from outer space | The silicates, silicon-based lifeforms created accidentally by scientists |
| The monsters kill their victims in unique and horrific ways | The aliens emit such intense heat from their bodies that humans who get too close to them get burned alive | The silicates inject their victims with an enzyme that dissolves their bones |
| The main female love interest of the hero has a masculaine first name | Jeff Callum's wife, Frankie Callum | Dr. David West's girlfriend, Toni Merrill |
| The monsters are unkillable by conventional means and have only one known weakness | The aliens are unharmed by dynamite and gunfire, but are ultimately destroyed by water when it rains | The silicates are unharmed by dynamite, gunfire, petrol bombs and axes, and are ultimately destroyed with Strontium-90 |
| The filmmakers were unafraid to put animals in as much danger as the human characters | Ben Siddle's sheep are killed by the aliens, as is Bob and Stella Hayward's dog, Patch | Dr. Lawrence Phillips' dog, Morton's horse, and several cows fall victim to the silicates (the only animals not killed are the rabbits in Phillips' lab) |
[edit] Novel vs. the Film
| Book | Film |
| Richard Callum | Jeff Callum |
| Harsen (no first name is given) - Is killed shortly after Vernon Stone in the gravel pit | Godfrey Hanson - Is killed at lighthouse, close to the end |
| Patricia Wells - Hides in an abandoned army bunker with Pearce, the air force radio man | Angela Roberts - Hides in an abandoned army bunker with Ken Stanley, the man in charge of the radar station |
| Vernon Stone - A science fiction author | Dr. Vernon Stone - The town doctor |
| Bob Hayward - Survives; is married to Bet Hayward | Bob Hayward - Killed in the gravel pit; is married to Stella Hayward |
| Tinker Mason - Attempts to rape a woman named Beth; escapes his encounter with an alien in his house unharmed | Tinker Mason - Attempts to rape Angela Roberts; is killed by an alien in his auto repair shop |
| The island has no given name | Fara Island |
| Mr. and Mrs. Callum's pub is called the White Lion | Mr. and Mrs. Callum's pub is called the Swan |
| The unnamed aliens resemble spiders | The unnamed aliens resemble glowing globs of protoplasm |
[edit] Trivia
This film's alternate title is Island of the Burning Doomed (US TV title) and Island of the Burning Damned (US release). Its companion piece is generally considered to be 1966's Island of Terror. In fact, the cave in which the homeless man is killed is the same cave set used for Ian Bellows' death at the beginning of Island of Terror.
