By Ashley R. Pollard

The Cold War is never far from our thoughts, but in the darkness there is light.  The light that is the Russian space programme, leading the way with the first woman in space.

On June the fourteenth Valentina Tereshkova was launched aboard Vostok Six.  She ascended on a pillar of flame to join fellow cosmonaut Valery Bykovsky in orbit.

Together they mark the first time two spaceships have been in orbit at the same time, and of course the first time a woman has been sent into space.

If only all the Cold War news was as exciting and optimistic as this.

By contrast our entertainment industry seeks to promote fear.  And what generates the most fear in these days of the Cold War is atomic radiation.  It is the snake oil of plot devices that can be used to justify any idea.

When in doubt, radiation can be relied upon to supply the right McGuffin, be it to make things large or small, to drive the story.  For example, the enormous monster in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, the giant ants in Them, or Godzilla, to the other extreme shown in The Incredible Shrinking Man.

Radiation also figures in The Damned aka these are The Damned, this new movie, made by Hammer Film Productions. It was shot in Britain last year, but has only now been released.

Before I go further, The Damned should not be mistaken as a sequel to the 1960 movie, Village of the Damned, based on the novel The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham.  Despite the similarity of the titles they're two entirely different stories.

The Damned is an adaptation of H. L. Lawrence's story The Children of Light.  This novel came out in 1960 and it passed me by without impinging on my consciousness.

Having hunted down a friend who has read the book, I can say The Children of Light is about as far from a Wyndham cozy catastrophe as one can get.  It's quite grim.

The novel tells the story of Simon who has murdered his wife after he discovered she was having an affair with another man.  He's on the run when he encounters a vicious gang, whose leader has a half-sister, who falls for Simon.  She helps him escape the gang, and they hide in a farmhouse, still on the run from the law.

Up to here the story is quite mundane.  There's no real hint that it's set in the future, as the setting feels very contemporary.

Then the secret is revealed.

Radiation from atomic fallout has lowered the birthrate over the last couple of generations.  Ultimately, everyone will become sterile, which is being hidden from the people by the government.

From here we get to meeting the children at a secret school, one of whom is named, George Orwell.  They're described as having platinum hair that sparkles.  Shades of Wyndham here though.

The plot then evolves by introducing a reporter who is searching for Simon because he believes the government reporting his death, while trying to escape in a mine accident, is a cover-up.

It is.  It's to cover-up the truth about the existence of children who are all radioactive.  The government has a plan.  The children are being groomed to become the next generation after the human race dies out.

And the government will go to any length to protect the plan, and the ending of the book is deeply dark, cynical, and paints a black picture of the establishment who will commit any crime to further their agenda.

It's a pretty bleak book.

The film is in many ways better than the book.  As in it's bleak, but entertainingly so because of the actors performances.

The Damned starts on an upbeat note, with Simon enjoying a boating holiday off the south coast of Britain, played by American actor Macdonald Carey.  Whom I'm told is known as "The King of the Bs."

Simon is recently divorced, and he meets a young woman called Joan while walking around Weymouth.  She's played by Shirley Anne Field, who has been associated with John F. Kennedy, and starred in various comedies, including Man in the Moon.

Then the story takes a left turn into darkness.

Her brother, called King, is played by Oliver Reed who has starred in another Hammer film, Curse of the Werewolf.  He's known as a bit of a bad boy, which means his portrayal projects a convincing amount of menace.  He also steals every scene he's in with a totally magnetic performance.

King is the leader of a Teddy Boy gang who mug Simon for his wallet.  After being mugged, Simon goes back to his boat.

The next day Joan appears and explains to him that her brother is insanely jealous of her being with other men.  I understand that the implication of "incest" was one of the reasons for the film's release being delayed.  The other being the portrayal of gang culture.

Simon and Joan start a relationship, but their movements are being monitored by the gang.  So when they visit a house owned by Freya, a women who Simon previously met in a cafe while exploring the delights of sunny Weymouth, they're horrified to discover that the gang has come and surrounded the place.

But they manage to escape and end up in a nearby military base run by a sinister scientist called Bernard.  After being questioned as to what brought them to the base they're allowed to leave.

Unfortunately, King doesn't give up that easily.  He's lain in wait.

When Simon and Joan leave, King pursues them.  During the chase they descend a cliff where they stumble upon a cave.  There they find nine children all aged eleven.  Named I noticed after the Kings and Queens of Britain.  King has followed them and the story unfolds.

The caves are part of a network that leads back to the military base.  The children use the cave because they think it's unknown to the military.  It's not, and things deteriorate when men turn up in radiation suits to remove Simon, Joan, and King.

The reveal is that all the children are radioactive, and the three of them have been exposed to a lethal dose of radiation.  Though they escape, it doesn't end well.

With the closing of the film, we learn that the children were all born radioactive after a nuclear accident.  The government is holding them because they're immune to nuclear fallout, and they'll be able to survive when the inevitable nuclear war comes.

All a bit horrifying.

And, just to rub it in that Bernard is "evil," we have a scene where he kills Freya after she discovers his plan for the children.

This is what I would call a watch once movie.  It rattles along, and the performances by the cast are good.  Especially Oliver Reed's, who is able to project a real sense of menace.  But, it's not what you would call a hopeful story, and might not be to everyone's taste.

Far better to look to the stars, and live in hope of a brighter, better future than one where the Earth has been destroyed by a nuclear war.  So, to end on a positive note, congratulations to both Valentina Tereshkova and Valery Bykovsky for setting a new double space record.