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Village of the Damned (1960)


Commentaries on this disc:

Commentary 1: Steve Haberman, author of "Chronicles of Terror: Silent Screams" Rating:7.5/10 (4 votes) [graph]Login to vote or review
Reviewed by Brian Thibodeau on July 7th, 2005:Find all reviews by Brian Thibodeau
Steve Haberman's commentary offers decent amounts of scholarship on what is essentially a B-movie, albeit a classic one at that, during which he details the transition of John Wyndham's "The Midwich Cuckoos" to the big screen (even going so far as to explain the analogy of the book's title), the life and demise of star George Sanders, Barbara Shelley's problems with the virtual backgrounding of the mother characters, the origin of the "glowing eyes," as well as the film's delayed initial release and swift critical acclaim, among other things. All the information one could possibly need on the production of this classic suspense film fits nicely into its relatively brief running time, and Haberman's delivery is genial if pedestrian, and he fills the time effectively. Worth a listen, although of the two tracks on the double-feature DVD, I'd recommend John Briley's track on Children of the Damned slightly over this one, in spite of it gracing the weaker of the two films.