The Day of the Triffids (1962)

Calificación de los usuarios:

5.8/10   

Director:

Steve Sekely

Escritores (WGA):

John Wyndham (novel)
Bernard Gordon (screenplay) (front Philip Yordan)

Fecha de Lanzamiento:

27 abril 1963 (USA)

Género:

Horror | Ciencia-Ficción

Frase comercial:

Spine Chilling Terror

Plot:

A shower of meteorites produces a glow that blinds anyone that looks at it. As it was such a beautiful sight...

Plot Keywords:

Plant | Meteor | Meteor Shower | Disaster | Spain

Comentarios de los usuarios:

Realistic, Atmospheric and Memorable Adaptation of John Wyndham's Novel

Reparto

Howard Keel	...	Bill Masen
Nicole Maurey	...	Christine Durrant
Janette Scott	...	Karen Goodwin
Kieron Moore	...	Tom Goodwin
Mervyn Johns	...	Mr. Coker
Ewan Roberts	...	Dr. Soames
Alison Leggatt	...	Miss Coker
Geoffrey Matthews	...	Luis de la Vega
Janina Faye	...	Susan - Child on the Train
Gilgi Hauser	...	Teresa de la Vega
John Tate	...	Captain, SS Midland
Carole Ann Ford	...	Bettina (as Carol Ann Ford)
Arthur Gross	...	Flight 356 Radioman
Colette Wilde	...	Nurse Jamieson (as Collette Wilde)
Ian Wilson	...	Greenhouse Watchman

También conocida como:

Invasion of the Triffids (International: English title)
Revolt of the Triffids (International: English title)
La semilla del espacio (Spain) [es]

Duración:

93 min

País:

UK

Idioma:

Inglés

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Relación de Aspecto:

2.35 : 1

Sonido:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Clasificación:

Iceland:12 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 (video rating) (1987) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:Approved (PCA #21227) | West Germany:16

Locaciones de Filmación:

Alicante, Alicante, Comunidad Valenciana, Spain

Compañía:

Security Pictures Ltd.

Trivialidades:

When the film was finished it was too short, so the entire sequence where the triffids attack the lighthouse was added.

Errores:

Errores que Revelan: When the security guard is killed, you can see the triffid moving towards him on wheels. They are clearly visible for a couple of seconds

Citas:

[first lines]
Narrator: [narrating voice over] In nature's scheme of things, there are certain plants which are carnivorous, or eating plants. The Venus Fly Trap is one of the best known of these plants. A fly drawn to the plant by its sweet syrup, brushes against triggered bristles. Just how these plants digest their pray has yet to be explained. There is much still to learn about these fascinating eating plants. This is a newcomer: Triffidus Celestus, brought to earth on the meteorite during the Day of the Triffids.

Conexiones de Película:

Referenced in The Ten (2007)

Realistic, Atmospheric and Memorable Adaptation of John Wyndham's Novel

This is a well-told film that lacks post-1994 incredible special effects expenditures and massive overspending. What it has is a very solid story line, a number of memorable scenes and a feel of realism about it that adds a great deal I suggest to its eerie sci-fi atmosphere. Its central character, Bill, a career seaman played expertly by Howard Keel, is a man facing an nightmare. The film begins in a small typical and beautifully-presented small London hospital where he has to wait one more day before removing bandages to ensure that his vision will return to normal. Banter with a lovely nurse and his doctor turn into a prescient strangeness the next morning--when Keel awakes to find the hospital abandoned, all floors silent amid signs of damage and swift departure...Telephones are not working either. He removes his bandages to find a world without people. We learn, through his adventures and those of a couple in an isolated lighthouse off the coast, where the husband does scientific experiments and drinks too much, that a shower of meteors watched by billions, have destroyed their optic nerves and thus rendered nearly everyone blind. We soon learn that this is a worldwide phenomenon. In addition, a species of plants called triffids have developed from being small insect eating plants into towering and motile monstrosities that can sting and paralyze then absorb human beings as food. They spray small spores to propagate, are reproducing in millions and thus threaten all remaining human life. Keel picks up a young girl who can also see; and after escaping a crowd of the desperate in London and witnessing an attempt at an airliner landing turning into a massive explosion, they escapes from the city. Thereafter, their adventures deal with the plants' attacks, attempts to reach the continent and a rendezvous in Paris and then one in Spain; but the bulk of the film involves the couples' lonely battle with the triffids on their isolated island, and Keel's final escape from a doomed French haven with Nicole Maurey and the young girls as they make for a submarine pickup, the last scheduled for Europe's remaining sighted persons. The great task that everyone faces during the film is striving against all odds to find some way of defeating the plants as well simply escaping. The piece's screenplay by veteran Philip Yordan, adapted from a good John Wyndham novel, I find to be rather satisfying. Steve Sekely directed in swift-paced and intelligent style. The competent cast besides Keel, a most underrated leading man, include strong Kieron More and Janette Scott as the couple in the lighthouse, Mervyn Johns, Alison Leggatt, Geoffrey Mathews, Ewan Roberts, Janina Faye as the young girl picked up by Keel, Gilgi Hauser, pretty Carol Ann Ford, Colette Wild as the lovely nurse and Victor Brooks, among others. This estimable film was produced by Yordan, with George Pitcher as line producer assisted by Bernard Glasser. Rod Goodwin's musical score is powerful and well-above-average at all points. the cinematography by Ted Moore and Cedric Dawe's gritty art direction are also noteworthy. The film looks back I suggest to previous 1950s color sci-fi efforts; but its plants also became the model for the Star Trek "This Side of Paradise" spore-producing vegetation.. And its generally serious feel was copied many times thereafter, both the lighthouse sequence and the cross-country adventures of keep and his companions. But these achievements have seldom been approached let alone bettered. Anyone viewing the film today I assert should respond to its unusual realism; complaints about a lack of multi-million dollar graphics are undoubtedly more than misplaced. The storyline was a difficult one to capture in a brief film even in the 1960s. I suggest that the makers have done this exacting task rather admirably. Scenes such as the surrounding of an electrified yard by the carnivorous plants, the airliner's approach and crash, and the escape of Keel, Faye and Maurey from her house when it is taken over by convicts deserve critical acclaim. I judge this effort to be one of the most underrated of sci-fi films of all time.