MOVIE REVIEW: The Gamma People (1956)
Control over the minds of men can be achieved in many ways: propaganda (see American Drug War, Khmer Rouge, etc.), faith, greed, shame, lust, hate, and naked science. In this film the attempt is achieved through the latter at the hand of a mad scientist dictator named Boronski (played by Walter Rilla, The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse) less than 15 years after the Second World War, and the whole Kingdom of Gudavia is held captive. Desperate to keep meddlers and the Allies out, Dr. Boronski (who is NOT a current or former Nazi, surprisingly) cuts off all communication with the outside world. Unfortunately for him, he did not cut the rail lines.
Enter our heroes: Brash American journalist Mike Wilson (played by Paul Douglas, Clash By Night, “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” [TV]) and his mild-mannered yet lecherous British counterpart Howard Meade (Leslie Phillips, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Out of Africa), aboard a trans-continental train from London to Salzburg for an assignment, are in the only rail car to be disconnected from the main body in a chance of fate. Their train car drifts into the Democratic Republic of Gudavia (now renamed at Boronski’s command), where they are taken into custody by Kommandant Koerner (Philip Leaver, Jack the Ripper, Too Many Husbands) and held as spies. They are quickly released into the capital of Gudavia on Boronski’s orders, but they cannot leave the capital OR get word out — all communication lines are monitored and suppressed. And yet there is hope and support from within Gudavia’s own ranks.
The people of Gudavia are ready for revolt: after their king Frederick met with…***an accident***…his daughter Princess Paula (Hungarian actress Eva Bartok, The Last Waltz, Orient Express [1954]) surrendered herself and her brother young prince Hugo (TV actor Michael Caridia, “Jo’s Boys” [TV], “Dixon of Dock Green” [TV]) to the machinations of Boronski. His plan is to evolve the minds of people through gamma radiation directed into their brains, turning them into mental ubermennschen he could control. Sometimes it doesn’t work and they become moronic goons under Boronski’s control. The project worked on Hugo: he’s a genius, but his heart is cold and serves the mad scientist without question. To keep an eye on her brother Hugo and the other successful experimental subjects, Paula volunteered to become a schoolteacher during the day and help with the fiendish experiments at night. It was Koerner’s job to keep an eye on the goons, but he’s a bumbling idiot — and one of them got away and killed a townsperson. Had they not done so, Mike and Howard would never gotten involved. As a result, both journalists had the support of the people, the Gudavian Resistance (!!), and a much bigger story on their hands: the biggest violation of human rights on record since those listed at Nuremburg.
This movie was simultaneously funny and chilling at points — the tone was all over the place. It made for a very interesting watch. There were a lot of parallels to paranoia and fascism, which made it surprising that Boronski was NOT a Nazi. The man changed his name from Macklin (something revealed by an outside source and Mike began to recall was a scientist from the outside world, not a native Gudavian) to Boronski, so what was Macklin trying to hide? Was it that the gamma-ray gun used to irradiate subjects’ brains leaned hard into death-ray territory, or that it stunk of stolen or recovered Nazi super-science? Either way, Boronski-Macklin was going to face quite a few scientific ethics boards before he went to prison.
CHOICE CUTS:
- The ending was a somewhat happy one: our heroes prevailed and rode off into the sunset through a ticker-tape parade. I was nearly brought to tears with how happy the ending was. Meanwhile, the Kommandant was beaten to death in the street by an angry mob. Sic semper Nazis!
- Following the Gudavian capitol’s hotelier, Herr Lochner (Martin Miller, The Pink Panther, “The Avengers” [TV]) and his daughter Hedda (child actor Pauline Drewett, The Bells of St Trinian’s [1954], True as a Turtle) was a good choice. Theirs was an amazingly heart-breaking story.
- I couldn’t decide who was hotter: Princess Paula or the hotel maid Anna (Jocelyn Lane, The Sword of Ali Baba, “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” [TV]). It did not help the movie that it was in black-and-white — they looked nearly identical.
- Every time the goons came clambering over the landscape, a chill went down my spine.
- The back-and-forth between Hugo and Howard was priceless.
Even though the emotions were a see-saw, I got the message.
