#Wolf Rilla

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Village Of The Damned (1960)

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VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960) dir. Wolf Rilla

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Village of the Damned (1960)

directed by Wolf Rilla

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Barbara Shelley and Martin Stephens in Village of the Damned (1960)

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Secrets of a Door-to-Door Salesman | Wolf Rilla / Jonathan Demme | 1973

Brendan Price, Sue Longhurst

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Village of the Damned (1960) dir. Wolf Rilla

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On July 21, 1961, Village of the Damned debuted in Italy.

Here's some creepy kid art to celebrate!

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Barbara Steele-Hardy Krüger "Bachiller en corazones" (Bachelor of hearts) 1958, de Wolf Rilla.

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Village of the Damned (1960) Wolf Rilla

July 5th 2024

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Brick wall... Brick Wall... BRICK WALL!! This week we cover VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED (1960) from director Wolf Rilla!

Adapted from the John Wyndham novel The Midwich Cuckoos, we discuss this evil children horror starring George Sanders, Barbara Shelley and Martin Stephens.

Context setting 00:00; Synopsis 42:11; Discussion 50:41; Ranking 1:22:21

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"Village Of The Damned" (1960) Directed by Wolf Rilla (Horror/Sci-Fi) . . "Village Of The Damned" (1995) Directed by John Carpenter (Horror/Sci-Fi/Thriller)

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Honorable Mention: Village of the Damned (1960)

Midwich, a normal town in the fields of England, it's population is calm and unassuming. But one day, every living thing from animal to person falls asleep, so does anyone who tries to enter a certain radius. After they wake up hours later and try to find out what happen, eventually it's found out every woman and girl capable of giving birth in the town has become pregnant. Worse yet, when they're born the exact same day the children look confusingly alike having white blonde hair and piercing eyes. And if that wasn't enough, they all seem to share what looks to be a psychic bond, can read the townsfolk minds and even control them. Just... what are they?

As the local teacher and father of one of them, Dr. Gordon Zellaby is determined to find out and how to handle the situation the best.

Adapted from the 1957 novel The Midwich Cuckoos, this is one of the earliest examples of a movie where children are meant to be creepy as hell. Which is... honestly the best the movie has when it comes to overt scares. Remember this was made in the 60's, the level of acceptable on screen violence and discussions of sexuality were different back then. While the movie was fairly boundary pushing and transgressive for the standards of the time it came out, nowadays it doesn't have that same bite of bordering on the taboo.

That's not to say the end result isn't gripping, however, because while it may not try to be as gruesome as possible and some plot points are reduced to mere implication some of those implications are still fairly disturbing. How did all those women got impregnated? Is this an invasion? Are they trying to replace everyone? It's post-war paranoia incarnate, and due to the other elements at play like bodily autonomy there's still a relevant sense of dread to the story.

It's a time capsule of when the movie was made otherwise, but where it stands the test of time it truly delivers.

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Wolf Rilla, Bedtime with Rosie, 1975

Pictured: Ivor Burgoyne, Diana Dors and Una Stubbs.

An uneven low-budget but perfectly enjoyable bedroom farce which seems to attract ire from fans of Diana Dors. 

(Bedtime with Rosie)

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Barbara Shelley and Martin Stephens in Village of the Damned (1960)

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Secrets of a Door-to-Door Salesman | Wolf Rilla / Jonathan Demme | 1973

The directorial talents of Wolf Rilla (Village of the Damned) and Jonathan Demme (The Silence of the Lambs) come together to bring you ...uh Secrets of a Door-to-Door Salesman (AKA Naughty Wives as you can see from this US poster featuring none of the cast). Well I say come together but what actually happened is that Jonathan quit the movie after filming the opening sequence due to the ol’ “artistic differences” and Wolf was brought in to complete it. It’s very much from the beginning of Demme’s career and the end of Rilla’s.

It’s a pretty standard 70s Brit sexploitation comedy with the hapless hero having to fight off the advances of numerous women who all want to shag him and getting into various Door-to-Door Salesman related misadventures. Mary Millington is supposed to be in it but I didn’t see her.