Night of the Big Heat (1967 film)
Encyclopedia
Night of the Big Heat is a 1967 British
sci-fi horror film
released by Planet Film Productions, based on a 1959 novel of the same name
by John Lymington
. It was released in the United States
in 1971 under the title Island of the Burning Damned and was double-billed with All Monsters Attack
. It was later broadcast on US television under the slightly censored title Island of the Burning Doomed.
island of Fara. Jeff, a novelist in his spare time, hires a secretary named Angela Roberts. Unknown to Frankie, Jeff and Angela are former lovers. The Callums moved to Fara Island so that Jeff could escape Angela's amorous advances (although as far as Frankie knows, it was to escape the tedium of city life on the mainland). Angela wants to resume her fling with Jeff, despite Jeff wanting nothing to do with her. Not helping matters much is the fact that despite the fact it's the middle of November, Fara Island is experiencing a stifling and inexplicable heat wave
, with temperatures in the 90s and rising daily. It has become so hot that cars stall, beer bottles shatter, Televisions explode, and telephones have ceased to work.
Into this tense situation comes Dr. Godfrey Hanson, a mysterious scientist
from the mainland who rents a room at the Swan. Hanson spends his time exploring the island, setting up motion-sensitive cameras and taking soil samples. The locals, including the Callums, find this suspicious, especially since quite a lot more is going on on Fara than just the heat and Hanson's snooping. First, a homeless man is burned to death in a cave by an unseen menace emitting a high-pitched whirring sound. Then, farmer
Ben Siddle is found on the road by local mechanic
Tinker Mason, claiming that his sheep are all dead. Hanson examines the dead sheep without anyone's knowledge, and discovers their corpses are blackened and burnt.
Unknown to anyone else, Swan regular Bob Hayward, driving into town to buy a new TV after his explodes due to the heat, is attacked by something on the road. He crashes his car after being blinded by a flash of bright light which generates enough heat to ignite the petrol tank of his car. Jeff finally corners Hanson and demands answers from him. According to Hanson, Fara Island is the site of an invasion by extraterrestrials from outer space, who generate enough bodily heat to burn alive any living creature that gets too close to them. After Tinker Mason goes insane and tries to rape Angela, only to be chased off by Jeff and Hanson and to be killed when he encounters one of the aliens, Jeff and Hanson attempt to stop the aliens with the help of local physician
Dr. Vernon Stone.
Stone attempts to make a run up to Fara's radar station so he can alert the mainland of the invasion, only to be waylaid by one of the aliens and killed. Hanson makes a go at it next. En route he witnesses the death of Stella Hayward, Bob's wife, and realises that the aliens are attracted to light. Once at the radar station, he learns from operators Ken Stanley and Gerald Foster that the aliens have destroyed all their communications equipment, making it impossible for the islanders to call for help.
Quickly formulating a plan of action, Hanson summons Jeff, Frankie and Angela up to the radar station. He and Foster will set fire to bales of hay in a field, attracting the aliens, whereupon the others will lob them with dynamite and hopefully destroy them.
. In fact, the cave in which the homeless man is killed is the same cave set used for Ian Bellows' death at the beginning of Island of Terror.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
sci-fi horror film
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
released by Planet Film Productions, based on a 1959 novel of the same name
Night of the Big Heat
Night of the Big Heat is a science fiction novel written in 1959 by John Lymington. It tells the story of an unnamed British island that is experiencing a bizarre and stifling heatwave.-Plot summary:...
by John Lymington
John Lymington
John Lymington was born John Richard Newton Chance in London. He was a prolific writer of short stories, children's literature, mystery and science fiction novels...
. It was released in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1971 under the title Island of the Burning Damned and was double-billed with All Monsters Attack
All Monsters Attack
All Monsters Attack, released in Japan as , is a 1969 tokusatsu Kaiju film, also known as Godzilla's Revenge The 10th film in Toho Studio's Godzilla series, it was directed by Ishirō Honda, who also directed the special effects, assisted by Teruyoshi Nakano. This is the second film to feature...
. It was later broadcast on US television under the slightly censored title Island of the Burning Doomed.
Story
Jeff and Frankie Callum run the Swan, an inn and tavern on the remote ScottishScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
island of Fara. Jeff, a novelist in his spare time, hires a secretary named Angela Roberts. Unknown to Frankie, Jeff and Angela are former lovers. The Callums moved to Fara Island so that Jeff could escape Angela's amorous advances (although as far as Frankie knows, it was to escape the tedium of city life on the mainland). Angela wants to resume her fling with Jeff, despite Jeff wanting nothing to do with her. Not helping matters much is the fact that despite the fact it's the middle of November, Fara Island is experiencing a stifling and inexplicable heat wave
Heat wave
A heat wave is a prolonged period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity. There is no universal definition of a heat wave; the term is relative to the usual weather in the area...
, with temperatures in the 90s and rising daily. It has become so hot that cars stall, beer bottles shatter, Televisions explode, and telephones have ceased to work.
Into this tense situation comes Dr. Godfrey Hanson, a mysterious scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
from the mainland who rents a room at the Swan. Hanson spends his time exploring the island, setting up motion-sensitive cameras and taking soil samples. The locals, including the Callums, find this suspicious, especially since quite a lot more is going on on Fara than just the heat and Hanson's snooping. First, a homeless man is burned to death in a cave by an unseen menace emitting a high-pitched whirring sound. Then, farmer
Farmer
A farmer is a person engaged in agriculture, who raises living organisms for food or raw materials, generally including livestock husbandry and growing crops, such as produce and grain...
Ben Siddle is found on the road by local mechanic
Mechanic
A mechanic is a craftsman or technician who uses tools to build or repair machinery.Many mechanics are specialized in a particular field such as auto mechanics, bicycle mechanics, motorcycle mechanics, boiler mechanics, general mechanics, industrial maintenance mechanics , air conditioning and...
Tinker Mason, claiming that his sheep are all dead. Hanson examines the dead sheep without anyone's knowledge, and discovers their corpses are blackened and burnt.
Unknown to anyone else, Swan regular Bob Hayward, driving into town to buy a new TV after his explodes due to the heat, is attacked by something on the road. He crashes his car after being blinded by a flash of bright light which generates enough heat to ignite the petrol tank of his car. Jeff finally corners Hanson and demands answers from him. According to Hanson, Fara Island is the site of an invasion by extraterrestrials from outer space, who generate enough bodily heat to burn alive any living creature that gets too close to them. After Tinker Mason goes insane and tries to rape Angela, only to be chased off by Jeff and Hanson and to be killed when he encounters one of the aliens, Jeff and Hanson attempt to stop the aliens with the help of local physician
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
Dr. Vernon Stone.
Stone attempts to make a run up to Fara's radar station so he can alert the mainland of the invasion, only to be waylaid by one of the aliens and killed. Hanson makes a go at it next. En route he witnesses the death of Stella Hayward, Bob's wife, and realises that the aliens are attracted to light. Once at the radar station, he learns from operators Ken Stanley and Gerald Foster that the aliens have destroyed all their communications equipment, making it impossible for the islanders to call for help.
Quickly formulating a plan of action, Hanson summons Jeff, Frankie and Angela up to the radar station. He and Foster will set fire to bales of hay in a field, attracting the aliens, whereupon the others will lob them with dynamite and hopefully destroy them.
Cast
| Actor/Actress | Role |
| Christopher Lee Christopher Lee Sir Christopher Frank Carandini Lee, CBE, CStJ is an English actor and musician. Lee initially portrayed villains and became famous for his role as Count Dracula in a string of Hammer Horror films... |
Dr. Godfrey Hanson |
| Patrick Allen Patrick Allen John Keith Patrick Allen was a British film, television and voice actor.-Life and career:Allen was born in Nyasaland , where his father was a tobacco farmer. After his parents returned to Britain, he was evacuated to Canada during World War II where he remained to finish his education at McGill... |
Jeff Callum |
| Peter Cushing Peter Cushing Peter Wilton Cushing, OBE was an English actor, known for his many appearances in Hammer Films, in which he played the handsome but sinister scientist Baron Frankenstein and the vampire hunter Dr. Van Helsing, amongst many other roles, often appearing opposite Christopher Lee, and occasionally... |
Dr. Vernon Stone |
| Sarah Lawson | Frankie Callum |
| Jane Merrow Jane Merrow Jane Merrow is a British actress, born in London to an English mother and German refugee, who was active in the 1960s and 1970s in England and the US. She is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art... |
Angela Roberts |
| William Lucas William Lucas (British actor) William Lucas is a British film and television actor. His first acting role was in the film Portrait of Alison , and later appeared in many Hammer Film Productions such as Shadow of the Cat. He is probably best known for his role in The Adventures of Black Beauty as Dr... |
Ken Stanley |
| Kenneth Cope Kenneth Cope Kenneth Cope is an English actor. He is most famous for his roles as Marty Hopkirk in Randall and Hopkirk , Jed Stone in Coronation Street and Ray Hilton in Brookside.- Career :... |
Tinker Mason |
| Percy Herbert Percy Herbert (actor) Percy Herbert was an English character actor who often played soldiers, most notably in The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Wild Geese and Tunes of Glory. However, he was equally at home in comedies and science fiction... |
Gerald Foster |
| Thomas Heathcote Thomas Heathcote Thomas Heathcote was a British character actor.He was educated at Bradfield College, near Reading in Berkshire, England. His films included A Night to Remember , Village of the Damned , Billy Budd , A Man for All Seasons , Night of the Big Heat and Quatermass and the Pit... |
Bob Hayward |
| Anna Turner | Stella Hayward |
| Jack Bligh | Ben Siddle |
| Sydney Bromley Sydney Bromley Sydney Bromley was an English actor. He appeared in more than sixty films and television programmes. On stage, he appeared in St. Joan, by George Bernard Shaw, in 1924... |
Old Tramp |
Trivia
This film's alternate title is Island of the Burning Doomed (US TV title) and Island of the Burning Damned (US release). Its companion piece is generally considered to be 1966's Island of TerrorIsland of Terror
Island of Terror is a 1966 British horror film released by Planet Film Productions. The film was released in the US by Universal Studios on a double bill with The Projected Man . The idea for the film came when Richard Gordon read the screenplay The Night the Silicates Came from Gerry Fernback. He...
. In fact, the cave in which the homeless man is killed is the same cave set used for Ian Bellows' death at the beginning of Island of Terror.