Dr. Who And The Daleks (1965), Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.' (1966) What a fine, fun easy breezy night we had revisiting these two back to back......
Though British produced and filmed in widescreen and color, these very kid-oriented movies are considered as outliers in the Who-Verse......as if, in the greater scheme of Who-iana, they don't exist.
Don't care. We still loved 'em both.
And even though he's not designated (like the many versions of the TV series' Who) as some sort of immortal time-and-space entity, we still thought Peter Cushing's down-to-earth 'little old genius' portrayal fit perfectly.
Cushing's presence in the role was designed to attract U.S. audiences since we all knew him well from our matinees watching him as Doc Frankenstein and vampire nemesis Van Helsing in the Hammer double features.
And the two films themselves arrived as simply plotted, easily digestible action-adventures, moving along with immediate comic-book speed.
Best of all, the films featured Daleks! Yes, those oversized, intergalactic salt 'n pepper shakers barking out extermination orders in electronic, guttural voices as they bounce around the cosmos seeking world dominations everywhere they park. Basically, they functioned as chromium plated Nazis from outer space.
'Dr, Who And The Daleks wastes no time plunging the good Doctor, and his Scoobys, his two granddaughters and the older one's nerdy date, into another dystopian planet. (Of course this trip comes courtesy of the Doc's 'Tardis' the phone-booth sized police box with way more square footage on the inside.....)
A sort of 'Time Machine' remake ensues, with Who and the gang thrown into a battle between the Eloi-like 'Thals' (sporting 'Village Of The Damned' wigs and eye shadow) and the Daleks, shooting lethal fire-extinguisher fog our of their various appendages. (You don't want to get sprayed.)
Do we even have to tell you who triumphs? Oops, read that sentence again for the reveal....
Even more fast and fun and way more ambitious in execution and scope, "Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D.' arrived one year later....
In this follow up, the afflicted planet that Who and company go time tripping into is none other than futuristic Earth, now blasted and besieged by the Daleks who cruise around conquered London in a big ass flying saucer.
A full fledged mini-version of World War 2 is in full swing, complete with hardy resistance fighters lobbing grenades at the Daleks, who've 'robotized' some of the hapless humans into zombie stormtroopers.
Huge amounts of comic-book carnage play out here - pitched battles rage while the Daleks work on their wild plan to use the Earth's core energy to turn the whole planet into their own personal spaceship. (The plot machinations even include a few nasty humans who turn on our good guys, handing them over to the Daleks....)
And once again, you know who ultimately wipes out those D-bags.....oh damn we did it again, didn't we? But as all Who-Maniacs can affirm, the rasping, gasping Daleks went on to make plenty of comebacks in the TV series episodes, continuing to slowly annunciate their commands as if they learned English from watching spelling bees.
The only thing we dearly missed in both movies was that signature synthesizer whining of the TV show title theme music, here replaced with insistent loud and brassy jazz scores that have little do to with the films themselves. (A trope all too prevalent in 60's cinema....)
We'll wrap this up with a 'jolly good show' salute to the Amicus guys - producer Max Rosenberg and producer-writer Milton Subotsky, who put out these little Who epics the same time they were pumping out their many imitation Hammer horrors ("The Skull", "The Psychopath", "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors")
One more special shout-out to the director of both these 'Who' films, Gordon Flemying, a briskly efficient craftsman who even surfed that 60's cultural wave that landed talented young Brit directors some Hollywood gigs.....(Flemyng got to helm the MGM Jim Brown heist caper "The Split" and the frantic, screwball Zero Mostel-Peter O' Toole costume farce 'Great Catherine' -see out 11/14//19 on that one).
Anyone aching for a great near 3 hour double-whammy binge in 1960's sci-fi, we know Who you should watch......sorry, we couldn't resist one last time. 3 & 1/2 stars (***1/2) for each film.
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