The Omegans

This particularly low budget Willy Wilder Filipino feature casts Hammer horror star-to-be Ingrid Pitt as an unfaithful wife to Lucien Pan, who has to be the ugliest actor imaginable (so who could blame Ingrid for wanting to conspire against him with handsome co-star Keith Larssen)? At the core of this wildly bizarre quasi-sci-fi melodrama is the old-standard plot involving the cuckolded husband who discovers his unfaithful wife and her lover (his friend) are out to do him in -- and who eventually turns the tables on them. It's a very queer, campy film with a broadly hip score -- music which reinforces the kookiness of it all. Most theatergoers will be appalled by the film, but those able to keep tongue-in-cheek and are fans of the independent oddballs of the cinema may embrace "The Omegans" (though chuckling will be heard, no doubt). The Omegans themselves are a bit of a red herring, the real "demon" here being the tainted water that Pitt and Larssen are fooled to drink and bathe in (which ultimately poisons them). It should be noted that for actress Ingrid Pitt this film curiously forshadows her participation in Hammer's "Countess Dracula" (in which she portrays the true-life countess Elzbet Bathori who, among other atrocities, bathed in the blood of virgin girls presuming it to have the effect of restoring youth and beauty).

Here in "The Omegans" Pitt takes countless baths in the poisoned water, and age-makeup is used extensively grows more ill; in "Countess Dracula" Pitt would be taking baths and wearing age makeup again. A pattern? A stretch? Probably a weird coincidence...If the sci-fi element and exotic locations were removed from this film (along with Lucien Pan's horrid acting) one wonders whether the film's core plot element would have fared better against a more mundane background. That thought posed, it's only fair to say that the Philippine locations are easy on the eye, and while the film is clearly a misfire on practically all levels, it still entertains greatly on the due to its camp and mere obscurity. Look for some wacky scientists who seem more like dirty old men...Keith Larssen's costumes border on the "hello, sailor" type, and Lucien Pan's Filipino sidekick steals the show whenever he's around. One moment sticks out in my mind as being genuinely "good": having had her mirrors all smashed or removed, Pitt can not tell she is turning hideously ugly as the poisoned water does its trick and sits at the river's edge trying to see her visage in the moving water (to no avail). It's a clever touch (one of several), and touching at the same time (one develops pity for the character who first conspired to kill but now is the victim). One can only wish it were better, but it's fun for being as weird as it is!

In the early to mid 1980's I caught this on Cable a couple of times. I believe it was broadcast several times on AMC before they went commercial and also started editing the movies they played. Though I don't recall any nudity in this film-I believe it was equivalent to a PG-13 nowadays. The few films I caught of Billy Wilders lesser know brother i've enjoyed, even though most of them were considerably low-budget. In this movie Wilder makes the most of the mood and atmosphere of his jungle locations and I think does the best job of any of his films i've seen. This is I guess essentially a revenge move with the mood or attitude of a horror movie. Not a revenge film of the 'guns are blazing" or "shoot-em-out" variety, but more of a revenge film in the case of a mystery. I started to watch this because by the description it sounded like a horror move-and i'm a big fan of horror. Well, although it isn't, it does have a bit of a Sci-Fi element to it. The "Omegans" of the title are actually some kind of odd life form which lives in the jungle waters, if I remember correctly. We never get a look at them, but they are secondary to the story anyway. Like I said, there is a bit of a horror element to the movie-I quite enjoy the aging makeup job on Ingrid Pitt as the radioactive waters begin to take control on her body. Yeah, I find this pretty unique as it flirts with several film genres without falling safely into any of them, And I seem to remember the color was quite impressive to boot. I would love to be able to get this on DVD since it seems it won't be on TV anytime soon..

What can you say about a radioactive river in the jungle? :) It was different in its own way, And you know the movie did not stand on its special effects !!

I did sit still and watched most of it.

This was type of film Monster Mash TV shows would show frequently as the weaker half of a double bill. Late night viewers would possibly go to sleep on this slow moving thriller. Who could blame them? An artist finds out his wife and her lover are planning to do him in. He soon finds a devious way to get back at them. He hears of a cursed (radioactive) river that causes rapid aging, and that's all I want to remember.