La révolte des triffides

When an asteroid shower passes over the earth, most of London stops and watches the 'once in a lifetime' spectacle. However, London, as well as the vast majority of the world find themselves blinded and at the mercy of the triffids – a plant-like beast who arrived from space in the night and are feasting on the stumbling humans. One of the few people to still able to see is sailor Bill Masen, who had his eyes bandaged shut at the time due to an operation. As cities burn, survivors try to band together and those still able to see try to stop the spread of the triffids.

Despite being one of those things that is in popular culture and in all our minds, I have never read or seen Day of the Triffids until I decided to watch this film the other night. The gaudy title sequence immediately put this in the category of b-movie creature feature and I prepared myself for the genre, aware of its weaknesses. However, after the initial opening the film settled into a good portrayal of London falling into destruction – planes fall, governments fold and cities burn; I found this great fun and to have a real sense of terror to it – even if the people acting 'blind' were just sort of rocking and stumbling in a comical manner and not panicking quite as much as they would in real life! After this strong opening we settle into more traditional b-movie territory with the characters established and long scenes of dialogue (and sentiment) delivered in place of actual action.

When the film does move past the dialogue heavy establishment what we get is still more dialogue mixed with scenes of big rubbery plants with failing tentacles. As a creature feature it is OK but if you step outside of what is acceptable within the genre then you'd have to admit that it isn't much good! The creatures suffer from being seen and their appearance (and the dialogue heavy pace) robs the film of its early sense of doom. This is an unfair complaint maybe, because few monsters when revealed really retain their threat when unseen (even in the CGI age) but, even with the rubbery effects, the film could have kept them hidden for longer - kudos for a sea of them near the end though, up till this point they didn't seem that much of an immediate threat.

Although the plants look stiff and are made of wood, the cast give them a run for their money (obvious gag, apologies) in the firm tradition of the genre. Howard Keel is a mans' man for the period but he has come from the Steven Seagal school of acting – one expression on his face all the time regardless of whether he is fighting hoards of aliens with a flame thrower or looking after a little girl. Of course he isn't very good but what did you expect from him in a sci-fi b-movie? The rest of the cast are pretty poor too and are a load of genre clichés – sympathetic kids, boisterous men who get their comeuppance and the simpering love interest who need to be saved. The couple in the lighthouse are no better but they suffer from being away from the main story – even if they turn out to be important.

Overall this is not a great film but it is an enjoyable enough b-movie creature feature with all the weaknesses that that description implies (wooden acting, poor script, rubber monsters) but if you are content with this genre then you should find this an enjoyable film if hardly a brilliant one. It's just a shame that the tangible sense of doom that existed with the early scenes of a London falling to pieces was not continued through the whole film.

This is a well-told film that lacks post-1994 incredible special effects expenditures and massive overspending. What it has is a very solid story line, a number of memorable scenes and a feel of realism about it that adds a great deal I suggest to its eerie sci-fi atmosphere. Its central character, Bill, a career seaman played expertly by Howard Keel, is a man facing an nightmare. The film begins in a small typical and beautifully-presented small London hospital where he has to wait one more day before removing bandages to ensure that his vision will return to normal. Banter with a lovely nurse and his doctor turn into a prescient strangeness the next morning--when Keel awakes to find the hospital abandoned, all floors silent amid signs of damage and swift departure...Telephones are not working either. He removes his bandages to find a world without people. We learn, through his adventures and those of a couple in an isolated lighthouse off the coast, where the husband does scientific experiments and drinks too much, that a shower of meteors watched by billions, have destroyed their optic nerves and thus rendered nearly everyone blind. We soon learn that this is a worldwide phenomenon. In addition, a species of plants called triffids have developed from being small insect eating plants into towering and motile monstrosities that can sting and paralyze then absorb human beings as food. They spray small spores to propagate, are reproducing in millions and thus threaten all remaining human life. Keel picks up a young girl who can also see; and after escaping a crowd of the desperate in London and witnessing an attempt at an airliner landing turning into a massive explosion, they escapes from the city. Thereafter, their adventures deal with the plants' attacks, attempts to reach the continent and a rendezvous in Paris and then one in Spain; but the bulk of the film involves the couples' lonely battle with the triffids on their isolated island, and Keel's final escape from a doomed French haven with Nicole Maurey and the young girls as they make for a submarine pickup, the last scheduled for Europe's remaining sighted persons. The great task that everyone faces during the film is striving against all odds to find some way of defeating the plants as well simply escaping. The piece's screenplay by veteran Philip Yordan, adapted from a good John Wyndham novel, I find to be rather satisfying. Steve Sekely directed in swift-paced and intelligent style. The competent cast besides Keel, a most underrated leading man, include strong Kieron More and Janette Scott as the couple in the lighthouse, Mervyn Johns, Alison Leggatt, Geoffrey Mathews, Ewan Roberts, Janina Faye as the young girl picked up by Keel, Gilgi Hauser, pretty Carol Ann Ford, Colette Wild as the lovely nurse and Victor Brooks, among others. This estimable film was produced by Yordan, with George Pitcher as line producer assisted by Bernard Glasser. Rod Goodwin's musical score is powerful and well-above-average at all points. the cinematography by Ted Moore and Cedric Dawe's gritty art direction are also noteworthy. The film looks back I suggest to previous 1950s color sci-fi efforts; but its plants also became the model for the Star Trek "This Side of Paradise" spore-producing vegetation.. And its generally serious feel was copied many times thereafter, both the lighthouse sequence and the cross-country adventures of keep and his companions. But these achievements have seldom been approached let alone bettered. Anyone viewing the film today I assert should respond to its unusual realism; complaints about a lack of multi-million dollar graphics are undoubtedly more than misplaced. The storyline was a difficult one to capture in a brief film even in the 1960s. I suggest that the makers have done this exacting task rather admirably. Scenes such as the surrounding of an electrified yard by the carnivorous plants, the airliner's approach and crash, and the escape of Keel, Faye and Maurey from her house when it is taken over by convicts deserve critical acclaim. I judge this effort to be one of the most underrated of sci-fi films of all time.

The film opens with a marvellously atmospheric sequence of a night security guard being stalked by an aggressive man-size killer plant in a huge greenhouse. Illuminated by a night sky full of falling comets, the use of darkness with splashes of technicolor makes this visually very rich and introduces the triffid as a terrifying menace. For a British-made sci-fi story, this is an ambitious attempt to follow action across three countries, show society in ruins and portray (not quite as successfully) a rampaging army of killer plants! The grim early scenes of blinded populous are quite upsetting, a plane falls out of the sky because the pilot cannot see but he knows he is running out of fuel, a train crashes into a terminus and its blinded passengers can't help themselves amongst the wreckage... The film follows an American sailor, who has not been blinded by the comets, as he tries to reach safety. This story is intercut with a couple stranded in a lighthouse surrounded by Triffids - these scenes were all added by the (uncredited) director Freddie Francis after the original cut of the movie came in way under its correct running time. The woman in the lighthouse scenes is played by Janette Scott, who has been immortalised in the lyrics of the title song of "THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW". If possible watch a widescreen version of this movie - it makes a lot more sense.

Another film-role immortalised in the line above, from the soundtrack of The Rocky Horror Show! Bit of a misnomer actually, SHE didn't fight the triffid, Kieron Moore did! All poor Janette did was to stand there shoving her hand in her mouth and screaming!

Well here's another sci-fi flick seems to have struck a sour note with many viewers. Yeah, there HAVE been many liberties taken with John Wyndham's original tale, doesn't mean though "Hey, three strikes you're out! Derided and laughed-at, much like RAISE THE TITANIC, many aspects of this film are clearly socially responsible and relevant today. How would YOU handle yourself in the situation Howard Keel finds himself in after the majority of the world's population is blinded by the light emanated from a meteor shower? The film was made for a 1960's outlook and acceptance, not new millennium desensitised and pseudo-enlightened audiences. Maybe the triffids WERE men in suits, they were damn good ones though. The fx where the triffids were seeking to gain entry to the lighthouse I thought were exceptionally good for their age. OK, so the film DOES also offer what is probably the WORST train pile up ever filmed (you never actually see it!) but give the makers a break. What did you EXPECT them to do? close Charing Cross station and have an eight coach steam train from Watford ram the buffers at 100 mph?

Many wonderful images from this film stick in the mind. That great scene where Mervyn Johns and Howard Keel stand on the edge of the quarry, watching the triffid spores becoming airborne. The triffid, as it lashes the back window of the Humber as Keel shepherds the little girl to safety. The stock-standard British stiff upper lip when the blinded crew of the airplane know they are doomed. The panorama of burning triffids when Keel rigs up the elctric fence then has to torch them before they break through. Even now so many years since I saw it, I can still hear that ice-cream truck as the triffids are led in pied-piper fashion away to their ultimate fate.

I can forgive 'Tommythek' his less than relevant comments. He at least admits to being "illiterate" and functioning at the lowest level. Others though are stupefyingly brittle and short-sighted. THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS is top sci-fi entertainment, not quite a fully-fledged classic I agree, but I'll watch it anyday before I ever sit through CAST AWAY again!

When I got my driver's license, I headed off to a nearby town to see a movie. This was it. I loved it. It has really received a bad rap. The story begins with a city full of blind people--Stricken by a meteor shower which has also brought spores to earth--the spawn of Triffids--flesh eating plants. While the plants are not sighted or masterfully created, the quest by Howard Kiel and his young counterpart, and the horror they encounter, is quite good. I found it anything but boring. It speaks to the realities of the created situation, and the acting is good. There is a nice subplot of a depressed lighthouse keeper and marine biologist and his wife/associate who seek an answer. It was quite suspenseful and well paced. Some real questions are asked and answered. It's not a masterpiece, but it holds up very well after all these years.