The Gamma People (1956)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

To me, this movie is perfection.

Excellent but underrated film

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

THE GAMMA PEOPLE is a weird and unsuccessful science fiction B-movie of the mid 1950s, shot in the UK substituting for Eastern Europe. It was directed by John Gilling, a man with a respectable career whose highs include the excellent double bill he made for Hammer Studios, THE PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES and THE REPTILE. Sadly, it's one of his lesser works, a film which all over the place tonally and which is more laughable than anything else. A couple of characters board a train and head into an Iron Curtain country, where they discover a mad plot to mutate children with radiation. Said children aren't remotely scary and British viewers had to wait until VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED until the story subject was done properly. Paul Douglas is way too old and bloated to be the hero, although Leslie Phillips does the comedy well (of course) and Eva Bartok is very fine.

This movie is very deceiving.It seems to have a good story that makes sense but it's actually just an anti-Hitler movie full of plot holes.For once someone actually tried to make a good movie,they just failed. It starts with a train car taking several minutes to gently break away from the train.The car only has 2 people(reporters) in it because that's completely normal. One guy pushes the buzzer for the waitress(I have never been on a train but I doubt those buttons ever existed) and he immediately gets up to check on why she hasn't shown up.Nevermind that there were NO wires going from their car to the rest of the train.It was 1956, I guess they had wireless buttons. As their car drifts away from the train,we see two Hitler youth looking kids run out and throw the track switch so the car goes to their town.How did they know the car had broken free? The car stops and there's 10 minutes of time killing confusion before we learn that they are in an imaginary country that is exactly like Nazi Germany(except for the French-style military uniforms),they even use some German words. From this point on the majority of the movie is too dark to see anything,so you won't realize how stupid it is. The whole time there are hints about the reporters never being able to leave but there is nothing in the story to actually support that. There is also some stuff about weird masks that never makes any sense. One reporter gets beat up by a kid on a swing.The other one(who is fat & old and wears his pants around his neck) easily outruns a group of "goons". They get a car and drive into the country.It gets a flat and they all get out immediately and run to the front of the car,which immediately blows up. Then the fat guy tells the skinny guy to run back to the city to get help!!!While he and the girl they found run to Hitler's castle. Everything that happens in the castle is stupid and I won't waste any more time on this movie. Although I have nothing good to say about this movie,I am going to say you might want to give it a chance just to see how silly it is.

This is more of a light comedy than a science fiction thriller. It's actually a film about the different stereotypes of nationalities, beginning with the "ugly American" and the "waggish British" reporters.The film always moves briskly, due more to clever writing, good casting, and strategic directing, than on effects and big money. This is a textbook film on how to make a film look like it's more action packed than it really is.We know it's a spoof on the nationalities from the start, as the pair of reporters are oblivious to their train car being dislodged, by accident, and rolling into a "duchy" that resembles the European duchy we get in classics like THE INSPECTOR GENERAL, THE MOUSE THAT ROARED, and others.The duchy citizens also play to part.However, like most good films, this takes stereotypes and changes them into three dimensional characters, or at least two dimensional. The film makes sure it doesn't lose its light hearted approach. It has the cult look of a Rocky Horror in that regard, of taking stereotypes and making more out of them.This is a fun film, and well done, obviously low budget. There are no dull moments, which is more than I can say for most big budget science fiction movies. Much of this is because the film creates a very good atmosphere.Never underestimate "atmosphere" and "fundamentals". This film has both.

It is pretty evident that this one was made pretty quickly to cash in on the drive-in horror flixs popular at the time. So many of these types of films made during the 50s had very small budgets but took themselves VERY seriously. That is why many of them turned out as high camp.I am guessing the producers of this film must have taken a look at the budget and the script and the actors and decided that it was gonna be a hard sell to audiences as just another mid 50s low-budget "horror" pic. The basic outline of the plot has so many European stereotyped characters and so many plot clichés that no one would ever go to see it.So I bet they did some minor changes to the dialog, replaced some of the standard scary background music with a lighter score and told the actors to play it for laughs with tongue in check. If you judge it as a sort of send-up of it's genre it fares a lot better then if you try to take it seriously. A lot of the jokes fall flat and the actors seem to do their best with it but as a "scary" movie it fails miserably. I will give them the benefit of the doubt and five stars for the effort.