Rent Night of the Big Heat (1967)

Perspiration-infused genteel horror - Night of the Big Heat review by NP

The teaming of Christopher Lee (Hanson), Peter Cushing (Callum) and Terence Fisher (Director) often means great things. Praised and in some cases worshipped for his work on Hammer’s early Dracula and Frankenstein films, Fisher’s magic wasn’t all-reaching – in my view, subsequent Werewolf and Mummy films were a little dull. So too, were Fisher’s occasional exercises in sci-fi.

Night of the Big Heat reminds me of the previous year’s Island of Terror – both feature an isolated community filled with stoical British folk fighting some mostly unseen alien horror. The former film, however, didn’t boast the talents of Jane Merrow. Despite sterling performances from the cast, it is Merrow’s sultry, slutty, manipulative Angela Roberts steals the show. So rushed is the ending that she is robbed of any kind of closure, which is one of the disappointments this production has to offer.

That this is a low budget affair is not an obstacle – the effects are crude but charming, and very brief. Planet Films were a short-lived company who often managed to attract big names, despite distributing more films than they produced. The fact is, it is very talky. Very talky indeed, despite the urgency the cast injects. Patrick Allen gruffly plays the flawed hero, Sarah Lawson as his loyal wife Frankie, very often undermined by the cocky Roberts. In fact, this love triangle is more interesting than the central plot, which sees the reliable Cushing relegated to a secondary role and Lee doing his usual grumpy academic. William Lucas, Kenneth Cope and a miss-spelled Percy Herbert also star.

Additional dialogue is provided by prolific Pip and Jane Baker, who went on to oversee the departure of Colin Baker and subsequent arrival of Sylvester McCoy in late Eighties Doctor Who.

My score is 6 out of 10.

Interesting - Night of the Big Heat review by sb

FILM & REVIEW Not a Hammer movie but with Lee, Cushing and director Fisher it may as well be. In the middle of an English winter the remote island of Faro is basking in a unexplained heatwave The local hotel is run by Callum (Allen) and his real life wife (Lawson). One of the guests is mysterious scientist Hanson(Lee) is conducting secretative tests while various locals are being incinerated. It’s revealed that radio waves transmittted from earth have attracted the attention of aliens and a scouting party has been sent to see if they can make life compatable - thus the heatwave. It’s got more than a hint of Quatermass about it (which Hammer also made) and is quite effective as an under siege movie and the way the characters begin to crack in the rising tempatures works well. There is an unfortunate soapy sub plot with Merrow as a girl from Callum’s past which just gets in the way and Cushing has more of a guest cameo and budgets mean that Fisher wisely keeps the aliens as a out of shot menance until the end but overall it works pretty well - 4/5

UK Sci-fi (spoiler). - Night of the Big Heat review by Steve

Lesser, low budget British sci-fi which, like its title, feels spliced together from other better pictures. It takes most from the Quatermass series, and like those films was initially made for tv. Though this does less to disguise that origin. So there are only a two or three locations, and rudimentary special effects.

This was an independent production directed by Hammer stalwart Terence Fisher and features their perennial stars, Peter Cushing- in a cameo- and Christopher Lee. And it is these three who give it some quality. The narrative is driven by the heat which prompts the locals to behave in ever less predictable ways.

Lee plays an irascible boffin who suspects the unseasonal high temperature on a remote island is caused by preparation for an alien invasion. So the tiny community comes together to repel the glowing intruders who feed off light and burn their victims to ashes. But who have the usual fatal flaw.

And this scenario works yet again. It is padded out with a love triangle between a macho writer (Patrick Allen), his doormat wife (Sarah Lawson) and sexy secretary (Jane Merrow) who keeps on getting so hot she has to strip off. But there is zero nudity, or gore. The US release was called Island of the Burning Doomed which might be the most hyperbolic film title ever!