The Day of the Triffids (1963)

The Day of the Triffids, a 1951 novel by John Wyndham, is considered one of the cornerstones of British science fiction as well as one of the most influential books in the genre.  It has inspired a number of post-apocalyptic stories, from 28 Days Later to The Walking Dead, with the central idea of a group of humans overcoming a worldwide disaster to work together and survive being a central idea in many of them.

It was inevitable that it would become a movie and, with eight-foot-tall carnivorous walking plants, the triffids themselves fit in perfectly with the giant monsters of the 1950s.  Despite this, the movie didn't get made until 1963 and, while held in some regard, it took many liberties with the novel.  Despite that it still manages to be much more than just another creature feature. 

During a spectacular meteor shower a specimen of plant called a triffid, carried to Earth aboard a meteor and kept in the Royal Botanical Gardens in London, comes to life.  Soon the plants, which can uproot themselves and move about looking for animals upon which to feed, start to spread.  The problem for humans is that they are now easy prey due to a majority of the world's population being blind after watching the meteor shower.  Bob Masen (Howard Keel), an American sailor who was on leave to get eye surgery, is one of the few that can see.  After a train accident he rescues a girl named Susan (Janina Faye), who can also see, and they attempt to make it to his ship in Southampton.

Meanwhile, marine biologists Tom (Kieron Moore) and Karen Goodwin (Janette Scott) find themselves isolated in the island lighthouse where they were doing research as spores reach their location and begin to grow.  While they look for a way of stopping the plants Masen and Susan eventually take a boat across the channel to France, only to find Paris abandoned.  While traveling in the countryside they discover the house of Christine Durrant (Nicole Maurey) and Mr. Coker (Mervyn Johns), who have retained their sight and are trying to help survivors.  The situation soon deteriorates, resulting in Masen, Susan and Durrant heading to Spain to seek rescue while the Goodwins find themselves desperate and under siege. 

In the book Masen is a biologist studying the triffids which, rather than being alien lifeforms, are a form of bioengineered plant that, though dangerous, contains byproducts that are beneficial to industry.  They become a threat once everyone becomes blind.  The change in Masen's background doesn't affect the story much, but I find it strange that the origin of the triffids was changed, other than to avoid Cold War implications.  Despite this the important parts of the story, including the quick dissolution of civilization, are there.  Many of these scenes don't feel too different from many modern apocalyptic movies and shows. 

The problem is that this is an English film on an English budget and, while not as limited as a BBC production at the time, they still had to make do with what they had.  That means that the triffids, though somewhat accurate to the book, don't always work the way they may have in 1963.  I think they are still effective monsters, with their ungainly movements and strange gurgling sounds as well as Lovecraftian asymmetry, but the budget does show.  The good news is that, like many productions from Old Blighty, this forces more attention on the story and trends to the more intellectual side.

The scenes with Kieron Moore and Janette Scott in the lighthouse were filmed after the rest of the movie as there was only about an hour of useable footage and the movie needed to be stretched out.  Despite this, and probably because it was directed by veteran Freddie Francis rather than Steve Sekely, these are some of the more exciting scenes in the movie.  Sekely is good at setting up scenes of a London full of desperate blind people or an abandoned Paris and does a pretty good job with a triffid attack on a house taken over by convicts.  Francis, though, manages to build some tension in the secondary story with the attack on the lighthouse that leads to a solution to the triffid problem.  That, unfortunately, also leads to a typical bit of a religious tone that ended many science fiction movies at the time and feels rather hokey today.

While the movie is worth a watch, as Howard Keel is a solid hero and there is an appearance by Carole Ann Ford as a French girl named Bettina (this was released the same year as the first Doctor Who series), one will have to be satisfied at the moment with the prints that are available.  These unfortunately have a lot of issues, from sound problems to washed-out colors.  Supposedly there was a restoration done in 2023 despite the original negative being missing, but so far it hasn't surfaced for the general public.  It is possible to find the 1981 BBC series based on Wyndham's book if one is curious about a closer adaptation, but this still remains a decent version despite its changes to the story. 

The Day of the Triffids (1963)

Time: 93 minutes

Starring: Howard Keel, Janina Faye, Nicole Maurey, Janette Scott, Kieron Moore

Directors: Steve Sekely, Freddie Francis