The Damned (1962) on Netflix
American tourist Simon Wells meets Joan in Weymouth; her brother King and his motorbike gang beat him. Joan boards Simon's boat, defying King, while nine children live hidden in caves.
- Watch on NetflixThis title is not on Netflix right now. Please check back later for updates.
- Watch on NordVPN
- Netflix3.9/5
- IMDb6.6/104,634 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes88%
Trailer
Plot summary
Simon Wells, an American tourist on a boating holiday off England's south coast, meets twenty-year-old Joan in Weymouth. Joan lures him into a mugging by her brother King and his motorbike gang. Joan joins Simon on his boat, defying King, who tries to keep her from leaving. Simon asks her to run away with him, but she insists on returning to shore. Nine eleven-year-old children live in caves on the nearby coast, educated by Bernard through closed-circuit television and visited by men in radiation protection suits.
Cast
Show all 13 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Damned (1962)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The sculptures in the film were all made by British artist Elisabeth Frink, who lent them, was on location for their shooting, and coached Viveca Lindfors in the sculptor's method of building up plaster, which was then ferociously worked and carved.
SPOILER
Joseph Losey wanted the sculptor Freya to be killed by one of the helicopters, but the studio insisted that Bernard kill her, and it also made the filmmakers tone down the incestuous references between King and Joan.- The first script was written by Ben Barzman, Losey's frequent screenwriting collaborator, and was reasonably faithful to H. L. Lawrence's novel, but Losey disliked it and had it completely rewritten by Evan Jones two weeks before filming.
- Columbia Pictures asked for an American lead actor to help the film's overseas prospects, so Losey hired Macdonald Carey, who had starred in his 1950 film The Lawless; he also cast Alexander Knox, another Hollywood blacklistee like himself.
- Producer Anthony Hinds demanded re-edits, fearing the film's bleak and cerebral tone would hurt its commercial prospects; Losey relented and cut roughly eight minutes, and the title was changed from his preferred The Brink to The Damned to link it to Village of the Damned.
- Oliver Reed recalled that Losey would take the cast out to dinner and preach anti-Bomb stuff to them, and the film went over budget by £25,000.
