Renowned science-fiction novelist H.G. Wells of The War
of the Worlds, The Invisible Man and The Time Machine is
widely regarded as among the greatest authors in the history of the literary subgenre. Often functioning as futurist sociopolitical
allegory while introducing a number of fantastical concepts rarely used in
fiction up to that point, his stories have been adapted into radio plays, stage
theater and even the musical rock opera.
The film adaptations of his work including Things to Come which
Wells himself rewrote for the screen across the board have included some of the
most visionary and timeless science-fiction vistas in cinema history including
several screen versions of The War of the Worlds and The Island of
Dr. Moreau. But for every good
effects-heavy imaginary wonderment Wells’ fiction dreamt up for the silver
screen, falling in between the cracks are delightful (depending on your tastes)
examples of his work reimagined as silly if not preposterous high-camp.
Which brings us to schlock B-movie sci-fi effects purveyor
Bert I. Gordon of Tormented and Earth vs. the Spider who went on
to make not one but two adaptations of H.G. Wells’ 1904 novel The Food of
the Gods and How it Came to Earth. A
fast-working director who often cranked out as many as two to three films per
year who also served as producer, screenwriter and visual effects supervisor,
Bert I. Gordon i.e. BIG was a filmmaker who often played around with oversized
monsters such as The Amazing Colossal Man and War of the Colossal
Beast, making him an easy fit for a B-movie spin on Wells’ giants
tale. In the text, it told the story of
a team of scientists who develop an artificial food which enlarges the creature
ingesting it. Initially tested on plants,
insects and animals, eventually children get their hands on it and become
giants threatening to overthrow contemporary adult society by force, sparking a
counter-attack by the ordinary sized human populace and to destroy the so-called
Food of the Gods.
Reimagining the story in 1965 as an effects-heavy
beach-party dancing teensploitation camp comedy entitled Village of the
Giants, Bert I. Gordon’s film with an opening credits montage of scantily
clad women dancing in slow motion to Jack Nitzsche’s funky opening cue (later
sampled in Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof) announces itself as maybe
the most thoroughly tongue-in-cheek beginning to a monster movie since Irvin
Yeaworth’s The Blob. Set in the
fictional California town of Hainesville, the film zeroes in on a group of
teenage party animals whose car crashed into a roadblock doesn’t stop them from
getting out and dancing in the rain.
Comprised of four couples, following a mud wrestling fight they venture
into the small town where a young lad nicknamed ‘Genius’ (a preteen Ron Howard)
is playing with his chemistry set when he inadvertently creates a substance he
calls “Goo”. When the family cat eats
some of it, the animal enlarges to giant size, prompting them to enlarge ducks
and even the family dog.
Looking at it now,
the film is even more charming due to its combination of high camp, poor taste
including an off-color joke about dwarfism and some really hokey stiff
performances with even clunkier dialogue.
Eleven years later for American International Pictures, Bert I. Gordon
would tackle Wells’ The Food of the Gods again, this time as a revenge
thriller involving giant rodents which helped kick off the AIP boom of Wells’
adaptations. While unintentionally funny
for much of it, I can’t imagine it being nearly as hilarious or entertaining as
the BIG director’s beach party version.
--Andrew Kotwicki