‘Kinematograph Weekly’ – September 8, 1955 – ‘Studio Round-Up’

Festival Time for Tyrolean Goons

Some time in the future the rustic revelries of the Schemenlaufen, the five-yearly carnival of the little township of Imst in the Austrian Tyrol will probably include a crude representation of a film unit on location. There are only two things of note about Imst. One is an international children’s village. The other is the Schemenlaufen, which is based on a pagan festival of spring driving out winter. Tourists come from all over Austria to the 600-year-old ritual re-enacted.

Now Schemenlaufen has been captured on film. Indeed it is a vital part of the plot of “The Gamma People”, the new Warwick picture for Columbia which is now nearing completion.

Over lunch at MGM, Elstree, location manager Peter Berg told me of his trials and tribulations with townsfolk and authorities whom he mildly described as “just not film-minded”.

The unit certainly made its mark on the 4,000 inhabitants of Imst and surrounding countryside. Not only did they get them to put on two special performances of their festival – and out of its appointed time, at that! – but the visitors also built a road to reach a picturesqe castle, belonging to an ancient Austrian family, which is used in the picture.

The Schemenlaufen comes into the story as it reaches its climax. Briefly, ‘The Gamma People” is about two journalists, one British, the other American, who are the first outsiders for many years to enter the tiny mythical state of Gudavia.

The country is run by a mad scientist who is experimenting with gamma rays on the brains of young children to try to turn them all into genii. Most of the experiments fail and the kids become brainless goons and are used as the servants of the state.

The two journalists, played by Leslie Phillips and Paul Douglas, enlist the help of the sister of one of the victims, played by Eva Bartok, in overthrowing the regime. The rebellion takes place during the carnival and the tyrant, played by Walter Rilla, is killed and his victims restored to normality.

Science Fiction? “Not really”, director John Gilling told me. He described the picture as a comedy-thriller with a science fiction background.

An added piquancy is given to the story by the fact that publicity has been recently given in the nationals to the fact that gamma rays can actually affect the human brain – so the fiction is not so far from fact after all.

John Gilling who wrote the script with producer John Gossage, explained to me the difficulties of avoiding the space-comic atmosphere that is liable to get laughs where they are not wanted from audiences that are inclined to refuse to take their science fiction seriously.

The same problem has been exercising the mind of art director John Box, on whose laboratory set the unit was working when I called in to see them.

A formal control room looking on to a laboratory dominated by the gamma-ray itself had a clinical air and avoided the over-emphasis on sinister equipment that has spoiled too many sets of this kind.

Credit for the ray gun – built on to a swivelling operating table – and most of the fittings was disclaimed by John Box. The real work, he said, was done on this set by his assistant, Sid Cain.

Mind the Doors

Sliding doors with control lights at the side dominated the rehersals I watched, with Robert Lynn (the best-dressed first assistant I’ve ever seen) controlling the compicated cueing of opening and closing, lights flashing on and off for Walter Rilla striding one way and Eva Bartok running hard in the opposite direction.

A word with sound mixer produced evidence of one those little snags that the very nature of a story can throw up for the technicians to overcome.

According to the script, Gudavia has no cars and no rains. Usually when on location, said Peter, it is possible to get away with an occasional random noise from a passing car or train. But this time such sounds were verboten – and this with the location unit working right beside a main railway track and in the heart of a busy little town!”