Far from the Madding Crowd

These Are the Damned (1963)
directed by Joseph Losey
rating: 2 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix

There's nothing like a British studio known for low-budget horror movies deciding to give everyone a dose of what's really horrible about the world: the prospect of nuclear war. Honestly, I have no excuse for putting this preachy piece of pop nonsense in my queue, and I can't for the life of me remember why I did (unless it was to watch the pedophile-in-your-neighborhood propaganda Never Take Candy from a Stranger on side B). "The age of senseless violence has caught up with us at last," complains an old Brit in the old town of Weymouth, where black leather motorcycle gangs harass aging American tourists clearly cast to look like aging Cary Grants. But the senseless violence doesn't arrive nearly fast enough for that maudlin soundtrack, and horror studios shouldn't moralize anyway. It's a very specific product from a very specific time in a place that has no relevance to me, and the biggest joke is the idea that stretching out on your yacht will get you a tan along the coast of England.