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(4/10) In a nutshell: Hammer’s first real deep plunge into science fiction in 1953 has two men cloning the woman they are both in love with. Skipping lightly over anything that might require any deeper thought, the film squanders nearly all interesting concepts of the premise, and instead settles for a dull melodrama. Terence Fisher was still awaiting his breakthrough as horror auteur, and does a good job with filming and direction, and the British movie stars American scandal starlet Barbara Payton and Liam Neeson’s doppelgänger, both doing a good job in their roles.
Four Sided Triangle (1953). Directed by Terence Fisher. Written by Terence Fisher and Paul Tabori. Based on the novel 4-Sided Triangle by William F. Temple. Starring: Barbara Payton, James Hayter. Stephen Murray, John Van Eyssen. Produced by Michael Carreras and Alexander Paal for Hammer Film Productions. IMDb score: 5.8
Before Hammer Films found their great money cow in the colourful, lewd revamps of classic Universal horror films, the small British movie company took a few stabs at science fiction, which was increasingly popular overseas. The studio had already dabbled in sci-fi in the proto-James Bond films Dick Barton Strikes Back (1949, review) and Dick Barton at Bay (1951, review), but Four Sided Triangle, released in May 1953, was the studio’s first all-out sci-fi movie, although still rooted in the old horror tropes of Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Continue reading