Phase IV - Lobby Cards (1974)

Phase IV is a film I saw numerous times in my youth but which then disappeared out of the public consciousness or at least the late night TV viewing schedules.  Its a  rather stunning piece of work that stayed with me and a generation of movie viewers that have now helped to label it a cult classic, rather than the box office failure of its 1974 cinematic release.

I'm not sure of the exact years that I watched it but it must have been post 1975 and I'm fairly certain I saw it two or three times before it left our screens for good.

By way of a few facts, its the one and only feature film directed by American graphic design and filmmaker Saul Bass and stars Nigel Davenport, Lynne Frederick and Michael Murphy.  Its an Anglo American venture with the interiors shot at Pinewood Studios in England and the exterior location filming taking place in Kenya,  Although in the film it self, the action is supposed to be taking place in the Arizona desert of the United States.

In content its a film about ants, very clever ants, and something I recently described to a friend as the; 2001 of eco-sci-fi thrillers, which is fairly accurate a description if your interpretation of the source of the ants' intelligence is the same as mine.  Its also that good a film in my opinion.

I say this not simply from nostalgia and childhood memory but from a recent viewing.  Having given up waiting for it to appear back on TV or the high street DVD suppliers, I recently tracked down a German copy which can be played without the sub titles and thus enjoyed in its original mother tongue.  In fact if I'm honest I think I enjoyed it even more as an adult.

What's left to say about Phase IV apart from the fact that I would really like a new cleaned up English release with the extended even more trippy original ending having been restored to the edit.

In between writing this, I've just gone off and ordered the old paperback tie-in of the movie because I've now reminded myself that its still on my wants list.

And finally, that the film stars, as you will have noticed in the names above, the rather lovely Lynne Frederick, who we have already featured in the coverage of The Amazing Mr Blunden and who we will be looking at again, as something of a reoccurring English Rose, that much like the films she features in, deserves far more praise and credit than they are currently afforded.


Steve

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Pages 46, 61 & 62)