Jane Merrow

(In French, On Cable TV, July 2022) Surely the timing of Night of the Big Heat being shown on cable movie channels isn’t an accident—as temperatures across Great Britain reached a record-setting 40 degrees earlier this month, here is a film about a British island experiencing stifling temperatures in the middle of winter. What will comfort everyone is that the film’s high temperatures aren’t the result of anthropogenic climate change, but ALIENS (!) doing a bit of local terraforming prior to invasion. (If that’s familiar, you probably saw 1996’s The Arrival.) Fortunately, we’ve got Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing on hand to fight the impending invasion, in between a little bit of small-scale drama between the lead character, his wife and his ex-mistress freshly arrived on the island. (Jane Merrow looks terrific as the ex-mistress, despite the role being… problematic for modern audiences.)  Unfortunately, everything I’ve just said will probably make Night of the Big Heat sound like a much better film than it is. Even by the standards of 1960s British Science Fiction, this one is limp. Despite the good atmosphere of an unbearably hot night, the script struggles to make the most out of its premise. The romantic material is not only a distraction, but one that creates many vexing questions for twenty-first century viewers. Meanwhile, the progression of the plotting is disappointing and the film closes on a surprisingly underwhelming climax. Too bad—but fans of the lead actors will appreciate anyway.