pictures with pre-credits sequences at that time. I thought the first killing, the Silicate attacking the farmer [Liam Gaffney] off-camera in the cave, was very effective; Terence Fisher handled that particularly well. Also the first visit to the cancer researchers’ laboratory, where more bodies are found. The “worst” thing about the movie was the day-for-night shots, particularly the lift-off of the helicopter; one minute it looked like day and the next minute it was dark, but that was a matter of budget.
THE PROJECTED MAN started off a bit slow; in fact, Universal cut it because they felt that it took too long to get going. Uncut, the picture opens with the scientists teleporting a guinea pig, and then, after the arrival of Mary Peach, there’s another experiment with the teleportation machine; Universal cut the guinea pig experi- ment. Also, I could have done with less of the scantily clad secretary [Tracey Crisp] and the so- called nudity, but that was a necessary ingredi- ent at the time. I thought Bryant was very effective and handled his role extremely well. Towards the end, he was actually able to arouse the sympathy of the audience and did not come across as just a monster on a killing spree. It reminded me of so many films in which Boris Karloff had played a scientist who becomes a monster through no fault of his own—as op- posed to Bela Lugosi who was usually an out- right villain. In fact, you might say that Bryant paid tribute to the memory of Bela in DEVIL DOLL and Karloff in THE PROJECTED MAN! As for the female lead Mary Peach, she later became Mrs. Jimmy Sangster. The last time I saw her was with Sangster at one of the FANEX conventions in Baltimore [July 1997]. When I mentioned THE PROJECTED MAN, she said, “Oh, I don’t want to talk about that film!”—I think she didn’t want to appear to have been a horror film leading lady and become a part of that “clan” alongside actresses like Ingrid Pitt. [laughs] So I refrained from saying anything more about it! Tom Blakeley was so struck by the success
of ISLAND OF TERROR and the deal with Uni- versal that he wanted to rush immediately into a follow-up project, using Terence Fisher and Pe- ter Cushing again while they were still available, and adding Christopher Lee. He hurriedly bought the film rights to a novel called NIGHT OF THE BIG HEAT, which he felt he could make on a very low budget and he thought would interest Gerry Fernback and me. Neither Gerry nor I liked the script. It was too long, too talky, with not enough action, and the budget was much too low to
allow for really good special effects. Protelco withdrew from the production and Planet went ahead on its own. The result was that no one liked the finished film. I tried to help Planet make an American sale but every studio where I screened it, including Universal, turned it down. Eventually, I sold it off to Maron Films, an American indepen- dent distributor, who retitled it ISLAND OF THE BURNING DAMNED [in 1971] and paired it with a Japanese Godzilla picture [GODZILLA’S RE- VENGE]. The program was a total failure and helped to lead Planet into bankruptcy. Meanwhile, Gerry and I proceeded on our own and, in partnership with Steven Pallos, we undertook to make a film based on a play about voodoo witchcraft called THE OBI by Jon Manchip White, which Columbia Pictures agreed to help finance and to distribute in England and the rest of Europe. At Columbia’s insistence, we agreed to film it in black-and-white although just at that time, the whole industry including the independents changed to color. Columbia didn’t want to contribute extra money to shoot in color and so the film [retitled NAKED EVIL, 1966] failed financially and never got a proper Ameri- can release until several years later when Sam Sherman’s Independent International bought the residual rights for America from me and added some color footage.
Allan Ramsen [co-writer of ISLAND OF TER-
ROR] continued to write genre screenplays on spec but neither Gerry nor I liked any of them that he submitted to us. I heard that he has since died. Gerry Fernback decided to step out of the film business in order to concentrate on his other business interests and has also passed away. As well as ISLAND OF TERROR and THE PROJECTED MAN did in American distribution, even getting a review in VARIETY that described us as joining the Hammer and Amicus league, Universal has never released either film on DVD; in fact, they’ve never released THE PROJECTED MAN on home video at all. I have no say in the matter, so there is nothing I can do about it, although I’ve suggested it several times when talk- ing with their studio executives. Both films have been released independently on DVD overseas. Protelco closed its doors on film production after only the three films ISLAND OF TERROR, THE PROJECTED MAN and NAKED EVIL, and when I resumed production myself, including TOWER OF EVIL [1971], HORROR HOSPITAL [1973], THE CAT AND THE CANARY [1978] and INSEMINOID [1981], it was on my own. But that’s another story!
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