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Sometimes, simple math and even geometry don't add up when human beings and their imprecise emotions are involved. Add a bit of super science and you can end up with a really illogical--and deadly--mess. For example, suppose you wanted to duplicate a beautiful woman who doesn't love you, so that you could love the duplicate. Well, that can lead to a "four-sided triangle," as the following article about the Hammer sci-fi flick of the same name makes clear. Of course, the real question about any such "four sided triangle" is...
First, from the Internet Movie Database: Directed by Terence Fisher Writing
credits: Genre: Romance / Sci-Fi Complete
credited cast: Also
Known As: Runtime:
81 min Four Sided Triangle (1953) was the second DVD in the Hammer two pack that included X—The Unknown. While X was a fairly well executed film, Four Sided Triangle had a more interesting concept at its center, even though it failed to explore the multitude of related questions it raised.
The central question is what sort of problems are created when you clone a human being? It was rather disappointing that the film only dealt with the affect cloning has on relationships. I would have liked to see some legal, moral and practical issues raised (e.g., does the clone get its own social security number?), but the film was made in 1953 and probably still considered cloning as science fiction, rather than an inevitable possibility, as it is today. The movie starts with the title credit over a nifty four-sided triangle, which is a regular triangle with the bottom line broken in the middle. Unfortunately, Terrence Fisher is the only name I recognize in the credits.
We start off with a quote: "God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions." --Ecclesiastes. What the hell does that mean? Maybe the film is anti-science. The narrator describes a little English village. The camera focuses in on Brown Manor, a large, ivy covered country estate. We meet some of the people who live on the estate. Sir Walter, the owner of the manor, hunts pheasant. He takes a shot at a bird and we cut to a Mrs. Legget feeding the chickens. The edit looks like he shot her. I was afraid we were going to have some unintentional humor, but we were spared.
Then we meet our narrator, Dr. Harvey, known as Doc. He tells us that the town is not newsworthy except for the burnt out barn he shows us. Then, through his narration, we flash back to see three kids playing in the barn; Lena, Bill and Robin. Lena enjoys the boys, as Knights, having a robust sword fight over her, the Queen. Robin, whom Doc says is the more stable of the two, wins the sword fight. Bill, the apparently unstable one, runs away in shame. Later that day, Bill comes to Doc with an injured hand. Doc realizes that Bill is very bright. Bill hurt his hand testing one of his inventions.
The film then leaps ahead. Bill’s mother dies and Doc becomes his guardian. Doc raises Bill and watches his "mind soar." Doc believes Bill is a genius. Robin, Bill and Lena remain friends as they grow to young adulthood. Lena is the first to leave the village. Her mother takes her back to America. Then the boys go to Cambridge to study science, Bill on a scholarship. After graduating, Sir Walter calls Robin back to run a plastics factory he built. Robin spends his spare time helping Bill with his experiments in the old barn, the one they used to play in. they’re still playing, in a way, since they both love science. Lena comes back to the village a self confessed failure. She’s weary and cynical, failing at art, writing, and music. She plans to live off what her mother left her "then I will die."
To cheer her up Doc takes her to see Bill and Robin in the barn/lab. After a friendly reunion, Doc tries to talk Lena into taking care of the boys. She agrees. Things are going so smoothly for the boys, they go to see Sir Walter to get more money. Sir Walter says no. Doc comes to the rescue and funds their project. Mind you, we still don’t’ know what they’re working on. Lena asks Doc for some Benzedrine for Bill and Robin but Doc says no. James Hayter, who plays Doc, does a very good job. Nothing flashy but after 20 minutes or so he’s created a flesh and blood character. You feel like you know him. Actually, all four leads are well cast and well acted. Bill gives you the feeling he’s about to implode, like an explosion that won’t hurt anyone but him. It’s like his scientific genius and his dark, brooding moods are out of his control. And Lena’s pretty hot, which is important since both of these guys have to want her.
Well, the boys call Doc and say they’re ready to give him a demo. They unveil their invention; The Reproducer. Also knows as The Duplicator. Oh-oh. Sounds like The Fly. The boys let Doc pick the first object to duplicate. He uses his watch. Bill puts the watch under the glass of one machine, which looks a little like a movie theater popcorn popper. Bill signals Robin and they hit a lot of switches and Shazam! They duplicate the watch, right down to the bent link. Doc’s impressed. The key to the invention is they’ve figured out how to make matter out of energy. Doc asks if they’ve thought out the implications. Bill says why should they? They’ve succeeded. They just want to party.
Next, they demonstrate the machine to Sir Walter. He puts a signed check in the machine. They duplicate that, too. At this point, we get a close up of a concerned Doc. This was supposed to make us stop and think about the implications of cloning, which we’ve seen a lot of in the news the past few years. But instead, the close up is so crystal clear (we can see Doc’s makeup) that it exemplifies the great photography in this film. Sir Walter tells them not to tell anyone about the invention until he gets in touch with the proper authorities because if it gets into the wrong hands, someone could reproduce atom bombs and other weapons. He’s going to some statesman to work out a deal for the boys. Later, Bill goes to talk to Doc. He says he’s falling for Lena but he doesn’t have the confidence to tell her. He asks Doc to "probe" her. Doc says sure. Bill thanks him sincerely for everything.
Some time later at Sir Walter’s house, Bill talks to Robin. Bill is tired of the reproducer and wants to work on something new. Robin points out that they can reproduce iron lungs for sick people or paintings for the poor. The thought struck me that reproducing things on a large scale like that might reduce the value of the reproductions and the original items. Why would you want an original Picasso if a cheaper reproduction is a perfect replica? But this idea isn’t discussed. Bill agrees to continue working on the reproducer. Bill and Robin go down to dinner with Sir Walter and Lord Grant (ironic name), a stuffed shirt Statesman. Sir Walter makes a speech, saying how proud he is of the boys. Lord Grant is there to tell them that the government is willing to do what they wish, within reason. Sir Walter toasts that the invention creates a world of peace. Robin and Lena disappear. They come back and say they’re going to be married. Doc has to steady Bill, but he seems to handle it well. He tells Robin he’s terribly glad for them. But Lena can tell something’s wrong. This is just like the sword fight scene at the beginning of the film, except Bill doesn’t have the energy to run away any more. Robin and Lena get married.
After the wedding, Bill returns to the lab. Doc looks for him and finds him in the back digging a hole. He’s burying a guinea pig he tried to duplicate. The duplicate died. Again, reminiscent of The Fly. Bill’s obsession with duplicating a living thing becomes obvious. He wants Doc to help him. Doc agrees to help him but reminds Bill of Solomon’s quote: "Love as strong as death; jealousy as strong as the grave." Bill and Doc clone a rabbit. Bill zaps the duplicate back to life with a blood-aerating machine he invented just for this purpose. It works. Doc says this is a terrible discovery.
Lena comes back from London. Robin stays on. Back at Brown Manor, Bill takes Lena for a walk to tell her of his plans to duplicate her. Afterwards, she asks Doc about it. He says that he pretty much thinks it’ll work. She wants to know what she’ll be like. Like a twin sister? Doc says yes. Two problems here. First, they have no idea how a duplicate human would react. From a biological point of view, a human is much larger and more complicated than a rabbit. Also, I think it’s a flaw for them to have Doc go along with Bill. Doc’s been the thoughtful voice of reason through these shenanigans and now he just says, "Go ahead, Lena. Do this untested experiment. Nothing will happen to you." It doesn’t fit his character. On the other hand, if she doesn’t agree to do it, we don’t have a movie. Lena agrees.
Well, Bill and Doc duplicate Lena. Bill hooks the duplicate up to his aerating. It works. She’s alive. Lena doesn’t want to meet her duplicate but she watches from the window. Bill seems happy. He calls the duplicate Helen. Turns out Helen has the same memories as Lena. Bill and Helen go on a holiday. Doc wishes them well but a voice in him cries out a warning. Now there are some interesting topics the film makers could deal with here. Does Helen have Lena’s DNA? Can Helen commit crimes and Lena would be blamed? If Helen kills someone, do our laws apply to her? If she’s killed, is it murder? Maybe I’m asking too much for one film. They do explore one interesting topic, though. Bill assumes that the only reason Lena chose Robin to marry was because she couldn’t decide between the two of them. He thinks that making a second Lena will eliminate that problem because, technically, Robin is taken now. Let’s see what happens.
Helen’s showing signs of depression. When she and Bill go to the beach. She looks at the crashing waves strangely. Later, at a party, she walks away from Bill, looking bored. Bill asks if she has any regrets. She doesn’t answer him. The next morning, Bill brings Helen breakfast in bed. She’s still asleep and says "Robin darling." She cries when she sees she’s with Bill, not Robin. So apparently Bill was too smart for his own good. His duplication machine worked too well. He duplicated Lena so well, she retained her love for Robin. Later, at the beach, Helen attempts to drown herself. Cut to a telegram Doc receives asking him to come to Bill. Doc goes. Bill tells Doc about Helen’s suicide attempt. Bill gets the feeling she’ll try it again and again till she succeeds. Doc says he’ll talk to her. By the way, why aren’t they trying to sell THIS invention? A human duplicator is more earth shaking than a non-human duplicator. Yet Bill just farts around here trying to get laid. While Doc talks to Helen, Bill walks in. she hears Helen tell Doc that she still loves Robin. After she leaves, Bill tells Doc that all he’s ever wanted is knowledge and love. He used the first to gain the second. Doc says he should let Helen go. Bill says he can’t. Back at the lab, Bill’s going to give Helen a shock treatment to make her forget about Robin. Lena helps Bill. Before Bill hits the switch, Helen says "goodbye Robin." At the same time, Robin comes home. Doc explains the situation to him. As Robin and Doc head for the lab, Bill shocks Helen. But something catches fire. The old barn bursts into flames. Robin runs in and saves one of the Lenas. They estate workers hold him back when he tries to go back in for the other one. Later, at the hospital, Robin waits to find out if he saved the real Lena or the duplicate (who has forgotten about Robin.) Doc comes out of Lena/Helen’s hospital room and says she’s not badly hurt. But she lost her memory. So they don’t know if it’s Helen or Lena.
Doc says the one way to find out is to check for a scar from the aeration machine on her neck. They go back into her hospital room. Doc checks her neck and sees the scars. It’s Lena. Now if this film was remade, it would have been Helen who Robin saved. We’re much more interested in irony these days. Instead, we have a bittersweet ending. And we wrap things up with another quote: "You shall have joy or you shall have power, said god; You shall not have both." Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson. Who died and made him omniscient? He made crappy stereos, too. Okay, so what’s the verdict on this film? Good acting; great photography; even though they didn’t thoroughly explore the topic of cloning, it was probably something very new to think about back in 1953. It’d be nice to see this film remade today and have them deal with the legal/ethical issues of cloning. But, for a film made in 1953, they did a pretty good job. All in all, Four Sided Triangle is a pretty good little film. Thanks, Jeff. You're right, Four Sided Triangle is a nifty little sci-fi shocker and quite an impressively well wrought first entry in what would eventually become the House of Hammer. Even though the script doesn't go as thoroughly into the consequences of cloning as a more recent film would, it does deal with a logical consequence of cloning in an intelligent manner. The fact that the film provides no special effects extravagance actually just makes it better; the story's the thing and this is one darned good story. Article copyright © Jeff Beres |
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