The Damned (1963)

Oliver Reed commands the Teddy Boys in The Damned

With its intimations of punk rock and the surveillance state, Joseph Losey's The Damned rises above its genre limitations and Cold War topicality to stand as a classic B movie. Filmed in 1961, but, because of censorship difficulties, not opening in England until 1963, it has been released in many different versions under many different titles. The first US print released in 1965 lopped off fifteen minutes from the UK version. In any form, this is bracing filmmaking. Oliver Reed is the main attribute to a sub-par cast. Losey's ambivalent heart is with the brutish, proletariat teddy boys rather than the cultured, rationalist elites and that makes all the difference in this visually exciting sci/fi horror, pulp, pop masterpiece.