THE MUTATIONS

 

THE MUTATIONS, filmed in 1972 and released in 1974, is a very weird British horror film that brings to mind the crazy low-budget thriller movies made in the 1940s and 50s. I saw it for the first time on the Xfinity TCM app. 

A quietly sinister professor named Nolter (Donald Pleasence) lectures to a group of bored-looking students at a college in London. His talk is about his belief that a new species of humans, with plant-like capabilities, can be created through induced mutation. Like all horror movie scientists, Nolter does more than talk--at his impressive estate, he conducts experiments on unwilling victims to prove his theories. Nolter's subjects are provided to him by a hulking fellow named Lynch (Tom Baker), who has severe facial disfigurement due to a glandular condition. Ironically Lynch works at a nearby sideshow, which features a number of performers who also have physical disabilities. Lynch helps Nolter in the hope that the man will cure his condition, but some of the doctor's experiments are starting to cause trouble, while the sideshow performers are getting suspicious about what is going on. 

I had seen several stills from THE MUTATIONS in various books and articles over the years, and I assumed that it was a tawdry, seedy example of early 1970s British exploitation cinema. The film does have many exploitative aspects, but it isn't as lewd as nasty as it tries to be. The story has a very slow pace, with sequences that seem to go on just a bit too long. 

Donald Pleasence is surprisingly modulated as Nolter--he has a quiet, deliberate way of speaking, and he acts more like an accountant than a mad medico trying to turn people into plants. Tom Baker gets the best role as Lynch, an outcast from society who does evil deeds while wanting desperately to be normal. The makeup used on Baker here resembles how Charles Laughton looked in the 1939 THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. Baker also wears a brown overcoat, scarf, and wide-brimmed hat....did he remember this costume when he was hired to play Doctor Who not long after this film was made? 

As usual in this type of film, the "normal" male leads (Brad Harris and Scott Antony) are unmemorable, while Scream Queen eye candy is provided by Julie Ege (THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES) and Jill Haworth (IT!). Not only do we get to see Ege in the bathtub, she also winds up naked on Dr. Nolter's operating table. Michael Dunn (THE WILD, WILD, WEST) is in charge of the sideshow, and one gets the feeling he wasn't too comfortable being in this movie. 

It's fitting that a future Doctor Who is in this production, since the plants and creatures created by Dr. Nolter have a rubbery, cheap-TV episode aspect to them. (The creature that figures in the climax looks like a giant walking spinach.) Nolter also has a contraption that could pass for a death ray machine in a 1930s Hollywood serial. Plenty of real-life time-lapse film is used of plants growing (this gets old very quickly), and Basil Kirchin provides an avant-garde music score that is more annoying than suspenseful. 

One shouldn't expect a sensitive portrayal of the afflicted in THE MUTATIONS. If the script (co-written by producer Robert D. Weinbach) was trying to show a parallel between those who are forced into working at a sideshow and Dr. Nolter's creations, it doesn't come off. There's a long sequence where we are treated to the sideshow performers' "acts", and at one point these unfortunate folks even stage a birthday party, where the wedding banquet in Tod Browning's FREAKS is directly referenced. 

The biggest head-scratching fact about THE MUTATIONS is that it was directed by distinguished cinematographer Jack Cardiff. (Was he trying to go down the Freddie Francis route?) The film certainly looks good (the print shown on TCM was fantastic). In fact, the film might have looked too good--most of the outdoor scenes were shot during the day, and Nolter's laboratory is brightly lit. The clear detail makes the makeup effects look even more mediocre. 

THE MUTATIONS is a obscure 1970s British horror film that I finally crossed off my "haven't seen" list. It's strange to be sure--but I felt it might have worked better if it had a bit more gusto. Herman Cohen and Michael Gough would have taken a story like this and really gone off the rails with it.