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Four Sided Triangle

Four Sided Triangle (1953) Movie Poster
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UK  •    •  81m  •    •  Directed by: Terence Fisher.  •  Starring: Barbara Payton, James Hayter, Stephen Murray, John Van Eyssen, Percy Marmont, Jennifer Dearman, Glyn Dearman, Sean Barrett, Kynaston Reeves, John Stuart, Edith Saville.  •  Music by: Malcolm Arnold.
      Bill and Robin, helped by their childhood friend, Lena, develop a "reproducer" which can exactly duplicate any object. Bill, crushed when Lena marries Robin, convinces her to allow him to duplicate her, so that he may have a copy of her for himself. The experiment, at first deemed a success, seems to have worked only too well as the duplicate, Helen, is such an exact copy that she also loves Robin, not Bill. Bill hopes to rectify the situation with another radical experiment.

Review:

Image from: Four Sided Triangle (1953)
Image from: Four Sided Triangle (1953)
Image from: Four Sided Triangle (1953)
Image from: Four Sided Triangle (1953)
Image from: Four Sided Triangle (1953)
Image from: Four Sided Triangle (1953)
Image from: Four Sided Triangle (1953)
Image from: Four Sided Triangle (1953)
Image from: Four Sided Triangle (1953)
Image from: Four Sided Triangle (1953)
Image from: Four Sided Triangle (1953)
Bill and Robin are two life long friends who have built a machine that can replicate anything. Another friend from childhood Lena arrives in the village and very quickly Lena and Robin fall in love and are married. This hurts Bill greatly because he to is in love with Lena and so duplicates Lena as Helen who is not only identical to Lena but has the same memories as her

This is something of an obscure cult classic. Obscure in the fact that it never seemed to be broadcast on British television and cult classic in the fact that was the first science fiction movie produced by the Hammer studios and was directed by Terrance Fisher undoubtedly the finest of the studios in house directors. It's interesting that that the film opens with a religious quote because this predates other Hammer productions later in the decade namely THE QUATERMASS EXPERIMENT and FRANKENSTEIN that have the subtext that there's somethings science should never interfere with and mankinds thirst for knowledge might very well be its downfall. It does become very clear early on however that FOUR SIDED TRIANGLE is a forgotten film for a very good reason - it's not very good

Don't be fooled that this is a science fiction from Hammer because the sci-fi element merely exists as a plot device. Two brilliant whizz-kid scientists invent a wonderful machine in their spare time that can duplicate anything, in effect a cloning machine that can clone anything. What a wonderful invention and as everyone points out this is the greatest thing humanity has ever invented and these two blokes built it in a shed in their spare time and probably with their own funds. How likely is that?

" Hold on Theo. HG Wells wrote The Time Machine and that featured an inventor building a time machine in his house. The novel changed literature and you have to suspend disbelief with these stories "

Yes maybe but suspension of disbelief is not required with Wells who had an almost supernatural ability to make the incredible seem almost blasé. With this film you're constantly noticing how unlikely everything is. Lena, Bill and Robin are all roughly the same age when we're introduced to them as children then when we're introduced to them as adults Bill and Robin seem to be physically twice the age of Lena.Did Lena invent a time machine and go forward in time? It's also difficult to buy in to Lena falling in love with Robin who is totally uncharismatic as is Bill. It's not a science fiction film anyway just a sort of love story that has a very dated plodding pace and the only drama takes place at the end and jars because it feels more like a pivotal inciting incident rather than a climax. Someone on this page compared the film to an episode of THE OUTER LIMITS and in parts that what it resembles but that classic American show would have grabbed the premise by the throat and would have done something with it unlike here.


Review by Theo Robertson from the Internet Movie Database.

 
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