The Day of the Triffids (Warner) (1962)

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General		Extras
Category	Science Fiction	Main Menu Audio Biographies-Crew-John Wyndham (Writer) Gallery-Photo Credits
Rating
Year Of Production	1962
Running Time	94:21
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	Directed By	Steve Sekely Freddie Francis
Studio Distributor	Warner Vision	Starring	Howard Keel Nicole Maurey Janette Scott Janina Faye
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$19.95	Music	Johnny Douglas Ron Goodwin

    This movie version of The Day of the Triffids is loosely based on the novel of the same name, written by John Wyndham, which was first published in 1951. The book was also made into a TV series in the 70s.

    I first read the novel as a teenager and have been meaning to read it again ever since. I hoped this movie would be a way to relive the excitement and intrigue of the book and would only take around two hours.

    I was sadly disappointed. The movie differs from the book quite considerably and contains only a fraction the original story. I guess I was expecting too much.

    The film focuses on Bill Masen (Howard Keel), a merchant seaman. Bill is in hospital, recovering from an eye operation. He is one day away from having his bandages removed, and as a result of his bandages will miss the most exciting event of the century. The earth is being bombarded by small meteors which are exploding in the night sky, providing the most spectacular natural fireworks display ever seen. Just about the whole world is watching.

    Bill awakens the next morning anxious to have his bandages removed. For the first time, he will be able to see the beautiful nurse that has attended him. However, the doctor is late, very late. Bill impatiently rings the nurse's station, but there is no reply. Where is everybody? Finally Bill decides to remove his own bandages and go and see what is going on.

    After exploring the hospital, he soon discovers that he is just about the only person who can see. Everybody who watched the previous night's meteor shower has gone blind. To make matters worse, a recently discovered carnivorous plant thought to have arrived in a previous meteor shower, and called Triffidus Celustis, has become aggressive and mobile and has started attacking people.

    Will a devastated blind world survive the attacks of the rapidly multiplying killer plants or is the human race doomed to extinction?

    The movie was more than a little dated. The special effects are corny and would not scare a pre-schooler. The acting, for the most part, is acceptable with Howard Keel and Janina Faye putting in credible performances.

    The Day of the Triffids is screaming out for a big budget remake faithful to the book with believable special effects. I can only hope.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1. It appears to be Panned & Scanned from its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1.

    The sharpness and clarity of the transfer is only adequate. There is an underlying level of grain that persists throughout the entire feature. The level of grain fluctuates, but rarely for the better - usually it gets worse, such as at 85:17. The amount of shadow detail is also just passable. Many objects are not noticeable until they are close up and in full vision. Low level noise did not appear to be a problem.

    The colours were bland and washed out. Colour fluctuations were clearly evident on numerous occasions. At one stage during the feature there were small colour differences at the beginning of each scene. The most obvious fluctuations occurred at 22:43 and 28:25.

    There were no noticeable MPEG artefacts. Film-to-video artefacts were surprisingly well controlled with minor aliasing occurring only on rare occasions. However, there was what appeared to be a tape tracking error at 45:28 which was quite distracting. Film artefacts were unfortunately common with the most distracting instances taking place at 16:13, 20:19, 30:07 and 38:57.

    There are no subtitle options available on this disc.

    This is a single layered disc, therefore no layer change is present.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio quality is adequate, but could have been better.

    There is only one audio option; English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) surround encoded. This audio track is flagged as surround encoded so surround mode is selected automatically. However, when in surround mode 95% of the sound is projected through the centre speaker and only the slightest sounds can be heard through any other speaker. I advise listening to this audio track in stereo mode only.

    The dialogue was clear and easily understood from beginning to end. Periodically, a slight hissing can be heard in the background of the dialogue. This is not overly distracting or even noticeable, but the movie would have been more enjoyable without it. Audio sync was not an issue with this disc.

    The musical score was written by John Wyndham and Bernard Glasser. It could best be described as stereotypical for this type of B grade horror movie. It telegraphs the on-screen action and is at times very overbearing and distracts from the storyline.

    Surround activity was extremely minimal, even when listening to the audio in surround mode. The subwoofer was not active at any stage of the movie.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    There are only a small range of extras present.

Main Menu Audio

    The main menu consists of a photo of the main characters and is accompanied by some of the overpowering soundtrack from the movie

Biographies-Crew-John Wyndham (Writer)

    This extra contains a small biography of John Wyndham who authored The Day of the Triffids.

Gallery-Photo

    This is a collection of nine photographs from different scenes of the movie and a movie poster. They are presented with far superior colour to that of the movie.

Credits

    The movie's credits are contained within this extra.

    This title has not been released in Region 1 but has received two releases in the UK for Region 2, one of which is now out of print.

    The Region 4 version of this DVD misses out on;

• 2.35:1 Widescreen video transfer
• Trailer
• Previews

    The Region 2 version of this DVD misses out on;

• Photo gallery
• Biography

    In this case, I would have to recommend the Region 2 version as it is presented in the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1.

    The Day of the Triffids is a classic science fiction novel, made into a mediocre 'B' grade 60s movie that has now received a substandard release on DVD. The video transfer is poor and the audio is much the same. There is a small selection of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall