Made in the pre-horror era of Hammer Films, "Four Sided Triangle" was directed by a man who would become synonymous with the studio: Terence Fisher. Despite a promising premise it is staid, shallow, and simplistic, with a cowardly cop-out of an ending.
Robin and Bill are childhood chums who grow up to become scientific geniuses, inventing a device capable of reproducing any material object. Both are in love with their childhood playmate and co-worker Lena, and, when Lena opts to marry Robin, Bill works feverishly to extend the device"s function to reproduce living matter. A copy of Lena is duly made and Bill is blissfully happy, but then things start to go awry...
The DVD"s cover luridly proclaims "A voluptuous woman... created to satisfy his strange lust!" but this very British affair - down to the cheery village setting - is like a bland, good taste spin on Frankenstein, so gentile, polite, and naive as to eventually enrage the viewer. The most interesting aspect of the film is the way it anticipates "The Fly" (1958) genre of matter transmission, although without a hint of the horrifying consequences. Much time is spent on the standard-issue "mad scientist" apparatus of bubbling test-tubes, pulsating lights, and cries of "full power!" Technically the film is impressive and no doubt would have thrilled audiences of the time. Lighting is particularly good, effectively pointing up the unsettling monomaniacal pursuit. The score is by the distinguished composer Malcolm Arnold and is appropriately pastoral one minute and ominous the next.
Yet, whereas in our modern era of high realism in medical and forensic dramas, strenuous efforts would be made to make the "science" plausible, it is clear that the writers have no idea what they are talking about and the more we see of the process the sillier it becomes. Indeed they do not seem to have even an elementary grasp of human biology and the film becomes bogged down in nonsense. When Lena is reproduced an apparatus is fixed to her HEAD to circulate her blood, yet although we see fluids being pumped there is clearly no invasive techniques used.
The film is sexist to the point of misogyny; as a futuristic film it is quite backward. If the woman you love doesn"t fancy you, simply copy her and the copy will. Lena isn"t especially bothered by the notion of being duplicated - she is neither horrified nor fascinated. Even the nice village GP isn"t particularly perturbed. All that matters is the happiness of Bill. All sorts of potentially fascinating issues are raised, but none are discussed, let alone resolved, whilst the ending is pure manufactured melodrama.
The DVD presents the film in beautifully remastered form and in the original ratio of 4:3. There is an informative 24-page booklet and three photo galleries of Hammer publicity material of the era. Finally, there is a sort of "supporting short" in the shape of "The Right Person" (1956), a thirty-minute Hammer film made in colour. In it a former member of the Danish Resistance visits the wife of a one-time comrade with the intent of wrapping up some unfinished business. One can imagine the fidgeting audiences of the day sitting through this talky affair, which takes place entirely in a spacious hotel room, and was shot and is presented in an unflattering CinemaScope with much attention paid to a giant sofa upon which the two protagonists take up positions at either end!
There is a tragic ironic footnote to "Four Sided Triangle". Lena is played by the American actress Barbara Payton, a blonde bombshell who seems out of place, the script having to messily explain her accent. Payton had come to the UK to revive a career on the skids. In the States she had been the centre of attention for two men, Franchot Tone and Tom Neal, and they literally fought a duel over her, which put Tone in hospital. One wonders how she took to a scenario in which two boys joust for their "queen", her character returns from America "a self-confessed failure, [having] tried many things without success", and includes a scene where she talks of suicide. In reality, Payton"s career ended in 1955 and she descended into drug and alcohol abuse, culminating in a period as a prostitute before she died in 1967, aged just 39.