Early Hammer

 

THE FOUR SIDED TRIANGLE-1953-Lena (Barbara Payton), Bill (Stephan Murray) & Robin (John Van Eyssen) are childhood friends in a small English village. Lena goes off to America while brainy Bill goes to Cambridge and Robin goes to head his Uncle's factory. Years later the disillusioned Lena returns to find the guys working on a secret scientific project. The story is narrated by local sawbones Dr. Harvey (James Hayter) who believes the guys are onto something and sells his practice to back them. After a lot of hard work the men finish and reveal their new invention to Harvey, a machine called "The Duplicator" which seems to be able to reproduce any object perfectly. They have great plans for humanity and Robin's father pitches it to the government. But all is not well. Bill is in love with Lena but doesn't know her feelings. He asks Doc to "probe" her. However before that can happen Robin & Lena get married! Shattered, Bill tries to keep his upper lip stiff but Lena suspects something. 

While Lena and Robin are honeymooning Bill experiments with guinea pigs to try and replicate a living being. After he succeeds it's obvious what he wants to do. When Lena comes back to set up house while Robin is still in London she agrees to be duplicated and it works. Bill gets his own version of Lena who he names Helen (also Payton). After frolicking in the country for a while it's clear Helen isn't in love with Bill and tries to drown herself. A fiery climax resolves this early Hammer production, directed by the great Terence Fisher a few years before his famous horror films. The acting, script and direction are first rate but the story despite it's sci-fi trappings is really just the usual love triangle.

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