Island of the Burning Damned, Aliens and a Slut

The island of Fara is about to be invaded.  A beautiful, sweaty seductress looking to ruin marriages is headed there.  Oh yeah, so are aliens. In 1967's "Island of the Burning Damned" (aka "Night of the Big Heat"....really), directed by Terence Fisher, this quaint British isle will endure a nymphomaniac's desire....and an invasion from space.  Throw in Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, and we have a neat science fiction tale.

The temperatures on the isle of Fara are abnormally high this winter.  Global warming? I doubt it...see, the thermometer is reading 109 degrees.  A weird, and very rude scientist, Godfrey Hansen (Lee) arrives on the island and is tight lipped.  Also arriving is the beautiful and sweaty Angela (Jane Merrow).  Both head to the pub, The Swan.  Hansen gets a room to set up his lab, and Angela reports to Jeff (Patrick Allen).  Jeff is a writer, and a grouchy one....there is a lot of moodiness in this film.  Uh oh....Jeff is alarmed that Angela is his new secretary, as Angela is the slut (not my term, but she is referred as this repeatedly throughout this film) who Jeff bedded in London.  Angela just won't take no for an answer.  Oh yes, not only are the temperatures, literally and figuratively, heating up, some islanders are being charred to death.

As the radios and electricity fail, and the liquor is ruined (that's it, war!), Jeff confronts the weird scientist.  Oh yes....our happy-homewrecker confronts Jeff and his wife (Sarah Lawson), as well. Neither of these confrontations go well.  Hansen tells Jeff of his theory about aliens using Fara as a landing base for a future invasion of Earth...and Angela sweats some more in either a bikini or an unbuttoned blouse. As more humans are fried, Hansen makes some startling discoveries about the mysterious invaders. As Angela continues to sweat, Jeff and Hansen come up with a plan to defeat their invaders. The two enlist more survivors and act...but is it too late?

Will Angela's promiscuous nature doom her to a burning fate?  Will the moody Hansen and unfaithful Jeff be able to work together to save the planet?  As always, seeing Cushing and Lee together on screen is a pleasure.  Seeing the sweaty and scantily clad Jane Merrow on the same screen, is also a pleasure, though in a different way.  "Island of the Burning Damned" will please fans of campy British horror or scifi.  Available on YouTube (beware, I had to click on two different links to see the entire film), enjoy this scorcher.  To order the BluRay DVD of this film click on this link Classic Direct