Doppelgänger (1969 film)

Assisted by Tony Williamson, Anderson and his wife Sylvia had written a 194-page treatment long before the initial meeting with Kanter.[2][4][5] Although they had planned it as a one-hour drama for Associated Television, Sylvia thought that the concept was "too good for a television play" and proposed making it as a feature film instead.[4] The title "Doppelgänger" was suggested by the Andersons' business partner John Read.[3] According to Gerry, the word "means 'a copy of oneself', and the legend goes that if you meet your doppelganger, it is the point of your death. Following that legend, clearly, I had to steer the film so that I could end it illustrating the meaning of that word."[3][6] Responding to claims that the tone is overly "dark", Anderson said that he wanted the film to have an interesting premise.[6]

Kanter was dissatisfied with the draft script, so Anderson hired novelist Donald James to improve the characterisation.[2] James' revisions included substantial changes to the parts of the story set on the mirror Earth, essentially causing the characters of Ross and Kane to switch roles.[3][7] In the Andersons' draft, Ross was blinded in the Dove crash while Kane survived unhurt; however, Kane's claims about a Counter-Earth led EUROSEC to declare him insane. A structural flaw in Doppelgänger caused it to burn up in the atmosphere with Kane trapped inside, and the film ended with Kane's wife, Jason Webb and the Rosses attending Kane's funeral.[7]

Despite James's efforts, Kanter remained unenthusiastic but agreed to finance the film on the condition that its director be subject to his approval.[2] After a ten-week search, the Andersons hired Robert Parrish, who had recently co-directed Casino Royale.[8] According to Gerry, Parrish "told us he loved the script and said it would be an honour to work with us. Jay Kanter gave Bob the thumbs up and we were in business."[1] He felt that while the commercial failure of Casino Royale raised questions about Parrish's ability, Doppelgänger could not have been made without him: "It wasn't a question of, 'Will we get on with him?' or, 'Is he the right man?' He was a name director, so we signed him up immediately."[8][9]

Leading the cast was Roy Thinnes as Colonel Glenn Ross of NASA. Gerry Anderson cast Thinnes after seeing his performance as David Vincent in the TV series The Invaders.[9] In the Andersons' draft script, Ross's first name was Stewart and he was the first man to have walked on Mars.[7] In a 2008 interview, Thinnes said of the film: "I thought [Doppelgänger] was an interesting premise, although now we know that there isn't another planet on the other side of the Sun, through our space exploration and telescopic abilities. But at that time it was conceivable, and it could have been scary."[10] To reflect the script's characterisation of Ross as a heavy smoker, Thinnes burned his way through many packets of cigarettes over the course of the production, damaging his health. In September 1969, The Age reported that the actor intended to demand a non-smoking clause in his next film contract, stating: "He smokes about two packets a day, but the perpetual lighting up of new cigarettes for continuity purposes was too much."[11]

Ian Hendry was cast as Dr John Kane, a British astrophysicist and head of the Phoenix project. In his biography, Anderson recalled that Hendry "was always drinking" and was visibly intoxicated while performing the Dove crash stunt sequences: "... he was pissed as a newt, and it was as much as he could do to stagger away. Despite all that, it looked exactly as it was supposed to on-screen!"[9][12] In the draft script, Kane's first name was Philip and he had a wife called Susan.[7] Scenes deleted from the finished film showed the character pursuing a romance with EUROSEC official Lise Hartman, portrayed by Loni von Friedl.[7]

Ross's wife Sharon was played by Lynn Loring. The role initially went to Gayle Hunnicutt, who quit early in the production after falling ill.[2] Her withdrawal led to the casting of Loring, Thinnes' then wife and star of the TV series The F.B.I..[2] Hunnicutt was to have appeared in a nude scene, written in to distinguish Doppelgänger from the Andersons' earlier productions.[9] In a 1968 interview in the Daily Mail, Anderson expressed a desire to change the public's perception of Century 21, saying that his company had been "typecast as makers of children's films".[9] On rumours that the British Board of Film Censors (BBFC) would give the film an X certificate for mature content, he stated that it was Century 21's wish to "work with live artists doing subjects unsuitable for children."[9] The finished film replaced the nude scene with milder shots showing Sharon stepping into and out of a shower.[9] A subplot of the film concerns the Rosses' attempts to have a child and Glenn's discovery that Sharon has been taking birth control pills without his knowledge.[9] The draft script described Sharon as a United States Senator's daughter and saw her pursuing an affair with EUROSEC public relations officer Carlo Monetti.[7] In the finished film, the character, played by Franco De Rosa, is called Paulo Landi and appears only briefly, with the affair implied in one scene but not explored further.[9][13][14] In a scene deleted from the film, Glenn finds Paolo and Sharon in bed together at the Rosses' villa and throws them both into a swimming pool.[7]

Patrick Wymark played Jason Webb, the director of EUROSEC. Wymark was cast on the strength of his performance as John Wilder in the TV series The Plane Makers and The Power Game and was described in publicity material as "John Wilder (2069 model)".[12] Anderson said that Wymark's acting impressed him as much as Hendry's but that his hard drinking caused him to slur his lines on set.[12] He recalled that in one scene the actor "had to list these explanations ... and on take after take he couldn't remember that 'two' followed 'one'. We had to do it over and over again."[12] Anderson's biographers, Simon Archer and Marcus Hearn, characterise Wymark's portrayal of Webb as the dominant performance of the film.[12] The draft script described Webb as a British former Minister of Technology romantically involved with his secretary, Pam Kirby (played by Norma Ronald).[7]

The supporting cast included George Sewell as EUROSEC operations chief Mark Neuman (Mark Hallam in the draft script) and Ed Bishop as David Poulson, a NASA representative.[7] Originally Peter Dyneley was cast as Poulson, but he was replaced with Bishop as the producers felt that he looked too similar to Wymark and that scenes with both Poulson and Jason Webb would cause audiences to confuse the two characters.[2]

Location shooting was conducted in Albufeira, Portugal.

Filming began on 1 July 1968 at Pinewood Studios and ended on 16 October.[2] The crew used Neptune House in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire (now part of BBC Elstree Centre) to represent the exterior of the EUROSEC Headquarters and Heatherden Hall (part of the Pinewood complex in Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire) as the old Jason Webb's nursing home.[7] In September, the crew travelled to Albufeira, Portugal for location shooting.[2] After their arrival in the country, Marcelo Caetano succeeded the incapacitated António de Oliveira Salazar as prime minister.[2] Parrish was concerned that the political instability would cause shooting delays, so reduced the filming schedule from a month to two weeks.[2]

To create the illusion of a mirror Earth quickly and cheaply, the crew flipped the film negatives using a process called "flop-over".[2] This technique saved considerable time and money that would have been spent building "reversed" sets and props and organising road closures to shoot cars driving on the "wrong" side of the road.[2] However, it meant that scenes set on the Counter-Earth required careful planning and rehearsal with the cast and crew.[2] It also resulted in a number of continuity errors: for example, the "heart-lung-kidney" machines controlling Ross and Kane's vital functions aboard Phoenix are first shown connected to their left wrists, then their right.[7]

No monitor screens were used for the videoconference scene. Instead, set alterations and forced perspective were used to keep costs low.[15]

The crew had difficulty realising a scene depicting the EUROSEC board holding a videoconference on several high-resolution viewing monitors.[15] Due to the high cost of colour TV at the time of production and the need to avoid black and white to reflect the film's future setting, instead of using actual monitors the crew devised the scene by cutting screen-sized holes in a wall and placing the actors playing the conference delegates behind them.[15] Silver paper was added to reflect the studio lights and simulate a high-resolution image, with altered eyelines reinforcing the perception that each delegate is facing a camera instead of the other characters.[15] Archer and Hearn praise the videoconference scene as an example of how Anderson "proved once again that his productions were ahead of their time."[15]

As filming progressed, Anderson and Parrish came into conflict. According to Anderson, Kanter was brought in more than once to mediate: "[Sylvia and I] both knew how important the picture was to our careers, and we both desperately wanted to be in the big time."[16] At one point, Parrish refused to film a number of scenes, having decided that they were inessential to the plot.[16] When Anderson reminded Parrish of his contractual obligations, he announced to the cast and crew, "Hell, you heard the producer. If I don't shoot these scenes which I don't really want, don't need and will cut out anyway, I'll be in breach of contract. So what we'll do is shoot those scenes next!"[16] In his biography, Anderson said that his one regret about the film "[was] that I hired Bob Parrish in the first place."[16] Sylvia would later describe Parrish's direct as "uninspired. We had a lot of trouble getting what we wanted from him."[5]

The closing scenes were filmed at Heatherden Hall in Iver Heath.

Other scenes led to disagreements between the directors of Century 21: Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, Reg Hill and John Read, the film's director of photography.[15][17][18] For a scene depicting Lise Hartman (Loni von Friedl) taking a shower, Read did the lighting in silhouette as instructed by Parrish.[19] Gerry Anderson, who intended the scene to show Friedl nude, demanded a re-shoot, insisting that Read honour his obligations not just to Parrish as director but to him as producer.[19] According to Sylvia, "Gerry was very keen to show that he was part of the 'Swinging Sixties' and felt that seeing a detailed nude shot – as he visualised it – was more 'with it' than the more subdued version."[20]

Another dispute arose when Read filmed shots of the Phoenix spacecraft model using a hand-held camera. In his biography, Gerry recalled: "I knew enough about space travel to know that in a vacuum a spacecraft will travel as straight as a die ... [Parrish] told me that people were not familiar with space travel and therefore they would expect to see this kind of movement."[15][17] Read refused to re-shoot the scenes, stating that Parrish's instructions took precedence over Anderson's, and resigned from both the film and his position in Century 21 at the other directors' request.[19] Anderson elaborated: "Clearly John was in a difficult position. I do now understand how he must have felt, but in my heart I feel he couldn't play a double role."[17]

Dove (right) exits its mothership Phoenix (left) over the Counter-Earth. The film's effects have been positively received.[21]

The film's special effects were produced at Century 21 Studios on the Slough Trading Estate under the direction of Derek Meddings.[2][16] More than 200 effects shots were filmed.[16] The design of the Phoenix spacecraft was based on the Saturn V rocket.[16] During filming, the six-foot-long (1.8 m) scale model unexpectedly caught fire and had to be completely rebuilt.[16] For realism, the launch sequence was shot in the studios' car park against an actual sky backdrop.[2][16]

Although Century 21 built a full-sized Dove module in Slough, they were prevented from using it at Pinewood Studios due to an agreement with the National Association of Theatrical Television and Kine Employees that props were not be transported.[15] The module was therefore destroyed, and although Pinewood carpenters built a replacement Anderson considered it inferior to the original.[15]

Commenting on the film's effects, Martin Anderson of the website Den of Geek describes the Phoenix command module as "beautifully ergonomic without losing too much NASA-ness" and the Dove lander as "a beautiful fusion of JPL gloss with classic lines".[21] He regards the Phoenix launch as Meddings' finest work prior to Moonraker (1979).[21] Archer and Hearn describe the sequence as "one of the most spectacular" of its kind produced by Century 21.[16]

Composer Barry Gray, who wrote the music for all of Century 21's productions, said that his score for Doppelgänger was his favourite.[22] The score was recorded in three studio sessions between 27 and 29 March 1969.[17][23] The first of these sessions used a 55-member orchestra, the second 44 and the third 28.[23] The scenes of Ross and Kane's journey to the Counter-Earth are accompanied by a piece titled "Sleeping Astronauts" featuring an Ondes Martenot played by French ondiste Sylvette Allart.[22][23] Archer and Hearn describe this piece as "one of the most enchanting" ever written by Gray, adding that the soundtrack as a whole evokes a "traditional Hollywood feel" in contrast with the film's future setting.[17]

The title sequence, set inside double agent Dr Hassler's (Herbert Lom) laboratory, incorporates a spy theme focusing on the miniature camera hidden inside the character's false eye. Archer and Hearn consider this an imitation of the style of 1960s James Bond films.[12]

In a review published in The Times, John Russell Taylor praised Doppelgänger as "quite ingenious" but suggested that the title and pre-release publicity had given away too much of the plot.[17] Judith Crist of New York magazine described it as "a science-fiction film that comes up with a fascinating premise three-quarters of the way along and does nothing with it."[31] She commended the film for being "nicely gadget-ridden", as well as raising questions about the conflict between science and politics, but criticised the editing.[31] Variety magazine considered the plot confusing, relating the crash of Dove to the quality of the writing: "Astronauts take a pill to induce a three-week sleep during their flight. Thereafter the script falls to pieces in as many parts as their craft."[32]

While The Miami News[33] and The Montreal Gazette[34] regarded the film as being better than average for its genre, the Pittsburgh Press dismissed it as "a churned out science-fiction yarn ... Let's hope there's only one movie like this one", and ranked it among the worst films of the year.[35] The Gazette added that while the film gets worse towards the end, "until then it's a reasonably diverting futuristic melodrama."[34] A review in the Southeast Missourian stated that "in today's space terminology [the film] almost rates as science – and pure reportage through film. Still it evolves as a fascinating motion-picture entertainment."[36] In his book A Pictorial History of Science Fiction Films (1975), Jeff Rovin called Doppelgänger "confusing but colourful" and commended its "superb" effects.[37]

Gary Gerani, co-writer of Pumpkinhead (1988), ranks the film 81st in his book Top 100 Sci-Fi Movies (2011), calling Doppelgänger "enigmatic" and a "fine example of speculative fantasy in the late '60s". He praises Thinnes' and Wymark's performances, the characterisation, the film's lesser themes (including adultery, infertility and corruption) and its "Fourth of July-style" special effects.[38] Sylvia Anderson suggested that American audiences, who were less familiar with Century 21's puppet productions than their British counterparts, were more enthusiastic about the film.[4] She explained: "It was all too easy to compare our real actors with our puppet characters and descriptions such as 'wooden', 'expressionless', 'no strings attached' and 'puppet-like' were cheap shots some of the UK critics could not resist ... Typecasting is the lazy man's friend, and boy were we typecast in Britain."[4] In 1992 she said of the film: "I saw it on TV a couple of years ago and I was very pleased with it. I thought it came over quite well."[39]

In a review for the website Den of Geek, Martin Anderson praises Parrish's direction and Meddings' effects but states that the film's "robust and prosaic" dialogue sits "ill-at-ease with the metaphysical ponderings". He also questions the editing, noting that many of the effects shots have "that 'Hornby' factor, slowing up the narrative unnecessarily". He rates Doppelgänger three stars out of five, summing it up as "an interesting journey with many rewards".[25] TV Guide magazine gives the film two stars out of four, calling it a "strange little film" with an "overwritten script".[40] To Chris Bentley, writer of episode guides on the Anderson productions, Doppelgänger is a "stylish and thought-provoking science-fiction thriller".[41]

Glenn Erickson of DVD Talk writes that Doppelgänger "takes an okay premise but does next to nothing with it. We see 100 minutes of bad drama and good special effects, and then the script opts for frustration and meaningless mystery." He criticises the cinematography, comparing it to that of the Andersons' puppet TV series Thunderbirds in so far as the characters "stand and talk a lot", while defining the script as "at least 60 percent hardware-talk and exposition ... How people move about – airplane, parachute, centrifuge – is more important than what they're doing." He also argues that the film wastes the opportunities presented by its parallel world concept in favour of being "an excuse to show cool rocket toys".[42]

The Film4 website gives Doppelgänger two-and-a-half stars out of five, praising the special effects and costume design but criticising the subplots about Dr Hassler's treachery and the Rosses' marital problems for being unnecessary distractions from the main plot. It also questions the originality of the premise and the depth of the writing: "Anderson's has to be the cheapest alternate Earth ever. Whereas audiences might expect a world where the Roman Empire never fell or the Nazis won World War II, here the shocking discovery is that people write backwards. That's it." It recommends the film to Anderson fans only, summing it up as "an occasionally interesting failure".[43] Gary Westfahl of the webzine SF Site judges the use of a near-perfect parallel Earth to be uninspired, describing the setting as "the most boring and unimaginative alien world imaginable".[44]

The final scene has drawn comparisons with the visual style of 2001: A Space Odyssey.[42] Glenn Erickson argues that the film is "infected with 2001-itis'", describing Webb as a "feeble asylum patient" who "sits in a wheelchair in a corridor resembling Dave Bowman's holding cell on the alien planet beyond the Star Gate."[42]

Archer and Nicholls cite among possible causes of the film's commercial failure its "quirky, offbeat nature" and the loss of public interest in space exploration after the Apollo 11 Moon landing.[27] The topic of the landing dominated a contemporary review in The Milwaukee Journal, which found similarities in the plot of Doppelgänger: "... the spacemen find a few bugs in their 'LM' and crash on the planet. And do they ever have their hands full in getting back to Earth!" Suggesting that the actors' performances are hampered by an excess of technical dialogue, the review concluded: "... the makers of this space exploiter may get lots of mileage at the box office, but Neil, Buzz and Mike did it better on TV."[45]

It has also been suggested that 2001: A Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes, both released in 1968, set a high standard for other science-fiction films to follow.[17][42] Erickson argues that Doppelgänger is inferior to 2001 for depicting a "working future" where people remain attached to commercialism. Comparing the visual style to that of 2001, he notes similar use of "psychedelic" images and close-up shots of human eyes but adds that "all these borrowings are fluff without any deeper meaning." Film4's review describes the final scene featuring Webb as "hell-bent on recreating the enigmatic finale of 2001 by using a mirror, a wheelchair and a tartan blanket."[43] Rovin argues that Doppelgänger's effects "[occasionally] outshine" 2001's."[46] He goes on to state that the film "attempts to kindle a profundity similar to that of [2001] in its abstract philosophising about the dichotomy of dual worlds, but fails with a combination of meat-and-potatoes science fiction and quasi-profound themes."[47] He suggests that Doppelgänger is "neither a kid's film nor a cult film" but rules that "the elements that comprise the finished effort are more than individually successful."[47]

Martin Anderson compares Doppelgänger to other science-fiction films like Solaris (1972), identifying a "lyrical" tone to the dialogue. However, he concedes that Doppelgänger "doesn't bear comparison with Kubrick or [Solaris director] Tarkovsky."[25] Both commentator Douglas Pratt and the London Institute of Contemporary Arts compare the film to "The Parallel", an episode of The Twilight Zone in which an astronaut returns to Earth to find that his world bizarrely changed and concludes that he has entered a parallel universe.[48][49] Critic S. T. Joshi likens Doppelgänger's theme of duplication to the premise of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, in which a race of extraterrestrials called the "Pod People" kidnap humans and replace them with doppelgangers.[50]

Despite the film's box office failure, Lew Grade awarded the Andersons further live-action commissions.[19] The first was UFO, Century 21's first live-action TV series, which debuted in 1970.[19] Doppelgänger is considered a precursor to UFO and has also been described as a "trial run" for the following series, Space: 1999.[28][51] UFO re-used many of Doppelgänger's costumes, props, shooting locations and music tracks.[52] Most of the film's cast went on to appear in the series – notably Ed Bishop in the lead role of Colonel Ed Straker and George Sewell as his deputy, Colonel Alec Freeman.[7] Recycled props included the filming models of Phoenix and Dove and some of film's futuristic cars and utility vehicles, modelled respectively on Ford Zephyr Zodiacs and Leyland Mini Mokes.[7][53] Neptune House, which appears as EUROSEC Headquarters in Doppelgänger, became the face of the Harlington-Straker Film Studios where the fictional SHADO organisation is based.[7] Also featured in UFO are Barry Gray's film score tracks "Sleeping Astronauts" and "Strange Planet", the latter accompanying the series' closing credits.[28] UFO's opening titles also imitated the teleprinter shots that formed the basis of Doppelgänger's title sequence.[54]

A retrospective published on the website IGN argues that the presentation of politics and economics in Doppelgänger goes against the conventions of 1960s science fiction.[51] This is reflected in UFO, whose characters "were constantly having to deal with the pressures of having to show progress under the scrutiny of accountants and elected officials, much the same way NASA was starting to in the US."[51] On the links between Doppelgänger and UFO, Martin Anderson makes another connection to director Stanley Kubrick: "... the most interesting common ground between the two projects remains the bleak ending(s) and the slight flirtation with the acid-induced imagery and mind fucks of 2001."[25]

• Anderson, Sylvia (2007). My Fab Years! Sylvia Anderson. Neshannock, Pennsylvania: Hermes Press. ISBN 978-1-932563-91-7.
• Archer, Simon; Hearn, Marcus (2002). What Made Thunderbirds Go! The Authorised Biography of Gerry Anderson. London, UK: BBC Books. ISBN 978-0-563-53481-5.
• Archer, Simon; Nicholls, Stan (1996). Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Biography. London, UK: Legend Books. ISBN 978-0-09-922442-6.
• Bentley, Chris (2008) [2001]. The Complete Gerry Anderson: The Authorised Episode Guide (4th ed.). London, UK: Reynolds & Hearn. ISBN 978-1-905287-74-1.
• La Rivière, Stephen (2009). Filmed in Supermarionation: A History of the Future. Neshannock, Pennsylvania: Hermes Press. ISBN 978-1-932563-23-8.
• Rovin, Jeff (1975). A Pictorial History of Science Fiction Films. Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press. ISBN 978-0-8065-0263-2.