English Version

Nothing happens in Howdean. Maybe.One hundred houses, one hundred people. Oh, one hundred and one, as Doc Harvey, the narrator of this English "sci-fi" produced by none other than the "Hammer Films", might say.
A genre that isn't the trademark of the English company, as we know, and that is contaminated by horror ideas. Classical ideas to be exact, combines with a love story.
"Four Sided Triangle" shuffle all these things with ease but in a convincing manner. A movie set in a laboratory that relies entirely on the narrative, rather than on action , saving special effects that are only a series of lights, oscilloscopes and improbable lab machinery.

A line of words that make up a nice "B Movie", which doesn't miss a number of classic mistakes. For example Doc Harvey remains always the same, although the story takes place over several years.

Terence Fisher a famous director of the "Hammer Films" produces several movies(including "The Curse Of Frankenstein," "Dracula," "The Hound of the Baskervilles"), often working with the legendary pair Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, leads us in this triangle with four sides.

A love story as mentioned above, in which we find Lena, Bill and Robin, friends since childhood. They grow up, they have experience around the world and develop their own interests and find themselves adults, with the two boys that are now scientists working on a great discovery. And among them comes Lena, loved by both, who returns to her village and helps friends to develop their work: a revolutionary machine able to duplicate all. Diamonds, bullion, money and perhaps living beings.
And this is the central point of the story, because Robin and Lena get married and Bill with a broken heart tries to clone his beloved woman. But cloning in the fifties was in a way more advanced than today, because the result is not bad, but in other way it was very poor.
A pleasant "sci-fi", not a masterpiece, inspired by the eponymous short story by William F.Temple, with the shadow of the mad scientist like Dr.Frankenstein that lurk throughout the film.
The beautiful that makes spin the heads of the two boys is played by Barbara Payton, American actress, famous for a very sad story. Blonde, ice-blue eyes, Barbara is a rare beauty that at fifteen or sixteen years get married. Annulled the marriage, soon meets her second husband, a former soldier, a typical American boy, whom she married in 1945. Two years later, the couple's son was born, but the life of the housewife doesn't belong to Barbara. Hier desire is to become a movie star, and in 1948 fled to Hollywood in search of fortune. Classic mess in nightclubs, where classically was noticed by William Goetz of the "Universal Studios", which puts her under contract.
Here starts her fortune, a rising star that in "Trapped" of the same year, became famous to the masses, then she lost to Marilyn Monroe a role for "The Asphalt Jungle", but runs great in the thriller "Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye" in 1950, in which she works with a big star like James Cagney. Her performance of seductive woman is a resounding success.

It 's the highest moment of her career but from here begins a long descent. She starred in westerns as "Dallas" with Gary Cooper and "Only The Valiant" with Gregory Peck, then expelled from the "Warner Bros" ends in "B Movies" as "Bride Of Gorilla" in 1951, seeking new life with the British film which we talked about.
But her reputation is ruined by many trouble love stories and for drugs and alcohol addiction. Many love stories, with famous men with a bad end, and also her beauty destroyed by drugs and alcohol that led her to be a prostitute on Sunset Boulevard, as she wrote in her autobiography, "I Am Not Ashamed".

Returned at home at last she lived the last years with the family and she died in 1967 at only thirty – seven years. More details on this monographic website.
With her there are Stephen Murray that plays Bill here. Quite resemblance to Ralph Fiennes he was an English actor with a voice very effective and she has worked in movies, theater and radio, playing several works of great writers, including of course William Shakespeare.
John Van Eyssen is the lucky Robin. After playing Jonathan Harker in "Dracula" of the "Hammer Films" in 1958, he left the acting career, preferring a career as agent and executive producer. He achieved great success in the cinema at the head of the international division of the "Columbia Pictures".
The role of Doc Harvey instead is played by James Hayter, an actor of great experience.

Technical

Original title: Four Sided Triangle

Alternative titles: The triangle à quatre côtés (France), The Monster and the Woman (undefined)

Year: 1953

Country: UK

Directed by: Terence Fischer

Cast: Barbara Payton, Stephen Murray, John Van Eyssen, James Hayter, Percy Marmont

Duration: 81 '

Production Company: Hammer Films