EDITOR’S NOTE: Village of the Damned on the CBS Late Movie on February 25 and August 17, 1972; January 11, 1974 and January 17, 1975.

Based on The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham, this movie was delayed by two years when MGM gave in to pressure from the Catholic Legion of Decency, who objected to the depiction of virgin birth and other blasphemous implications of this story. It was sent to MGM-British Studio, where director Wolf Rilla and producer Ronald Kinnoch punched up — and made more English — the script by Stirling Silliphant.

The population of Midwich was asleep for four hours. No one knows why. But two months later, all women of childbearing age are pregnant, giving birth at just seven months old to children who communicate with their minds, have platinum hair and have the brightest eyes.

Professor Gordon Zellaby (George Sanders) and his wife Anthea (Barbara Shelley) are the parents of David, one of these extraordinary children. Midwich is not the only place affected, as similar births have occurred in other parts of the world. The town is gripped by fear of these children, who walk in unison, dress alike, and possess the power to control others.

After attempting to understand the children, he realizes the futility of his efforts. There’s no controlling them. For the survival of humanity, they must be eliminated. He envisions a mental barrier, a distraction, and uses it to plant a bomb in their school. The explosion claims their lives, as well as his own, in a tragic end.

This is a happy ending in 1960.

British censors were worried that the glowing eyes of the children would scar people who saw it—many of whom survived the Blitz, mind you—and demanded another version without the effect.