Wolf Rilla directed this expert thriller from John Wyndham's novel "The Midwich Cuckoos", coming up with pretty stylish returns on such a tight budget. The mystery begins one day in the small British village of Midwich: all the residents are rendered unconscious for nearly four hours by an unseen substance which, three months down the road, results in pregnancies in every of-age female in town. When the babies are born, they are extraordinarily healthy and intelligent, paving the way for some scary behavior once the kids reach school-age. These tykes are the most exasperating little prigs imaginable, yet Professor George Sanders (himself the 'father' of one of the boys) is the only man unafraid of them--and perhaps the only one who can stop their path of destruction. Rilla doesn't overload the picture with nonsense; his narrative is clean-cut and the pacing is quick. Still, there's the usual leaden discussion-phase, wherein the adults have to formulate a plan which we in the audience know will soon be rendered moot. Sanders isn't really into his role, though he plays along rather splendidly, and the child actors have amazing faces. We don't get a sense of how many extraordinary children there should actually be however, and the pack of spooky towheads keeps changing in size. Followed by a sequel, "Children of the Damned", in 1964; remade by John Carpenter in 1995. *** from ****