ONJ Goes SF - Toomorrow blu-ray review - SFX

TOOMORROW, The In Sound From Way Out!

3.5 stars EXTRAS: 4 stars
RELEASED 22 JUNE
1970, 15, Blu-rау
Director: Val Guest.
Cast: Benny Thomas. Karl Chambers, Olivia Newton-John, Vic Cooper

This swinging '60s sc-fi musical was written/directed by Val Guest, who brought us The Quatermass Xperiment and The Day The Earth Caught Fire. It was co-produced by Don Kirshner, whose songwriting stable provided hits for The Monkees, and Harry Saltzman, who partnered with Cubby Broccoli on the early Bond films. And it stars a cute-as-a-button Olivia Newton-John. How have I never heard of this!, you may be asking. Because Saltzman failed to pay Guest £75,000 he was due, so he slapped an injunction on the film.

Newton-John is one of four members of the titular band, who - like The Monkees - share a house, but are more randy, and politically aware, though not exactly radical. Olivia's boyfriend may lead a sit-in at their arts college, but he's keen not to (gasp) actually inconvenience anyone.

Though the hippy-drippy numbers of this well-groomed quarter (Keep grinning seems to have been Guest's main directorial note) have about as much edge as The New Seekers, Toomorrow nevertheless attract some notable fans: alien Alphoids who believe the band's vibrations can rejuvenate their race. Roy Dotrice plays the shapeshifting observer charged with making sure nothing impedes the climactic gig at Camden's Roundhouse, which will see them elevated into orbit.

It's a time capsule, but an ersatz one, more Cliff Richard than counterculture (figures: Guest also directed Expresso Bongo). The script is rife with phrases like You're grooving, man! or What a trip!; it feels like Guest - 57 when shooting took place - had been given a list of lingo to work in. A detour into sex comedy, as an Alphoid transforms into a dolly bird to seduce the keyboard player, meanwhile, is terribly corny.

All the same, this sanitised take on Swinging London is charmingly dated. The kaleidoscopic spaceship sets impress. And Hugo Montenegro's incidental cues - all sampleable breakbeats and ba-ba-ba's - are seriously groovy.

Extras: This BFI 4K remaster mixes film-specific bonuses with a grab-bag of archival oddities.

It's a time capsule, but an ersatz one

Guest recalls his falling-out with Saltzman in a 10-minute extract from a 1988 interview, and discusses his career in an on-stage chat from 1998 (62 minutes). Celeste de la Cabra's visual essay (12 minutes) offers a not especially insightful overview. Pop music Andrew Sandoval's commentary is well-researched.

Then we dip into the BF1 archives. The Nose Has It (eight minutes), a 1942 Ministry Of Information short made by Guest sees Arthur Askey reminding folk to sneeze into their hanky. The spirit of 1969 is evoked in a five-minute promo for the capital, plus footage of an anarchist free theatre troupe performing at the Roundhouse (13 minutes); heavy on nudity and anti-war slogans, it's light years from Olivia Newton-John.

The most bewildering inclusion, however, is Alice Goes Pop! (17 minutes); this 1975 episode of a Children's Film Foundation series sees kids in a band enter a talent competition - with their drumming chimp in tow. Plus a 30 page booklet.

By Ian Berriman.

According to Val Guest, Kirshner wanted Newton-John to film a love scene, but she went berserk, and burst into tears.

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