The Day the Fish Came Out

Michael Cacoyannis, the Greek director, working on his own material, gives us an intriguing look at a would be catastrophic end for all the people in a remote Greek island where nothing ever happens, but where just by a freak accident, it is suddenly possible.

We meet the Navigator and the Pilot, two Englishmen that have been wrecked after their aircraft, carrying two atom bombs, suffer an accident. This accident, and its dire consequences, bring to the island of Makos, in the Aegean Sea, a team of investigators led by Elias, who pretends they are interested in building a hotel in the arid place. The canny inhabitants of the island are confused as to why do they pick a place in the middle of nowhere instead of right on one of the lovely beaches.

Throughout the film we watch the two crew members running around the island in tattered briefs that, at times, seem not to hide any of the two men's charms. Word gets out that Makos is going to become fashionable and soon the jet set descends in the place, attired in weird futuristic costumes.

The island suddenly changes into a touristy place where the fun goes on forever, bu unaware of the danger from the possibility of the bombs exploding at any moment. There is an ironic twist when a peasant couple discovers one of the devices. Not knowing what it is, they are able to cut with acid into the strange box only to find out strange balls. The woman decides to keep two for her young son to play, but ultimately, the husband, upon discovering them, and thinking they are nothing, throws them into the water system.

The film seems sadly dated. Since there are so many characters, no one seems to dominate the proceedings. Tom Courtney and Colm Blakely are good as the Navigator and the Pilot. Sam Wanamaker is the head of the people trying to find the devices. Candice Bergen is seen as a model type who sets shop in the island.

This unusual, way-out, black comedy about the destruction of humanity via nuclear weapons is like a surreal, gay dream. Filmed in 1967, it takes place in the near future of 1972. Courtenay and Blakley are flying a plane containing two nuclear bombs and an additional radioactive weapon that's contained in an impenetrable box. When the plane begins to crash, they offload the weapons, per their orders, and abandon the plane themselves. They wash ashore on a partially uninhabited Greek island in (inexplicably) just their underwear and have trouble coming up with a reasonable excuse they can give the villagers. Meanwhile, Wanamaker already believes them dead and amasses a team of soldiers to descend on the island and retrieve the lost weaponry. In order to keep suspicion down, they arrive in sportswear and present themselves as hotel builders. However, the sportswear is so hilariously fruity and since there are no women in their party, Courtenay and Blakley assume that they're a band of homosexuals! Adding to the confusion are a goatherd and his wife who have taken the boxed weapon to their hut and are trying every means they can think of to open it, believing it to have gold inside. Eventually, with all the interest on the part of the "hoteliers", swarms of tourists swoop down on the island and practically take it over. Then, when relics are discovered, archaeologists head there, too! It is here that Bergen makes her long-awaited appearance. She sets her sights on one of the disguised soldiers (Ogilvy) and complicates matters even more with her excavation equipment. The whole film is a comedy of errors as characters continuously misinterpret one another and nearly miss connecting with each other. The ending is abrupt, to say the least. but at last the title makes sense. Courtenay and Blakley make a truly odd duck pair and their Mutt 'n Jeff routine is only sporadically amusing, if at all. Fans of theirs owe it to themselves to see this, though, as they parade around for most of the film in the flimsiest of white briefs, especially Courtenay's almost thong-like undies! Wanamaker is forceful and displays quite a fit body of his own. His team of men wears the most bizarre and hallucinatory clothing imaginable. Nearly all of them are drop-dead gorgeous and their clothes are built to show off their assets as much as possible (trunks and clamdiggers with pieces cut out, impossibly snug crotches, shirts with mesh fronts, et al...) Bergen has a surprisingly brief role, but she does impress with her stunning looks. Never more tan or blonde, her clothes make the most of her youthful body as well and she gives the film a lift with her energy (even if her acting hadn't fully taken root yet.) Though the film is rather patchy and confusing at times (the cast wasn't even allowed to know the plot!), there is a story at work here and some thought given to the evils of greed, dominance, militarism, materialism, etc... It just isn't as coherent as one might like. The primary appeal is the chance to see Bergen at her loveliest, the frenetic dancing of the tourists, the wacky costumes of virtually everyone and the fleet of healthy men in various stages of undress.

I was probably one of the few people to see this film on its original release, in New York, in some smart cinema on the east side as I recall.

I rather liked it (for a variety of reasons all of which I won't go into here), then it virtually disappeared for years.

Once I did manage to catch it on a late night movie channel out of Baltimore, 45 if I remember correctly. The reception and (disappointingly) the color were atrocious. But I still liked it and for all of the same reasons.

One of the main ones is the unique musical score by Mikis Theodorakis. It's a kind of eclectic, almost post-modern fusion of Greek ethnic and avant garde sounds, jaunty, lyrical melodies, and a dynamic end-of-the-world dance track called "The Jet". All very appealing.

It's still one of my favorite vinyl STs. Play it once and the tunes are in your head for days.

Would love to have a good restored and annotated copy of this film on DVD and BluRay.

Where can I get a copy of this film? It was shown in late '67 in London and after very bad reviews was closed after 2 weeks and never seen again. The British Film Institute, when I asked over 10 years ago, only had some storyboards but no copy.

Having read the comments about the confused nature and baffling plot of the film, I can only support these from the point of view of someone who was an extra in the film. Yes we had to wear cheaply made primary coloured cotton clothes (and in my case some wrap-round 'shades' that made sweat run into your eyes.) I was travelling in an old VW van with fellow students, and we were recruited in Athens, and paid 10 shillings a day each with a cold chicken meal thrown in. Filming seemed chaotic and often appeared to made up on the spot (a bunch of bikers were filmed at one point), and at night most takes were stopped when the arc lamps burnt out. The dead fish in the harbour mostly sank. The third assistant director had great fun trying to get us to act as a crowd. The local cops prowled about looking for some longhairs to beat up (not us though as we had wheels).

The wonderful Sam Wanamaker looked stately on set, Candice Bergen looked very nice from where I stood in the background on a night shoot, Tom Courtney looked lonely off set. Colin Blakeley became a favourite actor of mine when I spotted him as I walked down the harbour towards the house used as the wardrobe, lurking in costume rags. The Wardrobe Mistress - a formidable women - passed by and told him in forthright terms to clear off as we were on the set (the whole harbour). With a grunt he shambled off in the character of a tramp. Minutes later he was on camera scoffing food at a table! Priceless! Where can I get a copy of this film?

This is the first of 3 efforts by this foremost Greek film-maker that I will be watching in tribute to his recent passing; that said, I have 3 other early works of his which I decided to by-pass at the moment. Following the commercial success of ZORBA THE Greek (1964), Cacoyannis was probably given carte blanche and he responded with a Cold War satire that seems to have been inspired both by DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (1963) and THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING! (1966)! The results, however, turned out to be rather limp and its failure sent the director back to his favorite subject i.e. Greek tragedy (more on this in my next review!).

The plot deals with a plane carrying nuclear armaments crashing onto a small and obscure Greek island – when the aircraft is spotted by a fisherman and the locals cheer that they will finally make the news, the U.S. Air Force is quick to dispel the rumors, asserting that no plane (and its dangerous cargo) has gone missing! In the meantime, the two pilots (Tom Courtenay and Colin Blakely, actually Brits!) have swum to land in their underwear, and they spend two-thirds of the running-time trying to figure out how to acquire some form of clothing and food but, more importantly, contact their base to give them their position. What they do not know is that a military operation – led by Sam Wanamaker and numbering among its components Ian Ogilvy – has been commissioned, arriving incognito as land/business assessors for the purposes of erecting a hotel there, to retrieve the box containing the nuclear gizmo (having assumed the pilots drowned)! Soon after, however, tourists inundate the island – having become the newest thing in paradise resorts overnight!

Others who come into the picture are a shepherd and his wife who actually discover the box and spend the entire film attempting to open it, and a nymphomaniac artist (Candice Bergen) who becomes involved with Ogilvy. The leading lady's role is quite pointless, though, especially since she leaves well before the end after having made yet another conquest! Similarly, Courtenay seems to have been recruited merely because his name was hip at the time (anybody could have played his character, and his compulsion for food is especially unconvincing in view of the actor's lanky figure)!

Though not quite as bad as the BOMB rating allotted it by the "Leonard Maltin Film Guide" would suggest, and the proceedings certainly prove amusing in spots, overall this is far from inspired stuff and decidedly forgettable into the bargain! What is more, for such a backwards community, the characters are decked out in the height of Carnaby Street fashion (amazingly, Cacoyannis personally designed the clothes!): we are thus treated to a couple of modern dances – the traditional Greek form being relegated to the opening titles, despite the whole film being scored by ZORBA's Mikis Theodorakis – which would not have been amiss within AIP's "Beach Party" franchise!

The film ends abruptly – via an ostentatious but effective series of ever-distant zooms – with the titular sequence (a multitude of dead fish are seen rising to the surface) indicating that the radiation has taken effect. Actually, the whole population is infected since the water system has also been unwittingly contaminated by the shepherd's wife! Unfortunately, the copy I acquired was plagued throughout with video/audio glitches which made the whole experience of watching the film even less enthusing!