The Clones (1973)

An obscure and largely forgotten low budget effort, The Clones (1973) has the distinction of being, probably, the first film to actually use cloning as a plot device.  Unfortunately, like many low budget efforts, having established the idea of its protagonist being cloned, with his clone replacing him, it doesn't really know where to go with the idea, so quickly settles into a classic chase format, with the hero pursued by shady hitmen while trying to unravel the mystery of his clone.  It finally opts to explain it all with a conspiracy to replace key scientists involved in weather control research for vaguely nefarious purposes.  This device feels as if it has arbitrarily bolted onto the rest of the film in a desperate attempt to try and tie all the loose ends together.  Along the way, the film pays lip service to questions of individual identity via a couple of conversations between clone and original, but ultimately shows no real interest in properly developing what is potentially most interesting idea posed by the film's scenario.  The Clones is very much a film of its era, with its paranoia driven plot, high level conspiracies and downbeat ending.  Stylistically too, it is very much a seventies movie, with lots of outdoor location filming, odd camera angles and even an acid trip sequence, as the cloned protagonist, having been given a dose of some drug, runs through a marsh, pursued by the shady hitmen, experiencing some mild hallucinations along the way.  This sequence culminates with the inevitable (for a seventies movie) encounter with a bunch of hippie weirdos in a camper van.

The fact that the film has two credited directors - Lamar Card and Paul Hunt - might explain its somewhat uneven pace, with fast paced action sequences punctuated by slower, talkier scenes, full of expository dialogue.  That said, the action sequences, particularly the climax set in an amusement park, are very well staged.  Indeed, this latter sequence features some excellent camera shots from aboard the roller coaster, as one of the hitmen throws grenades and tries to gun down the good guys, while he travels around it at speed.  The film's opening sequence, with the protagonist escaping an explosion at his lab, then chasing after a mysterious figure everyone thinks is him, is satisfyingly confusing and mysterious, deftly setting the paranoid tone of the rest of the movie.  Whilst not exactly star-studded, the film's cast does include a number of familiar actors who deliver perfectly decent performances.  Micheal Greene, while not a star name, certainly a recognisable supporting actor in many other films and TV series, does a good job as the protagonist (and his clone) attempting to navigate the nightmare scenario he finds himself in.  The two hitmen are played by Otis Young and Gregory Sierra, both subsequently to become familiar faces on TV, while the main villain is effectively played by prolific character actor Stanley Adams, (possibly best remembered now for playing a talking alien carrot man in a particularly ludicrous episode of Lost in Space).  All-in-all The Clones is a reasonably effective and enjoyable, if undemanding, thriller which would have benefitted from a better thought out script that did more with its central idea than to, in effect, rework spy movies like, say, The Double Man or The Spy With My Face, which confront their heroes with doppelgängers intent on usurping them in order to steal secrets or infiltrate secret projects.