Beyond the Time Barrier (1960)

"Beyond the Time Barrier" is the type of late 50s/early 60s Sci-Fi film of which you know, after approximately five minutes already, that it could have been a fantastic contemporary genre highlight if only the cast and crew didn't have to work with such a minimalist budget! Most of the conceptual ideas are really great and well- elaborated, but the cheap looking set pieces and the pitiable special effects have an immensely restraining impact on the overall plausibility and entertainment value. In case you serve an ambitious plot that is dealing with time-traveling and largely takes place in a futuristic dystopia, you can't afford to use paper made spaceships or drawings of the metropolis and you most certainly cannot speak of horribly deformed mutants the entire time without properly showing their faces! So, in an attempt to cover up for the budgetary weakness, Edgar G. Ulmer does what every experienced veteran director would do: replace the action sequences with endless intellectual speeches and complicated time warp theories as much as you can! In 1960, Major William Ellison has the honor and privilege to test-fly a brand new and hi-tech type of army fighter plane. The speed of the aircraft is even a little too successful, as Ellison breaks through the time barrier and ends up in the year 2024. It takes quite a while before our Major properly realizes that he fast- forwarded 64 years into the future, and the technical details are explained to him by three other scientists that went through the same experience. By the way, I didn't understand one iota about those time-traveling theories, but I also figure that incomprehensible speeches are a mandatory aspect of 50s Sci-Fi… Ellison immediately gets confronted with the terrible state of our planet and civilization in the year 2024. Apparently an all- devastating kind of cosmic plague made the entire world population sterile (the last child was born more 20 years ago) and gradually transforms the remaining survivors into mutants. There's also good news, however, as the last fertile woman on earth is a beautiful princess and she has chosen him to re-populate the planet! She – Trirene – is a deaf-mute with telekinetic powers and she can read Ellison's thoughts, which results in at least one (unintentionally?) hilarious sequence: "I know you can read my mind…. Although right now I probably wished you couldn't" and then he gets slapped in the face! Admittedly "Beyond the Time Barrier" principally got made to cash in on the tremendous success of H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine" and also borrows many elements from Fritz Lang's "Metropolis", but it's an engaging and occasionally suspenseful tale. I even like to think that some nifty ideas from this film were copied years later in massive Hollywood productions (for example the sterility in "Children of Men"), although I'm probably mistaken.

"Major William Allison" (Robert Clarke) is a test pilot for the United States Air Force who has been assigned to fly an experimental jet into space at speeds never before attempted by mankind. Unfortunately, his mission accidentally takes him 64 years into the future to a time when a plague has decimated most of the population and created hostile mobs of mutants who seek to wreck havoc on the few less infected people living underground. Yet while these people don't quite suffer from the full ravages of the plague the disease has rendered all of them deaf, mute and completely sterile. All but one that is and the arrival of Major Allison gives them hope that perhaps he and a beautiful woman named "Trirene" (Darlene Tompkins) can offer them a chance of repopulating the human species. But there is another opportunity presented with Major Allison's arrival which another group has formulated and it conflicts with the plans of the establishment. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie and risk spoiling it for those who haven't seen it I will just say that this was a decent science fiction film for the most part. Admittedly, being produced in 1960 it lacks the special effects of movies made during the present time and the film lacked depth and substance to a certain degree as well. But in any case I kind of enjoyed it and so I rate this movie as about average and recommend it to fans of this particular time and genre.

*Spoiler/plot- Beyond the Time Barrier, 1960. An AirForce officer piloting a new hi-speed jet aircraft that travels into the edge of space creates a time barrier and land in the distant future. The occupants of the distance future are victims of the nuclear war and wish to live under ground to survive and flourish.*Special Stars- Robert Clarke, Darlene Tompkins, Vladimir Sokoloff.*Theme- American ingenuity will win and change a dire future history.*Trivia/location/goofs- B&W. Texas Fort Worth's Carswell Air Force Base. *Emotion- Wonderfully campy and exciting to watch this film. A nice slice of 50's technology and panic from the space race. The lead male actor was the producer of this and several other films of this type and era.*Based On- The Cold War invasion worries.

The basic idea behind "Beyond the Time Barrier" isn't bad--it's just painfully obvious it was a super-low budget film. Too many set and script problems lingered that would have been worked out if the film makers had more than $45 to make the entire film. Despite this, the film does have two minor stars in it--Victor Sokoloff (a familiar face but a name you'll not readily recognize) and Robert Clark (who made a few sci-fi films and guest starred on TV shows like "Dragnet").The film is set in 1960. Clark is a Major in the Air Force and is flying a sub-orbital high altitude experimental flight. However, something odd happens and he's somehow transported 64 years into the future! And, unfortunately, the future completely sucks! It seems some plague killed most of the folks on Earth and left most of the rest as either mutants or total jerks! So, Clark has to somehow get back to his time to alert the folks on Earth. Can he do it? And, is there any way they'll believe him? And, will the complete and total jerks of the future even let him attempt this...after all, they ARE jerks! Overall, despite the crappy sets, I could recommend this to lovers of cheesy sci-fi. That's because the basic story isn't bad at all and it ended very well. On the other hand, be forewarned--it is cheap--REALLY cheap. The worst are the 'mutants' kept in prison. The ones near the top of the steps and those down inside the pit are OBVIOUSLY from different movies--and look NOTHING like each other!! The stairs ones are guys (no ladies?) wearing the absolute worst skin-head wigs I've ever seen! They are hilariously dumb. But, the folks living down in the pit look almost like extras from "Island of Lost Souls"--all covered in hair and looking a bit primordial!! Duh! So, if you can ignore the dumb parts, it's not bad...but still uneven.