Beyond the Time Barrier (1960)

In 1960, a military test pilot is caught in a time warp that propels him to year 2024 where he finds a plague has sterilized the world's population.

Director:

Edgar G. Ulmer

Writer:

Arthur C. Pierce (original story and screenplay)

Stars:

Robert Clarke, Darlene Tompkins, Vladimir Sokoloff

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert Clarke	...	Maj. William Allison
Darlene Tompkins	...	Princess Trirene
Vladimir Sokoloff	...	The Supreme
Boyd 'Red' Morgan	...	Captain
Stephen Bekassy	...	Gen. Karl Kruse
Arianne Ulmer	...	Capt. Markova (as Arianne Arden)
John Van Dreelen	...	Dr. Bourman
Ken Knox	...	Col. Marty Martin
Jack Herman	...	Dr. Richman
Don Flournoy	...	Mutant
Tom Ravick	...	Mutant
James 'Ike' Altgens	...	Secretary Lloyd Patterson (as James Altgens)
William Shephard	...	Gen. York (as William Shapard)
Neil Fletcher	...	Air Force Chief
John Loughney	...	Gen. Lamont

Storyline

Experimental pilot testing a new rocket powered craft (actually a Convair F-102 interceptor) manages to fly into the future and land at the now deserted airbase he left. He ends up in a city with people who are suspicious he is a spy and who want to keep him to procreate with the rulers daughter because the majority of the inhabitants are sterile. He manages to escape and return to his own time but "with consequences".

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Plot Keywords:

escape | held at gunpoint | sterility | woman shot | mutant | 

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Taglines:

Adam and Eve of the year 2024! Only they could repopulate the world!

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Genres:

Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

July 1960 (USA)

Also Known As:

The War of 1995

Filming Locations:

Carswell Air Force Base, Fort Worth, Texas, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$125,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Miller Consolidated Pictures (MCP)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

75 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The was shot at the same time as Edgar G. Ulmer's The Amazing Transparent Man. The combined shooting time for the double feature was only two weeks. This film was also meant to cash in the popularity of George Pal's The Time Machine.

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Goofs

The X-80 is depicted by the Convair F-102 Delta Dagger, but during re-entry, some footage of a Convair F-106 Delta Dart is used, giving the impression that the plane changed from an F-102 to an F-106 and then back again.

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Quotes

Captain: I don't trust that man. Especially his thoughts.

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Connections

Referenced in The Naked Monster (2005)

User Reviews

Chuck Yeager Goes Into the future and it's a bleak one

It's always interesting to watch futuristic films made in the past and see how they turn out. The plague of cosmic rays foretold in Beyond The Time Barrier has not occurred and it's already 2011 and it started in 1971 according to the film and Robert Clarke returns in 2024.

Still though the cause of the plague is destruction of the atmospheric barrier which is the ozone layer though not called that in the film and in that sense the film is curiously relevant though they got the immediate cause wrong.

Robert Clarke plays a Chuck Yeager like test pilot who breaks the time barrier and arrives in a world where some folks are living in a hermetically sealed dome near what used to be White Sands Air Force base. The rest are mutants who are sterile, mute or both. The head of the group inside the dome, Vladimir Sokoloff decides to use Clarke with his healthy sperm as the savior of civilization if he'll only mate with his daughter Darlene Tompkins.

The film spared every expense in the making it looks like it was shot with an old Bell&Howell home movie camera. Still it's an interesting bit of work and you can't expect all that much from American-International Pictures unless Roger Corman is involved somewhat and even that's a dubious proposition.