Beyond the Time Barrier (1960)

User Rating:

4.6/10   

Director:

Edgar G. Ulmer

Writer:

Arthur C. Pierce (story)

Release Date:

July 1960 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Tagline:

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

Plot:

Experimental pilot testing a new rocket powered craft (actually a Convair F-102 interceptor) manages...

Plot Keywords:

Escape | Stabbed In The Back | Mutant | Woman Shot | Jet Plane

Cast

Robert Clarke	...	Major 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
Neil Fletcher	...	Air Force Chief
John Loughney	...	Gen. Lamont

Also Known As:

The War of 1995

Runtime:

75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Filming Locations:

Fair Park, Dallas, Texas, USA

Company:

Miller Consolidated Pictures (MCP)

Trivia:

The was shot at the same time as Edgar G. Ulmer's The Amazing Transparent Man (1960). 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 (1960).

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Planet X: (#2.3)" (2006)

Trashy sixties science fiction shows up the Ulmer hype.

Finding himself in the future,airman Robert is paraded before Vlad, as "the Supreme" whose significance is marked by two black bowling balls on his desk. Mute Darlene simpers a lot and reads our hero's mind but the action is with other arrivals through the cardboard time warp including Ulmer's daughter as Ex-Captain Markova and a couple of Prize winning scientists. They all plan on making off with our hero's jet, to get back to their own time zone, without his high minded attempt to avert the plague which has peopled the twenty first century with stock shots from "Tiger Von Eschnaper" in non matching B&W from which half a dozen extras in awful, wrinkled bald caps emerge to ravage Sokoloff's military.

Occasionally the cut pricing pays, as with our hero in his flying suit, wandering the derelict airport rendered eerie by the lack of natural sound - who came up with the smashed piano? The triangular unit barred cell entrance is a nice piece of designer Fegté's work but does the garden sleeping quarters have to back onto an indoor swimming pool where Darlene skinny dips, discretely cut to her robing up?

Most of the time is spent with the awful support standing in the middle of the set delivering equally awful dialogue. Over familiar scenes like the scientist taking a break from jamming triangle TV and walking Clarke to the convenient blackboard - "Let me Show you." The world of the future actually appears to be full of visual aids with Darlene producing hanging file photos of her family for Clarke.

They didn't do too well on prophesying either "When man set foot on the moon, all men started working together."

Tacky but a whole lot better than its running mate at the Texas Sate Showground become studios, "The Amazing Transparent Man" or most of the awful Ulmer films.What is amazing is that so many people were bluffed by the director's High Art background into believing he had talent.