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

Screenwriter Arthur C. Pierce appears briefly as one of the mutants escaping from the jail cell in the underground citadel.

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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

Featured in Planet X: Episode #2.3 (2006)

User Reviews

Disappointing, confusing, excessively talky time travel yarn which fails mainly because of a weak, overly complicated and insufficiently developed screenplay.

Time travel is a subject which has been addressed occasionally in films with varying degrees of success. For the most part these adventures usually entail journeying into Earth's imminent future and can provide an interesting basis for speculation of what might be in store for humanity. Probably the best cinematic examples of this brand of storytelling are George Pal's THE TIME MACHINE (1960) and Franklin J. Schaffner's PLANET OF THE APES (1968).

With such an engaging title as BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER and the promising premise of an intrepid jet pilot traversing through the stratosphere with his supersonic aircraft into the far-flung future (2024) one would expect to be in store for quite an experience. However this film offers very little that is new from previous efforts like Edward Bernds's WORLD WITHOUT END (1956) and fails to be particularly memorable or provide any genuine excitement.

This film's main weakness is its thin story line (the pilot soars into the future, is briefly taken prisoner by the existing society there and eventually escapes back to the present circa 1960) coupled with some ideas which have potential that is never successfully realized. Considering how dialogue heavy this movie is it has a strange inarticulate quality. Vague characters are introduced (a trio of captive scientists designated as "escapes" from Earth colonies on neighbouring planets who also accidentally travelled through time and miraculously ended up in the precise same era as the jet pilot) but the amount of exposition required to explain exactly who they are, where they came from and their role in this society of tomorrow renders them virtually incoherent to the viewer.

When the jet pilot resolves to return to the present (to warn the authorities about the cosmic radiation plague which will ravage the Earth of 1971 due to a depletion of the planet's protective atmospheric layers eroded by constant atomic weaponry testing) in traversing the time warp a second time he physically accelerates into an aged infirm yet he is still able to safely land his craft and recount his experience. While the sight of our now withered and wrinkled hero has some shock value it really serves no purpose since the pilot's mind remains unimpaired and he is able to alert his superiors at the air base hospital of the impending calamity that awaits mankind. Had he been unable to do so it would have effectively given some tragic irony to the story.

The film's one bright moment occurs when the pilot (after penetrating the barrier of time) touches down his craft at the site of his former air base and explores the now bleak and desolate landscape only to find everything in ruins and in a state of total disuse. Some effort is made to show the exterior of the futuristic city complex encountered by the pilot in a series of interesting drawings (coupled with a superimposed animated glow effect) and the surrealistic styling of the city complex's geometrically designed interiors have the proper out-of-this-world look to them. The sequences of the jet aircraft time travelling through the star-filled heavens are passable and Darrell Calker's competent orchestrations easily transcend this movie's shaky dramatics and ponderous events the music was designed to underscore.

If seen as a curio of 1950's sci-fi cinema BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER might hold some interest for the inquisitive or have some special appeal for hard core devotees of director Edgar G. Ulmer's work but this misfire effort will doubtlessly leave the more objective and discerning viewer with complete indifference and boredom. Had the script been more capably handled the result might have been some minor masterpiece and a more fitting epitaph to an underrated and much neglected talent.