Beyond the Time Barrier (1960)

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)

Dim, cheapo science fiction.

Britain's short lived magazine "Movie" pronounced BEYOND the TIME BARRIER "a little miracle." The film, made in the Texas State Show ground, back to back with The AMAZING TRANSPARENT MAN, has all the features of the cheesiest of fifties B features -obvious stock shots, tacky effects, walk-ons recruited from the crew (I was advised "Any one who said 'union' in Texas was a Communist and they shot him") with a plot cobbled together from Buck Rogers and "The Time Machine." Where then does this ringing endorsement come from? In the fifties, it had been decided that the film's director was a genuine auteur. Edgar G(orge) Ulmer has one of the most curious filmographies of all, starting in the art department of the Expressionist classics of the German silent Cinema, he worked with Murnau in Berlin and Hollywood. After Murnau's scandalous death, Ulmer was,we were told, the only person game to show up at his funeral and the master's mantle settled on his shoulders, getting him direction of The BLACK CAT from the tail end of the big budget Universal horrors. However, after refusing to be loaned out to the Shirley Temple unit, he spend the decade knocking out Race Pictures on Poverty Row and did Z films with the Producers Releasing Corporation, among which we note DETOUR and BLUEBEARD. Flirting with more ambitious productions proved unproductive and Ulmer returned to fringe activity including a nudie movie. Ulmer had already done the presentable MAN from PLANET X with Robert Clarke who was attempting to forge a career as a leading man in what would come to be called Psychotronic Cinema and they worked with a crew of specialists in this area among who the great Vladimir Sokaloff (Loves of Jeanne Ney, Mayerling, Life of Emile Zola and For Whom the Bell Tolls) found himself playing a futuristic overlord. Also on hand was master design Ernst Fegté, one of the few talents embedded in Hans Dreier's art department to make his presence visible in vintage Paramount productions. Fegté got an Oscar for 5 GRAVES to CAIRO. His décors, made up of modular triangular blocks, provide Beyond TIME BARRIER with a visual aspect not normal in these barrel scrapers - white overalled scientists among the tapering pillars. Plot has pilot Clarke shot into the upper atmosphere in the latest supersonic airplane - "What we learn from the flight will pretty much determine our next step in space." 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?