Beyond the Time Barrier

This movie is a sister to The Amazing Transparent Man. Both were shot by MCP in late 1959. Beyond The Time Barrier (BTTB) was the more ambitious and more sci-fi of the two. Edgar Ulmer directed both. Robert Clarke (Hideous Sun Demon) both produced and starred. There are the usual tropes associated with time travel, and some plot twists. There are models and stock footage and modest special effects. Yet, BTTB is an earnest tale of a man who inadvertently flies 65 years into the future and finds that things have gone very wrong.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Major Allison is testing a new rocket-powered airplane. The goal was suborbital space flight, but as he entered space his speed quickly climbed to thousands of miles per hour. Radio contact is lost. Allison lands at the base, but it abandoned and derelict. Beyond the woods, he sees a futuristic city. He is zapped unconscious and taken prisoner. He is in the year 2024. A world plague killed billions in 1971. Some escaped to underground cities. Other survivors became mutants. Even the citadel's "normal" population suffer the effects of the plague. Most are deaf mutes and all are sterile. The Supreme ruler's granddaughter, Tirene, is thought to be fertile, so The Supreme wants her and Allison (with his pre-plague genes) to be a new Adam and Eve and repopulate the earth. Prisoner scientists have other plans. They convince Allison that he must go back in time to 1960 and prevent the plague. This proves to be a ruse to get to Allison's plane. Each of the three scientists planned to double-cross the other and return to their time(s) via Allison's plane. They all end up dead, and so does Tirene. Allison goes back alone to 1960. He makes it, but has aged 50 years. He tells his bizarre tale to the authorities. They now have much to think about. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The story is complex enough for thought. The pyramidal interior sets are visually interesting. Darlene Tompkins is a great example of 50s teen beauty.

Cold War Angle
BTTB is a blatant cautionary tale. Cold War motivated nuclear weapons testing caused the plague that doomed mankind. "Go back. Warn them."

Notes
Timing Is Everything -- Even though produced in late 1959, release was delayed until July 1960. This put it in theaters just a few weeks before George Pal's big production The Time Machine was to be released. AIP and Miller Consolidated Pictures cashed in on interest (in time travel sci-fi) being generated by promotional buzz for Pal's movie.

Time Travel Tales -- BTTB was not a pioneer in time travel sci-fi, but it was not quite cliche in 1959. 1000 Years From Now ('52) depicted a future earth after nuclear armageddon. The Twonky ('53) featured a trouble-causing 'robot' from the future, that had found itself in 1953. World Without End ('56) was closer in plot, having a rocket crew encounter a time "event" and wind up on earth in the 26th century -- post-armageddon. The Invisible Boy ('57) used time travel (pre-story) to explain why Robby the Robot was in 1957. Terror From The Year 5000 ('58) featured a time travel portal that lets in a terror from our bleak post-armageddon future. BTTB was not the first bleak-future-earth tale, but may be the first movie in which the traveler returns to warn us.

Fluke Redux -- Dr. Bourman offers some techno-babble about combined orbital speeds (galaxy, solar system, planet, etc.) being occasionally almost enough to reach the speed of light and slip forward in time. The X-80 doing a few thousand mph was enough to zap Allison forward. Apparently, the phenomenon was not a total fluke. Captain Markova did it in 1974. Kruse and Bourman did it in 1994. Interesting that they should all "land" around the same 2024 date. Also interesting is the notion that flying the X-80 back the other way would undo it. Hmmm.

Love Triangles -- The credits state a shooting location of Fair Park, Dallas, Texas. The interior shots of "the citadel", (the huge inverted pyramids) was left over from an exhibition at the Texas State Fair in 1959. The producers arranged to use the installation before it was dismantled. Ulmer capitalized on the angular look and expanded it. The Pit had a triangular barred door. Other doors and structures were made triangular too. Ulmer even used some triangular wipes as transitions.

All In The Family -- Though credited as Arianne Arden, the scheming Captain Markova was played by Edgar Ulmer's daughter, Arianne Ulmer. Though her last name was changed in the Star Wars-esque credits, she did get second billing even though the Markova character was somewhat peripheral.

Crazy-Eyed Buick -- It is no coincidence, I'm sure, that appearing in both BTTB and Amazing Transparent Man was the same big 1959 Buick convertible. Note the angled dual headlights which gave the car a very angry look. In '58, the headlight pairs were horizontal. In 1960, they were horizontal again. Only '59 had the angled set.

Bottom line? BTTB deserves all the caveats usually given to a low-budget 50s sci-fi. It can be a bit flat and talky at times. Yet, Ulmer does what he can to keep reviving the pace and interest. While not exceptional, BTTB is a fair example of 50s B sci-fi.

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The Amazing Transparent Man

The invisible character trope was hardly new. At first glance, The Amazing Transparent Man (ATM) might appear to be merely a modernized remake of H.G. Wells' Invisible Man. They do have points in common, but ATM is actually better than just a cheap update of Wells. Interwoven are several crime drama threads which make ATM a hybrid sci-fi and film noir piece. Edgar Ulmer, no stranger to noir, directs. The result is better than the title implies.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A woman helps a safe cracker break out of a maximum security prison. She takes Joey to a remote farm house. There, he meets Major Krenner who has big plans. He wants Joey to steal nuclear isotopes. To do this, Krenner has a captive German scientist who has developed an invisibility ray. They use it on Joey. Invisible Joey cracks the safe and steals the isotopes. They use the new (but unstable) isotopes to make Joey invisible again. Joey decides to rob a bank instead, planning to run off with Laura and not return to Krenner. During the heist, he becomes partially visible again. Reports circulate. Krenner figures he must pack up and move his operation before the cops come. Joey arrives, demanding that Ulof fix the intermittent invisibility . Joey locks Krenner in the attic bedroom. When they all leave, Ulof tells Joey that invisible ray treatments mean Joey has only a few weeks to live. He urges Joey to go back and stop Krenner so he cannot make his invisible army. Back in the house, Krenner escaped and shoots Laura dead. Joey and Krenner fight up in the lab. The ray is beamed onto the unstable isotope, creating a nuclear explosion. The police return with Dr. Ulof, who muses aloud about the dangers of invisible armies and hopes the secret died with Krenner. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The story has more depth than the usual low-budget B film. There are back-story threads to muse over. The usual "invisible man" trope gets a film-noir twist. The turning-invisible effects aren't too bad. And, Marguerite Chapman (Alita in Flight To Mars '51), though a bit past her prime, is still easy on the eyes.

Cold War Angle
Aside from the ubiquitous nuclear material forming the "magic" for whatever the writer dreamed up, there is a more subtle angle. Krenner's dream of an invisible army had more potency for 1960 audiences. Americans had been fearing a communist invasion for years. Invisible commies (think 5th columnists and spies) were pretty frightening.

Notes
Invisible Modern Man -- H.G.Wells penned the story of The Invisible Man in 1897. Jack Lewis created a modern (1950s) adaptation. There are similarities, such invisible crimes and feelings of invincibility, but there are ample differences too. Lewis used the 50s favorite -- ubiquitous radioactive materials -- to perform the magic, instead of chemistry.

Sci-Noir -- In the film noir style, none of the cast noble characters. Krenner, the villain, is naturally unlikable, but shows an undignified cowardly streak. Joey Faust, the safe cracker, is brutish and arrogant. Laura has an implied shady past which Krenner uses to blackmail her into his service. Her being killed underscores her unredeemed essence. Dr. Ulof is the former nazi who does as he's told -- even to the point of torturing his wife to death. Julian, the henchman, is a miniature of Ulof. He does what he's told. Ulmer's directing tried to evoke some artsy sense of Wyeth-esque isolation with the remote victorian farm house. This wasn't particularly effective.

Noir With A Twist -- Unlike classic noir writing, Lewis manages to give each of his characters a slight redemptive twist. You almost, but not quite, feel sorry for them all. The slowly dying Ulof tries to repent of his science-for-hire philosophy, urging Joey to stop Krenner, to make the world safe for their daughters. Joey, normally selfish, does opt to spend his last moments (he was dying of radiation poisoning too) blowing up Krenner. Laura at least dreamed of getting away from her dark life and being a decent woman. Julian, we find out, was motivated by a vain hope of helping his son, whom he though was "in a european prison."

Blatant Foreshadowing -- A less well-crafted bit of the screenplay was the heavy-handed foreshadowing of the doom that awaited. Krenner upbraids Ulof for not being careful enough with the radiation beam. If the beam hit the safe full of fissionable materials, it "could make the whole countryside go up in a mushroom cloud." Anyone with a few years of movie--watching experience knows, at that point, that this is exactly what is going to happen. If such a danger were real, that safe would be nowhere near that beam machine, not just a few feet away.

Asking For Trouble -- At the bottom of the movie poster is an odd (and silly) bit of promotional hype. Invisible Joey may be in the theater causing mischief. Police take notice. The producers/promotoers, no doubt, hoped adolescent viewers would take the hint and pull some invisible-man pranks. It's actually somewhat shrewd of the promoters to try and co-opt juvenile tendencies.

Bottom line? ATM is, like most B-movies, not impressive for stellar acting, lavish sets or amazing effects. Yet, it manages to be "good enough" to be entertaining. It has more noir than sci-fi, but the twists in plot keep things moving.

Top 10 Concepts in 50s sci-fi

Visuals and special effects are one way viewers gauge the effectiveness of a sci-fi movie. Another metric is Concept. Stories of saucer attacks, alien monsters, giant bugs or radiation-spawned beasts, would become common. Yet, some 50s films (even with too low of a budget to dazzle audiences with special effects) made an impact because they had a powerful concept. Below is my list of ten 50s films with cool concepts. (They're in chronological order, not coolest to less-cool)

1. When Worlds Collide '51 -- In almost all disaster stories, massive destruction is averted in the end. Not this time. The earth does not get saved at the last minute by a plucky band of heros. Instead, only a few people and animals escape to begin anew on a new world. This was pretty radical stuff for movie audiences so early in the decade.

2. Red Planet Mars '52 -- How would we handle it if we DID receive messages from "out there" and they weren't blandly neutral? Messages from an idyllic civilization on Mars which believe in God. They cause chaos on earth. Was it all a cruel prank by an ex-nazi scientist, or actually corroboration that God exists? Could the world handle it?

3. Four Sided Triangle '53 -- A lovelorn scientist creates a matter duplicator as an altruistic aid to mankind. He uses succumbs to self-interest and uses it to duplicate a woman he loves, but who is in love with another. Things don't work out. The duplicate tries to love him, but the love for the other was duplicated too.

4. Target Earth '54 -- A handful of people find themselves alone in a deserted city. Alien robots roam the streets killing any stray humans. The city was abandoned by earthlings to the robots until earth forces can find a countermeasure. In the meantime, the robots hunt down the last refugees. A bustling metropolis suddenly a barren city-scape, was a strong image.

5. Quatermass Xperiment '55 -- One of the first blob movies. A non-corporeal life form merges with a human astronaut. When he returns to earth, the other being takes over his body little by little. Like an epidemic personified, the creature man is lost he/it becomes a massive blob that absorbs other life.

6. Invasion of the Body Snatchers '56 -- Not the first, but the most memorable of the alien-takeover movies. Alien spores create replacements for people. They then set about insidiously spreading their new world order. A young doctor and his girlfriend are the only ones who know. The pod people are out to catch and convert them. An invisible invasion of outwardly congenial doubles terrified audiences.

7. Forbidden Planet '56 -- Among the many story threads, the enigmatic Krell dominate. An alien race builds such an autonomous technology that it destroys them. An earth scientist discovers their vast empty cities still functioning. In his explorations, he has unknowingly created an unstoppable monster from his own subconscious.

8. Kronos '57 -- An alien race's energy consumption exceeds their supply. They send a massive impersonal machine to harvest power from other planets. They don't want to own earth, or take our women -- just our kilowatts. If not stopped, it will drain earth back to the dark ages. This notion of civilizations living beyond their power means has remained topical to today.

9. Fiend w/o a Face '58 -- A scientist inadvertently creates a new form of invisible beings which must feed on human brains to survive. They also require an atomic reactor's stray radiation to exist. Beyond the mere attack-by-monsters plot is the notion of beings created and sustained by man and his technology, which (like Morbius' Id monster) prove anything but friendly.

10. 4D Man '59 -- A scientist manages to change his body so that he can shift himself in time. By doing so, he can pass through solid matter. His newfound power goes to his head. The power has a curse too. He cannot touch anyone without draining the life out of them. This is an atomic age spin on Wells' Invisible Man and the old King Midas tale.

Runner up -- Not of this Earth '57 -- An alien from war ravaged planet comes to earth needing fresh blood to stay alive. His mission is to send humans back so his people can live. Their planet loses the war. A female alien escapes to join him. Though seeing themselves as superior invaders, they're actually vulnerable refugees whose plans (and lives) are thwarted.

Okay. That's my list. What about YOU? Which cool concept 50s sci-fi would you have included?

Foreshadowing the 50s (in 1909)

I recently discovered this silent "scifi" short which turned out to have some uncanny parallels to 50s sci-fi. The 50s are famous, of course, for Cold War tension, invasion themes and are famous visualizing a (then) contemporary phenomenon: flying saucers. The Airship Destroyer (TAD) has those things too, in its own way, but in 1909. Without a bit of background history, though, the average 50s sci-fi fan might not realize what a neat mirror it is. More on that in the Notes section. The movie is only 6-plus minutes long, so follow this YouTube link and watch it yourself.

Quick Plot Synopsis
An unnamed foreign power launches an air fleet of small airships. An English inventor asks his sweetheart to marry him, but her father says no. Dejected, the inventor returns to his shop. His assistant bursts in to announce the arrival of the menacing air fleet. The airship crew begin dropping bombs on the countryside. A lone armored car putters around firing back up at the airships, though ineffectually. The airship crew continue to drop bombs. The bombs narrowly miss a train, but hit the armored car square on. They also hit a house, injuring the wife and husband within. Panic in the streets. An airplane is dispatched to do battle, but it strikes an airship and falls to earth. Enter our lovelorn inventor. He has an aerial torpedo. His assistant fires it up. The inventor controls it with a huge radio set, guiding it to an enemy airship. The torpedo hits. The airship burns and falls to earth. Inventor and sweetheart embrace, his heroism having softened daddy's heart. The end.

Why is this movie fun?
Knowing how many of 1950s sci-fi stories were set, this battle of (at that time) "fantastic" cutting-edge technology is fun to watch, from the smug seat of 100 years in the future.

Cold War Angle
TAD is an expression of an earlier era's version of the Cold War. It is fascinating how some things stay the same.

Notes
Pre-Cold War -- Before World War One, there was a decade or so of an earlier Cold War, of sorts. Rivalry between Great Britain and Germany had simmered in the background, since 1903 or so, and several times threatened to boil over into a "hot" war. (Tangier Crisis 1905, Annexation Crisis, 1909, Agadir Crisis 1911, etc.) Both Britain and Germany vigorously engaged in an arms race. In 1909, the Naval Scare was in full steam.

Super Weapons, Mark 1 -- Before A-bombs, there were battleships. They were both a symbol of prestige and (in theory) a deterrent. (Sound familiar?). The British navy was supreme, but in late 1908, the German passed funding for four new dreadnoughts. This sparked the great "naval scare". British scaremongers whipped up worries that the Germans would achieve superiority. The empire would be doomed. This generated a mood of worry and alarm.

Super Weapons, Mark 2 -- Count von Zeppelin had gotten his third prototype to fly in 1906. His airships were fairly weak and fragile, but there mere idea of airships sent a quiver of panic through the British public. Being an island no longer provided security. H.G. Wells published his novel "The War in the Air" in 1908. It featured attack fleets of airships. England wasn't attacked by Germany in Wells' story, but the edgy British could connect the dots.

Invasion Mentality -- This mood of worry and suspicion found expression in popular entertainment. Several popular spy novels of the day visualized what the public worried about. William Le Queux was a popular novelist of the invasion genre, penning potboilers like: The Invasion of 1910 (1906), and Spies of the Kaiser (1909). TAD fits this literary period perfectly. It was a purely English production but pretends to be a German story, with it's title: "Der Luftkrieg der Zukunft" (The Air War of the Future).

Proto UFOs -- In the Spring of 1909, several people around the British Isles reported seeing phantom airships at night. One man even claimed to have seen strange men from one of the mystery airships, who spoke in a language he did not recognize. UFO-ologists like to think of these mysterious airship sightings as early UFO visitations. Without a "flying saucer" model, the public imagined the mysterious lights as airships -- most likely German ones, given the tensions of the day.

THIS is the context in which the little movie "The Airship Destroyer" was created. The 50s had The Cold War. 1909 had the Anglo-German Arms Race. The 50s had nukes to fear. 1909 had airships. The 50s had flying saucers haunting the night. 1909 had mysterious scareships.

Bottom line? As a movie alone, TAD is not spectacular, but as a parallel to the 50s' invasion themes, and techno-fantasy, it's great.

12 to the Moon

Ten years after Destination Moon, and man is still mounting his first mission to the moon. Released by Columbia as the B film with Battle In Outer Space as the A, 12 to the Moon (12ttM) was solidly in the 50s tradition of a low-budget B feature. 12ttM is sometimes nominated for the dishonor of 'worst film ever.' It lacks a budget for any impressive effects or sets. The pace is slow, and the acting varies between flat and over-the-top. Yet, in this tale of man's first mission to the moon, there lurks within an attempt at several social statements. The writers were at least trying to say something. The international and culturally diverse crew predate Gene Roddenberry's more famous Enterprise crew by five years.

Quick Plot Synopsis
The International Space Order sends a multi-national crew of 12 scientists to the moon to claim it for all and prevent nationalist squabbling. Predictably, about half way to the moon, they encounter a meteorite swarm. They land on the moon and begin exploration. The Swede and Turk find a cave with air inside. They take off their helmets, kiss and go deeper in the cave. A shimmering shape floats in and creates a wall of ice behind them. The other 10 astronauts go looking for them. One is lost in quicksand. The 9 return to the ship. The moon beings communicate with them via symbols on one of the ship's displays. Handily, the Japanese woman is able to "read" them. The moonies tell the earthlings to leave, they're not welcome. They will keep the Swede and Turk to study this 'love' emotion. The earthlings are to leave behind their two cats, and depart. They do. En route, they encounter another meteorite swarm. As they approach earth, they see that a new ice age is quickly settling in. The moonies are bombing earth with freeze bombs. The rocket is starting to freeze too. Their only hope is to drop an atomic bomb into a volcano to break the freeze. They assemble a bomb, but the Frenchman tries to sabotage it to not blow up. The Russian catches him. They fight. Frenchy loses. The Polish Jew and son-of-a-Nazi draw short sticks to fly the bomb in. They succeed, but die in the attempt. The bomb was not enough and everything freezes down. At the last minute, the moonies relent and thaw everything. The Swede/Turk love and the Jew/German self-sacrifice prove that earthlings aren't all bad. The earth is saved. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The trope of man's first trip to the moon was already long in the tooth in late '59, so it was interesting to see what the writers would do with it. The culturally diverse drew provide ample social commentary. There are ample odd bits to ponder.

Cold War Angle
There is a strong attempt at internationalism as the cure for Cold War us-vs-them thinking. The crew is full of pairs of "former" foes working together for the international cause. A subplot involves the Frenchman (as closet communist) figuring to leave north america frozen so the Soviets could prevail.

Notes
Former Foes, Two-by-Two -- The huge crew size was necessary fom a story telling point of view. Several pairs of former foes, sources of earth factionalism and strife, are shown overcoming their differences. There is the most obvious Cold War ideological pair with American Anderson and Russian Orloff. There is the Polish Jew, Ruskin and the son of a Nazi, Heinrich. Less blatant are men vs women via the two female crew members. Black vs white via the Nigerian. More subtle is the Christian vs Muslim with the Turk, Hamid. We also have age vs. youth with Heinrich (the old man of the 12) and young prodigy, Roddy.

Catharsis -- A dominant subplot revolves around Dr. Heinrich. He is actually the son of a Nazi deathcamp doctor Bernauer. He was so ashamed of his father's sins that he changed his name. This makes a parallel to post-war Germany trying to break with its Nazi past. In tandem, is the polish Jew, Ruskin who learns to put his hatred of the Nazi's behind him and accept Heinrich as a friend. The writers' hope for peace is quite evident.

Race Repair -- A significant addition is the Nigerian navigator, Markonen. Race relations in the US was getting hot in the late 50s. Emmett Till had been murdered 5 years prior. Rosa Parks sparked the bus boycotts 4 years prior. The Little Rock Nine crisis was just two years prior to production. Between production and release, the Greensboro Sit-Ins grabbed headlines. Worse was yet to come. Casting a black crewman, equal to the other 11, was pretty bold.

Angry Moon -- Echoing the sentiment of Angry Red Planet released a few months earlier, the moon-beings want nothing to do with earthlings. Here is their diatribe: "I speak for the great coordinator of the moon. We advise and warn you. Return to earth at once. You have done enough damage. You have been bombarding us for years incessantly. Leave us in peace. ... We are not enslaved by your earthly emotions: Greed, Lust, Passions of Conquest. We cannot allow you to stay here. You would only contaminate our perfect form of harmony."
For all their self-righteousness, however, the moon-beings are content enough to kill (on a large scale) on incomplete information. They complained of the earth people damaging their moon, yet were content to freeze large portions of the earth.

They're After Our...Cats! -- A curious non-sequetur comes amid the moonies' demands that the earthlings leave the moon. Before they left, they were to bring the moonies the two cats they brought along. "Cats have an unusual feel for us, but unfortunately, we have none here on the moon. They interest us almost as much as the two human beings who joined us." This is an odd story bit to ponder.

Low Budget Fun -- When the crew are about to disembark, note the first glimpse of the sound stage moonscape. You'll see a darkly dressed stage hand walk back behind the big boulder. When the crew step out onto the moon, note the frames for studio lights above stars. Perhaps these were cropped out in the widescreen version, but not in the TCM copy. Enjoy Roger Til's outrageous french accent. Admire the techno-babble Ruskin uses to explain why their space helmets have no glass visors. There is so much low budget fun.

Bottom line? 12ttM suffers many of the usual low-budget woes. It's slow paced and talky. It may be a movie that only fans of 50s B sci-fi can enjoy. Beneath all the cliches, however, are some attempts at serious statements. This gives the film some redeeming merit.

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