Timeslip

What a surprise this british science fiction thriller from a non sci-fi specialist. Ken Hughes was not Val Guest nor Terence Fisher in that domain. The idea is pretty good, pretty exciting, but the treatment is a bit ankward, talkative, something is a bit wrong but it's OK. It remains a worth watching UK science fiction thriller, that also would have perfectly fit to Byyron Haskin. Faith Domergue is rather wooden in this feature where she doesn't seem to be that concerned, as also were those US actors and actresses who worked overseas, in UK, with movies precisely directed by the likes of Fisher, Guest or Hughes.

With a title like "The Atomic Man" and it being in the public domain, I sure had my doubts about this one. You'd think, being made in the 1950s that it was some sort of space monster film or perhaps a film about communism--but it isn't. It's actually a very well written and taut sc-fi mystery--with a strong emphasis on mystery. And, it's very much worth your time.

The film begins with a guy being left for dead--and thrown in the river. He's rescued and on the brink of death--and the doctors expect to lose him...which they do TEMPORARILY. While they are operating on him, his heart stops and they give up the surgery--and suddenly, he spontaneously begins breathing and begins a slow recovery! When he awakens, he's an oddity. He looks like a famous scientist--but the scientist is accounted for and is certainly NOT near death. And, he talks strangely...very strangely. How does all this fit into the total picture--that's the mystery. To try to sort all this out is a pushy reporter--the sort of guy who was almost a cliché in the 1930s in films. Yet, somehow Gene Nelson manages to make it work--along with his girlfriend (Faith Domergue).

Now that I mentioned Nelson and Domergue, that brings up the production itself. Despite these two American actors in the major roles, the rest of the film is very British--made by Brits, filmed in Britain and with British extras. The reason was that in the 1950s and 60, many European film companies brought in Americans to star in their films--figuring it would help box office appeal (especially in the States). Well, in this case it sure worked well because the plot was intelligent, well written and a nice production all around--so nice, I was very tempted to give this little film a 9! My advice is to download (for free and perfectly legal) the film from archive.org--a site often linked to film listings on IMDb or from Amazon (which IS linked to IMDb). Well worth your time and full of wonderful suspense--especially at the end.

One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Gene Nelson and Faith Domergue star in a fascinating story of unlawful scientific tampering and a man who is temporally out of phase with the rest of humanity. The original British title emphasizes that point: "Time Slip". Ken Hughes directed, and 15 years later had graduated to making an expensive, major studio important motion picture, "Cromwell", which starred Richard Harris and Alec Guinness.

Like many British films of the time, the two leading players were American actors, plus a local supporting cast including Joseph Tomelty, Peter Arne, Donald Gray and William Lucas.

Great little British SF paranoia film featuring the wonderful Faith Domergue (This Island Earth) and a plot that really does hold up well. Having said that a lot of the acting and sets don't stand the test of time and the script is a bit dodgy. It does look like there is a brief appearance by Charles Hawtry part way through. Fun film.

Ken Hughes directed five feature films and two short films in 1955, and this is one of the features. It is a superior B picture with the female B star, Faith Domergue, she of the big soulful brown eyes. The story and screenplay are by Charles Eric Maine, and he has written a good yarn. Some of the ideas for the technical background are mentioned in passing, and they concern a scientist named Stephen Rayner who works for the Atomic Energy authorities. He has learned how to achieve the alchemical transmutation of elements in order to produce tungsten in the laboratory from cheap materials. This threatens the interests of the United Tungsten Corporation of Argentina, which controls two thirds of the world's tungsten supply, so they have another scientist's face transformed by plastic surgery to replace Rayner, and the film starts with Rayner being shot one night and falling into the Thames. He miraculously survives but is in a coma for some time while everyone is trying to figure out what happened. After he is identified, the police are puzzled because his employers say he is at work in his lab. Something strange has also happened to him because he has undergone a slight forward time-shift of 7.5 seconds due to exposure to radiation, so he answers questions put to him before they are asked. When the police and others finally figure out why his interviews don't make any sense, because the answer to each question is really to one that will be asked next, they then begin to piece together his story. The film is very intriguing and entertaining, despite being low budget. The hints of escaped corrupt Nazis in Argentina who will kill anyone who gets in their way were well understood in 1955, only ten years after the War. The film's original release title was TIMESLIP, and it is under that title that the DVD is now once again available. As another reviewer says, this is not really a sci fi film but is an industrial espionage thriller with some intriguing sci fi background elements which are significantly under-developed. Both the timeslip angle and the tungsten angle could have been much better developed and turned into a much stronger film. As it is, the film is rather mediocre.