Il nemico di fuoco

This film was first released in 1958 to fill the bottom half of a double bill with the much superior RETURN OF DRACULA. I have an original poster for this double bill hanging in my living room. I first saw this film as a kid on T.V. in the mid sixties. It was frequently shown on "Supernatural Theater." It was one of my favorites when I was a kid. However, viewing the film as an adult, without eyes dimmed by nostalgia, THE FLAME BARRIER is just what it is; a quickly made thriller to back up a much superior film to fill a "shock" double bill.

On the plus side: I will admit the film does have a few good shocks. One character suddenly burns to death and turns into a skeleton (for reasons that that are never adequately explained) and the shot of the dead scientist body embedded in protoplasmic mass are pretty effective. The cast is good and the direction involving enough that you forget half the film consists of the cast cutting through brush. However, the script has the feel of having been written very quickly. The film wraps up leaving the viewer with more loose ends than an old dish rag. When the explorers find the satellite and protoplasmic mass, they also find the monkey that was sent up in satellite still alive. Why did the protoplasmic mass not devour it or destroy it with its radiation when the monkey was in the satellite with it? As the previous reviewer here pointed out, this blob stays in one place and much of the plot depends on this. Yet, before the cast even encounters the blob, they encounter charred skeletons, a blood soaked Indian village, and then there is the Indian guide who was never near the blob encased satellite, who suffers from radiation burns and then mysteriously burns up down to a skeleton. Perhaps the satellite brought something else back with it that the adventurers didn't encounter? Perhaps more likely this film was rushed into production before the writers had time for a re-write to tie up all the loose ends.

A satellite goes through THE FLAME BARRIER, causing it to crash into the jungles of Mexico. Carol Dahlmann (Kathleen Crowley) hires a man (Arthur Franz) and his brother to help her find her missing husband, who had gone searching for the fallen craft.

Setting out on their journey, the trio encounter many perils, including Mexican hyenas (!), and the usual big-snake-on-a-tree-limb that appears in all jungle movies of this type. They also encounter a tribe of Hollywood "Indians" in matching wigs. Said "natives" quickly come in handy as baggage carriers.

Meanwhile, Ms. Dahlmann's hair remains soft and manageable, despite the tropical heat. Wasn't there a satellite out here somewhere? And, what about the Hollywood "Indians" that keep melting all over the place?

This movie is a short, yet seemingly endless jungle adventure disguised as a sci-fi epic. It saves all of its real action for the final few minutes. The ultimate revelation is fairly novel, but it's hardly worth enduring the first 90% of this movie to get to it...

Blob movies became suddenly quite fashionable in the late fifties; this lesser-known entry offers a few unique twists. Unlike the slipping, sliding blobs of other films, this one doesn't move, apparently content to remain stationary while digesting its first two victims, a space ship and its single human occupant. It does, however, have the ability to project a forcefield which instantly disintegrates any would-be rescuers who come too close. Anyway, this film is professionally made and acted, and has its share of suspenseful sequences. And the image of the man encased in the protoplasm, his face frozen in an agonized silent scream, is a horrific one.

The search for a crashed satellite in the jungles of MesoAmerica finds instead a gelatinous existential threat from beyond "The Flame Barrier". The film opens with a nonsensical prologue that carefully explains how a rocket is going to attempt to penetrate the mysterious (and titular) flame barrier, which surrounds our planet at an altitude of 200 miles. The flame barrier is sci-fi pseudoscience at its worst but fortunately has nothing to do with the story and is never again mentioned. The film is a fusion of sound-set jungle adventure (the first ¾) and space monster in a cave sthick (1/4) and is surprisingly entertaining (consider its leaden pace, remarkably silly-looking monster and nearly incoherent plot). Considering the material they had to work with, the three leads (Arthur Franz, Kathleen Crowley, Robert Brown) are pretty good and there are some good lines "Excuse the cockroaches. Fortunately they don't bite...everything else does". As cheapie sci-fi horrors go, the pointlessly entitled "The Flame Barrier" is watchable and slightly memorable (especially the head sticking out of the blob). Crowley and Brown deserve credit for their casual and competent handling of the chimpanzee.

This minor sci-fi thriller from the Gardner-Levy stable is typical of the breed:—lots and lots of repetitious talk from a few stereotyped characters enmeshed in a predictable, well-used plot, strung together with a bit of stock footage, one or two days of location shooting in some uninteresting scrub-land, and a tiny slice of special effects work. And it's all filmed in a totally routine manner, using tedious close-up after close-up to enable a quick sale to TV.

Give all that, this entry is not too bad. In fact, after a slow start, it becomes moderately suspenseful. The director has contrived some atmosphere and tension, despite the constraints of his very moderate budget. The players, especially the attractive Miss Crowley, come across well (partly thanks to Jack MacKenzie's fine cinematography). And while the screenplay offers more than its fair share of standing-still dialogue, there's still just enough action to satisfy not-too-critical fans.