Beyond the Time Barrier

"Beyond The Time Barrier" was the first of two features shot back to back by director Edgar G. Ulmer ("The Amazing Transparent Man" followed) in April-May 1959, at the Texas State fairgrounds at Fair Park in Dallas. Pacific International's presence meant that star Robert Clarke doubled as producer (having previously directed "The Hideous Sun Demon," the lead in Ulmer's 1951 "The Man from Planet X"), but collected only an actor's salary when the company went bankrupt after the pictures wrapped (more than a year passed before AIP picked them up for a nice profit). Scripting was Dallas native Arthur C. Pierce, author of "The Cosmic Man," "Invasion of the Animal People," "Women of the Prehistoric Planet," "Cyborg 2087," and "Dimension 5," all low budget wonders that have mostly achieved cult status. This low budget knockoff of "The Time Machine" (shooting title "The Last Barrier") was already in the can before George Pal began principal photography on his adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel, and AIP made no secret of the connection with their final title, since both pictures were essentially released the same month. Clarke's test pilot takes off for a short flight 1000 miles above the earth but lands only a few hours later in a dilapidated area which used to be the air base. It's not long before he ventures near an underground city, whose inhabitants capture and decontaminate him, as the surface of this world is covered with mutants suffering the long term effects of radiation. It takes a long while before the pilot learns that he had unknowingly passed through a bridge in time and now resides in the year 2024, his new mission to return to his own period to try to prevent the fallout from a plague caused by cosmic bombardment that have rendered this earth sterile and doomed. The footage of imprisoned mutants was taken from an earlier Ulmer production, "Journey Beneath the Desert," but the rest was rather uninspired, though the attractive presence of newcomer Darlene Tompkins makes her mute role most welcome (Ulmer's daughter Arianne has a major part as a female scientist from the year 1973). Unlike earlier forays into the future such as "World Without End" we see few members of this society and virtually nothing to indicate its supposedly vast size, and only two have the power of speech, the sympathetic Supreme (Vladimir Sokoloff) and hostile Captain (Red Morgan), who believes the incredulous pilot to be a spy. Clarke had endured a similar encounter in 1952's "Captive Women," and later entries like "The Time Travelers" and "Journey to the Center of Time" also used the same outline.

Beyond the Time Barrier (1960)

** (out of 4)

Sci-fi has a military test pilot (Robert Clarke) goes into flight during 1960 and moments later he lands his spaceship in a strange land. After walking around for a bit he's finally taken captive by a group of people who don't make much sense to him but before long he realizes that his little trip actually sent him through a time barrier and he landed sixty-four years after taking off. The world has been destroyed due to a plague so he tries to get back in time to prevent it. This is an ultra low-budget movie that has a few ideas going for it but unfortunately there's not too much that can be done in regards to the science fiction because the budget didn't allow for it. The "future" city looks just like any abandoned city of 1960 and there special effects just aren't all that convincing. Fans of Edgar G. Ulmer will probably say that his keen eye manages to take the low budget and do more with it than most would. I'll buy that to a certain level but there's still no question that the majority of the film is dialogue scenes that really just talk about stuff instead of us ever actually getting to see it. I thought Clarke was good in his leading role as the pilot turned hero. Clarke is always fun to see in these low-budget movies and he does a nice job with the part. Darlene Tompkins plays the love interest, a princess in the future and she too is good. Vladimir Sokoloff plays "The Supreme" and isn't too bad. Universal horror fans will be happy to see Jack Pearce's name pop up in the credits for the special effects. There's talk of mutants in the film but sadly those hoping to see the make-up legends work on them will be disappointed because they're just normal people in bald caps. Pearce does get to do a little make-up at the end but I won't reveal with what as it will give away a major plot twist. This twist is actually pretty good and I think the final five-minutes are actually quite effective.

"Beyond the Time Barrier" is the type of late 50s/early 60s Sci-Fi film of which you know, after approximately five minutes already, that it could have been a fantastic contemporary genre highlight if only the cast and crew didn't have to work with such a minimalist budget! Most of the conceptual ideas are really great and well- elaborated, but the cheap looking set pieces and the pitiable special effects have an immensely restraining impact on the overall plausibility and entertainment value. In case you serve an ambitious plot that is dealing with time-traveling and largely takes place in a futuristic dystopia, you can't afford to use paper made spaceships or drawings of the metropolis and you most certainly cannot speak of horribly deformed mutants the entire time without properly showing their faces! So, in an attempt to cover up for the budgetary weakness, Edgar G. Ulmer does what every experienced veteran director would do: replace the action sequences with endless intellectual speeches and complicated time warp theories as much as you can! In 1960, Major William Ellison has the honor and privilege to test-fly a brand new and hi-tech type of army fighter plane. The speed of the aircraft is even a little too successful, as Ellison breaks through the time barrier and ends up in the year 2024. It takes quite a while before our Major properly realizes that he fast- forwarded 64 years into the future, and the technical details are explained to him by three other scientists that went through the same experience. By the way, I didn't understand one iota about those time-traveling theories, but I also figure that incomprehensible speeches are a mandatory aspect of 50s Sci-Fi… Ellison immediately gets confronted with the terrible state of our planet and civilization in the year 2024. Apparently an all- devastating kind of cosmic plague made the entire world population sterile (the last child was born more 20 years ago) and gradually transforms the remaining survivors into mutants. There's also good news, however, as the last fertile woman on earth is a beautiful princess and she has chosen him to re-populate the planet! She – Trirene – is a deaf-mute with telekinetic powers and she can read Ellison's thoughts, which results in at least one (unintentionally?) hilarious sequence: "I know you can read my mind…. Although right now I probably wished you couldn't" and then he gets slapped in the face! Admittedly "Beyond the Time Barrier" principally got made to cash in on the tremendous success of H.G. Wells' "The Time Machine" and also borrows many elements from Fritz Lang's "Metropolis", but it's an engaging and occasionally suspenseful tale. I even like to think that some nifty ideas from this film were copied years later in massive Hollywood productions (for example the sterility in "Children of Men"), although I'm probably mistaken.

After the release of 'Forbidden Planet' in 1956, and before the release of 'Planet of the Apes' in 1968, the overwhelming number of science fiction films were ultra-low budget affairs, generally produced to fill out double-bills at drive-in theaters. I would posit that this period should be called the Golden Era of Schlock.

Schlock Scifi was not all bad...in fact, some of it was actually good, and a lot of it is interesting, and sometimes fascinating. There is a certain rough and ready charm to the earnestness and creativity of the actors, writers and directors, with some Schlock films being like the experience of watching community theater.

This film contains creative usage of a derelict airfield, filmed and edited to give the impression of a future of ruin and decay. The director also made good use of some strange architecture at the Texas State Fairgrounds, allowing the audience to make believe they are in fact seeing the underground dwellings of the future.

Stock footage of the F-102 'Delta Dagger' fighter plane is used to represent an experimental rocket...and in an unusual move, the director actually had a miniature created that matched the stock footage...the FX are extremely primitive even by 1960 standards, but I have to give them credit for finding a model of an F-102, because usually these films just show stock footage of say, an A-4 rocket and then a model of a B-52 or something completely unrelated. (BTW, the F-102 is what former president George Bush flew when he was in the 'Champagne Unit' of the Texas Air National Guard, avoiding Viet Nam.)

There are some mildly scary screaming mutants here, who for some reason, the civilized people of the future keep in a huge dungeon inside their fortress, as opposed to a safer location outside the city. The mutants are bald and wear coveralls in close ups and medium shots...but when the camera looks down the stairs into the dungeon, the mutants have long hair and wear caveman clothes. Obviously, director Ulmer obtained some stock footage of the cavemen types and edited in to save money and time. The mutants yell a lot.

Robert Clarke is pretty decent as Our Hero the square jawed USAF pilot, and Darlene Tompkins is strangely charming as Tirene, the cute mute in the short skirt. In the city of the future, everyone is sterile except for Tirene...until the arrival or Our Hero. The Supreme Leader of the City of the Future, as well as Tirene, want Our Hero to impregnate Tirene so as to perpetuate the human race.

Apocalyptic Futures were in vogue during this era, but this film is unusual in that rather than forecasting an atomic war, it instead predicts Future Earth as a place where the atmosphere is gradually degraded from unrelenting atomic testing, and the human race is decimated by a series of plagues.

The idea of a time traveler visiting a post-apocalyptic future was fairly new at this point. The George Pal adaptation of The Time Machine, also released in 1960, touched on the subject, but only in passing, and was more concerned with evolutionary changes, rather than nuclear holocaust. This film certainly beat the el cheapo 'Time Travelers' (1964) as well as the big-budget 'Planet of the Apes' (1968) to the punch. Like those two films, this one also has a shock ending.

This film somehow manages to convey a mood of melancholy and anxiety, appropriate for the story of a man who learns that his world is going to hell. The subplot regarding his role as a sperm-donor, admittedly an adolescent male fantasy, is handled as plausibly as possible under the circumstances. Perhaps Gene Roddenberry was influenced by this film, since his 1964 unsold Star Trek pilot is also a story of a science-fiction sperm donor.

Many reviewers like to discuss ne'er-do-well director Edgar Ulmer's style in this film. Certainly there are some elements of 1920's German expressionism that help this film be a little more creepy and moody than it would otherwise.

In summary, this is a fun and interesting excursion into the land of Schlock, and it is better and more interesting than most Schlock...yet it was created as Schlock, and Schlock it will always be. View it in this context, and you will be happy.

Beyond the Time Barrier is an old-fashioned science fiction film made in 1960 that has the look and feel of a science fiction serial. It has some obvious flaws, most of which spring from its low budget. The special effects are woefully un-special. The sets are cheap-looking as are the costumes and any make-up used. Acting is mediocre at best with a few actors doing reasonable work. Darlene Tompkins is a lovely actress and does a pretty good job in her role as a deaf princess. Robert Clarke should be nicknamed Robert "Stonewall" Clarke for his stone-like performance. His performance isn't wooden, it's petrified. Nonetheless he is fun to watch. Boyd "Red" Morgan is, on the other hand, painfully bad a a captain(earlier referred to as a major?). The film tells a very complex story about Clarke leaving the year 1960 and crossing a time barrier and reaching the year 2024 where plague and pestilence are common. The human race has divided into factions of mutants and non-mutants(really people in the very first stages of being mutants). I found the story quite interesting despite not really believing the scientific aspects behind it. Sure the film is talky, but that was okay with me as I liked the story. The film was directed by Edgar Ulmer and it has some wonderful Ulmer moments. I particularly liked the way the mutants were locked up...a well-shot scene. Also, the climatic fight scenes were very good too. Ulmer uses a triangle of another scene interspersing into the already existing shot quite often as well for a neat little effect. An interesting science fiction film with a message.