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Beyond the Time Barrier

October 24, 2023

Beyond the Time Barrier is a 1960 American science fiction film. It was released in September 1960 on a double bill with The Angry Red Planet.[3] It starred Robert Clarke (who also served as producer) and directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. Ulmer's wife Shirley acted as a script editor while their daughter Arianne Arden appeared as a Russian pilot. It was one of two low budget sci-fi films shot back-to-back in Dallas, Texas by Ulmer (the other being The Amazing Transparent Man, released earlier that year).[4] The combined filming schedule for both films was only two weeks.

Beyond the Time Barrier
Theatrical release poster
Directed byEdgar G. Ulmer
Screenplay byArthur C. Pierce
Produced byRobert Clarke
Starring
CinematographyMeredith M. Nicholson
Edited byJack Ruggiero
Music byDarrell Calker
Distributed byAmerican International Pictures
Release date
  • September 1960 (1960-09)[1]
Running time
75 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$125,000[2]

Plot Edit

U.S. Air Force test pilot Major Bill Allison flies the X-80 experimental aircraft to sub-orbital spaceflight successfully, though he loses radio contact. When Major Allison returns to the airbase, it appears abandoned, old and deserted. Mystified, he sees a futuristic city on the horizon and heads for it. The major is rendered unconscious and captured.

When Allison wakes, he finds himself in a dystopian underground city known as the Citadel. Unnerved by his captors' refusal to speak with him, Allison initially reacts hostilely, but he eventually calms down and is brought to their leader, the Supreme. The Supreme explains that he and his second-in-command, the Captain, are the only two residents of the Citadel who are able to speak or hear. The rest of the inhabitants, including the Supreme's granddaughter Trirene, are deaf-mutes, and everyone except possibly Trirene is sterile. A telepath, Trirene reads Allison's thoughts and indicates to the Supreme that she believes him not to be a spy, as the Captain suspects.

The Captain sends Allison to be imprisoned with a group of bald and violent mutants who are determined to kill everyone in the Citadel. As the mutants attack him, Allison overpowers one and demands answers. They claim to be the survivors of a "cosmic plague", and they blame the residents of the Citadel for their problems. The Captain releases Allison and explains that Trirene has convinced the Supreme that he is not an enemy. Sensing his confusion, Trirene shows him historical photographs that help explain the Citadel's history, and at his urging, leads him to the "scapes", two scientists and a Russian woman officer.

After disabling surveillance devices, the scientists explain that Allison has traveled through time to the year 2024. Nuclear weapons testing damaged the Earth's atmosphere, letting through dangerous cosmic rays in 1971, resulting in the cosmic plague. Those who fled underground to the Citadel were still afflicted. Although they were not as badly afflicted as those who stayed above ground, there have been no births in twenty years. The 'scapes themselves are also accidental time travelers: Russian Captain Markova comes from 1973, and General Kruse and Professor Bourman arrived from colonies on other planets in 1994. Markova explains that the Supreme needs Allison to try to repopulate their society with Trirene's help. The scientists warn Allison not to trust the Citadel. As the Captain arrives to re-enable the security device, he in turn warns Allison not to trust the scientists.

As Trirene and Allison spend more time together, they fall in love. Although initially reluctant, Allison joins the 'scapes in a plan to turn Trirene against her people so that he can return to the past and try to change history. Markova sets the mutants free to attack the residents. She then demands that she accompany Allison, not Trirene, and to 1973, not 1960. Kruse and Bourman arrive, and Kruse shoots Markova for her treachery. Then Bourman knocks out Kruse, explaining that Kruse was planning to hijack the aircraft. Bourman, however, also intends to use the X-80 to return to his own time. As Allison and Bourman struggle over Kruse's pistol, a stray bullet kills Trirene before Allison can overcome Bourman.

Allison takes Trirene's body to the Supreme, who is distraught over both his granddaughter's death and the doom of his people, now that the last fertile person has died. The Supreme directs Allison toward a secret passage out, persuaded by Allison that there is always hope. Returned to his own time, Allison recounts his fantastic adventure in a recorded debriefing. As high-ranking officials visit Allison in the hospital, he is revealed to have aged drastically and is now an elderly man. Allison frantically warns them of the future events, and one of them says that they have a lot to think about.

Cast Edit

Production Edit

Producer Robert Clarke was exhausted from directing and acting in his production, The Hideous Sun Demon, and sought a director for this film. He had previously worked with Edgar G. Ulmer on The Man from Planet X and respected him.[5] Clarke's funds originated in Texas, and the backers stipulated that the film be shot there, where motion picture unions had no influence. Clarke filmed in the Texas Centennial Exhibition Fair Park buildings. He secured cooperation from the US Air Force and Texas Air National Guard allowing him to film at Fort Worth's Carswell Air Force Base and the abandoned Marine Corps Air Station Eagle Mountain Lake.[6] He obtained and used film footage of an F-102 Delta Dagger standing in for the test plane. The film's action sequences used Air Force weapons, M1 carbines and M1911A1 pistols, with the actors taking care not to fire the weapons directly at one another. The film's working title was The Last Barrier.[7]

Production designer Ernst Fegté employed a triangular motif for the futuristic sets that were filmed in the vacant showground buildings. Surplus parachutes were hung in the background to muffle echoes.

Clarke chose Darlene Tompkins over several contenders for the mute and psychic Trirene, including Yvette Mimieux (who appeared in The Time Machine) and Leslie Parrish.[8] Ulmer selected his daughter Arianne for the role of Captain Alicia Markova, whose name came from the ballerina of the same name. Ulmer choreographed the daughter's movements similar to a ballet dance as she loosened her flight suit.

When giving her speech inciting the mutants to revolt in a Soviet uprising, Arianne deliberately used voice inflections similar to Laurence Olivier reciting the St. Crispin's Day Speech from Henry V.[9] American International Pictures (AIP) added footage to the mutant uprising sequence from their film Journey to the Lost City. One mutant was played by the screenwriter Arthur C. Pierce. Pierce was involved in the production and worked as an assistant editor.

Tompkins recalled that the actors portraying the mutants, whose makeup was created by Jack Pierce, taught her how to play cribbage on the set while in costume.[10] Tompkins was asked to do a nude swimming scene for overseas release. She refused and swimming scenes were done by a body double. When filming her swimming in a flesh colored bathing suit, the crew used the motel swimming pool where they were staying; their night filming was disrupted by a fire that broke out at the motel.[10]

Former football player Boyd Morgan performed stunts and played the Captain of the Guard. Darrell Calker, the music chief of Walter Lantz's cartoons, composed an effective film score.

AIP's James H. Nicholson was keen on releasing the film based on his teenage daughters' recommendation after screening the film. AIP partner Samuel Z. Arkoff, asked Clarke what he wanted to do with the film. Clarke said he wanted to produce several films for AIP, but Arkoff said AIP didn't use contract producers. Clarke found a similar, but newer and inexperienced film company called Pacific International Pictures (PIP) or Miller-Consolidated Pictures who were keen on working with Clarke and releasing his films. However, PIP went bankrupt and AIP was able to purchase two of Clarke's films held by PIP for no more than the laboratory costs. The films were released under the AIP banner. AIP exploited MGM's publicity for The Time Machine by releasing their film a month before MGMs. Clarke was paid only his acting salary.[11]

As Miller Consolidate Films went into bankruptcy, American International Pictures (AIP) released the film in September, 1960 on a double bill with The Angry Red Planet[3] It was theatrically released in some areas on a double bill with The Amazing Transparent Man, another Ulmer-directed film made by Miller but picked up by AIP for the lab costs.[12]

Reception Edit

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 60% of five surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating is 4.56/10.[13] Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader wrote, "Even on this despairing level of fly-by-night filmmaking, Ulmer's treatment remains resolutely personal, and the film, though visually slack, emerges as something terse, resourceful, and expressively icy."[14] J. Hoberman of The Village Voice wrote that it "suggests an impoverished remake of the 1924 Soviet constructivist space opera Aelita".[15]

Further reading Edit

  • Skotak, Robert (2009). "A Grave New World: Cast and Crew on the Making of Beyond the Time Barrier". In Herzogenrath, Bernd (ed.). The Films of Edgar G. Ulmer. Scarecrow Press. pp. 205–243. ISBN 9780810867369.

References Edit

  1. ^ Warren, Bill (1986). "Keep Watching The Skies Volume 2". McFarland & Co., Inc. ISBN 0-89950-170-2. Page 730, 734
  2. ^ Isenberg, Noah (2013-11-22). "Other Worlds: Edgar G. Ulmer's Underground Films of the 1950s by Noah Isenberg". Los Angeles Review of Books. Retrieved 2015-05-09.
  3. ^ a b Warren, Bill (1986). "Keep Watching The Skies Volume 2". McFarland & Co., Inc. ISBN 0-89950-170-2. Page 730
  4. ^ Weaver, Tom (2002). Science fiction confidential: interviews with 23 monster stars and film makers. McFarland. p. 300. ISBN 0-7864-1175-9.
  5. ^ Weaver, Tom, Brunas, John & Michael Interviews with B Science Fiction Movie Makers McFarland, 2006, p. 89
  6. ^ Freeman, Paul. Abandoned & Little-Known Airfields: Northwestern Fort Worth area. 2011.
  7. ^ TCM notes.
  8. ^ p.174 Lisanti, Tom Drive-In Dream Girls McFarland
  9. ^ p.333 Weaver, Tom Science Fiction and Fantasy Flashbacks 2004 McFarland
  10. ^ a b Lisanti, Tom Science Fiction Confidential McFarland, p.300
  11. ^ p.89 Weaver, Tom, Brunas, John & Michael Interviews with B Science Fiction Movie Makers 2006 McFarland
  12. ^ p. 58 Craig, Rob American International Pictures: A Comprehensive Filmography McFarland, 19 Feb 2019
  13. ^ "Beyond the Time Barrier (1960)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2020-12-18.
  14. ^ Kehr, Dave. "Beyond the Time Barrier". Chicago Reader. Retrieved 2015-05-09.
  15. ^ Hoberman, J. (1998-11-17). "Low and Behold". The Village Voice. Retrieved 2015-05-09.

External links Edit

 
Wikiquote has quotations related to Beyond the Time Barrier.
  • Beyond the Time Barrier at IMDb
  • Beyond the Time Barrier at the TCM Movie Database
  • Beyond the Time Barrier analysis at "The Films of Edgar G. Ulmer" by Mike Grost
  • Beyond the Time Barrier analysis at "The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review," by Richard Scheib

October 24, 2023
beyond, time, barrier, 1960, american, science, fiction, film, released, september, 1960, double, bill, with, angry, planet, starred, robert, clarke, also, served, producer, directed, edgar, ulmer, ulmer, wife, shirley, acted, script, editor, while, their, dau. Beyond the Time Barrier is a 1960 American science fiction film It was released in September 1960 on a double bill with The Angry Red Planet 3 It starred Robert Clarke who also served as producer and directed by Edgar G Ulmer Ulmer s wife Shirley acted as a script editor while their daughter Arianne Arden appeared as a Russian pilot It was one of two low budget sci fi films shot back to back in Dallas Texas by Ulmer the other being The Amazing Transparent Man released earlier that year 4 The combined filming schedule for both films was only two weeks Beyond the Time BarrierTheatrical release posterDirected byEdgar G UlmerScreenplay byArthur C PierceProduced byRobert ClarkeStarringRobert Clarke Darlene Tompkins Vladimir SokoloffCinematographyMeredith M NicholsonEdited byJack RuggieroMusic byDarrell CalkerDistributed byAmerican International PicturesRelease dateSeptember 1960 1960 09 1 Running time75 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglishBudget 125 000 2 Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 4 Reception 5 Further reading 6 References 7 External linksPlot EditU S Air Force test pilot Major Bill Allison flies the X 80 experimental aircraft to sub orbital spaceflight successfully though he loses radio contact When Major Allison returns to the airbase it appears abandoned old and deserted Mystified he sees a futuristic city on the horizon and heads for it The major is rendered unconscious and captured When Allison wakes he finds himself in a dystopian underground city known as the Citadel Unnerved by his captors refusal to speak with him Allison initially reacts hostilely but he eventually calms down and is brought to their leader the Supreme The Supreme explains that he and his second in command the Captain are the only two residents of the Citadel who are able to speak or hear The rest of the inhabitants including the Supreme s granddaughter Trirene are deaf mutes and everyone except possibly Trirene is sterile A telepath Trirene reads Allison s thoughts and indicates to the Supreme that she believes him not to be a spy as the Captain suspects The Captain sends Allison to be imprisoned with a group of bald and violent mutants who are determined to kill everyone in the Citadel As the mutants attack him Allison overpowers one and demands answers They claim to be the survivors of a cosmic plague and they blame the residents of the Citadel for their problems The Captain releases Allison and explains that Trirene has convinced the Supreme that he is not an enemy Sensing his confusion Trirene shows him historical photographs that help explain the Citadel s history and at his urging leads him to the scapes two scientists and a Russian woman officer After disabling surveillance devices the scientists explain that Allison has traveled through time to the year 2024 Nuclear weapons testing damaged the Earth s atmosphere letting through dangerous cosmic rays in 1971 resulting in the cosmic plague Those who fled underground to the Citadel were still afflicted Although they were not as badly afflicted as those who stayed above ground there have been no births in twenty years The scapes themselves are also accidental time travelers Russian Captain Markova comes from 1973 and General Kruse and Professor Bourman arrived from colonies on other planets in 1994 Markova explains that the Supreme needs Allison to try to repopulate their society with Trirene s help The scientists warn Allison not to trust the Citadel As the Captain arrives to re enable the security device he in turn warns Allison not to trust the scientists As Trirene and Allison spend more time together they fall in love Although initially reluctant Allison joins the scapes in a plan to turn Trirene against her people so that he can return to the past and try to change history Markova sets the mutants free to attack the residents She then demands that she accompany Allison not Trirene and to 1973 not 1960 Kruse and Bourman arrive and Kruse shoots Markova for her treachery Then Bourman knocks out Kruse explaining that Kruse was planning to hijack the aircraft Bourman however also intends to use the X 80 to return to his own time As Allison and Bourman struggle over Kruse s pistol a stray bullet kills Trirene before Allison can overcome Bourman Allison takes Trirene s body to the Supreme who is distraught over both his granddaughter s death and the doom of his people now that the last fertile person has died The Supreme directs Allison toward a secret passage out persuaded by Allison that there is always hope Returned to his own time Allison recounts his fantastic adventure in a recorded debriefing As high ranking officials visit Allison in the hospital he is revealed to have aged drastically and is now an elderly man Allison frantically warns them of the future events and one of them says that they have a lot to think about Cast EditRobert Clarke as Maj William Allison Darlene Tompkins as Princess Trirene Arianne Arden as Capt Markova Vladimir Sokoloff as The Supreme Stephen Bekassy as Gen Karl Kruse John van Dreelen as Dr Bourman Red Morgan as Captain Ken Knox as Col Marty Martin Don Flournoy as Mutant Tom Ravick as Mutant Neil Fletcher as Air Force Chief Jack Herman as Dr Richman William Shapard as Gen York James Altgens as Secretary Lloyd Patterson John Loughney as Gen Lamont Russell Marker as Col CurtisProduction EditProducer Robert Clarke was exhausted from directing and acting in his production The Hideous Sun Demon and sought a director for this film He had previously worked with Edgar G Ulmer on The Man from Planet X and respected him 5 Clarke s funds originated in Texas and the backers stipulated that the film be shot there where motion picture unions had no influence Clarke filmed in the Texas Centennial Exhibition Fair Park buildings He secured cooperation from the US Air Force and Texas Air National Guard allowing him to film at Fort Worth s Carswell Air Force Base and the abandoned Marine Corps Air Station Eagle Mountain Lake 6 He obtained and used film footage of an F 102 Delta Dagger standing in for the test plane The film s action sequences used Air Force weapons M1 carbines and M1911A1 pistols with the actors taking care not to fire the weapons directly at one another The film s working title was The Last Barrier 7 Production designer Ernst Fegte employed a triangular motif for the futuristic sets that were filmed in the vacant showground buildings Surplus parachutes were hung in the background to muffle echoes Clarke chose Darlene Tompkins over several contenders for the mute and psychic Trirene including Yvette Mimieux who appeared in The Time Machine and Leslie Parrish 8 Ulmer selected his daughter Arianne for the role of Captain Alicia Markova whose name came from the ballerina of the same name Ulmer choreographed the daughter s movements similar to a ballet dance as she loosened her flight suit When giving her speech inciting the mutants to revolt in a Soviet uprising Arianne deliberately used voice inflections similar to Laurence Olivier reciting the St Crispin s Day Speech from Henry V 9 American International Pictures AIP added footage to the mutant uprising sequence from their film Journey to the Lost City One mutant was played by the screenwriter Arthur C Pierce Pierce was involved in the production and worked as an assistant editor Tompkins recalled that the actors portraying the mutants whose makeup was created by Jack Pierce taught her how to play cribbage on the set while in costume 10 Tompkins was asked to do a nude swimming scene for overseas release She refused and swimming scenes were done by a body double When filming her swimming in a flesh colored bathing suit the crew used the motel swimming pool where they were staying their night filming was disrupted by a fire that broke out at the motel 10 Former football player Boyd Morgan performed stunts and played the Captain of the Guard Darrell Calker the music chief of Walter Lantz s cartoons composed an effective film score AIP s James H Nicholson was keen on releasing the film based on his teenage daughters recommendation after screening the film AIP partner Samuel Z Arkoff asked Clarke what he wanted to do with the film Clarke said he wanted to produce several films for AIP but Arkoff said AIP didn t use contract producers Clarke found a similar but newer and inexperienced film company called Pacific International Pictures PIP or Miller Consolidated Pictures who were keen on working with Clarke and releasing his films However PIP went bankrupt and AIP was able to purchase two of Clarke s films held by PIP for no more than the laboratory costs The films were released under the AIP banner AIP exploited MGM s publicity for The Time Machine by releasing their film a month before MGMs Clarke was paid only his acting salary 11 As Miller Consolidate Films went into bankruptcy American International Pictures AIP released the film in September 1960 on a double bill with The Angry Red Planet 3 It was theatrically released in some areas on a double bill with The Amazing Transparent Man another Ulmer directed film made by Miller but picked up by AIP for the lab costs 12 Reception EditRotten Tomatoes a review aggregator reports that 60 of five surveyed critics gave the film a positive review the average rating is 4 56 10 13 Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader wrote Even on this despairing level of fly by night filmmaking Ulmer s treatment remains resolutely personal and the film though visually slack emerges as something terse resourceful and expressively icy 14 J Hoberman of The Village Voice wrote that it suggests an impoverished remake of the 1924 Soviet constructivist space opera Aelita 15 Further reading EditSkotak Robert 2009 A Grave New World Cast and Crew on the Making of Beyond the Time Barrier In Herzogenrath Bernd ed The Films of Edgar G Ulmer Scarecrow Press pp 205 243 ISBN 9780810867369 References Edit Warren Bill 1986 Keep Watching The Skies Volume 2 McFarland amp Co Inc ISBN 0 89950 170 2 Page 730 734 Isenberg Noah 2013 11 22 Other Worlds Edgar G Ulmer s Underground Films of the 1950s by Noah Isenberg Los Angeles Review of Books Retrieved 2015 05 09 a b Warren Bill 1986 Keep Watching The Skies Volume 2 McFarland amp Co Inc ISBN 0 89950 170 2 Page 730 Weaver Tom 2002 Science fiction confidential interviews with 23 monster stars and film makers McFarland p 300 ISBN 0 7864 1175 9 Weaver Tom Brunas John amp Michael Interviews with B Science Fiction Movie Makers McFarland 2006 p 89 Freeman Paul Abandoned amp Little Known Airfields Northwestern Fort Worth area 2011 TCM notes p 174 Lisanti Tom Drive In Dream Girls McFarland p 333 Weaver Tom Science Fiction and Fantasy Flashbacks 2004 McFarland a b Lisanti Tom Science Fiction Confidential McFarland p 300 p 89 Weaver Tom Brunas John amp Michael Interviews with B Science Fiction Movie Makers 2006 McFarland p 58 Craig Rob American International Pictures A Comprehensive Filmography McFarland 19 Feb 2019 Beyond the Time Barrier 1960 Rotten Tomatoes Retrieved 2020 12 18 Kehr Dave Beyond the Time Barrier Chicago Reader Retrieved 2015 05 09 Hoberman J 1998 11 17 Low and Behold The Village Voice Retrieved 2015 05 09 External links Edit nbsp Wikiquote has quotations related to Beyond the Time Barrier Beyond the Time Barrier at IMDb Beyond the Time Barrier at the TCM Movie Database Beyond the Time Barrier analysis at The Films of Edgar G Ulmer by Mike Grost Beyond the Time Barrier analysis at The Science Fiction Horror and Fantasy Film Review by Richard Scheib Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Beyond the Time Barrier amp oldid 1147891914, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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