Beyond the Time Barrier
This film and another Robert Clarke / Edgar G. Ulmer production, The Amazing Transparent Man (1960), which was shot at the same time and in the same location, were originally to be distributed by a company called Pacific International. Shortly after the films were completed, Pacific International went bankrupt, and producer Clarke lost all the money he had put into it. The films were put up for auction by the film lab that processed them in order to recoup its costs. Both films were bought by American-International Pictures for a fraction of their cost, and upon release they made the company quite a bit of money. Except for his salary as an actor for two weeks' work, Clarke never saw a dime from the films.,As the X-80 is gaining altitude, there is a shot of the plane supposedly in a steep climb. But the clouds in the background are obviously at the same sharp angle, revealing that the footage of a level flight has just been "tilted" optically.,Captain: I don't trust that man. Especially his thoughts.,Edited from The Indian Tomb (1959),The legendary cult director Edgar G. Ulmer certainly had made better movies than this but that doesn't mean that this isn't fun to some degree. The main problem is that the (lack of a) budget shows: there's a lot more exposition here than action. But the actors are sincere, the visuals and atmosphere are decent, and there's a nifty twist ending that one might not see coming. The result is a minor but amusing effort that kills time easily enough.

Robert Clarke (also the producer of the movie), who'd previously starred for Ulmer in "The Man from Planet X", plays William Allison, an Air Force pilot who goes on an experimental flight. Somehow, he breaks the time barrier and ends up 64 years in the future, where a plague has decimated most of mankind and where various people hole up in an underground building dubbed The Citadel. The plague has caused various stages of mutation in people; some folk have become deaf-mutes, such as Princess Trirene (Darlene Tompkins); others are more sickly. The people of this future don't trust Allison, which just makes things more difficult for him as he seeks to find out how to get back to his own time.

The supporting cast consists of performers such as Vladimir Sokoloff, Boyd 'Red' Morgan, Stephen Bekassy, John Van Dreelen, and director Ulmers' pretty daughter Arianne in a major supporting role as the dubious Captain Markova. Co-star Tompkins is positively gorgeous and may serve as a distraction for any viewers who are otherwise bored with the movie. (One can't completely knock any movie where female outfits of the future include miniskirts.)

This may be no classic of the genre but it does entertain, and only runs an hour and 15 minutes anyway.

The makeup effects are by the great Jack Pierce.

Six out of 10.,