In 1960, a military test pilot (Robert Clarke) is caught in a time warp that propels him to year 2024 where he finds a plague has sterilized the world's population.
A budding star, Darlene Tompkins, appears as the future's princess. The following year she appeared in "Blue Hawaii" with Elvis Presley. Unfortunately, her pursuit of acting was interrupted by the start of a family.
Much of the film is cheesy, and many of the sets are very simple, but it is worth noting that the makeup was created by Jack Pierce. Tompkins recalled that Pierce on set was "very, very serious, and so glad that he was working... He really loved it, he gave me the impression that this was the most important thing that there was, that this was so phenomenally important to him." Tompkins also recalled that, at least with her, Robert Clarke acted as director and Edgar Ulmer kept very much to himself. With many of her scenes involving a romance with Clarke, perhaps this direction should not be surprising.
What makes the plot interesting is that there is a Cold War theme, but oddly the plot specifies that the (upcoming) moon landing would end it. This is one of the few films that actually seems optimistic. Of course, this optimism is somewhat negated by the impending plague.
Sadly, the Netflix version is really choppy, as though they only had every other frame. Can we get a crisp, new version, perhaps with a Tom Weaver commentary?
A budding star, Darlene Tompkins, appears as the future's princess. The following year she appeared in "Blue Hawaii" with Elvis Presley. Unfortunately, her pursuit of acting was interrupted by the start of a family.
Much of the film is cheesy, and many of the sets are very simple, but it is worth noting that the makeup was created by Jack Pierce. Tompkins recalled that Pierce on set was "very, very serious, and so glad that he was working... He really loved it, he gave me the impression that this was the most important thing that there was, that this was so phenomenally important to him." Tompkins also recalled that, at least with her, Robert Clarke acted as director and Edgar Ulmer kept very much to himself. With many of her scenes involving a romance with Clarke, perhaps this direction should not be surprising.
What makes the plot interesting is that there is a Cold War theme, but oddly the plot specifies that the (upcoming) moon landing would end it. This is one of the few films that actually seems optimistic. Of course, this optimism is somewhat negated by the impending plague.
Sadly, the Netflix version is really choppy, as though they only had every other frame. Can we get a crisp, new version, perhaps with a Tom Weaver commentary?