Beyond the Time Barrier

Beyond the Time Barrier

Director – Edgar G. Ulmer

Writer – Arthur C. Pierce

1960, USA

Stars – Robert Clarke, Darlene Tompkins, Arianne Ulmer

 

A pilot (Robert Clarke) accidentally breaks the sound barrier and finds himself in the troubled future of 2024 (!), where humankind has suffered a plague (!) that has left civilisation with widespread sterility and a taste for triangular architecture.

 

But as Jonathan Lewis notes, “This use of geometry as a replacement for big budget special effects really does pay off. Look for the scene in which Trirene (Tompkins) looks at her reflection in a triangular mirror.” Ernst Fegté’s set designs are a chief enjoyment in their ambition, even if it’s just that “dressed-up silo” look. And on the one hand it’s this “future on a low budget” that is the main appeal of ‘Beyond the Time Barrier’, as much of its failings can be enjoyed as “of its time b-movie”. Therefore, your pleasure will depend upon how much you go for this, but when Christopher Lloyd says, “It can only be enjoyed ironically”, that seems a bit harsh. The failings aren’t of a lack of ambition or of technical execution: direction and design aren’t the true flaws. Some old-fashioned staidness and underwhelming acting, a lack in effects… these things are expected going in to a b-movie of the era.  Its budget can’t meet its over-reach and it may rely on tropes - it's the kind of film that made laughing at old films a passtime - but it’s swift, the dying civilisation set-up is enjoyable pulp fodder and, as implied before, Edward G Ulmer gives the material more flair than expected. 

 

Ulmer knows how to direct around deficits and silliness and allows the triangular set-design to distinguish it. The plot relies more upon paranoia and this civilisation’s central dilemma – they think Clarke is a spy from aggressors, but we don’t really get into that – so black/white villainy is less a driving force. Clarke’s first sighting of the futuristic city is memorable, although this is apparently an added insert by American-International when they took over the property: it’s memorable but arguably contradictory (I took it as just the overground deserted ruins to their underground city … but a working tower?). There are the usual allowances to make – a jet wouldn’t be able to land on an airstrip that’s 60+ years old, for example – but it would also seem that a lot of inconsistencies were because of changes made by American-International (more about these changes at Trailers From Hell). 

 

Again, it’s a film that warns you that you should never trust a second-in-command with a suspect beard, but even the Captain (Boyd ‘Red’ Morgan) is more motivated by desperation and paranoia that malevolent scheming. There’s also a gratuitous skinny-dipping scene (!), the time travel basis is under-explored and final rampage of the mutants has hints of a proto-zombie onslaught, despite unconvincing bald cap make-up.

 

No, it’s not as genuinely good and haunting as Ulmer’s ‘The Man From Planet X’ - and this is the man that made the film noir classic 'Detour' -  but as a slice of hokey b-movie retro-pulp, it’s intriguing and there’s worse.  

 

The Wanderers

The Wanderers

Director - Philip Kaufman

Writers - Richard Price & Rose Kaufman & Philip Kaufman

1979, USA

Stars – Ken Wahl, Karen Allen, John Friedrich

 

Less obviously Comic Book than ‘The Warriors’ but equally broad, ‘The Wanderers’ has a somewhat nostalgic recreation of Bronx gangland. Even so, the rough edges and a gleeful soundtrack of hits of the era give this a charm and veracity that are thoroughly winning. It’s Brooklyn High School and being in a gang is a survival move for belonging and protecting yourself against other gangs; but in truth that’s no real protection from betrayal and a slap-down. Surely there’s no doubt that the introduction of the gangs/cliques in the school corridors has been a major influence on so many others that followed.

 

It’s more ‘American Graffiti’ than ‘The Warriors’, and toxic masculinity and outdated mores are everywhere; that is, the misogyny won’t play so well to modern sensibilities – it was a different era and it was an innocent time of copping feels on the street (and see that poster). But it is interesting that, even though the title song may imply an aspirational role model – as great and as fun as Dion DiMucci’s song sounds, its self-centred and boastful philanderer is pretty irresponsible, if not predatory – but it is Richie’s cheating that gets him ostracised from The Wanderers, and it’s his having to take responsibility for his actions that leaves him moving from gangs to the realm of gangsters (which doesn’t seem to be to his taste). As with ‘Quadrophenia’, it’s real life and adulthood that puts paid to the youthful glamour and fantasy of gang friendships, where it’s all about belonging and fighting.

 

It’s an ode to lost friendships of another time, and even though it’s based on Richard Price’s novel, we’re a long way from the truths and the gut-punches of ‘The Wire’, but there is a rough edge and grittiness underneath the pop nostalgia. These teens are surrounded by a bunch of useless, manipulative and abusive adults and a real pending threat: whereas the gangs get cool jackets and catchphrases – “Don’t mess with the Wongs!” – and the Baldies are the given chief rivals, it’s the Duckys that are cast as the real threat: the real danger and moving in horror shadows and silent malevolence.

 

 

 

The true currency of ‘The Wanderers’ are the ensemble of characters and sublime needle drops, as typical of the genre. Ken Wahl (Richie) manages a latent innocence and good guy beneath the meathead; John Friesrich (Joey) is aggravated and aggravating, a small man powder keg of frustration; Erland van Lidth (Terror) is quite baffling; Michael Wright (Clinton) carries all the dignity; Linda Manz (PeeWee) has all the genuine feistiness, emerging as tragic; and Karen Allen as Nina carries all the warmth, apparently wandering in from a more mature film. But tap at the surface and there’s deeper currents: Nina is a bit of a scumbag, seducing Richie in plain view of his girlfriend (who isn't necessarily so bright, but also isn't the butt of jokes as you might anticipate); there are hints of latent homosexuality; Richie isn’t like the song (and Wahl cannily plays Richie with an increasing lost look of bafflement); and even the Duckys all go to church (silently).

Of course, it’s a tainted Golden Era coming to an end with Kennedy’s assassination and Dylan singing “The Times They Are A-Changing” at a folk bar. It’s a new era that Richie can’t enter, even when following a lost potential chance at love, or at least something different than a future of filling out a Hawaiian shirt.

 

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires

The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires

七金屍

Directors – Roy Ward Baker & Cheh Chang

Writers – Don Houghton, Bram Stoker

1974, UK-Hong Kong

Stars – Peter Cushing, David Chiang, Julie Ege

 

From the moment that Dracula decides to possess the form of the minion that has awoken him from his tomb (Huh?), it’s evident that logic – internal or otherwise – won’t be Hammer’s last Dracula’s strong point. Then Peter Cushing is Van Helsing, teaching vampire history to a Chinese university class. They aren’t impressed (a moment that asks more than one question: he’s been invited to whitesplain? They walk out, but why did they choose and attend the lecture in the first place? Van Helsing doesn’t have any evidence but believes it anyway? How on earth would he know the details? So he battled Dracul a hundred years ago? What kind of university is this?). And it’s true that Van Helsing really isn’t needed on the following vampire-killing mission, although he is convinced to join a Chinese student and his siblings on a mission to rid the student’s village of the curse of golden vampires - one of the seven is already destroyed/dead, which kind of crimps the title from the start. And also these vampires and minions are pretty easy to kill.

John Forbes-Robertson makes for an unimposing Dracula (again: who can apparently body-swap-possess now?) and Robin Stewart is a little embarrassing as Van Helsing’s son when fighting alongside serious martial artists. Speaking of which: none of the kick-ass brothers get anything to say, although as a girl and therefore a love interest, the sister does.

 

Rather, it’s the Shaw Brothers studio Hong Kong Kung-fu half that wins out in this mash-up as the Hammer Horror side is lazy and weak. However, the mass fights are fun if dated, the weapons look plastic (especially those axes… oh, and the ridiculous bat-medallion thingies), and the traditional Chinese hopping vampires don’t seem to be really trying. More successful are the vampires that ride at night, raiding villages for female victims and gratuitous exploitation toplessness, giving off a decidedly ‘Blind Dead’ vibe; and even better are the zombie minions rising from the graves. Otherwise, It’s up to Cushing to reliably deliver the exposition and bad dialogue with a gravitas it doesn’t deserve, and the charm of David Chiang and Julie Ege to carry it all (although she does nothing). It’s all very comic-booky, with the primary colours, occasional vista and Asian setting as bonuses. A curio it may be, but it doesn’t really deliver much more than a “Wha…?!” Doesn’t make a lick of sense: goofy fun but not good.