The Power (1968)

Certainly not a classic sci-fi film, but it is an entertaining oddity with an impressive supporting cast and good production values.

Directed by Byron Haskin
Written by John Gay
Based on “The Power” by Frank M. Robinson
Produced by George Pal
Cinematography: Ellsworth Fredericks
Edited by Thomas J. McCarthy
Music by Miklós Rózsa
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-May

Cast

George Hamilton: Jim Tanner
Suzanne Pleshette: Margery Lansing
Richard Carlson: N. E. Van Zandt
Yvonne De Carlo: Sally Hallson
Earl Holliman: Talbot Scott
Gary Merrill: Mark Corlane
Ken Murray: Grover
Barbara Nichols: Flora
Arthur O'Connell: Henry Hallson
Nehemiah Persoff: Carl Melnicker
Aldo Ray: Bruce
Michael Rennie: Arthur Nordlund
Miiko Taka: Mrs. Van Zandt
Celia Lovsky: Mrs. Hallson
Vaughn Taylor: Mr. Hallson
Lawrence Montaigne: Briggs
Beverly Powers: Sylvia
Forrest J. Ackerman: Delegate A.C. Fogbottom
Daniel Elam: Scientist
William Burnside: Fun House Onlooker
Ken DuMain: Fun House Onlooker
Frieda Rentie: Fun House Onlooker
Boyd 'Red' Morgan: Merry-Go-Round Operator
Robert Deman: Young Man
Party Guests:
David Armstrong
Minta Durfee
Ed Haskett
George Holmes
Kenner G. Kemp
Joseph La Cava
John Pedrini
Anthony Redondo
Hank Robinson
Arthur Tovey

Chalky Williams

Key Scene

The power of telekinesis used not only to move just objects!

Members of a special project team being killed off one by one by means of telekinesis!

Who has the mind power to commit murder?

How can he or she be stopped?

Biologist Dr. Jim Tanner is chairman of a committee of scientists (The Committee on Human Endurance), based at the laboratory of the Space Research Commission in San Marino, CA. Tanner and the committee is tasked with tasked with;

1. Determining the limits of human endurance involving the human body's ability to survive pain.
2. Ascertaining the factors that would enable a human being to survive extreme physically stressful situations and make instant life-saving decisions in an emergency.

Little does Tanner realize, that he will soon find himself being pushed to the very limits of his own endurance…….

Read on for more....

(Spoilers follow below....)

“You might call us the sado-masochists of the space program”

It is “tomorrow” and on this particular day, Mr. Arthur Nordlund, US Naval liaison, visits the futuristic-looking San Mineo laboratory where Dr. Jim Tanner conducts his research. Before entering, Nordlund stops to briefly contemplate a large metal outdoor display of a world globe.

Nordlund abruptly enters a room where test subjects are undergoing endurance tests and is curtly yelled at to “close that door!”

The tests consist of neural stimulation, immersion in ice-cold water, extreme heat, and high g-force acceleration in a centrifuge. The US space program at this point in time has a number of hurdles to overcome and questions yet to be answered particularly in relation to the limitations of the human body when subjected to extreme levels of stress during liftoff, prolonged exposure to zero gravity and the extremes of temperature and radiation beyond Earth’s atmosphere. NASA has therefore been funding a program of pain research, in which student volunteers are paid quite well to undergo Dr. Tanner’s tests of extreme physical discomfort. As Tanner explains to Nordlund, “how can we protect him in space if we don't know how much pain he can take?” When it comes to the all important matter of expense, Tanner responds with “no matter what the answers, Mr. Nordlund, they will not come cheaply.”

While Tanner and Nordlund are speaking, biologist Talbot Scott enters and asks Tanner to talk with him privately. Scott is concerned that one of their colleagues, anthropologist Henry Hallston who is scheduled to present his report on his human-intelligence survey, is convinced that all the committee members are "being watched" by “the unknown.” Scott is convinced that Hallson has “flipped….gone right off the deep end” and that his “mind is right on the ragged edge.” Scott is afraid that Hallson will embarrass the Committee in front of Nordlund, who will also be in attendance. If Hallson is “going to blow the lid on those questionnaires” and “goes wild” Nordlund will end up thinking they’re “all a bunch of crackpots.”

“This person, whoever he is, he could do what he wants with this committee”

The committee meeting goes ahead as scheduled and comprises chairman and biologist Dr. Jim Tanner, geneticist Dr. Margery Lansing, physicist Dr. Carl Melnicker, biologist Dr. Talbot Scott, Dr. Norman Van Zandt, and government liaison Arthur Nordlund. Also in attendance, of course is Dr. Henry Hallson, anthropologist who has designed a series of anonymous questionnaires to screen people with “a greater survival capacity,” using other committee members “as sort of a dry run before they're given to the students.”

Despite Tanner’s not so subtle attempts to dissuade him, Hallson manages to reveal his findings. According to him “there's only one questionnaire that counts” the results of which “show an intelligence quotient beyond the known limits of measureability.” The one person on the committee who made the responses to the questionnaire “has a force of intellect far superior to anyone else known on this earth today!”

If that is the case then that individual would be in possession of powers that would render anybody else powerless to resist. He or she could do whatever they wanted with the rest of the committee and even “with the whole project.”

In light of Norlund’s presence, the other members express their skepticism and try to dismiss Tanner’s conclusions as being a product of a “gag,” or as a result of overwork and tiredness. Interestingly enough, it is Nordlund himself who seems to want to hear and learn more.

With no means of getting anyone on the committee to admit to having the supposed psychic energy or psychokinetic powers, Dr. Melnicker with perennial cigarette dangling from his lip and ash sprinkling the front of his jacket, suggests a simple telekinesis test using a psi wheel consisting of a sheet of notepaper placed on an improvised spindle, in this case a pencil supported within the pages of an upright standing book. Without touching it, all of the committee members concentrate on the spindle together, which incredibly sends the wheel spinning, gradually and slowly at first, then more and more rapidly.

Who among the committee members possesses………

THE POWER?

**********

“One extraordinary combination of genes like four Royal Flushes in a row”

While getting into the swing of a night of intimacy with his lover Dr. Lansing, the matter of what happened in the meeting comes up but Tanner would rather dismiss the whole thing what with other things of immediate importance at hand. Lansing, however is not so sure and hypothesises that “genetically speaking, it's entirely possible to produce a man of tomorrow right now.”

The telephone soon rudely interrupts proceedings and Tanner reluctantly answers the phone to a frantic Sally Hallson on the other end of the line who informs him that her husband had gone to the lab to pick up his questionnaires but had not yet returned home.

We learn in fact that Hallson never made it out of the lab due to the fact that some force has acted on his mind convincing him that the entrance door to his office has grown considerably taller before then seeming to turn into an entire solid wall. Whether induced by the shock of it all or by the unknown force acting on his physiology, Hallson appears to suffer a heart attack and collapses at his desk.

After some urging from Marge, Tanner drives back to the lab with her. After being checked in by security, Tanner and Marge check Hallson's office, only to find some papers strewn around the desk. Among the papers, Tanner retrieves a piece of paper with the name "Adam Hart" written on it.

Suddenly the noise of the centrifuge starting up is heard and Tanner and Marge rush to the centrifuge control room. Despite their efforts they cannot stop the increasingly accelerating centrifuge. Tanner then races off down the hallway to pull the main switch, which results in the centrifuge gradually coming to a stop. Tanner and Marge open the centrifuge where they are confronted by the horrifying sight of a deceased Hallson, his eyes and tongue protruding from his face due to the extreme acceleration forces his body was subjected to.

The next day a police detective, Mark Corlane supervises the removal of Hallson's body and proceeds to conduct an investigation of the professor’s death. In the meantime, Tanner asks the grieving Mrs Hallson if she had ever heard of Adam Hart.

She informs him that her husband had mentioned that name once and that it was the name of his childhood friend.

As the investigation begins, things start to go awry for Tanner. For instance, the centrifuge's controls now work properly, when previously according to Tanner “none of the controls would work.”

With all that has taken place so far, Tanner during a discussion with Talbot Scott, begins to speculate on the possibility that a superhuman could exist with capabilities far beyond that of normal humans, due to some kind of evolutionary leap:

“Supposing, just supposing there was a guy who jumped a generation or two, or ten!…...don't you see how far advanced he'd be over us?”

Talbot Scott, however vehemently denies such a possibility. In fact, he declares that “It would be impossible,” not based on any rational argument but because he chooses to deny it. He points out (using what he terms as his own “manufactured personality” as an example) the danger to the world inherent in the possibility of having a “superman running around and everyone wanting to be a copy of just one man.”

“No one ever heard of you”

As the police investigation into Hallson's murder proceeds, Tanner finds himself becoming the prime suspect. An apparent lack of documentation suggests that he has lied about his academic credentials. To Tanner’s horror, all records pertaining to his past have somehow been erased. Academic institutions (Wanesburg Pennsylvania, Princeton and Virginia tech) he had attended or worked at have no record of his attendance or graduation. Tanner now finds himself in the inexplicable and unenviable position of being accused of academic fraud. Even Talbot Scott with whom he just had a conversation refuses to have anything to do with Tanner.

Having been forced to resign his position and reduced to being a "person of interest" in a murder investigation, Tanner exits the facility and wanders aimlessly along the streets of San Marino.

All that can be known for sure is that something killed Hallson and that behind that something, there was someone... on the Committee:

Tallbot Scott? - “a mad combination: brains, brawn...and always on the make.”

Professor Melniker? - “certainly a superior human being, but whether he could...kill anybody or not...”

Professor Van Zandt - “mind like a steel trap.”

Nordlund? - “he's not on the Committee…..but he was in that room (during)….the experiment.”

Tanner? Lansing? - “It doesn't have to be a man.”

As far as the police are concerned, there is a problem surrounding Tanner and Marge’s account of what took place. It turns out that Mrs. Hallson doesn't remember calling Tanner at his place on the night they discovered her husband dead.

In addition, despite the guard at the facility’s gate having made a record of Tanner and Marge’s arrival, “somehow there doesn't seem to be any trace of that record at all now.” Even the guard himself isn’t certain.

“I don't know who and I don't know what, but I know he's real”

While wandering around the tourist section of San Marino, Tanner notices through a window a water-dunking bird on display that suddenly straightens up, winks at him, drinks from the water glass and then squirts a small stream of water right in his direction. Comical, yes. Weird, certainly!

In another display window, a troupe of toy soldiers march into view, halt and then aim their muskets at Tanner and open fire! Suddenly, a gorgeous blond woman accosts Tanner with a tempting invitation oozing out of every pore of her body. Somehow managing to pass up on that offer, Tanner moves on and attempts to cross an intersection. While waiting for the pedestrian lights to change, he notices the signal changing its message from “DON'T WALK” to “DON'T RUN.”

Feeling panicked and discombobulated, Tanner beats a hasty retreat from the intersection and blunders into a fun house where he experiences a disconcerting cacophony of sights and sounds that assault his senses. He then finds himself on an empty carousel on which one of the horses unexpectedly winks at him. Suddenly, the carousel begins to spin in a manner and with a speed that is reminiscent of the centrifuge in which Hallson was murdered. Before the same fate befalls Tanner, the carousel operator pulls the main switch to stop the machine.

By this stage, Tanner is certain that the mysterious “Adam Hart” was likely that unidentified someone who was at that Committee meeting and that he has set Tanner up by murdering Hallson, framing him with the murder and erasing Tanner's academic records. Finally, this mystery man, Adam Hart has tried to kill Tanner “but for some reason he didn't succeed” suggesting “there's a limit to his power.”

Before Adam Hart can succeed with another murder attempt, Tanner decides to track him down himself by going to “Joshua Flats, Henry Hallson's home town, where he first met Adam Hart.” Hopefully, “there must be somebody there who still remembers him” and that Tanner can obtain some kind of identification.

When Tanner arrives at Joshua Flats, he stops at a local cafe / filling station and asks Flora, a waitress a few question concerning Hart. She’s a bottle-blond somewhat past her best years and gives the impression she’s made a wrong life-choice in leaving New York for a dump like Joshua Flats. Like the younger blond back in San Marino, Flora eyes Tanner in a manner that suggests that she along with her “goose-bumps” would easily turn this film into something more ‘X’-rated! However, Tanner probably is becoming aware that he has entered a realm where he cannot be entirely sure of what is real and what is illusion or the product of an unknown force or power aimed at deceiving and ultimately destroying him.

Tanner learns from Flora that Hallson “was always around. Like a shadow. One step behind Adam.” According to Flora, Adam Hart had “blond hair, blue eyes, and a look in those eyes that made you burn inside.”

When later visiting Hallson's parents, Tanner learned after suddenly being assaulted by the old mother’s fly swatter that “she always hated Adam Hart because Henry took to him so.”

Tanner also learned from the elderly father that Hart was of gypsy heritage and that the shack in which his whole family lived “burned to the ground not two days before Adam left town.”

Added to this horrible but rather suspicious-sounding incident, the father described Adam Hart as having “coal-black, shifty eyes…..black gypsy eyes! Hair to match!” Apparently, he was also as “smart as they come…..there was nothing he didn't know, nothing he couldn't do.”

The differing testimonies as to Adam Hart’s appearance, character and nature seem to suggest that those who met him saw him in ways they wished to see him or…….were made or influenced to view him in a particular manner.

Flora’s partner, the filling station operator / mechanic, drives up and appears to be uncharacteristically jolly and all-too willing to please. He offers to take Tanner to Hart's old place but after travelling for a while, Tanner soon realizes that something is amiss. A brief struggle in the jeep ensues and Tanner is eventually dumped and stranded in the middle of the desert in close proximity to an Air Force firing range. Tanner is almost killed when a squadron of Air Force jets strafe the area with rockets. He manages to escape when he lights a fire in the brush attracting the attention of the pilots who break off the exercise.

In a rather foul mood, Tanner makes it back to the filling station, enters through a window and bursts into the operator / mechanic’s bedroom, and at gun point forces the man to confess that Adam Hart gave him an order ten years previously to kill anyone who enquired about him.

It is all too obvious now that Tanner is dealing with a murderous individual possessing the kind of abilities or powers that Hallson had feared. Hallson, having grown up with Hart became aware that Hart was a very dangerous person and as a result of that awareness he was now dead. If Tanner is not careful, he will be next!

The next person Tanner pays a visit to is Hallson's widow, Sally. However, she appears intent on pickling her brain with alcohol and displaying her still shapely pins to Tanner and lassoing him onto the sofa with them. Interestingly enough, Sally can’t seem to remember the name Adam Hart, despite the fact that Tanner had asked her about him on the night her husband died and that she said her husband “knew him years ago.”

The reason for Sally’s amnesia becomes more apparent when the man’s face in the picture featuring the supposed Adam Hart and her husband “seems to be blurred.” Added to this is that Sally “threw everything out” including anything else that might help in the identification of Adam Hart.

It is more than just the fog of alcohol, the emotional and psychological shock of her husband’s death or even the passage of time that could account for how Sally feelings for him seem be slipping away and that “just today” she “could hardly remember what he looked like.”

“If we threaten his survival, he'll try to destroy us”

When Tanner returns to the home of Marge Lansing, he is surprised by a violent attack from Carl Melniker, who had earlier entered Marge's home, tied her up and waited for Tanner believing that he was the one who had killed Hallson.

After quite an impressive dust up, Tanner manages to overcome Melniker and convince him that he is no threat. While Tanner and Melniker are being cleaned and patched up, they along with a now unrestrained Marge consider what they're up against and what to do about it.

Melniker states that he knows “what a man's power can do: the raw power of one man, one man alone to kill millions of innocent people.” From his observations, he believes that “this world is going to hell in a handcart” but what if (he asks his fellow scientists) “it's being pushed?”

Despite the danger to themselves, the three scientists decide they’ve got to survive themselves, stay together and not fall asleep.

“I'm certain we're being watched”

Tanner, Marge and Melniker make their way to a hotel in Santa Lisa, where a kitchen salesmen's convention is taking place and where they decide to invite themselves. While there, Tanner seems to suffer another bout of discombobulation as he hears music coming from the instruments being played by a gypsy-style band. He then spots several copies of a newspaper emblazoned with a partial headline, ‘DON'T RUN!’ Sound familiar? This turns out to be part of a large banner headline concerning the city's mayor telling an opposing candidate not to run against him. The question is however, who is really saying what, about what and to whom?

As part of keeping with a crowd and staying awake, the trio manage to wangle their way into one of the many parties that are being held at the salesmen shindig. At the party we are treated to the pathetic sight of old guys ‘dancing’ like Elaine Benice from Seinfeld, to the beat of swinging sixties tunes with bum and boob-shaking broads and hookers sporting black window awnings for eye-lashes. Just watching sixties-style and go-go dancing gives me a hernia!

Later on, with the dregs of the party littering the floor, Sexy Sylvia of the woman in red variety, wakes up all perky and someway ironically calls out, “what's everyone dying or something? Let's get a little life going here.” She then proceeds to perform a strip tease (which I firmly believe is a great way to start the day and wake up to). Despite her best efforts to rouse Melniker with whom Tanner earlier partnered her up with (much to Melniker’s surprise), the horrible realization soon dawns on her that she has just planted a kiss on a dead man’s lips! And no, cigarette smoking was not the cause of his death.

“We're too much like dogs plotting to catch the dog catcher”

Tanner and Marge hastily flee from the hotel room and drive to the apartment complex where Arthur Nordlund resides. Tanner feels that they’ve “got to start somewhere” and that if they can just “question him, threaten him, bluff him” they might be able to get him to utter “just one word, one word that will give him away.” Marge, however is skeptical.

When Marge and Tanner drive into the apartment complex parking garage, they observe Nordlund suffering what appears to be a heart attack. Norlund stumbles into an elevator which ascends at first before starting back down. The elevator then gets stuck between the third and fourth floors.

Tanner rushes up the stairwell to the top floor and enters the elevator shaft. He attempts to climb down to the elevator by means of the cable when suddenly the elevator begins to ascend. Trying to avoid being crushed to death, Tanner opens the top hatchway cover and lowers himself down into the elevator. Once inside, Tanner finds Nordlund slumped in a corner and he sets about trying to get to focus on him, his name and his voice before he succumbs to whatever force he is being subjected to.

With Hallston and Melniker dead, with Nordlund having apparently been attacked, and Tanner sure that he himself along with Marge are not suspects, the candidates for a potential murderous superman can be narrowed down to either Van Zandt or Scott.

Nordlund is all for eliminating both potential suspects but Tanner without knowing which man is the right, disagrees. It is proposed that Nordlund keep his upcoming 2.00pm meeting at the Space Research Commission in session as long as possible and that Marge accompany him as it would be safer with having people around them.

In the meantime, Tanner decides to pay a visit to Van Zandt's home. Once there, he only succeeds in speaking to Mrs. Van Zandt who informs him that her husband is not there when in fact he is.

After being told that Van Zandt is not expected back until much later, Tanner hears voices coming from another room in the house and he goes to the window to eavesdrop, where he discovers that Adam Hart is expected soon. Suddenly outside the house, Tanner barely escapes with his life when someone attempts to run him down with a car.

With a crushing psychic force acting on his body, Tanner drives away in the hope of getting himself out of range. However, the other unidentified driver is in close pursuit while his own vehicle is out-of-control car with brakes that don't work.

As a bridge is being raised, Tanner’s car side-swipes a truck and smashes through a side railing before plunging into a river. Tanner escapes by unfastening the convertible’s top, before swimming to the river bank where he is picked up by police.

'The Babble Pit, Friday Night'

We next find Tanner in a hospital room, where detective Corlane informs him that he is under arrest for the murders of Dr. Van Zandt and his wife. “The Van Zandt house was burned to the ground” and it is thought that “he and his wife were caught in the blaze” soon after Tanner’s visit there. The detective also informs Tanner that “no one's seen Nordlund since yesterday afternoon” and that “he was supposed to attend some kind of a meeting at the Space Research Commission” but “he never showed up.”

Meanwhile, Talbot Scott has locked himself in the “Babble Pit” auditorium at the laboratory where he indicated in a note that he demanded to meet with Tanner. Tanner convinces Corlane that if he can talk to Scott he’ll be able to reason with him. The detective agrees and accompanies Tanner to the laboratory, together with a contingent of police officers and detectives.

After Tanner tricks Corlane into being locked in room of the lab, he confronts Scott in the auditorium where the latter nervously and pleadingly babbles on about knowing that there was something about Tanner that was different from the rest of them. Pleading for his life, Scott promises that he will do whatever Tanner says.

As the police arrive, Scott realizes that Tanner actually thought it was he who is the superman genius responsible for the deaths of the committee members. A frantic Scott tries to escape but all exits are cut off by the police. At the lectern, he aims his gun at Tanner but he seems to be under the control of a force that redirects his gun in the direction of the advancing officers. Scott is then shot dead in the ensuing gun battle with the police.

“No more running”

Having fled the scene of the shooting, Tanner is in no doubt who is responsible for his being set-up and the murders of his fellow committee members. Tanner walks along a corridor and peruses some notes in a folder concerning the effect of intense pain on the human heart. Marge then appears from another room and Tanner asks her why she stayed to which she replies, “would it help to go on running?”

As to why Marge has been spared until now, she tells Tanner, “to be certain that he'd finally get to you…..and then there were none.”

As the couple hug each other, Norlund / Adam Hart appears from around the corner of the corridor. Once again the mounting tension is accompanied by the rhythmic sound of a heart beat as Nordlund directs his full telepathic & telekinetic power against Tanner, convincing him that his heart is beating faster; that he can’t move his arms and legs; that it is becoming very hard for him to breathe; that he can see himself getting colder to the point of his body being covered by white crystals; that he is being burned, scorched and boiled all to the very “limit to the intensity of pain.” Beyond that - “Then what?”

At the point of feeling that he has to just let go and “give it up” by falling into the void, Tanner collapses but manages to survive. Amazingly, Tanner seems to be able to draw on the same source of power as that possessed by Norlund / Hart and fights back by telekinetically squeezing his adversary’s heart and killing him.

The world is too small a place for two people to possess such absolute power and that was why Nordlund / Hart wanted Tanner dead. Marge worked out that Norlund / Hart was willing to eliminate all of the committee members just to get to Tanner who was deemed to be “the only real threat he had” and that Tanner “never knew it, never even dared to guess.” Don’t forget that Nordlund / Hart never took Hallson’s test. The superhuman scores must have belonged to someone. Norlund / Hart could not reveal himself at the initial meeting by making the paper spin. Someone however, did make it spin and that someone was Tanner even though he didn’t know it at the time. Now he does.

As Tanner and Marge leave the laboratory, they stop in front of the world globe sculptural display and speculate on the old adage about how “power corrupts...and that absolute power…” What influence will Tanner’s power have on him and the rest of the world? That is the question…..but what is the answer, “I wonder?”

Points Of Interest

The Power (1968) is based on the 1956 science fiction novel The Power by Frank M. Robinson. The novel’s protagonist Tanner, a researcher discovers evidence of a person with psychic abilities among his co-workers. The story follows his attempts to uncover the mysterious and elusive superhuman. As the mystery unfolds, Tanner’s very existence is being erased and his associates murdered, until the climactic showdown with a seemingly invincible opponent. I strongly suggest that you try to read the novel first as it’s told from the protagonist's viewpoint and the unfolding mystery has more meat to it than does the film version. Certain events from the novel don’t appear in the film probably due to time and other constraints. It's a good read if you like thrillers.

My 1959 Corgi Edition

The story was first televised live as a one hour Studio One Episode aired on Jun 4, 1956.

The Power (1968) was shot at Culver City and Santa Monica

The film is rather a hybrid type of film combining elements of murder mystery, conspiracy thriller and science fiction.

The Power was competently directed by Byron Haskin who had worked in Warner Brothers Special Effects department. Haskin was also responsible for Walt Disney's first live-action film, Treasure island (1950) and from the mid-1950s he began a partnership with producer George Pal. A memorable result of that association was the classic science fiction film, War of the worlds (1953). Other sci-fi collaborations between Pal and Haskin include Conquest Of Space (1955) and Robinson Caruso On Mars (1964). All three science fiction films are featured elsewhere in this blog.

A strong cast has been assembled with the then younger co-stars, George Hamilton and Suzanne Pleshette being supported by well-known veterans such as Michael Rennie, Yvonne de Carlo, Aldo Ray, Richard Carlson and Earl Holliman. Some of these characters seem to have been very much under utilized. Suzanne Pleshette for instance, is part of that cohort of lovely 1960’s female actors that include Jane Fonda, Faye Dunaway, Raquel Welch and of course, Barbara Eden. In this film, however it is hard to pin down her role or function. She just seems to be...there. As for Earl Holliman! Talk about miscasting! 

The Power contains sufficient thrills, mystery, suspense, intrigue and plot twists to keep it entertaining and even though generally well-paced there are some slow-moving plodding scenes and moments. The film also comes across as do many others of the era as being quite dated despite its efforts to be modern and even on the verge of being futuristic.

The main feature of the film is the mystery surrounding the identity of the Adam hart character and Tanner’s efforts to find who he was in the past and who or what he has become. During the course of the film, the audience isn’t given the chance to warm to any of the characters and is never certain who can be trusted, as they are being strung along throughout.

Miklos Rosza's score is sufficiently eerie and effective in enhancing the tension and suspense through the use of a cymbalum / dulcimer instrument, a Hungarian folk instrument. The soundtrack also featured the rhythmic sound of a beating heart to signal the various psychic mind-control attempts

Over the years much has been made concerning the alleged power of the mind in science fiction films and pseudo-documentaries. How often have we heard mention made of the claim that human beings only utilize a fraction of the capacity or power of their brains. If only (so the fallacy goes) we could unlock the ‘full’ potential of the mind, what powers we could unleash! How easily fallacy becomes fact. The human brain uses exactly what it needs to use in terms of performing its various functions and is quite active even when we are asleep.

Certainly there can be little doubt that the mind can be used with sufficient discipline and practice to regulate such physiological processes as heart rate, respiration, memory recall, mental equilibrium, tolerance to pain and other uncomfortable stimuli. Claims about more superhuman mental and psychic powers should be treated with caution unless definitively proven to exist.

I do recall the Cold War experiments in the former Soviet Union involving telekinesis and the US / CIA efforts with remote sensing using supposed psychic powers. There were also the appalling experiments using psychoactive and hallucinogenic drugs on army personnel who were little more than guinea pigs in the hope of producing super soldiers.

I think that it is safe to say that it will be by means of technology that will enable the human mind to act on the environment in which we live by enabling humans to remotely control our devices and appliances, communicate with anyone anywhere, access unlimited information and so on. So, it then begs the question: who or what might end up controlling us? 

What we need to be aware of is the kind of power that is concentrated in the hands of the few (human or artificial intelligence) and exercised over our thoughts, perceptions and view of reality as a means of absolute control. For that would be the kind of power we should fear – the power that corrupts...absolutely!

Thank you for reading this post. Please feel free to download my free eBook, Sci-Fi Film Fiesta: The Big Fat Book of Sci-Fi films Of The 1950s. 

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