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Beyond the Time Barrier (1960)
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 15, 2014 6:29 pm    Post subject: Beyond the Time Barrier (1960) Reply with quote

________________

Click on the poster and watch Beyond the Time Barrier on Veoh!

This movie is a low-budget production, but it's a joy to watch. Unfortunately there's still no high-quality DVD available. I've purchased several of the gray market copies over the years before finally getting one that was reasonably good, but it's still not a great copy.

This DVD, the one I now have, looks like a real bargain — with four enjoyable movies for the low-low price of only $5.00. But three of the movies have a very dark picture. Thankfully, Beyond the Time Barrier is the one that looks okay.



Filmed in a matter of weeks, director Edgar G. Ulmer saved money on sets by using an exhibit of futuristic art-and-design left over from the Texas Centennial that was held in the 1930s.

1959 Texas State Fair in Dallas. The interior architecture is very appealing. The doors, walls, and pillars are all based on triangles and pyramids.



Don't expect any elaborate special effects, but the film does manage to invoke a pleasant Buck Rogers atmosphere. There's a great panning shot that starts on the ruins of a city —



— and moves over to reveal this city of the future!



I had fun splicing the two shots of the pan together to make this composite.



Shortly after that, we see these amazing shots of the same city with blinding lights on tall towers.



Later, we're treated to a high speed elevator zipping down a deep shaft reminiscent of the Krell machine.



Robert Clark does a great job as a test pilot whose experimental aircraft is catapulted several hundred years into the future —



— where he finds a world recovering from a global plague which left most of its inhabitants mute and sterile — incapable of speech and unable to have children. They're suspicious of Clark and slap him in a glass tube to neutralize the radiation he picked up while walking to the city from the airfield where he landed his plane.



Darlene Tompkins is absolutely gorgeous as the sweet heroine that Clark falls in love with. Her grandfather wants her to mate with him, because most of the men are sterile.









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The women's costumes will meet with male approval; they all wear short dresses and high heels. The mind boggles at the thought of a society in which the girls dress like this — and yet they aren't able to get pregnant, and they aren't able to speak! That's an interesting combination . . .



And the posters for this movie are the most beautiful ever made for a science fiction movie — ever!




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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Custer
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 2:49 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In its way, this is a very interesting science fiction movie; it may have been shot over only ten days in Texas (or so Wikipedia says), with its producer as its star — but in 1960 it must be very near the end of an era. 1960 was different from 1952, or 1956, or the other years when black & white science fiction films were so popular. Heck, we are only six years away from the first episodes of Star Trek...

In a way, we are in a state of transition from The Day the Earth Stood Still to Star Trek, with shadows of both — and I don't just mean the short-skirted uniforms of the future here!

The print on this 4-in-1 dvd is great — I've not tried the other three yet.
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 3:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Apparently, in the future, a bare desk with two bowling balls sitting on it is a symbol of authority.


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Fri Sep 04, 2015 6:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, a clear indication of a leader's power and authority is the size of his balls. Cool
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Custer
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 05, 2015 4:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tell me that scotpens didn't set up that joke for you...

It is, of course, a well-known fact that, in the future, all young ladies will wear really short skirts. Though if you do happen to crash through the time barrier and find them wearing leotards and matching capes, you've probably gone way too far!
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Pow
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 05, 2015 2:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

This was quite interesting to see the scenes filmed at the Texas Exhibition. The architecture is fascinating to view & elevates this b movie somewhat because of it.

I admire the cleverness of the producers to utilize such a place for filming.

The Disney TV-Pilot Movie Earth*Star Voyager did a similar thing with their film.

It was shot in Vancouver, Canada at the Expo '86 Pavilions in order to give it a futuristic look. And it does so very well.

Always thought it was a shame that various sf TV shows could not travel to such Expos or World Fairs for their series. These places had some outstanding buildings & would have served any sf TV series magnificently.

It would have given a show a real cinematic feature film look to it.
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Robert (Butch) Day
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 05, 2015 3:34 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

In one instance a studio (Hanna-Barbera) did go to a World's Fair — after the fact.

The Jetsons was designed on the 1962 Seattle World's Fair / Century 21 Exposition but because of production lead time didn't air on ABC until the fair was almost over.

The fair was from April 21, 1962 to October 21, 1962. The Jetson's original run was from September 23, 1962, to March 17, 1963.

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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 05, 2015 5:05 pm    Post subject: Re: Beyond the Time Barrier - (1960) Reply with quote

Their flight suits...

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...take me back to this old ad for government surplus that was run in many comic books and sci-fi-related magazines when I was a callow youth. Check out the price, which was beyond the reach of most kids my age at the time :



It also looks like the suit was being worn backwards by either the guy in the ad or the movie actors.

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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat May 28, 2016 4:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Well, it certainly doesn't seem like the guy in the ad is wearing it backwards, based on the fact that his crotch area doesn't look like a butt area with a crotch in it by mistake, and he's got a zipper there for bathroom business — but I'll be damned if I can find a single other photo of suits like that one being worn with the inflatable tubes in front!

Here's the way all the pictures I found show these suits being worn.


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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orzel-w
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PostPosted: Sat May 28, 2016 7:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, I guess if we have a photo of the suit worn by a test pilot in front of a Bell X-1A, that pretty much settles it!
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Custer
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PostPosted: Sun May 29, 2016 1:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

__________________________________

_____Tompkins Talks about Ulmer, Elvis and more!

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Babes From Beyond has an interesting interview with the lovely Darlene Tompkins by Tom Weaver.


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TOM WEAVER: Leslie Parrish and Yvette Mimieux were both interviewed for the part of Princess Trirene, before either of 'em WAS anybody.

DARLENE TOMPKINS: I didn't know that, I just know that they had a LOT of people come in. I had an agent at that time and he had heard about the movie, and he sent me on an interview. I was really excited about it. The audition was in an office; a lot of the studios had little teeny offices, and you'd go in and read. The day I auditioned, it was Robert Clarke and Edgar Ulmer — just the two of them.







Q: How do you audition for a mute part like that?

DARLENE: That's right, in that case, there WERE no lines, so they would tell me things that would happen. I would have to stare out into space like I was looking at somebody, or act as if I saw somebody fall down, or saw somebody crying, or I had to look like I was in love — or whatever — while I stared into space. Well, they called me back and I got the part. I was real lucky. That was very nice.

Q: Were you still living at home at the time?

DARLENE: Yes. In fact, my mother went with me to Texas when we made the movie.

Q: Beyond the Time Barrier was shot in about 10 days, in the abandoned buildings where the Texas Centennial was held in the 1930s.

DARLENE: It was very, very desolate — those buildings looked to me like airplane hangars. We had Sunday off, and that one Sunday we could go into Dallas if we wanted. Well, I had never been there, and so a couple of people and I got in a station wagon and went into Dallas, to just walk around downtown Dallas, maybe stop and get a sandwich or something, walk through a store and then come back. We were all in Levis because we were out in the middle of nowhere. (None of us had anything but Levis.) And I want to tell you, I never realized how "dressy" that town was at that time!

To see six people walking down the street together in Levis — everybody would stop and stare. EVERYBODY! And we're thinking, "What's the problem? Why are all these people turning around?", and then one of the people I was with turned around and said, "Oh my God, we're in DALLAS! We should be DRESSED!"

We ate at a hamburger stand, because we were afraid to try to go into any restaurants — we thought we wouldn't be allowed in! "If they're looking at us like THIS, we don't DARE go in a restaurant!"

Q: Who was with you that day?

DARLENE: Just the crew, and one young man who was "Mr. Texas," a real good-looking, dark-haired guy. In the movie, he played one of the guards. Muscles — a lot of muscles! And they looked good on him, REALLY good — they got him [for the movie] because of that. He was just a nice, nice guy.

Q: Memories of Edgar Ulmer?

DARLENE: Edgar Ulmer sort of stayed to himself; most of the time, my direction really didn't come from him, it came from Robert Clarke. The love scenes, the kissing scenes and everything. Edgar Ulmer's daughter Ariann?? [who played a villainous scientist in the movie] was very nice, and Vladimir Sokoloff [playing Tompkins' grandfather "The Supreme," head of the futuristic city] was very charming, very soft-spoken. He acted like he was my grandfather, he really did. He took care of me and would want to pat me on the shoulder and talk real soft to me. A very gentle person.

One of the things that I've been asked a lot, and I really wish I knew: On the Supreme's table, are those really bowling balls? [Laughs] I always thought they were, but I can't swear to it.



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Q: And Robert Clarke, who you say directed you?

DARLENE: That's right, Edgar Ulmer didn't do that much to direct me, I felt that Robert Clarke did. That was surprising to me. Robert was such a gentleman, he never lost his cool, always nice, never raised his voice, just a wonderful human being. There was only one time I ever saw him upset, and I felt so bad about it. Remember the scene where Princess Trirene is shot? Because it was a black-and-white movie, they used chocolate syrup for the blood. So on my outfit was chocolate syrup. And they said, for the scene where Robert carries my body, "Just hang like dead weight. Throw your arms out, and just be as dead weight as you can be."






He was in the flight uniform that he had rented, the real-life flight uniform — expensive. VERY expensive. He was carrying me in that, and I'm dead as a mackerel. Edgar said CUT, and as soon as he said cut, the first thing I thought of was to sit up and put my arms around Robert so he could lower my legs. I reached up, and I got chocolate on his outfit. And he said, "Ohhh, no, no!" He set me down real gently and again, "Ohhh, no, no," and he just shook his head and walked away. And I thought, "My God, I feel so bad."

He never said another word to me again about that, never brought it up or anything, and I kept wanting to ask him, "Did you get the chocolate out?" [Laughs] But I didn't have the nerve — I thought, "Oh God, don't ask, don't ask!" — I didn't dare. I was afraid he'd say, "NO, it's there for LIFE!", so I figured I'd better not say anything and hope everybody forgot!

Q: The makeup man on the movie was an old-timer named Jack Pierce.

DARLENE: Oh, I remember Jack Pierce — he's the one who did Frankenstein [1931]. I remember him very, very serious, and sooo glad that he was working. And everybody treated him with so much respect. He really had "quite the name," him and Vladimir Sokoloff. These two gentlemen were just idolized, they were wonderful, wonderful people.

Q: How do you know Pierce was "glad to be working"? Did he come out and say so?

DARLENE: What I meant was, he was just so intent and happy about it. I don't think I've ever seen anyone so happy to be doing that craft. He really loved it, he gave me the impression that this was the important thing that there was, that this was so phenomenally important to him. As opposed to other makeup people I have worked with, people who treat each new assignment as "just another job," he was really wonderful.



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Q: And he was your makeup man?

DARLENE: Yes, he was, and I was thrilled. On that picture, I had one of the best makeup men and one of the worst hairdressers — on the same show [laughs]! Oh, she was a disaster!

I had long hair and a ponytail, and they said to the hairdresser, "Add a little fall [fake hair] to the ponytail, to give it length. We want it up high, not down at the nape of her neck." She was behind me working and she picked up a scissors, and I thought she was just trimming the fake hair.

Well, that night I found out what she had done: Because I had so much hair, long hair, she didn't know how to wrap it all together, so she parted my hair and then cut a lot of it right off! It was like a hole in the back of my head, a two-inch circle that was just stubble! Oh, God, it was bad, it was just a mess. After that, when anybody did my hair, I'd say, "Can I watch?" [Laughs] "I wanna see how it's done!"






Q: Do you happen to remember how much you were paid?

DARLENE: $350 a week. And I'll tell you another thing I'll bet you don't know: The mutants taught me how to play cribbage [laughs]! I'd never played cribbage before; I played chess and other games, but never cribbage. So they taught me that, and I really enjoyed them!

Q: You were asked to do a nude swimming pool scene in Time Barrier.

DARLENE: They saved that scene for last, and since they didn't have any access to an indoor pool, they were going to do it at night, right at the motel we were staying at. It had to be done at night because it was supposed to look like the pool was in the underground city. The motel was a two-story, and it was shaped like a U. One end of the U was a restaurant, and in the middle of the U was the courtyard with the pool.

Well, they asked me if I would do it nude, and I said, no, I wouldn't, I don't do nudes. But I said I'd wear a flesh-colored or pink bathing suit, because as long as I knew I was covered, I didn't care. They said okay. So they put a pink bathing suit on me.






I was upstairs in my motel room, getting ready for makeup and everything, and all of a sudden someone opened the door and yelled, "Fire!" and we all ran out. What happened was, in the restaurant, the flue over the stove caught fire. And, because the motel was connected to the restaurant, when the restaurant caught fire, smoke went through all the air ducts — smoke came in everywhere. We were all outside, all watching, and a couple things happened that I thought were funny.

One thing was, Texas was a "dry" state; I don't know if it still is, but at THAT time it was, so the people would bring their own set-ups. This man and his wife had gone into the restaurant and he brought his own set-up and they were having dinner . . . the place caught on fire . . . and he grabbed his bottle and ran out. He left his WIFE [laughs]! I don't know if they're still married after that! I thought that was kind of funny!


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Krel
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PostPosted: Sun May 29, 2016 2:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Doesn't anyone else recognize the jumpsuits that the men are wearing?

David.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sun May 29, 2016 11:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Pay dirt! I found 15 gorgeous lobby cards, all of which need a little restoration (some more than others). Here's four of them I finished late last night.

I'll do the other eleven today and post them soon. I'm really getting in the mood to watch this movie! Very Happy

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon May 30, 2016 10:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I did some research to find out exactly where Beyond the Time Barrier was filmed. Some sources say it was the a building constructed for the 1959 Texas State Fair, and others say is was first made for the 1936 Texas Centennial Exposition on the grounds that later became part of the 1959 Texas State Fair.

One source said the Edgar Ulmer was given permission to film on the premises . . . before the buildings were demolished. Sad

Sadly I was not able to find any behind-the-scenes photos from the movie or any pictures of the attraction when it was open to the public.

But I did find these lobby cards, and after spending several hours making them look like new again, they certainly put me in the mood to watch the movie.









_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue May 31, 2016 11:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Update: Custer's post with the Tom Weaver interview with Darlene Tompkins has been expanded to include the complete interview! Very Happy

Here's a few more of the lobby cards I've been restoring. They sure make me wish this movie had been shot in color! Very Happy

________________________________









_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


Last edited by Bud Brewster on Thu Aug 19, 2021 11:27 am; edited 2 times in total
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