(1955)
Dir - Ken Hughes
Overall: MEH
A poorly realized espionage thriller with wasted science fiction elements, Timeslip, (The Atomic Man), ends up being a dull drive-in double feature amongst many. It was an unofficial American/British co-production, (hence the two leads Gene Nelson and Faith Domergue being from U.S. soil), though it was shot in England by director Ken Hughes who was almost exclusively versed in crime movies at this point. Thus the angle is thrown in of spies trying to blow up an atomic research institute via a cockamamie scheme of performing plastic surgery on a guy so that he looks like a nuclear physicist. Said physicist also happens to be the victim of radiation and now lays in a hospital bed experiencing time at seven and a half seconds in the future. This provides the movie with its one and only nifty revelation as Charles Eric Maine's chatty and largely actionless script goes in circles and doubly confuses and bores the audience long before the stakes finally seem dire in the closing minutes. Nelson's infrequent attempts at comic relief do not do the movie's serious tone any favors either, but even if the whole thing could have easily ended up more stupid than it is, it is still dull.
(1957)
Dir - W. Lee Wilder/Charles Saunders
Overall: WOOF
A nonsensical dud that was also one of many animated head B-movies from the era, The Man Without a Body, (Curse of Nostradamus), boasts an absurd plot that would have been hilarious if not for how drab the entire presentation is. Though a British production, it brought over a top-billed American Robert Hutton and also W. Lee Wilder behind the lens, the latter of whom shares directorial credit with Charles Saunders who was allegedly only on set for union purposes. This makes sense for anyone familiar with Wilder's work which was uniformly poor and this is no exception. Uninspired from top to bottom, Wilder fails to capitalize on both a larger budget than he was usually allowed to work with in his native US and the ludicrous concept of Nostradamus' severed head being revitalized only for a cartoonishly unlikable millionaire with a brain tumor to try and inflict his will upon it so that he can stay filthy rich from beyond the grave, (or something?). These poor actors play such material straight while Wilder stages everything in the most pedestrian manner possible, creating an experience that is both lame and alarmingly stupid. The film's reputation is infamous and well-deserved in this respect, so approach with caution.
(1958)
Dir - Gilbert Gunn
Overall: WOOF
A low-budget adaptation of Rene Ray's 1957 novel of the same name, The Strange World of Planet X, (Cosmic Monsters), is problematically paced and barely moves an inch towards anything interesting, instead just coming off as a poor man's Quatermass serial. Fusing a little The Day the Earth Stood Still in with giant bugs, a reckless scientist, and some seriously comatose-inducing dialog exchanges for ninety percent of its running time, the film is a hopelessly slack realization of its ingredients. This would be the only science fiction movie in in the not-that-extensive filmographies of director Gilbert Gunn and screenwriter Paul Ryder, neither of whom show a particular knack for the material. It takes ages before any mayhem starts to present itself as we are merely told about the concerning results of magnetic metal experiments that eventually effect the ionosphere in only a small portion of the area, resulting in some humans going crazy as well as insects and lizards growing to destructive sizes. In addition to all of this only showing up on screen within the closing minutes, it is quickly resolved, which only further enhances the lackluster and low-stakes issue in the first place. From the performances to the drab direction and entire presentation, it is forgettable in all details.
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