ThiefHott
Too much of everything
SunnyHello
Nice effects though.
Doomtomylo
a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
robert-temple-1
Ken Hughes directed five feature films and two short films in 1955, and this is one of the features. It is a superior B picture with the female B star, Faith Domergue, she of the big soulful brown eyes. The story and screenplay are by Charles Eric Maine, and he has written a good yarn. Some of the ideas for the technical background are mentioned in passing, and they concern a scientist named Stephen Rayner who works for the Atomic Energy authorities. He has learned how to achieve the alchemical transmutation of elements in order to produce tungsten in the laboratory from cheap materials. This threatens the interests of the United Tungsten Corporation of Argentina, which controls two thirds of the world's tungsten supply, so they have another scientist's face transformed by plastic surgery to replace Rayner, and the film starts with Rayner being shot one night and falling into the Thames. He miraculously survives but is in a coma for some time while everyone is trying to figure out what happened. After he is identified, the police are puzzled because his employers say he is at work in his lab. Something strange has also happened to him because he has undergone a slight forward time-shift of 7.5 seconds due to exposure to radiation, so he answers questions put to him before they are asked. When the police and others finally figure out why his interviews don't make any sense, because the answer to each question is really to one that will be asked next, they then begin to piece together his story. The film is very intriguing and entertaining, despite being low budget. The hints of escaped corrupt Nazis in Argentina who will kill anyone who gets in their way were well understood in 1955, only ten years after the War. The film's original release title was TIMESLIP, and it is under that title that the DVD is now once again available. As another reviewer says, this is not really a sci fi film but is an industrial espionage thriller with some intriguing sci fi background elements which are significantly under-developed. Both the timeslip angle and the tungsten angle could have been much better developed and turned into a much stronger film. As it is, the film is rather mediocre.
Chris Gaskin
Timeslip is also known as The Atomic Man, which I shall use for this review and is the title on the VHS copy I have (NTSC).An assumed dead man is recovered from the Thames with a bullet in his back and a radioactive halo around his body. This man turns out to be a top nuclear scientist and he also has a double who us trying to stop his experiments in artificial tungsten. He isn't dead after all. The radioactivity has caused him to be 7 and a half seconds ahead of everybody else, so he answers questions before there are asked. He double is caught at the end, as are some gangsters also involved in the plot.This is more a gangster movie than a sci-fi, but that certainly didn't spoil my enjoyment.The cast includes 1950's sci-fi regular Faith Domergue (This Island Earth, It Came From Beneath the Sea), Gene Nelson, Peter Arne and Leonard Williams.The Atomic Man is worth checking out. Quite good.Rating: 3 stars out of 5.
mike1964
I had read the reviews for The Atomic Man and to be honest didn't make me want to see this movie. I always had this movie very low on my want list and recently purchased a copy from Sinister Cinema. Wow! What a mistake I had made over the years. I really enjoyed this movie.Plot concerns a nuclear scientist, Dr. Raynor, (Peter Arne) who is shot at the opening of the film and dumped in the river. He is found without identification and taken to the hospital. He is not expected to make it, but miraculously pulls through surgery even after "dying" for 7.5 seconds. A newspaper man (Gene Nelson) suspects the recovering man to be Dr. Raynor from a glow in a photograph. When he investigates another man (also Arne) is at the Research Center. Movie goes on a while while the characters try to determine who the man in the hospital is. We find out that a man named Vasquo (Vic Perry) is behind the whole matter. He had Raynor shot and had a plastic surgeon prepare the fake Raynor for the purpose of blowing up Raynor's experiment. While the real Raynor is recovering, we discover he is 7.5 seconds into the future (a really POOR reason is given to how this would happen and an even worse antidote. Okay, we can't always have good scientific reason in our Sci Fi movies.). In the end Vasquo and his incompetent gang are thwarted by Gene Nelson and Faith Domergue. Plot is a little thin on science fiction, but pretty fun throughout.
jim riecken (youroldpaljim)
The science fiction gimmick in this "B" British mystery is a man who after his highly radioactive body is fished out of the Thames, comes to life. After he awakes it is discovered that his brief death and exposure to radiation causes his consciousness to be 7 seconds into the future. This film soon drifts into a typical "wise cracking reporter" mystery after a reel or two and the "timeslip" gimmick is forgotten. Most of the film deals with a male and female reporter trying to prove the mysterious man is actually a famous scientist who is now being impersonated by an enemy agent. The script written by Charles Eric Maine, based on his novel, is typical of most of Maines screen/published science fiction; he comes up with an interesting science fiction gimmick and works it into a mundane plot. In this case a typical "wise cracking reporter" mystery. Another of example of this is the film THE ELECTRONIC MONSTER aka ESCAPEMENT from a script by Maine based on his published novel. An historical note; American actor Gene Nelson was dancer and singer who starred in many musicals. He was in an accident about a year before this film was made and it prevented him from dancing.