The Power (1968)

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Don't read any reviews with spoilers until after you see this movie! This one will keep you guessing all the way! George Hamilton and Suzanne Pleshette do a fine job of leading an excellent cast. The suspense keeps building, and there are many interesting and exciting scenes. One of the many things I like about this movie is that we get plenty of exterior scenes, and those are very well done here. George and Suzanne are simply outstanding--warm, appealing characters. He's handsome, she's beautiful, and the viewer gets to enjoy watching them on screen.I saw this about 40 years ago on TV, and just watched the DVD for the first time. It's as good as I remember it. Print looks good. Look closely and you may spot one scene, where characters walk across Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica! Always fun to spot settings one knows. Highly recommended, a very involving and satisfying story.

"The Power" is the about the best motion picture of the entire 1960's, & certainly plays better than about anything since. I can only rate 1958's "Vertigo" higher. Watching a classic like "The Power" makes one recognize just how tepid and weak are the films churned out since then then. "The Power" is typical Sixties, total Sixties! Some reviewers invoke the later movie "Scanners", claiming a kinship to "The Power"; but don't be fooled. "Scanners" was a cheapo, 70's style exploitation film complete with such techno "touches" as exploding heads. "The Power" works on much more subtle (and effective) level. It is the epitome of 1960's cool & sophistication. What makes it so compelling is that undefinable Sixties feel -- in everything from the quality of film used, the use of lighting, the cinematography... but also the styles shown -- from clothes to hairstyles, cars to offices & buildings. Also the old time actors used, familiar faces to any movie-goer of the period, and the straightforward, no-nonsense script. It's the same Sixties feel that TV's "The Invaders" has, as well as pics like "Fantastic Voyage".The sets of "The Power" are uniformly good, especially the offices & labs where the Astrophysics team, lead by Professor Jim Tanner (George Hamilton), work. The team consists of Tanner, Prof Lansing (Suzanne Pleshette), Prof Van Zandt, head of the Astrophysics Dept (Richard Carlson), Prof Hallson (Arthur O'Connell), Prof Melnicker (Nehemiah Persoff), and Prof Scott (Earl Holliman). Sitting in with them is government official Arthur Nordlund (Michael Rennie).The centrifuge in the basement is both cool and provides an exciting moment in the film, as Tanner and Professor Lansing try vainly to stop it before it kills Hallson. The offices of the scientists are very interesting, in that they appear to be laid out in a cluster, with windows into each others' offices. Thus Tanner can discuss each member of the team, while we see them at work, through the windows.The scene where Hallson is terrorized by The Power is excellent and chilling -- he's about to leave his office, when suddenly the door he'd entered through a moment before has disappeared! Confused, he goes back to retrieve a chair so he can peer out the high window, but when he turns back even the window is gone & there's only a blank wall! Then he starts feeling The Power crushing his heart... Another good scene is where George Hamilton is walking around Downtown L.A., passing a novelty store, and sees one of those "drinking bird" novelty devices wink at him, then spit water! Next an army of toy soldiers march into place & shoot at him. Feeling the increasing burden of The Power, he staggers into a funhouse complete with distorted mirrors. Somehow he gets bumped onto a carousel which starts speeding up, imitating the centrifuge at the lab, scenes of which are interspersed with the dizzying carousel.A true classic set piece is at a downtown hotel where a rowdy convention of salesmen is taking place, and first we see the crowded lobby where Tanner meets obnoxious Grover (Ken Murray). As there's no rooms available, Tanner, Lansing, and Melnicker join Grover at a swinging party in one of the suites, which goes on all night. First a live (hippie) rock band is playing, complete with blaring guitars, as the party-goers wildly dance, then later a hi-fi stereo is put to use. Totally Sixties! Again Tanner feels the weight of The Power bearing down on him, but it is Melnicker who pays the ultimate price of resisting it, suffering a fatal heart attack.Another terrific scene is when Tanner, while investigating a lead in Hallson's home-town, is stranded in the desert, which turns out to be on an Air Force firing range. So not only is The Power trying to kill him, but missiles from fighter planes! Later in a Santa Monica apartment building he goes down an elevator shaft to rescue Michael Rennie, whom The Power is apparently bearing down on, causing a heart attack. The Power again tries to kill Tanner as he's driving towards L.A. Harbor, and there's a great chase with the unknown assailant after Tanner, which ends at a drawbridge. The movie's climax (or is it?) takes place in an auditorium at the research center, aptly called "The Babble Pit", where Tanner confronts the man he's convinced has The Power -- Prof Scott. Only Scott believes it's Tanner who's the man with The Power!One highlight of the movie is when Tanner has the final showdown and endures the full might & fury of The Power, in a terrific montage. We see George Hamilton alternately freezing & burning, spinning & becoming a skeleton. That this sequence was done completely without CGI is a testament to the excellent visual effect team, which included Wah Chang of the old "Outer Limits". (In fact, director Byron Haskin has several "Outer Limits" episodes to his credit.) This sequence certainly proves that you don't need fancy computer graphics to make suspenseful & visually exciting special effects.For the Sixties "The Power" truly had an all-star cast of competent & professional actors, including (aside from those already listed) Yvonne De Carlo, Gary Merrill, Barbara Nichols, Aldo Ray, & as a party-goer -- Miss Beverly Hills! While I've never been a big fan of George Hamilton, he pulls off the central role of Tanner well; he and Suzanne Pleshette make a good and convincing screen couple. "The Power" is easily Hamilton's best role, and probably Pleshette's best role, too (along w/ the 1970 classic TVM "Along Came a Spider").Kudos to producer George Pal, director Byron Haskin, and of course to composer Miklos Rozsa, who provides a compelling score for the film. In retrospect, "The Power" was one of the "last hurrahs" of old-time cinema, before sleaze and plot ambiguity took over. "The Power" is MUST SEE cinema!

I rate this film as excellent, simply because it is so unique as science fiction goes. While particulars such as telekinesis are not in themselves very unique to the genre (and can often be trite and silly), when combined with the central theme of fear, is VERY unique. I cannot think of a single movie, regardless of its classification, that so powerfully and directly deals with the psychological reality of fear - and its destructive effect - as this film does.Of course, if the cast and director had failed to weave this central element of FEAR into the movie skillfully, then it could have easily been a silly forgettable film, or perhaps a not-so-forgettable, hilarious "bomb," remembered fondly and eternally only for being campy. Fortunately, the latter case was not realized, but instead an all-time classic science fiction piece that is remarkable for its singularity.I must also say that despite George Hamilton's reputation for being somewhat of a "ham," I thought he really did well in this, and in fact it is - for me - one of his most memorable roles.George Pal does his magic perfectly (and appropriately) in this movie (such as at the end, when Tanner (Hamilton) and Arthur Nordlund (Michael Rennie) are intimately involved in a surreal, powerful, metaphysical struggle. If you want to see FEAR represented symbolically in its quintessence - and at its most primordial - and represented in graphic form, then Pal's special effects in this scene bring it to life as it has never been done in cinema. It is not a cliché (for me, anyway . . .) to say that this final scene is truly "gripping" in its intensity. In addition, Michael Rennie is just PERFECT as the embodiment of all that is dark, powerful and "satanic." He makes a very Jungian symbol of evil here! I also thought Suzanne Pleshette performed quite well in this as the lead supporting actress.As in another underrated science fiction film of the era, "Colussus: The Forbin Project," one of the delights in seeing this film is its depiction of the optimistic pro-technical, pro-science attitude that was so pervasive in the sixties. One sees this, for example, in the architecture of the buildings at the beginning, where Tanner and Nordlund and Professor Margery Lansing (Pleshette)(along with some of the other co-stars) work . It gives it an ineffable, yet very concrete futuristic "feel" to the scene - something on the line of "Bucky Fuller meets Military-Industrial-complex." Yet, far from feeling "dark" at this point, one gets a very upbeat vibe from it.Likewise, some of the modern architecture in other buildings, such as a Frank Lloyd Wright-type house at one point, also underscores this feeling.There is one rather obvious goof in the movie, when Tanner is somehow "spotted" by the one of the pilots in some jet aircraft who are practicing at a target range. The possibility that a single man could be spotted by a pilot flying at high speed, and with little view of the ground (and in all likelihood, from a great altitude), is fairly remote, even though possible.There is, however, also a good comic touch sometimes, as when Tanner goes into an empty diner at one point, and the extreme-country twang of the singer's voice playing on the radio in the background will probably make anyone laugh, even lovers of country/western music! All in all, a superb film!

This story was first televised live during the summer of 1956 on one of the high quality drama series that flourished during the 1950's. Perhaps it was The United States Steel Hour. I was an eleven year old kid at the time and was fascinated with the basic plot. I have searched for information about the original teleplay, but have been unsuccessful. Does anyone out there have any info on the TV broadcast of this story?Several years later, I read Frank M. Robinson's novel, from which the two movies were made and enjoyed the 1968 film version. It had a terrific musical score, featuring a zither-like instrument played with felt hammers. George Hamilton did a fine job in the lead role.