I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The earth is covered with mutants, at least all those outdoors a special compound. It's 2024, and a routine flight for air force officer Robert Clarke has him traveling 64 years in a matter of less than an hour. Now, he must find a way to live in this scary new world, not the last man on earth, not the Omega man, and not "I am Survivor". This is a very clever science fiction tale of how man's exploration into space destroyed the world he knew. Gee, seems like man can't have anything nice without intentionally turning it into something destructive.An interesting use of "What if" has Clarke trying to head back to his time, a la what happened to Kim hunter and Roddy McDowall when they "Escaped the Planet of the Apes". While this obvious drive-in movie makes some very good points, who really was analyzing that back in 1960? It's in retrospective that this has more of an impact as we look past the space exploration of the period after this and the two shuttle tragedies. There's also political irony with obvious Russians living in the complex, located smack in the middle of what used to be the good old U.S.A. Do we learn from movies like this as warnings, or do we poo-poo their ideals and continue on destructive patterns? The post nuclear age brought out many message films like this, but one thing is obvious: we can't continue to exploit the earth as we have done and expect it to survive.

As someone who once watched this kind of movie on TV in the late 60's and early 70's, believe me, this example of old Sci-Fi is the cream of the crop. It moves along at a brisk pace, the sets are original and futuristic, it has sex appeal, and a number of interesting subplots. In fact, as an example of its class. I would rate this 10 out of 10. I read another review here that criticized the view of the city of the future, because it looked like a "postcard". This person must have been born in 1990. In movies of this kind, it is RARE to get a glimpse of the city of the future! It also gave us a view of the destroyed city next door. Wow, what a treat! The budget for this film must have been ABOVE average. Where did I see this movie? On YouTube, where the title caught my eye.

After the release of 'Forbidden Planet' in 1956, and before the release of 'Planet of the Apes' in 1968, the overwhelming number of science fiction films were ultra-low budget affairs, generally produced to fill out double-bills at drive-in theaters. I would posit that this period should be called the Golden Era of Schlock.Schlock Scifi was not all bad...in fact, some of it was actually good, and a lot of it is interesting, and sometimes fascinating. There is a certain rough and ready charm to the earnestness and creativity of the actors, writers and directors, with some Schlock films being like the experience of watching community theater.This film contains creative usage of a derelict airfield, filmed and edited to give the impression of a future of ruin and decay. The director also made good use of some strange architecture at the Texas State Fairgrounds, allowing the audience to make believe they are in fact seeing the underground dwellings of the future.Stock footage of the F-102 'Delta Dagger' fighter plane is used to represent an experimental rocket...and in an unusual move, the director actually had a miniature created that matched the stock footage...the FX are extremely primitive even by 1960 standards, but I have to give them credit for finding a model of an F-102, because usually these films just show stock footage of say, an A-4 rocket and then a model of a B-52 or something completely unrelated. (BTW, the F-102 is what former president George Bush flew when he was in the 'Champagne Unit' of the Texas Air National Guard, avoiding Viet Nam.) There are some mildly scary screaming mutants here, who for some reason, the civilized people of the future keep in a huge dungeon inside their fortress, as opposed to a safer location outside the city. The mutants are bald and wear coveralls in close ups and medium shots...but when the camera looks down the stairs into the dungeon, the mutants have long hair and wear caveman clothes. Obviously, director Ulmer obtained some stock footage of the cavemen types and edited in to save money and time. The mutants yell a lot.Robert Clarke is pretty decent as Our Hero the square jawed USAF pilot, and Darlene Tompkins is strangely charming as Tirene, the cute mute in the short skirt. In the city of the future, everyone is sterile except for Tirene...until the arrival or Our Hero. The Supreme Leader of the City of the Future, as well as Tirene, want Our Hero to impregnate Tirene so as to perpetuate the human race.Apocalyptic Futures were in vogue during this era, but this film is unusual in that rather than forecasting an atomic war, it instead predicts Future Earth as a place where the atmosphere is gradually degraded from unrelenting atomic testing, and the human race is decimated by a series of plagues.The idea of a time traveler visiting a post-apocalyptic future was fairly new at this point. The George Pal adaptation of The Time Machine, also released in 1960, touched on the subject, but only in passing, and was more concerned with evolutionary changes, rather than nuclear holocaust. This film certainly beat the el cheapo 'Time Travelers' (1964) as well as the big-budget 'Planet of the Apes' (1968) to the punch. Like those two films, this one also has a shock ending. This film somehow manages to convey a mood of melancholy and anxiety, appropriate for the story of a man who learns that his world is going to hell. The subplot regarding his role as a sperm-donor, admittedly an adolescent male fantasy, is handled as plausibly as possible under the circumstances. Perhaps Gene Roddenberry was influenced by this film, since his 1964 unsold Star Trek pilot is also a story of a science-fiction sperm donor.Many reviewers like to discuss ne'er-do-well director Edgar Ulmer's style in this film. Certainly there are some elements of 1920's German expressionism that help this film be a little more creepy and moody than it would otherwise.In summary, this is a fun and interesting excursion into the land of Schlock, and it is better and more interesting than most Schlock...yet it was created as Schlock, and Schlock it will always be. View it in this context, and you will be happy.

Here we go again! Major William Allison (Robert Clarke), our reluctant hero (Is there any other kind in this type of cinema?), has reached the speed of light in his sonic-busting jet, shattered it, and has found himself on the other side of the time barrier. No small feat. But when he returns to his home base of operations, he finds it lifeless and ravaged by time. Little would he know how ravaged and by how much time. Also, as he will later find out, a victim of a nuclear conflict. Whew! That's a lot to swallow in one afternoon. Major Allison has definitely seen better days. He is then zapped by a paralyzing ray (a lavish matte shot) emanating from a futuristic metropolis and nestled next to a city in smithereens. Major Allison now finds himself hauled off--against his will--to an underground lodging facility. The Citadel, as the locals refer to it, is inhabited by a race of humans cowering in fear from the radiation scarred mutants living above. The city has a triangle motif everywhere: doorways, hallways, video screens, etc. Labeled a "'scape," an outsider, by both the mutants and tunnel dwellers, Allison finds solace and comfort in the arms of the super lovely Darlene Thomkins. She plays a deaf mute who remains the only fertile female within screaming distance. Or so says her father, "The Supreme." We know where this is going--don't we? Allison meets several other "'scapes," scientists from his future, who have other ideas on how he should spend his time: less time with the horny chick and more time seeking a return to his own time. Scientists are never any fun. In the end, the film is a cautionary tale against the arms race. I think it works well enough to be called a minor classic. If not--the mute female in the short skirt should suffice. For now.