Hellen
I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Lollivan
It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Jakoba
True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.
wes-connors
In sunny San Marino, California, bio-chemist George Hamilton (as Jim Tanner) tests the pain threshold of young men in orange shorts. This borders on sadomasochism, Mr. Hamilton admits, but the experiments are necessary research for space travel. Arriving at the space center is US government officer Michael Rennie (as Arthur Nordlund). He joins Hamilton and five others on an elite committee. A meeting is in order. The other members are geneticist Suzanne Pleshette (as Margery Lansing), chairman Richard Carlson (as Norman E. Van Zandt), biologist Earl Holliman (as Talbot Scott), anthropologist Arthur O'Connell (as Henry Hallson) and physicist Nehemiah Persoff (as Carl Melnicker)...At their meeting, Mr. O'Connell shares some startling news - he's discovered someone on the committee has "The Power" of super-intelligence. This includes mind-control and telekinetic abilities. The super-psychic remains silent and horrific murders begin. Protagonist Hamilton tries to stay alive, manage a series of highly aroused women, and find the killer. His only clue is the name "Adam Hart" scrawled on a piece of paper by the first victim. If director Alfred Hitchcock had stayed on the career path left with "The Birds" (1963), he might have released a film like "The Power"...Coming off groundbreaking TV work on "Outer Limits" and "Star Trek" (and working with his "War of the Worlds" (1953) colleague producer George Pal), Mr. Haskin gives us science fiction with a Hitchcock bent. This is not pale, unimaginative work, however; it's an imaginative vision of Frank M. Robinson's original story. The effects by Mr. Pal mix well with surrealistic paranoia and Haskin puts his own directorial spin on events. The most Hitchcock-like sequence is patterned after the "crop-duster" scene from "North by Northwest" (1959). Note how this version begins as director Haskin lines up an exiting gate door with opening jeep door for Hamilton. He's more like the rat in a maze than a man on the run.******** The Power (2/21/68) Byron Haskin ~ George Hamilton, Suzanne Pleshette, Michael Rennie, Earl Holliman
LeonLouisRicci
The Mid-60's was a troubling time for Movies in that the Culture was changing so fast in attitudes and style that most times Hollywood was not able to keep up and had difficulty making and marketing Films that looked contemporary. This is a good example of this shortcoming.It looks so Hollywood and has an artificial feel that was quickly becoming outdated as traditions were falling and anything that revealed itself as insincere or plastic was becoming painfully transparent. Here, some Men still wear Fedoras but if they become any smaller they will blink out of existence. Traditions die hard.There is some awful miscasting here, Earl Holliman the worst, but there are others (Pleshette). The interesting and fairly new Sci-Fi Plot device of telekinesis and Mind "Power" is given a serious treatment but the fault lies in the overall unfolding of a rather standard Police chase. There are a few eerie scenes, just not enough, and the Movie suffers from a rather confusing Villainous motivation.A mismatch of interesting themes with some good use of Color but even there it has that Studio look too often and after all is said and done (or mostly implied), this is a curious oddity that may be enjoyed for a look at an OOPART (out of place artifact) that is stiffly entertaining. Too bad it is has a consistently dated look because it is trying so hard to be so "Tomorrow" and it comes off as being "Yesterday", especially when it was released.
ObscureAuteur
This is a decent science fiction movie based on a solid story idea that stays on target. It is a well executed basic movie without big budget effects. To its credit it does not go off on silly tangents such as overdone love stories (perfunctory graphic sex was still rare in this era), connecting the power to aliens or the supernatural, over the top spectacle when the power is used (like the quickening in Highlander) or any other superfluous nonsense. A good clean science fiction story realized cleanly and effectively. Except ...Spoiler warning.My main quibble is that the writers did a Hollywood ending on the original story. The movie is quite faithful to the story until the very end. The power corrupted bad guy (who views ordinary humans as mere animals for him to use as he pleases) has spent the most of the movie trying to smoke out the other person who has the power but does not realize it. (In a scene early in the movie, one of the normal scientists, who fearfully knows that someone with the power is in the group, asks the entire group to attempt telekinesis on a spinner. He is counting on the hubris of the bad guy who will show off and thus help him convince the others that he is not delusional, that the power actually exists. The spinner moves, and vigorously, to the great surprise and alarm of the bad guy. He knows he is not doing it so someone else must have the power and is a thus a threat to him that must be eliminated.)The bad guy succeeds, by a rather blunt process of elimination as he kills off most of the others, in narrowing the hunt down to our hero. The bad guy tries repeatedly to kill the hero and comes close but he just can't finish him off since he cannot overcome the latent power within. In a final showdown the hero, forced to the brink of oblivion by the bad guy in a battle of power and will, finally realizes that he also has the power. To the chagrin of the bad guy it is a greater gift than his own just as he had feared. The hero is then able to return from the brink and easily stop the bad guy's heart to end the struggle.Here comes the big cop-out.Movie Ending: The hero walks off with his girl friend full of good intentions to be sure his power is not used further since power corrupts etc. The world is now safe from the bad guy, all will be well.Real Ending: The triumphant hero, his power now awakened, his ordinary humanity sheared away in the struggle, looks at the cringing animal by his side (formerly his cherished love interest) and thinks "it is going to be fun to be a god." This uncompromising ending takes the power theme to its inexorable conclusion that it is not a matter of morals or free will, a human being with such power will be corrupted. The power corrupts by its mere presence, it does not ask permission.
fritz-84
George Pal proved his feeling for good stories one more time after having produced "the time machine" and "Dr. Lao". An intelligent story about the fight between two para-psychological persons, one you don't know and the other not knowing being one. Superb cast, some not important "mistakies", but brilliant tricks and a high quality of suspense make this film a must for every science fiction fan and also for those being interested in "guess who it is" - criminal stories. I can imagine well that some people cannot agree with this comment because the story implicates a lot of knowing about para-psychological phenomenas to construct the logic of the plot, but surely it is well worth it.
