THE ATOMIC MAN, 1955

THE ATOMIC MAN
1955
(Also released as Timeslip)

A rare British sci-fi production with a renowned scientist involved in a Timeslip - hence the original British release title. 

Starring Gene Nelson, Faith Domergue, Peter Arne, Joseph Tomelty, Donald Gray

PLOT:
A man is chased, shot and falls into a river. When the police pull him out, a news photographer takes a picture of him that shows a glowing halo around him. Mike Delaney, a reporter, recognizes the injured man as a renowned scientist from the United States. During an operation to remove the bullet the man dies for 7 and a half seconds. When he is revived he seems to have lost his mind. When the doctor and Delaney try to question him, his answers make no sense. Finally they realize he is answering the questions 7 and a half second seconds before they are asked. He has slipped in time. He doesn't remember much except that he thinks a man named Vasco was responsible for his being shot. He teams up with reporter Delaney to track down this Vasco who turns out to be his evil double who seems intent on destroying his experiments with artificial tungsten.

This story was broadcast as a live play on TV by the BBC in the mid-'50s. It was preceded by a solemn announcement to the effect that the hospital practices depicted bore no relationship to those of the National Health Service.

Like many British science-fiction films of that period, chances for US distribution were increased by top billing two American stars, Gene Nelson (who had just come off his biggest role in Oklahoma! (1955)) and Faith Domergue (who had just starred in This Island Earth, and It Came From Beneath the Sea).

In the United States, this was picked up by Allied Artists (formerly Monogram) and re-titled "The Atomic Man" from its original British title of Timeslip.

Donald Gray was known to British viewers for his portrayal of Mark Saber, the one-armed detective in the TV series The Vise (1954).

Charles Eric Maine originally wrote this as a half-hour television program for the BBC. It was expanded into a screenplay by Maine for this film. He expanded it again into a novel that was published in hardcover in Great Britain and the US in 1957 under the title "The Isotope Man".

CAST:
Gene Nelson ... Mike Delaney
Faith Domergue ... Jill Rabowski
Peter Arne ... Dr. Stephen Rayner / Jarvis
Joseph Tomelty ... Detective Inspector Cleary
Donald Gray ... Robert Maitland
Vic Perry ... Emmanuel Vasquo
Paul Hardtmuth ... Dr. Bressler
Martin Wyldeck ... Dr. Preston

Directed by Ken Hughes

RUNNING TIME: 77 MIN

Tags: Gene Nelson, Faith Domergue, Peter Arne, Joseph Tomelty, Donald Gray, Timeslip