Barkey, you had me laughing calling the guy Gary Seven. I am surprised how many Star Trek guest stars are in this movie, and yes, the BGM is really jazzy. Robert Strauss is in this film (Sgt Animal from Stalag 17).
I've always loved this one. Great pick! Nobody but you would visit these old classics. Got to get the Kino Lorber version. I first saw this on a late show rerun and caught it any time I could on reruns, Sci Fi convention video rooms and then finally taped off of Cable! (Yeah, when 480 line VHS was the greatest. Hey, I could watch it any time I wanted then, what more does a geek really need?" ) For people wanting to call this dated or poo poo its FX, this was original, didn't owe anything to previous IP, and was not a carbon copy of a previous flick. For that alone it stands head and shoulders above most of the crap I have seen shoveled out in recent years.
I actually liked both the movie and the goofy jazz music, and I'll probably get the blu-ray eventually. I did a rip of the music for my mp3 player since I've never seen a soundtrack release. Sure, the film's hokey and the music is VERY what-the-fux, but it makes the film unique. There's this weird trilling noise whenever Scott uses his power, and I thought it was very effective. The special effects may be cheap, but they work well. I loved when he tests his power by sticking his hand through the store window, and they have that blue line effect to symbolize the window. Nice touch. One interesting aspect: Bill Warren in Keep Watching the Skies noted that the performances are good enough that you don't immediately realize what a total loser Scott is. He's very insecure, he's plodding as a scientist, and is unwilling to take any chances. And even his girlfriend abandons him in favor of his more outgoing brother. The only reason Scott gets his power is because he stole his brother's research and took a chance for once. Everyone in the cast is basically trying to leech off the others. The boss Carson (Edgar Stehli) is not above stealing full credit for anything his employees accomplish, even arbitrarily calling Scott's indestructible metal "Cargonite," and Scott is too weak to challenge him. Scott steals research from his own brother, and the weaselly assistant tries to steal from anyone he can. And for what? Even with this power, it's killing Scott. And the only way he can live is by killing others. Scott has literally become a leech. Even a little girl (Patty Duke) becomes a victim, though off camera. But when Scott finally gets his own back against Carson, it's glorious - the sequence is very well done. 4D Man is a weird little film, but it definitely has its moments. The movie actually predates the Marvel Universe creation of Adamantium! Edgar Stehli also appeared as the elder scientist in the Twilight Zone episode "Long Live Walter Jameson," and he was King Kronos in George Pal's Atlantis The Lost Continent (though he was overdubbed by Paul Frees).
Great extra points! This goes in my "Graded for Extra Effort" file. Some movies, even if they miss the full mark, you could tell they were really trying to do something different and new. The Jazz score alone shows they were not on the same vibe as other studio efforts. And people call the SFX "cheap" but hand done rotoscoping was anything but CHEAP in 1957. That alone was some major work. 5 years later and it could have been an Outer Limits movie.
Barkey, no offense, but me thinkith your particular tastes in low budget moviedom, requires a certain amount of aquirement. Is "aquirement" actually a word? Probably not. But you're a smart dog and can certainly understand my point.
