Let's be realistic.

Excellent, a Must See

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Colorful supernatural thriller from producer George Pal has George Hamilton playing a scientist who discovers someone on his team has telekinetic powers and is killing off members one by one. Police investigating the first murder believe Hamilton lied about his background and is now a suspect after no one can find any evidence of his academic records. Hamilton must then figure out and stop whoever it is is using their powers to ruin his him and who is killing off his colleagues. "The Power" features some cool 1960s psychedelic special effects, a nice score by golden age composer Miklós Rózsa, a solid mystery, and a cool psychic showdown finale. Not a classic, but pretty entertaining stuff and a bit more serious than most of producer Pal's usual output. Suzanne Pleshette also appears in the film as a fellow scientist helping Hamilton.

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 This is a good example of this shortcoming.It looks so Hollywood and has an artificial feel that was quickly becoming outdated as traditions were falling and anything that revealed itself as insincere or plastic was becoming painfully transparent.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.

A panel of brilliant professors studying human endurance for the space program discover one of their colleagues harbors transcendental powers and is out to kill each one of them (causing heart attacks by the force of his mind). A good example of the major studio B-picture: most of the budget has gone into the 'idea', presented here with sleek visuals and designs, yet with a middle-drawer cast left to sort out the screenplay, which is distinctly without much power. George Pal produced, with amusing shock effects and editing tricks, but the potentially intriguing plot gets muddled up in dead-end scenes and red herrings. Suzanne Pleshette (as the one female on the panel) looks lovely, yet her character keeps popping up without explanation--and her confusing final scene leaves behind nothing but disenchantment. George Hamilton is the film's star, which should tell you how much thought went into the casting. ** from ****

George Pal's/Byron Haskin's version of "The Power" (based on the good novel by Frank Robinson, not the baseball player) is actually pretty entertaining and thrilling despite the relatively poor production values - quite a bit of 1960s cheesiness - but still the cast of stalwarts gives it all and it is probably the best George Pal film after 1960's "The Time Machine." Acting kudos go to Michael Rennie, Aldo Ray (!!!) and even, who would have thought it, star George Hamilton. This is one of those films whose concept far exceeds its execution but I still feel somewhat generous as I remembered it fondly from my youth and seeing it about 30 years later found out that it held up pretty well.And a great score by Miklos Rozsa too.