The Flame Barrier (1958) User Reviews

Jungle horrors

[JohnHowardReid · 6/10 · 30 November 2006]

This minor sci-fi thriller from the Gardner-Levy stable is typical of the breed:—lots and lots of repetitious talk from a few stereotyped characters enmeshed in a predictable, well-used plot, strung together with a bit of stock footage, one or two days of location shooting in some uninteresting scrub-land, and a tiny slice of special effects work. And it's all filmed in a totally routine manner, using tedious close-up after close-up to enable a quick sale to TV.

Give all that, this entry is not too bad. In fact, after a slow start, it becomes moderately suspenseful. The director has contrived some atmosphere and tension, despite the constraints of his very moderate budget. The players, especially the attractive Miss Crowley, come across well (partly thanks to Jack MacKenzie's fine cinematography). And while the screenplay offers more than its fair share of standing-still dialogue, there's still just enough action to satisfy not-too-critical fans.

There are other 50's sci-if you should see before this one...

[captainapache · 4/10 · 14 December 2005]

This was actually a well made movie with good production values, nice location filming and some good acting but it totally loses it's momentum in the script department. You will think you are watching a jungle exploration flick with a lot of bickering for most of the film. There a a few scattered special effects here and there but most of the 'action' takes place at the end with a very abrupt ending that demonstrates the poor scriptwork.

Not bad by any means but definitely a 'B minus' flick.

The are actually some other 50's sci-if you should see before this one: First Man into Space - Caltiki the Immortal Monster (goriest 50's sci-fi yet) - Space Master X-7(in widescreen 2:35 if you can find it!) - Night the World Exploded

Now, available in Public Domain

[proeling · 4/10 · 7 July 2017]

This movie has virtually disappeared from the face of the Earth. Of those who saw it on late night TV in the 1960's, who can forget the look of terror frozen on the scientist who had been"absorbed" by the radioactive crystalline goo? You who are too young to remember, it will seem like nothing. But for those vintage enough to remember, that scene must be seared in the back of your eye sockets.

And how did a satellite crash through a jungle, skid hard enough to leave a scorched gouge, and then somehow wedge itself down into the bottom of a cave anyway?

You are in for a real treat. This classic can now be found on the Internet Archive (www.Archive.org). Please remember to tip your waitress . . .

https://archive.org/details/TheFlameBarrier1958_20170708

A few good shocks, but a plot loaded with loose ends.

[youroldpaljim · 7 November 2001]

This film was first released in 1958 to fill the bottom half of a double bill with the much superior RETURN OF DRACULA. I have an original poster for this double bill hanging in my living room. I first saw this film as a kid on T.V. in the mid sixties. It was frequently shown on "Supernatural Theater." It was one of my favorites when I was a kid. However, viewing the film as an adult, without eyes dimmed by nostalgia, THE FLAME BARRIER is just what it is; a quickly made thriller to back up a much superior film to fill a "shock" double bill.

On the plus side: I will admit the film does have a few good shocks. One character suddenly burns to death and turns into a skeleton (for reasons that that are never adequately explained) and the shot of the dead scientist body embedded in protoplasmic mass are pretty effective. The cast is good and the direction involving enough that you forget half the film consists of the cast cutting through brush. However, the script has the feel of having been written very quickly. The film wraps up leaving the viewer with more loose ends than an old dish rag. When the explorers find the satellite and protoplasmic mass, they also find the monkey that was sent up in satellite still alive. Why did the protoplasmic mass not devour it or destroy it with its radiation when the monkey was in the satellite with it? As the previous reviewer here pointed out, this blob stays in one place and much of the plot depends on this. Yet, before the cast even encounters the blob, they encounter charred skeletons, a blood soaked Indian village, and then there is the Indian guide who was never near the blob encased satellite, who suffers from radiation burns and then mysteriously burns up down to a skeleton. Perhaps the satellite brought something else back with it that the adventurers didn't encounter? Perhaps more likely this film was rushed into production before the writers had time for a re-write to tie up all the loose ends.

Not bad for a cheapie with a meaningless title

[jamesrupert2014 · 5/10 · 13 October 2019]

The search for a crashed satellite in the jungles of MesoAmerica finds instead a gelatinous existential threat from beyond "The Flame Barrier". The film opens with a nonsensical prologue that carefully explains how a rocket is going to attempt to penetrate the mysterious (and titular) flame barrier, which surrounds our planet at an altitude of 200 miles. The flame barrier is sci-fi pseudoscience at its worst but fortunately has nothing to do with the story and is never again mentioned. The film is a fusion of sound-set jungle adventure (the first ¾) and space monster in a cave sthick (1/4) and is surprisingly entertaining (consider its leaden pace, remarkably silly-looking monster and nearly incoherent plot). Considering the material they had to work with, the three leads (Arthur Franz, Kathleen Crowley, Robert Brown) are pretty good and there are some good lines "Excuse the cockroaches. Fortunately they don't bite...everything else does". As cheapie sci-fi horrors go, the pointlessly entitled "The Flame Barrier" is watchable and slightly memorable (especially the head sticking out of the blob). Crowley and Brown deserve credit for their casual and competent handling of the chimpanzee.

Hollywood's worst Blob entry

[kevinolzak · 3/10 · 2 April 2019]

1958's "The Flame Barrier" was a decidedly lesser vehicle for actor Arthur Franz, from the production team of Jules V. Levy and Arthur Gardner, responsible for superior titles such as "The Vampire," "The Monster That Challenged the World," and "The Return of Dracula." The last and by far least of this quartet, spending most of the film trekking through Mexico's Yucatan jungle to find evidence of what happened to an eccentric millionaire who dared to locate a downed satellite believed to have disintegrated in the 'flame barrier' 200 miles above the earth. Kathleen Crowley ("Target Earth," "Curse of the Undead") plays the would be widow, anxious to learn the truth about her missing husband and unsure If she truly loves him (they led separate lives), with Franz as the experienced no nonsense guide, Robert Brown his younger brother, more amiable with a predilection for alcohol. It's no surprise that a triangle of sorts develops between them, it's a long haul after all, but with animals dying from unknown causes, and skeletons of natives that perished from mysterious burns there at least is the promise of some dread waiting at journey's end. The trio finally reach the location of the lost campsite, now deserted, and the corpse of her husband in a nearby cave where he fell victim to a shapeless gelatinous mass from the outer reaches of space that accompanied the satellite to the earth's surface and threatens to engulf the entire world. A catalog of clichés from start to finish, and a finale that proves as predictable as everything that precedes it, but at least it still delivers a monster. Arthur Franz plays the same kind of cardboard character he essayed in "The Atomic Submarine," while Kathleen Crowley provides welcome eye candy and the best performance. Robert Brown worked another 30 years but only amassed three dozen credits, chief among them Roger Corman's 1962 "Tower of London," plus a first season STAR TREK, "The Alternative Factor."

"It's either you or tequila"

[hwg1957-102-265704 · 4/10 · 18 December 2022]

For a film called 'The Flame Barrier' disappointingly you don't see anything of the actual barrier. What you do get is a wife employing two brothers to track down her husband who has gone off into central America to look for a spacecraft that fell out of the sky. At the end of their trek through the interior our main characters find...I'm not sure what. It's mainly a jungle picture with the usual stock footage, native bearers, poisonous snake encounter, slashing through vegetation and meeting a chimpanzee, ending with an absurd fire monster which looks like a block of ice. (?) The actors playing the brothers are unlikeable and boring and the romantic angle is risible, seemingly written by a nine year old who doesn't know how adults behave. A dreary movie apart from the music score by Gerald Fried which was more exciting than the film itself.

In the same year the same director Paul Landres made 'The Return Of Dracula' which was excellent. It just goes to show.

She Who Must Be Milked For Money

[boblipton · 4/10 · 27 September 2019]

Some time ago, a rocket ship hit the "flame barrier" at the edge of outer space. Now, Kathleen Crowley has shown up in Central America. She wants jungle guides Arthur Franz and his brother, Robert Brown, to take her into the jungle, where she hopes to find either her husband, or his corpse.

It's a fairly standard, cheap jungle picture, with people trying to look like Meso-American Indians instead of Black jungle natives, with a tinge of pseudo-scientific nonsense at the end. The script doesn't try to hard, although the performers are good, and there are one or two decent comedy put-downs early on. Miss Crowley, who appeared in several scifi movies at this point in her career, is an attractive blonde, with a voice a bit like Angie Dickinson.

The movie tries to gain from strength by its genre-crossing plot, but winds up simply looking like it has a really dumb monster plot tacked onto its end.

Another science fiction safari movie

[dstillman-89383 · 6/10 · 16 May 2019]

Like "Monster of Green Hell", much of this movie is taken up with a long African safari. The three principal characters argue, struggle and search mainly for a reason to continue. Natives provide it several times just as the party is ready to turn back. The acting is good and the continuing ambivalent relationship between the rich woman and the safari leader continues to warm up. There is no real special effects until they reach the location they sought after. The final scene is the only one that qualifies as science fiction. A good movie but light on science fiction.

Too much fun to dismiss. Too hokey to be nothing more than a camp classic.

[mark.waltz · 6/10 · 20 January 2021]

This is my new "Cobra Woman", that type of film that you can watch over and over simply because it is so enjoyable, not because it is great. Arthur Franz, Kathleen Crowley and Robert Brown seem to know that too under the direction of Paul Landres, and it's a shame that this film is not more well known for its camp elements as well as its Indiana Jones like story. Crowley is searching for her husband, a scientist who followed a falling satellite into the jungle and has disappeared. Franz and brother Brown are hired by her to escort her to South America where they encounter jungle natives, poisonous snakes, all types of creepy crawlies and an energy that destroys. What is causing this? In just 75 minutes, that question is answered and while it is not necessarily believable, you have a lot of fun getting there.

Crowley keeps being questioned by Franz as to the motives for her wanting to find her husband, and she never really answers which opens up a romance between them as always happens in films like this. She doesn't even go out to buy a pair of slacks for the trip, considering the fact that Franz's jeep will only take them so far. They make her pay for involving them by having her go pick out kindling, knowing she'll most likely scream when she encounters something she's not familiar with, and in this case, it's a family of tarantulas. surprisingly, when she knocks them off, there aren't babies underneath the log that she simply carries back.

Later, she has encounters with various breeds of snakes, one a boa constrictor who doesn't really seem too interested in constricting her, and later a pretty poisonous snake which makes me ask a question why all the snakes that are pretty have poison. Later, there is an iguana, but somehow she doesn't see it approaching her in her tent. Of course she makes friends with a chimpanzee. Doesn't every heroine in a movie jungle? As for the mystery itself, there are a lot of questions that were left unanswered, but I got enough information to make the conclusions myself. This mixture of jungle action and science fiction and a little bit of horror is a lot of fun, and well worth finding.

Unusual Sci-Fi item; good fun

[pmsusana · 3 February 2001]

Blob movies became suddenly quite fashionable in the late fifties; this lesser-known entry offers a few unique twists. Unlike the slipping, sliding blobs of other films, this one doesn't move, apparently content to remain stationary while digesting its first two victims, a space ship and its single human occupant. It does, however, have the ability to project a forcefield which instantly disintegrates any would-be rescuers who come too close. Anyway, this film is professionally made and acted, and has its share of suspenseful sequences. And the image of the man encased in the protoplasm, his face frozen in an agonized silent scream, is a horrific one.

"Well, Our Luck Has Just Run Out!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 12 October 2020]

A satellite goes through THE FLAME BARRIER, causing it to crash into the jungles of Mexico. Carol Dahlmann (Kathleen Crowley) hires a man (Arthur Franz) and his brother to help her find her missing husband, who had gone searching for the fallen craft.

Setting out on their journey, the trio encounter many perils, including Mexican hyenas (!), and the usual big-snake-on-a-tree-limb that appears in all jungle movies of this type. They also encounter a tribe of Hollywood "Indians" in matching wigs. Said "natives" quickly come in handy as baggage carriers.

Meanwhile, Ms. Dahlmann's hair remains soft and manageable, despite the tropical heat. Wasn't there a satellite out here somewhere? And, what about the Hollywood "Indians" that keep melting all over the place?

This movie is a short, yet seemingly endless jungle adventure disguised as a sci-fi epic. It saves all of its real action for the final few minutes. The ultimate revelation is fairly novel, but it's hardly worth enduring the first 90% of this movie to get to it...