Before Hammer really hit its stride with regular outings starring Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee as adversaries, came this well crafted little piece of science fiction. It's subtly anti-nuclear in its theme with good suspense and action throughout despite a limited budget. Also, unlike most American sci-fi films of the same era, there's no romance in this film at all. A common subplot in American 50's sci-fi films was a romance between a woman scientist and lawman or fellow scientist where the man wanted the female scientist to pitch that Ph.D. in favor of dishpan hands. There's none of that here - all of the central characters are men. There's not even the usual conflict followed by partnering of the rather geeky scientist with the gung-ho sceptical lawman, also a common fixture in American 50's sci-fi. Everyone here is pretty much cooperative from the start, all dedicated to finding a solution to the mystery of random thefts of nuclear material coupled with a sudden epidemic of people with radiation sickness and burns.
Dean Jagger is probably the only actor you'll recognize here as the main character, Dr. Adam Royston, who is employed in a Scottish lab doing various experiments on nuclear material when this mystery takes him, at first unwillingly, out of his lab and into the field. Jagger is not even trying to feign a Scottish accent, and oddly no explanation is ever given as to why an American scientist is working in Scotland, as all of the focus is on the mystery, with very little left over for character development.
I highly recommend this seldom seen little film for fans of 50's science fiction films.
Dean Jagger is probably the only actor you'll recognize here as the main character, Dr. Adam Royston, who is employed in a Scottish lab doing various experiments on nuclear material when this mystery takes him, at first unwillingly, out of his lab and into the field. Jagger is not even trying to feign a Scottish accent, and oddly no explanation is ever given as to why an American scientist is working in Scotland, as all of the focus is on the mystery, with very little left over for character development.
I highly recommend this seldom seen little film for fans of 50's science fiction films.