First saw this one in a theater when I was sixteen--sat through it twice. It's a pretty standard entry in the "what comes after the end of the world" genre, from the "we did it to ourselves" theme to the cheesy mutants (lots of mutants in the fifties and sixties--them atom bombs, y'know).
That said, this is a pretty good movie with some familiar faces. Preston Foster is the obligatory 1960s German Scientist--no accent, but he does sport a monocle and a goatee. Foster is the veteran of quite a few two reeler Westerns. Philip Carey is the "hunky" Scientist. His claim to fame is that he was Philip Marlowe on TV. The real pro here is John Hoyt, who did just about everything one could do on film and TV. Merry Anders (remember "Dragnet?") and Steve Franken, as the love interest and comic relief, respectively, round out the cast.
As for the story line, the protagonists sure are a lucky bunch--after winding up on a burned-out earth, they manage to stumble onto the only bunch of people on the whole planet who have any technology and are actually willing to help them out.
The only real minus is that there is a considerable amount of dead time comprising views of the future scientists' underground labs and factories, all to the strains of perky background music, but it's not too excruciating.
As with all drama, there is conflict, mostly with the aforementioned mutants. In addition, there's a "villain" among the future people. Not that he's really what you'd call "evil"--he's more of a cranky guy who just doesn't like competition with the bunch from the past.
Even with the holes, the story is better than many other SF offerings of the era and has a neat little twisty ending. If you really want to close the loop on this one, watch the whole show then replay the beginning. Watch carefully and you'll see what I mean just prior to the line, "What was that?" about six and a half minutes in.
Hard core fans, be sure to look for Forrest J Ackerman at about minute 44.
That said, this is a pretty good movie with some familiar faces. Preston Foster is the obligatory 1960s German Scientist--no accent, but he does sport a monocle and a goatee. Foster is the veteran of quite a few two reeler Westerns. Philip Carey is the "hunky" Scientist. His claim to fame is that he was Philip Marlowe on TV. The real pro here is John Hoyt, who did just about everything one could do on film and TV. Merry Anders (remember "Dragnet?") and Steve Franken, as the love interest and comic relief, respectively, round out the cast.
As for the story line, the protagonists sure are a lucky bunch--after winding up on a burned-out earth, they manage to stumble onto the only bunch of people on the whole planet who have any technology and are actually willing to help them out.
The only real minus is that there is a considerable amount of dead time comprising views of the future scientists' underground labs and factories, all to the strains of perky background music, but it's not too excruciating.
As with all drama, there is conflict, mostly with the aforementioned mutants. In addition, there's a "villain" among the future people. Not that he's really what you'd call "evil"--he's more of a cranky guy who just doesn't like competition with the bunch from the past.
Even with the holes, the story is better than many other SF offerings of the era and has a neat little twisty ending. If you really want to close the loop on this one, watch the whole show then replay the beginning. Watch carefully and you'll see what I mean just prior to the line, "What was that?" about six and a half minutes in.
Hard core fans, be sure to look for Forrest J Ackerman at about minute 44.