BY HANK REINEKE
It was never his intention to be remembered as the Alfred
Hitchcock of the Chester-Delaware Counties of Eastern Pennsylvania. Director Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr. was a devout
Christian whose real passion was turning out religious-themed short films that
would bring the Gospel to the masses. But
such proselytizing was cost prohibitive. So, at the suggestion of - and in partnership with - Philadelphia-based distributor/producer
Jack H. Harris, Yeaworth signed on to direct a handful of low-budget teenage
dramas and science-fiction films. Harris
had convinced Yeaworth that there was a cash-grab market for such indie films,
and these productions would bring in enough revenue to fund projects with
loftier aspirations.
Yeaworth’s first feature film (as co-producer), The Flaming Teenage (1956), was not
really his at all. It was instead a
cobble of pre-existing footage from a drug-abuse morality fable now disguised
and sold to distributors as an exploitation film. Things would evolve in the summer of 1957
when, working in tandem with the movie business-savvy Harris, Yeaworth’s Valley
Forge Productions cameras cranked out the soon-to-be-cult-classic science-fiction
film The Blob (1958) featuring twenty-seven
year old Steve McQueen.
The partnership of Harris and Yeaworth proved to be a brief
but modestly lucrative teaming of two disparate souls on separate life missions.
Two additional sci-fi films, with Yeaworth directing and Harris co-producing, would
follow in The Blob’s successful
box-office wake: The 4D Man (1959) and Dinosauraus!
(1960). Though neither of these subsequent films would inculcate their way into
the American pop-culture psyche as had The
Blob, The 4D Man, the first of
the two, is an intelligent, under-praised minor contribution to the 1950’s
sci-fi canon.
One of the bonus features included on this new Blu-ray
release of The 4D Man from Kino
Lorber is “Reflection from the Fourth Dimension,†a featurette ported over from
the German SubKultur 2011 DVD issue of the film. These dimensional reflections come courtesy
of Jack H. Harris (1918-2017) who muses unapologetically on a career of
bringing exploitation films to the big screen. Aside from his participation in The
Blob, Harris might be best remembered as the man who helped bring such
post-college student cult films as Schlock!
(1973) and Dark Star (1974) to movie
houses. His penny-pinching patronage of
young talent undoubtedly helped launch the careers of directors John Landis and
John Carpenter, respectively.
Harris brags in the featurette that he never had to
license any literary works to bring a story to the screen. There were, he muses, plenty of ideas already
out there, so why pay to license any literary material? Having said that, the wily producer would
admit the idea for The 4D Man was not
entirely self-generated. It came to him
courtesy of an illustration on the cover of Weird
Tales magazine, where a man was pictured walking through a wall, his body mass
co-mingling seamlessly with the atoms of the brick.
Harris was a film economist of the Roger Corman School,
and Yeaworth was a dependable enough filmmaker to stay on budget. Shot entirely in Chester and Delaware
Counties, Pennsylvania, fans of The Blob
will recognize many of the same faces from that film in small supporting roles
here: actors from Yeaworth’s personal troupe (George Karas, John Benson, Elbert
Smith et. al.). And, in much the same
manner that The Blob had helped
introduce Steve McQueen to movie audiences, The
4D Man would mark the feature film debut of actress Lee Meriwether.
Crowned as Miss America in 1955 during the pageant’s very
first televised edition, Meriwether would tour as a spokesman for the organization
during most of the following year. She then began to pick-up small roles in
early, live television productions, before being offered the substantial role
of Linda Davis in The 4D Man. Looking back on her experience, Meriwether
fretted that she was perhaps still “too green†as an actress for the assignment
and unsatisfied with her performance. She thought the film’s screenplay (co-written
by Theodore Simonson and Cy Chermak) was, in her own words, “very
involved.â€
She had a point. Trying to explain away the complex concepts of a scientist moving in and
out of the fourth dimension was a tough task, though it must be said that the
movie’s special effects are relatively impressive for a regional film shot on a
modest budget. Meriwether’s character
works at the Fairview Research Center, where some sort of secret federal
government experimentations are underway. It’s no secret that she has to contend with her fair share of sexual
harassment in the workplace. She’s
engaged to Dr. Scott Nelson (Robert Lansing), in love with the doctor’s
brother, Tony Nelson (James Congdon) and is routinely and unwelcomingly being hit
up for dates by the shifty Roy Parker (Robert Strauss).
Tony Nelson is, to put it politely, a disruptor. Obsessed with his experimentations with the
fourth dimension, he accidentally burned down the workplace of his previous employer. Understandably dismissed from his position
following that inferno, he resurfaces at Fairview where his older brother Scott
serves. The two appear to have a frosty
relationship. Their grudging
interactions become understandable when we learn that Tony has a history of
running off with Scott’s paramours. Unfortunately for Scott, his inability to
hold on to women will soon be the least of his troubles.
Not only are his inventions being co-opted by both a
shifty coworker and an unscrupulous boss, he’s also beginning to suffer
symptoms of muscular stiffness. The
laboratory’s medical officer suggests his ever-worsening condition may be the
result of exposure to excessive amounts of radiation. It’s also determined that he is sending out
strong “electro-magnetic impulses†and other tests reveal his brainwaves are registering
“different than most people.†Perhaps
even enough to drive him mad.
These conditions ultimately result in his being able to
pass through glass, metal, drywall, brick, and steel. The only way he can renew his personal energy
and appearance is to literally suck the life out of his flesh-and-blood victims
through a kiss or simply a mere touch. Having an intimate knowledge of the science brother Tony rues, “A man in
the fourth dimension is indestructible.†Perhaps.
If The 4D Man
was ambitious in its cerebral storyline, the final project pairing Harris and
Yeaworth was ambitious in its scope… CinemaScope. Harris was able to sell an idea for a
combination prehistoric monster/children’s film Dinosauraus! to Universal-International… where the film would play
in some markets as the under-bill to the more adult-orientated Brides of Dracula. It’s the mostly visually impressive of
Yeaworth’s films. Gone from the screen
are the low-budget locations shoots mounted in and around the sleepy hamlets of
the director’s hometown. They’ve now
been replaced by the exotic beaches and townships of St. Croix, in the Virgin
Islands, and the film comes replete with colorful underwater sequences, boasts
its very own team of special effect experts and features a great Ronald Stein
score.
The story is a simple one and serves as little more than
an episodic template of action and dramatic sequences. The troubles begin when a construction company
sets off a series underwater charges in their duties of constructing a new
harbor. These explosions – unfortunately
for the island’s inhabitants - blast through a layer of submerged rock, uncovering
a subterranean river of ice that has sustained two “perfectly preserved†50 ton
dinosaurs through the ages.
Oddly, the construction teams (which include lead actors Ward
Ramsey and Paul Lukather) seem more aggrieved than excited by their historic,
if accidental, discovery. They don’t see
this as a world shaking event, merely as a nuisance they will delay the
dredging of their harbor project. Dutifully,
if somewhat reluctantly, they pull both of the fully formed dinosaurs from
their ice block tombs with an industrial winch. But even with these two miraculous specimens lying about them on the
sandy beachfront, the crew seems all rather blasé about it. They at least allow that – just perhaps - a
scientific team should be brought in to have a look at what they uncovered. When they decide to break for the day,
someone suggests they probably should leave someone behind to guard the frozen
fossils. “Yeah, I guess so,†is the lazy
response, before carelessly anointing a drunken Irishman (James Logan) to stand
guard. To O’Leary’s credit, he does a
proper job of it until a few stray bolts of lightning awaken the sleeping behemoths…
which, to be fair, is not really his fault at all.
There are a few subplots sprinkled throughout. These involve the doings of the devious “Hackerâ€
(Fred Engelberg), the Governor island Representative, who has selfish plans to
make himself rich at the expense of the team’s excavation. There’s also an oft put-upon small boy (Alan
Roberts) who gets to ride bareback on a Brontosaurus… but whose presence mostly
reminds us that this film is marketed to youngsters. Much of film revolves around the antics of a
re-animated Caveman (Gregg Martell). This
pantomiming Caveman actually not only provides a comic relief to the film, but
also adds more than a bit of padding to its running time. There’s a long (and probably unnecessary) sequence
that follows the non-cosmopolitan Neanderthal roaming freely around an island
cottage. It’s there that he’s introduced to all the curious modern conveniences
of the day and to transvestitism. Enough said.
Of course there’s little doubt that the kids attending in
1960 would have liked to see more rampaging dinosaurs and less cross-dressing
cavemen, no matter how amusing. This was
still the day of stop-motion miniatures and back projection, so the special effects
contained herein might seem primitive to modern audiences. But while neither would receive screen credit,
Harris offers that Willis O’ Brien (of King
Kong (1933) and The Lost World (1925)
fame) served as a technical consultant on the picture, and that both dinosaurs
models were the creation of Marcel Delgado who also worked on the original Kong
and Mighty Joe Young classics. The effects are pretty well done, and it must
be said that the Tyrannosaurus Rex in the film is particularly nasty creature. The film, for all its simple charms, is no
classic. It most likely will appeal to
nostalgia film buffs that first caught this picture as a matinee in their local
bijou back in 1960 or to those fans of stop-motion dinosaur model wizardry.
This Kino Lorber edition of Dinosauraus! features a brilliant 4K restoration and features a
2.35:1 presentation and DTS audio. Special features include an audio commentary by Kris Yeaworth, the
director’s son, and the enlightening featurette “Dinosauraus!: A Monstrous Tale,†the latter of which includes
reminiscences by Jack H. Harris, actor Paul Lukather, and prehistoric monster
film historians Donald F. Glut and Bill Warren. There are eight chapter stops, trailers, and removable English
sub-titles.
The company’s edition of The 4D Man also features a new 4K restoration and a 1.85:1
presentation and DTS audio. Special
features include audio commentaries by Richard Harland Smith and Kris Yeaworth,
the featurette “Reflections from the Fourth Dimension†featuring an illuminating
interview with Jack H. Harris. The set
also includes an “Animated Image Gallery†(a slide show of stills), the
original radio spot and trailer as well as an assortment of trailers of other
vintage sci-fi films from the Kino catalog.
CLICK HERE TO ORDER "THE 4D MAN" FROM AMAZON
CLICK HERE TO ORDER "DINOSAURUS!" FROM AMAZON