THE PROJECTED MAN (1966)

Dr. Hill (Mary Peach) is called in by Dr. Steiner (Bryant Haliday) to help him and his assistant Dr. Mitchel (Ronald Allen) on an important project: a ray that can teleport (or, as they insist on calling it, project) a thing from one place to another. It's worked on objects, as Steiner proves with Hill's watch, but with living guinea pigs, the animal always dies—and even the watch after projection is a little goofy as its hands spin rapidly out of control. Meanwhile, we discover that Blanchard (Norman Wooland), the head of the foundation Steiner works for, is being pressured by Latham (Derrick De Marney) to kill the experiment. (If we ever discover why, I didn't catch it; maybe scientific jealousy?) Steiner, Hill and Mitchel make some changes and successfully project a monkey, but Blanchard forces them to give an official demonstration before they're sure everything will work. They go through with it, but when the ray malfunctions, their funding is pulled. Mitchel discovers evidence of tampering. Steiner decides to use himself as a subject, something that Hill and Mitchel (who are hitting it off quite well) discourage. Steiner ropes a receptionist into helping him, but things get cocked up again, and Steiner winds up projected to a construction site where he interrupts a couple of crooks breaking into a bank. The projecting hideously disfigures Steiner's face and he electrocutes everyone he touches. He eventually rigs up a cloth to cover half his face, like a Phantom of the Opera mask, and like the Phantom, he's out for revenge.

This plays like a mash-up of other sci-fi/horror films: The Fly and The 4D Man involve similar experiments with similar outcomes; Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, House of Wax and any number of other movies with their scientists who are driven to madness by their experiments. It doesn't add anything compelling to the genre, and with special effects kept to a minimum, it's not a must-see for genre fans. But it's not as bad as its reputation would indicate. Haliday is sometimes dissed for giving a rather bloodless performance, and it's true that his monster self isn't as scary as he should be, but he does feel a little more realistic than other mad scientist characters. Peach and Allen have a nice chemistry, and even get to have unmarried sex without consequences. De Marney is a decent baddie, though Wooland doesn't make much of an impression. If the fx are on the weak side, Haliday's post-projection make-up is good. I saw this in a pan-and-scan print; the widescreen print on the DVD would almost certainly improve things. [YouTube]