Not the Snap song

Another movie that I had surprisingly not heard of before the last time it showed up on TCM is The Power. It was released by MGM in the late 1960s, but somehow I don't recall it showing up on TCM before now. In any case, the plot sounded interesting, so I recorded it and recently watched it.

George Hamilton plays Jim Tanner, who works at some sort of government facility in the Los Angeles area with a group of scientists calling themselves the Committee on Human Endurance. They put all sorts of fit twentysomethings through the sort of physical tests designed to make even such fit people cry uncle, the reason being that the government is looking for people who can spend long periods in outer space and need to see how the human body can handle such stresses. One of the other scientists, Prof. Hallson (Arthur O'Connell), has given his fellow professors an IQ test and determined that one of them -- although he doesn't know which -- has some sort of superhuman intelligence. Nobody believes this, so to test things Hallson sets up a telekinesis test with a piece of paper on an pencil (as an axle). Amazingly, the paper starts spinning, seemingly of its own accord.

Tanner goes back to his apartment with his girlfriend who is also one of the scientists, Prof. Margery Lansing (Suzanne Pleshette). Sometime that evening, they get a call from Hallson's wife, who says he hasn't returned home. Now, it's not uncommon for such scientists to work late, so Tanner and Lansing go back to the facility and learn from the guard that Hallson never signed out. They go to his office and find not him, but a paper with the name Adam Hart. And then they do find Hallson, in a centrifuge designed to simulate high g-forces. Hallson is trapped in it, and the emergency switches don't work, so poor Hallson gets killed.

Worse for Tanner is that when the police come in the form of Detective Corlane (Gary Merrill), it's determined that Tanner's academic records can no longer be found in the original sources. Because of this, Tanner's boss, Prof. Nordlund (Michael Rennie) has to suspend him. Tanner decides that he's going to investigate. But before this, he passes by one of those boardwalk-style arcades where all the on-human attractions team up with the apparent intent to kill him. Tanner determines that whoever or whatever this Adam Hart is, Hart knows Tanner is onto him, and wants to use whatever powers he has to kill Tanner before Tanner can unmask him.

Tanner goes first to Hallson's home town out in the desert since Hallson seems to have been the first person to have known Adam Hart. Everybody there acts strangely, which gives Tanner the sinking suspicion that Hart had whatever superhuman powers he had already back then and there, and followed Hallson out to Los Angeles. That, and Tanner's body gets dumped out in the desert around a military bombing range. So it's back to Los Angeles, and back at the facility, where all of the committee members' lives seem to be in danger.

The Power is an intriguing little movie that certainly entertains well enough even if it doesn't have all that much basis in reality. But then, with a paranormal story like this, one probably shouldn't expect reality. The acting is OK at best, with a cast and production values that mostly feels like it's in TV movie of the week range. Still, even with all its limitations, The Power is a fun ride. Just don't go looking for too much out of it.