Matcollis This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

AboveDeepBuggy Some things I liked some I did not.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Siflutter It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

a_chinn Colorful supernatural thriller from producer George Pal has George Hamilton playing a scientist who discovers someone on his team has telekinetic powers and is killing off members one by one. Police investigating the first murder believe Hamilton lied about his background and is now a suspect after no one can find any evidence of his academic records. Hamilton must then figure out and stop whoever it is is using their powers to ruin his him and who is killing off his colleagues. "The Power" features some cool 1960s psychedelic special effects, a nice score by golden age composer Miklós Rózsa, a solid mystery, and a cool psychic showdown finale. Not a classic, but pretty entertaining stuff and a bit more serious than most of producer Pal's usual output. Suzanne Pleshette also appears in the film as a fellow scientist helping Hamilton.

poe426 Long before David Cronenberg's SCANNERS (or even STEREO, the short that preceded SCANNERS), there was THE POWER. Part murder mystery, part sci-fi shocker, THE POWER boasts George Hamilton's finest performance ever (which I say because I'm not a big fan of his, but I liked him here) as well as some taut direction by Byron Haskin (who directed many of the very best episodes of THE OUTER LIMITS, earlier in the decade). The "seance" that opens the movie pretty much sets the tone for all that follows: a group of scientists researching the limits of human endurance for the space program are seated around an oval table; a piece of paper speared with a pencil held upright between the pages of a book stood on end begins slowly to spin. WHO is causing it to spin...? That's the Big Question in this one: WHO is the Super Man with The Power...? Before you can say Agatha Christie, scientists start turning up dead (easily the most gruesome involves a centrifuge); some of the gags are beautifully done, and the relatively high caliber of the performances all around help elevate this one several notches above most of the fare being cranked out during this period. THE POWER is an unheralded gem.

wes-connors In sunny San Marino, California, bio-chemist George Hamilton (as Jim Tanner) tests the pain threshold of young men in orange shorts. This borders on sadomasochism, Mr. Hamilton admits, but the experiments are necessary research for space travel. Arriving at the space center is US government officer Michael Rennie (as Arthur Nordlund). He joins Hamilton and five others on an elite committee. A meeting is in order. The other members are geneticist Suzanne Pleshette (as Margery Lansing), chairman Richard Carlson (as Norman E. Van Zandt), biologist Earl Holliman (as Talbot Scott), anthropologist Arthur O'Connell (as Henry Hallson) and physicist Nehemiah Persoff (as Carl Melnicker)...At their meeting, Mr. O'Connell shares some startling news - he's discovered someone on the committee has "The Power" of super-intelligence. This includes mind-control and telekinetic abilities. The super-psychic remains silent and horrific murders begin. Protagonist Hamilton tries to stay alive, manage a series of highly aroused women, and find the killer. His only clue is the name "Adam Hart" scrawled on a piece of paper by the first victim. If director Alfred Hitchcock had stayed on the career path left with "The Birds" (1963), he might have released a film like "The Power"...Coming off groundbreaking TV work on "Outer Limits" and "Star Trek" (and working with his "War of the Worlds" (1953) colleague producer George Pal), Mr. Haskin gives us science fiction with a Hitchcock bent. This is not pale, unimaginative work, however; it's an imaginative vision of Frank M. Robinson's original story. The effects by Mr. Pal mix well with surrealistic paranoia and Haskin puts his own directorial spin on events. The most Hitchcock-like sequence is patterned after the "crop-duster" scene from "North by Northwest" (1959). Note how this version begins as director Haskin lines up an exiting gate door with opening jeep door for Hamilton. He's more like the rat in a maze than a man on the run.******** The Power (2/21/68) Byron Haskin ~ George Hamilton, Suzanne Pleshette, Michael Rennie, Earl Holliman

fritz-84 George Pal proved his feeling for good stories one more time after having produced "the time machine" and "Dr. Lao". An intelligent story about the fight between two para-psychological persons, one you don't know and the other not knowing being one. Superb cast, some not important "mistakies", but brilliant tricks and a high quality of suspense make this film a must for every science fiction fan and also for those being interested in "guess who it is" - criminal stories. I can imagine well that some people cannot agree with this comment because the story implicates a lot of knowing about para-psychological phenomenas to construct the logic of the plot, but surely it is well worth it.