The Projected Man
The Projected Man
NR | 01 February 1967 (USA)
The Projected Man Trailers

Matter-transmitter sabotage leaves a British scientist (Bryant Halliday) disfigured and full of amps.

Reviews
Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined
Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
ChampDavSlim The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.
Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.
Scott LeBrun Bryant Haliday plays a research scientist named Paul Steiner, who's hard at work on a "projection" experiment: he hopes to be able to transmit matter from one place to another. His process works on inanimate objects, but not on living things. Despondent when it looks like the plug will be pulled on his entire operation, he uses himself as the first human guinea pig. As you can expect, this has disastrous consequences. When he regains human form, he's horribly disfigured, and has gained the "touch of death". (When he lays his mutilated hand on someone, they are electrocuted.) And, of course, he's now insane.This British sci-fi / horror effort does owe a fair bit to "The Fly", putting just enough of a spin on the premise to not come off as a carbon copy. It's not a great story, but it does entertain quite capably nevertheless. It's paced reasonably well by directors Ian Curteis and John Croydon, clocking in at a painless 78 minutes. A great deal of what effectiveness it possesses comes from the performances of an excellent cast. Haliday is an earnest, sympathetic lead turned deliciously crazed antagonist, and ultimately tragic character. Ronald Allen and Mary Peach, as his worried colleagues, figure into a romantic subplot that doesn't waste too much of the running time. Norman Wooland and Derrick De Marney are superb at playing sneaky, nefarious types trying to discredit / ruin the experiment. Gorgeous Tracey Crisp is appealing as the helpful secretary, and Derek Farr has a solid, reliable presence as the obligatory inspector who picks up Steiners' trail. Legendary stuntman Alf Joint plays the security guard. The makeup by Eric Carter is pretty good for the time this was made, Kenneth V. Jones' music is good, and the widescreen photography helps to keep things visually interesting.While the tale it's spinning is definitely on the routine side, this still makes for an enjoyable movie watching evening for fans of the science-fiction and horror genres.Seven out of 10.
MartinHafer "The Projected Man" is a film with a low overall score and this isn't surprising since it was featured on "Mystery Science Theater 3000"...a show that makes fun of old films. Many of the films featured on the show have been god-awful. And, since the films were lampooned on the show, folks incorrectly assume they're all schlock...which isn't really fair to the folks who made the movies. With "The Projected Man", you've got a dandy sci-fi film that IS worth seeing without all the "MST3000" sarcastic remarks.The film is about Professor Steiner's research on transporting items from one location to another through matter transmission--much like the "Star Trek" transporter system (which also debuted in 1966). They have no problem making inanimate objects disappear and reappear but it's not so easy with living creatures. What the professor and his team don't know is that some folks are deliberately trying to sabotage their work. Ultimately, Steiner does something VERY dumb-- -he uses the system on himself. There's an accident and he ends up being part man part monster...and he's determined to pay back the folks who sabotaged his work.While this is not a brilliant film, it's much more intelligent and thought out than you might suspect. It's NOT just a crappy monster film but is enjoyable and has a bit of depth to it. Worth seeing.
verbusen Maybe it caught me at the right moment, but watching the MST3K version of this movie made me laugh more then any other of that show's episodes I think I've ever seen! As far as the film goes a lot of people are comparing it to The Fly, I think it's a lot closer to The 4 D Man. BTW, I liked the 4D Man, and if I was watching this on it's own I might like this also depending if I was really bored and nothing else was on to watch. If you have not seen 4 D Man, and like late 50's sci fi, check it out it's a good watch. Back to MST3K version of Projector man, usually I tend to think that episodes after Joel left are not as funny, this one (and as I watch more later episodes) is top tier for being among the shows best. An example is the part with the passed out receptionist in her unusual picnic tablecloth underwear (Mike says, "her underwear is from the Ellie Mae Secrets Collection"). As bad as this film is on it's own, it's great as a MST3K episode, I'm giving it an 8 out of 10.
Mike Sh. Start with a knockoff of "The Fly" with the setting changed from Montreal to London (England, not Ontario) with added elements of "Darkman" (though that movie was still more than 20 years in the future). Add liberal amounts of nondescript English actors, add an officious bureaucrat who looks like G.I. Joe (the one with the fuzzy hair and beard) and a cute young blonde who spends much of the movie in her underwear. Fold in lots and lots and lots of talking and top off with Bryant Halliday in some pretty cool monster makeup, and you have this movie.Was it any good? Well, it was OK, but a movie like this seems like it should have been much more interesting. David Cronenberg could have done this much better. Heck, Freddie Francis could have done this movie better....