The search for a crashed satellite in the jungles of MesoAmerica finds instead a gelatinous existential threat from beyond "The Flame Barrier". The film opens with a nonsensical prologue that carefully explains how a rocket is going to attempt to penetrate the mysterious (and titular) flame barrier, which surrounds our planet at an altitude of 200 miles.
A satellite goes through THE FLAME BARRIER, causing it to crash into the jungles of Mexico. Carol Dahlmann (Kathleen Crowley) hires a man (Arthur Franz) and his brother to help her find her missing husband, who had gone searching for the fallen craft.
Some time ago, a rocket ship hit the "flame barrier" at the edge of outer space. Now, Kathleen Crowley has shown up in Central America.
This minor sci-fi thriller from the Gardner-Levy stable is typical of the breed:lots and lots of repetitious talk from a few stereotyped characters enmeshed in a predictable, well-used plot, strung together with a bit of stock footage, one or two days of location shooting in some uninteresting scrub-land, and a tiny slice of special effects work. And it's all filmed in a totally routine manner, using tedious close-up after close-up to enable a quick sale to TV.
Blob movies became suddenly quite fashionable in the late fifties; this lesser-known entry offers a few unique twists. Unlike the slipping, sliding blobs of other films, this one doesn't move, apparently content to remain stationary while digesting its first two victims, a space ship and its single human occupant.
This film was first released in 1958 to fill the bottom half of a double bill with the much superior RETURN OF DRACULA. I have an original poster for this double bill hanging in my living room.
1958's "The Flame Barrier" was a decidedly lesser vehicle for actor Arthur Franz, from the production team of Jules V. Levy and Arthur Gardner, responsible for superior titles such as "The Vampire," "The Monster That Challenged the World," and "The Return of Dracula.
This was actually a well made movie with good production values, nice location filming and some good acting but it totally loses it's momentum in the script department. You will think you are watching a jungle exploration flick with a lot of bickering for most of the film.
This movie has virtually disappeared from the face of the Earth. Of those who saw it on late night TV in the 1960's, who can forget the look of terror frozen on the scientist who had been"absorbed" by the radioactive crystalline goo?
