THE POWER: A science fiction thriller that preceded “Scanners”

Power clumsily tackle themes that were presented far more compellingly by David Cronenberg in Scanners (1981). The story takes place in the near future. As part of a space program, a California research institute is conducting experiments to test human endurance in the face of pain, stress, and physical strain during manned spaceflights. The research team includes biologists Jim Tanner and Talbot Scott, geneticist Margery Lansing, physicist Carl Melnicker, anthropologist Henry Hallson, as well as Professor Norman Van Zandt and government representative Arthur Nordlund.

During a committee meeting, Hallson reveals to his colleagues that, based on his research, one of them is a kind of superhuman gifted with psychokinetic powers. A simple test using a so-called psi wheel confirms that Hallson is right. Shortly afterward, the scientist dies under mysterious circumstances, and suspicion falls on Tanner. He must clear his name and find the real killer. The trail leads to a mysterious figure named Adam Hart. The Power is the debut novel by American writer Frank M.

Robinson. The work was first published in 1956—initially in Blue Book magazine, and then as a book—and was adapted for television that same year by William H. Brown for the CBS anthology series Studio One. In the following decade, the film rights were acquired by American-Hungarian producer, director, and animator George Pál—a somewhat forgotten pioneer of science fiction today. Screenwriter John Gay, hired by Pál, made numerous changes to Robinson’s text: he cut several subplots and characters and also altered the ending, which in the book had a more pessimistic tone.

Pál chose his regular collaborator Byron Haskin to direct (they had previously worked together on Conquest of Space [1955]), and the cast included George Hamilton, Suzanne Pleshette, Michael Rennie, Arthur O’Connell, Aldo Ray, and Miiko Taka. Unfortunately, The Power is not an entirely successful film. While the interesting premise (drawing on Nietzschean ideas), the visual aesthetics (reportedly inspired by the art of Salvador Dalí and Hieronymus Bosch), and Miklós Rózsa’s excellent score (composed mainly for cimbalom!) are memorable, the script leaves much to be desired. The plot is dull and disengaging, the acting is wooden, the dialogue sounds stilted and unnatural, and the characters come across as entirely one-dimensional.

It seems that a potentially intriguing exploration of the concept of a superhuman and the responsibility that comes with it was squandered—reduced to a clichéd finale summed up by the familiar phrase “Power corrupts, and absolute power…” and so on. The film’s biggest flaw, however, is the lack of suspense—an unforgivable sin in a thriller. The paranoia that afflicts Dr. Tanner and his companions never really transfers to the viewer.