The last film of director Byron Haskin*, who also made War of the Worlds with this film's producer George Pal, The Power was written by John Gay and based on the book of the same name by Frank M. Robinson. Robinson was also the speechwriter for Harvey Milk and his designated successor, but he didn't take the office after the politician was killed. Another of his books - The Glass Inferno, which was co-written with Thomas N. Scortia - was combined with Richard Martin Stern's The Tower and filmed as The Towering Inferno.
The Committee on Human Endurance has been researching the ability to survive pain and physical stress for the space program. Dr. Henry Hallson (Arthur O'Connell) has been screening committee members - biologist Dr. Jim Tanner (George Hamilton), geneticist Dr. Margery Lansing (Suzanne Pleshette), physicist Dr. Carl Melnicker (Nehemiah Persoff), biologist Dr. Talbot Scott (Earl Holliman), Dr. Norman Van Zandt (Richard Carlson) and government liaison Arthur Nordlund (Michael Rennie) -to see who has the best survival ability.
He brings out a psi wheel and claims that someone on the committee has superhuman telekinesis, but the exercise doesn't prove who it is. He's soon killed by whoever has the power and his widow Sally Hallson (Yvonne De Carlo) tells Tanner that a note was left with the name Adam Hart. That was the name of her husband's childhood friend which no one else would know but him.
Tanner becomes the prime suspect when it looks like he lied about his background. He starts to hallucinate and then nearly dies as a result of a psychic attack. Whoever Adam Hart is, he wants him dead. He goes to the man's hometown and learns that Hart has been controlling people there for decades.
This had already been adapted in 1956 as an episode of an hour-long installment of Studio One.
*According to Haskin, the studio was so anxious to be finished with Pal that they ruined this film, casting it with the wrong actors, keeping the budget low and skipping out on many of the special effects.
The Committee on Human Endurance has been researching the ability to survive pain and physical stress for the space program. Dr. Henry Hallson (Arthur O'Connell) has been screening committee members - biologist Dr. Jim Tanner (George Hamilton), geneticist Dr. Margery Lansing (Suzanne Pleshette), physicist Dr. Carl Melnicker (Nehemiah Persoff), biologist Dr. Talbot Scott (Earl Holliman), Dr. Norman Van Zandt (Richard Carlson) and government liaison Arthur Nordlund (Michael Rennie) -to see who has the best survival ability.
He brings out a psi wheel and claims that someone on the committee has superhuman telekinesis, but the exercise doesn't prove who it is. He's soon killed by whoever has the power and his widow Sally Hallson (Yvonne De Carlo) tells Tanner that a note was left with the name Adam Hart. That was the name of her husband's childhood friend which no one else would know but him.
Tanner becomes the prime suspect when it looks like he lied about his background. He starts to hallucinate and then nearly dies as a result of a psychic attack. Whoever Adam Hart is, he wants him dead. He goes to the man's hometown and learns that Hart has been controlling people there for decades.
This had already been adapted in 1956 as an episode of an hour-long installment of Studio One.
*According to Haskin, the studio was so anxious to be finished with Pal that they ruined this film, casting it with the wrong actors, keeping the budget low and skipping out on many of the special effects.