Fun Sized Movie Treats (Part 24)

Another one-parter breather.


4-D Man (1959)

About a guy who can pass through walls.

This, I'm pretty sure, was my family's first Nicely's rental.

Doing the math here, I've already nailed down that we had HBO from 1983 to 1987.
Dad quit HBO, because renting tapes was cheaper, and we didn't have so many repeats of crap movies.
BUT, we didn't have Nicely's yet, but even driving out to fucking Gorham was apparently cheaper than an HBO subscription.

The first flick we rented at Gorham was "The Fly". That came out to theaters in 1986, so it would indeed have been a new tape in '87.

One of the first new movies to come to early Nicely's was "Toxic Avenger Part II".
That was 1989.

So...somewhere between '87 and '89 Nicely's pops up.

I'm thinking 88.
And...I remember "Evil Dead 2", being brand BRAND new up on their shelves, and that came out theatrically in '87.

Now, I remember Ma grabbing "4-D Man", because even though it was old, it was the only thing they had there at the time that we hadn't seen.

Now, any other time, we would have gone home empty handed rather than go classic, so this had to have been a SPECIAL purchase, it had to be the christening of the new store.

And I WOULD have talked her into "Evil Dead 2", or "Toxie 2".
So, that means they weren't out yet.
So, this is pre "Evil Dead 2", post "The Fly".
It's a narrow window Nicely's birth squeezed into.

Yeah, I'm going with that this was the first.

This was the first, and "The Incredibles", on DVD was the last.
...or was it "The Aviator"?
One of those.

Anyway, the flick....

From just memory....
Okay, so a dude discovers a lump of gold that's allegedly melded with the rock next to it by just being next to it for a jillion years.
So, he makes a force-field to accelerate this process so not only matter can meld, but phase all the way through.
Then, his force projector doohicky explodes, and permanently charges his body, so that he can phase.

BUT, because time is somehow the factor being atomically accelerated, he ages when he phases, BUT, by phase-touching living beings, he can suck out their life-force like an energy vampire, and recharge, and keep going, which makes him a killer, and then a psycho, so mayhem ensues.

*Checks it against Wikipedia*
Yep!

Y'know, Buckaroo Banzai's Oscillation Overthruster never had these drawbacks.
Just saying.

4-D Man is played by Robert Lansing who was also Gary Seven on "Star Trek".
Patty Duke's in it too.
She was also in "Amityville 4".

The flick left it open for a sequel.
Hey, what if he came out of that wall in the "Days Of Future Past", future, and met his granddaughter, Kitty Pryde?

There's your sequel!


Next up, a deceptive packaging double feature.