- A scientist is found floating with bullet and a radiation halo around his body. The radioactivity has put him seven-and-a-half seconds ahead of us in time. He teams up with a reporter to stop his double from destroying his experiments.
- An atomic scientist is found floating in a river with a bullet in his back and a radioactive halo around his body. The radioactivity has put him seven-and-a-half seconds ahead of us in time. He teams up with a reporter to stop his evil double from destroying his experiments in artificial tungsten.—Marty McKee <mmckee@wkio.com>
- The movie opens at night with a panoramic shot of a city. We are at Duggan's Wharf and a man, Dr. Stephen Rayner (Peter Arne) is being chased by another man with a gun. Rayner is struck by a bullet and falls into the water. Title and credits follow. [Note: the original title of this movie was Timeslip.]
A man's body is pulled out of the water by police. A photographer takes a picture of the man before he is loaded into an ambulance and taken to hospital. Rayner is barely alive and examined by Dr. Preston (Marten Wyldeck). Detective Inspector Cleary (Joseph Tomelty) arrives and confers with Dr. Preston who confides that he doesn't think the patient will survive surgery. Sister Brown (an uncredited Mary Jones) preps the patient for surgery.
At a newspaper office, the photographer and his editor, Alcott (an uncredited Launce Maraschal) review the pictures of the yet unidentified Dr. Rayner. The science writer, Mike Delaney (Gene Nelson) enters the office and asks Alcott for some time off, but is told he has an assignment to cover a ribbon cutting ceremony at a hospital the next morning. The phone rings in Alcott's office. It is for Delaney. It is his impatient girlfriend and staff photographer, Jill Rabowski (Faith Domergue). She has been waiting at the bar for Delaney to show for a dinner date. Delaney notices a photo of Dr. Rayner and the curious glow around his body that shows on the photograph.
A surgical team of eight work on Dr. Rayner. They retrieve the bullet, but the patient's heart stops. Convinced their patient is dead they stop, but a nurse is startled when she notices the patient's eyes open. Dr. Preston is called immediately. He returns back into the Operating Room and the team resumes work.
Delaney goes down to the Photographic Library. He compares two photos and notices the resemblance between the man fished out of the water and a file photo. A furious Jill enters the Library and has it out with her preoccupied boyfriend. Delaney shows her a file photo of one Stephen Grant Rayner, Nuclear Physicist. The brief biography indicates that he is the former director of metallurgy for the Atomic Commission in America, now working in Britain at Brant Nuclear Research Institute. Delaney and Jill go to the hospital. Delaney tells Insp. Cleary he suspects the man is Rayner. He wants a deal--identification for an exclusive story. Cleary is not in a dealing mood and sends the reporter on his way. Cleary and Dr. Preston go up to visit the patient on the Ward. Delaney and Jill follow so Jill can get a photograph. They are departing the hospital and encounter Cleary's assistant finishing a phone call. He informs them Dr. Rayner is at the Institute, so the man upstairs can't be Rayner.
The next morning Delaney goes to the Brant Institute. Cleary is already there and talks to Robert Maitland (Donald Gray), the Lab Director, who assures him Dr. Rayner is working in the lab. Delaney arrives, much to Cleary's annoyance. The supposedly real Dr. Rayner arrives in a lab coat and sporting very prominent white bandages on his face--one below his left eye and the other on his right jaw. We will later learn this man's name is Jarvis and he is part of an elaborate scheme to sabotage the project at the Brant Institute. Jarvis explains away his facial injuries as the result of an automobile accident. When Delaney arrives back at the office, Jill shows him the photographs she took in the hospital. They all show the same curious fogging of the outline of Rayner's image. At the hospital, Rayner regains consciousness. Dr. Preston examines and questions his patient. Rayner seems to be confused and answers questions in a very peculiar way--he answers before the question is asked. He is sent for a skull X-Ray. The X-Ray technician notices there is something radioactive in the room, but they do not suspect it is their patient. They take Rayner's skull X-Ray. Jill and Delaney go back to see Maitland at Brant to ask about the curious fogging of the pictures of Rayner. Maitland does acknowledge that radiation is one possible cause. Delaney asks about the symptoms of radiation poisoning and is told they include: aplastic anemia, fatigue, sickness, nervous exhaustion, damage to the nerve fibers, and an effect on the tissues of the brain. At the hospital, Delaney asks Dr. Preston if Rayner has the same symptoms. Delaney convinces Dr. Preston to ask Rayner a few questions. Rayner persists in answering questions out of order, but does volunteer he was shot and a man named Vasquo has something to do with his condition. He also mentions something called UTC.
Delaney and Jill go see the other Dr. Rayner, Jarvis, at his home and confront him with their evidence. Jill takes his picture. They prepare to leave and Delaney notices a hat on the entry way table and examines the band inside. It says, "E.V. Horreros--Buenos Aires." They are escorted out. Delaney is now convinced the Dr. Rayner they interviewed is an imposter. He tells Jill that he asked Rayner if he was at was at Columbia University in 1949. The imposter concurred, but Delaney knew that the real Rayner was in the South Pacific working on Atomic Bomb tests. The only answer that makes sense is plastic surgery. Dr. Bressler (Paul Hardtmuth) examines Jarvis while Emmanuel Vasquo (Vic Perry) looks on. The plan is revealed, "When they switch on that reactor, there will be an explosion which will wipe out Brant Laboratory and everyone in it."
Because Delaney failed to show for an assignment, Alcott fired him. Delaney collects his personal effects and leaves the office. He goes to the local bar and is commiserated by Pat the bartender (an uncredited Brian O'Higgins). Jill arrives with the office tape recorder and some information on UTC. Delaney is told to call Dr. Preston. Preston informs him of the curious lack of an image on Rayner's skull X-Ray. Delaney and Jill go back to the hospital. Dr. Preston confirms that Rayner is very radioactive. They are treating him with zirconium to counteract the radioactive poisoning. Delaney has a theory and the tape recorder is the tool to test same. They question Rayner, but again his answers don't match the questions. Jill transcribes the tape. Dr. Preston tells the pair that Rayner was clinically dead for about seven or eight seconds. It is Jill that observes that Rayner is answering the question before he is asked.
Delaney drops Jill off at her home and drives back to his apartment. He has been followed and a man in a car takes a couple of shots at him. The next day final preparations are being made at the Brant Laboratory. Jarvis arrives and is told there has been some problems with the reactor and the test will be delayed about five hours, until 9:00 p.m. Jarvis removes a container from his briefcase and places the contents in the reactor--a test tube of metal particles. Jill stops to see Delaney at his apartment and is met at the door by Cleary's assistant. She is escorted in to see Delaney being attended by a doctor. Jill has an answer to UTC--the United Tungsten Corporation of Buenos Aires. The company controls two-thirds of the world's supply of tungsten ore. Since the lab is working on a process to combine nuclear elements, they conclude that Brant Laboratory is on the verge of making unlimited quantities of tungsten with their new process.
At the hospital, Dr. Marks (an uncredited Carl Jaffe) is conferring with Dr. Preston. He has verified that Rayner is ahead of time. He explains that Rayner's reactions are also ahead of time, such as his blinking response to a bright light. Drs. Preston and Marks propose to administer a drug to slow his brain to catch up with his body, thus restoring balance. A hospital employee, a woman who just overheard the plan, calls Vasquo on the lobby telephone to inform him that Rayner will be treated and their plans may be disrupted. Vasquo orders Dr. Bressler to go to the hospital and kill Rayner when his informant refuses the same order. Jill borrows an ice pick from Pat the bartender and pays a late night call on the United Tungsten Corp. offices in town. After Vasquo leaves his private office, Jill enters and snoops around. Dr. Bressler arrives at the hospital and heads for Rayner's room. He pulls a syringe out, but hesitates to administer the lethal drug, deciding to substitute the hypo thus having Dr. Marks or Dr. Preston administer the poison. Delaney suspects something when Bressler is recognized by Dr. Marks. Dr. Preston checks the contents of the syringe and discovers it contains cyanide. Another hypo is prepared with the correct drug. Rayner revives and is now normal. Jill breaks into Vasquo's desk and finds pre-surgical pictures of Dr. Rayner or Jarvis. While she phones Delaney to tell him of her discovery, Vasquo arrives back at his office. Delaney goes to UTC but finds the office empty, but he does find Jill's purse. He answers the phone and gets a few clues to Jill's whereabouts from the files--Duggan's Wharf. Delaney drives to the Wharf and the police go to the Brant Institute. Delaney finds Jill in a warehouse and has it out with Vasquo and his men, including Jarvis. Vasquo and another man are shot and killed. Unable to beat an answer out of Jarvis, Delaney takes him to Brant Laboratory. They know that 9:00 p.m. is significant, but not why. Jarvis does know and tries to make a break for it. Delaney drags Jarvis into the lab, but the scientists had already discovered the plutonium in the reactor and removed it before the test. Jarvis is arrested, and Jill walks into the lab grousing, "Did you expect me to sit in the car all night long?" We close with Delaney and Jill kissing.
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