The Human Factor

The Outer Limits (1963)

The Human Factor, directed by Abner Biberman.

Isolated military bases in the arctic are natural locations for SF thrillers, and this one begins like a scene from The Thing from Another World (1951). But no, that's not a alien in ice they are hauling in from the storm, but an atom bomb. The major who is cracking up and seeing guilt-induced visions of a dead man really wants to know how it works.

Not a lot of Outer Limits material here, more like an episode of Science Fiction Theater. As a bonus wrinkle a base scientist is -- for some damn reason at a radar base in the arctic -- working on a mind-sharing rig. When this goes all the way to mind transfer the erratic major has a good chance of getting to his a-bomb.

Many familiar faces. Big star Gary Merrill and Sally Kellerman at age 26. With Harry Guardino and Ivan Dixon and a glimpse of James Sikking.

I did not know that Abner Biberman directed but he has a long list of credits. I remember him best as the comical tough guy Louie in His Girl Friday (1940) ("She ain't no albino. She was born right here in this country"):

Photographed by Conrad Hall.

No commentary track.