A Feasibility Study
STARRING:
Sam Wanamaker, Phyllis Love, Joyce Van Patten, David Opatoshu, Frank Puglia, Ben Wright.
Six square blocks of an American neighborhood are teleported by aliens to another planet.
QUICK SCAN…
Sam Wanamaker (Superman 4) gives a dynamic performance as a kidnapped Earth man. The matte painting, depicting the crater left when the neighborhood is stolen, is cool.
SYNOPSIS…
Aliens come to Earth, stealing a six block suburb and transporting it back to their world. A doctor and his neighbor discover what has happened.
The neighbor begins to mutate from alien contact. The doctor meets with the aliens, learning that they plan to enslave all of mankind, if it turns out that humans can thrive on their world. The doctor’s wife becomes infected from alien contact.
The doctor meets with his neighbors, telling them of the alien’s plans for Earth. The doctor and his neighbors deliberately choose to become infected with the alien virus, saving the Earth by their sacrifice.
REVIEW…
Director Byron Haskin’s, A FEASIBILITY STUDY, is a well made, exceedingly strange tale of mass alien abduction.
At night, a spaceship appears over a U.S. suburb. After firing a ray at a neighborhood, a six block square area disappears.
Sam Wanamaker is passionate and credible as a man trying to cope with alien abduction. He brings power and believability to lines like, “It wasn’t your husband, It wasn’t even a man.”
David Opatoshu is wasted in the role of a neighbor, contaminated by alien contact. Opatoshu, who was so eloquent as the alien ruler, in Star Trek’s “A Taste of Armageddon” episode, mostly mugs and grimaces here, to poor effect. Phyllis Love and Joyce Van Patten offer strong support, as the wives of Wanamaker and Opatoshu’s characters. Van Patten is quite sympathetic as a woman whose husband first disappears, then comes back in alien/mutated form.
Producer/Writer, Joseph Stefano, delivers some good Sci-Fi dialogue. At one point an alien youth explains to Wanamaker, “I’m not a child. I’m sixteen. I’m almost an old man.”
My favorite scenes are those which depict the huge crater on Earth where the abducted neighborhood once was. The matte painting is excellent. Ray Mercer and Company appear to be the responsible party.
Art Director, Jack Poplin, creates an effective alien environment, utilizing fog and strange rock formations. Director of Photography, John M. Nickolaus, Jr., lenses creative camera work that makes good use of the alien set.
The music, by Dominic Frontiere, is less heavy-handed than usual. Subtle, woodwind music helps to build an appropriately odd mood.
A FEASIBILITY STUDY should be highly watchable for most Sci-Fi viewers. Those with an interest in alien abduction stories will enjoy this one.
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