You can’t help but wonder if Stephen King had seen The Bubble (1966) when he wrote his 2009 novel, Under the Dome. If so, he undoubtedly improved upon the material by giving us multiple characters and story arcs when a giant invisible barrier covers Chester’s Mill, Maine. In The Bubble, it’s just three people who are transported to an unnamed town within a giant invisible barrier.
The difference doesn’t automatically make one story better than the other; however, it adds a second mystery to the latter. Neither is the bubble explained, nor do the characters know where they are. On the other hand, when the rest of the residents are in a daze, repeating their actions and phrases like, “Cab mister… cab mister” and “Ticket… ticket,” it’s not a very exciting place to be.
Nevertheless, I really liked The Bubble. It’s overlong at nearly two hours, which later caused it to be cut to 91 minutes by director Arch Obeler in 1968, but it didn’t drag or feel slow to me. The repetitive parts are so interesting and perplexing, I remained fully engaged as I watched. It’s like an episode of the Twilight Zone stretched thin, but not quite so much that it breaks. Concept wins over the finer details for me.
Plus, the 3D version is fun to watch. After the craze had faded in the 1950s, The Bubble brought it back. It’s a film made for 3D. Therefore, people point things at the audience and the objects reach out of the television into your living room. Although the overall picture maintained a tinted view that I don’t recall from watching the 3D release of Robot Monster (1953), I soon became used to it.
This is the only time the repetitive action bothered me. One image of a man poking a broom at us is great, but the second… we get it. It’s a minor quibble, because there are so many other shots that look fantastic in 3D, such as a man climbing a telephone pole shot from the top. It’s not as gimmicky but demonstrates where the effect can be most effective without being distracting.
This is no normal 3D. It’s “Space-Vision!” Instead of using two cameras and projectors, it uses a single camera with an attachment that puts two images on single frames of film. When the frames are “stacked” it results in a widescreen aspect ratio not dissimilar to CinemaScope. This might be why the entire film had a tint. I’m not sure of that because I don’t have a 3D TV and was watching the anaglyph version with cardboard 3D glasses.
Oboler also wrote and directed Five, the post-apocalyptic drama discussed on the fifth anniversary episode of The Classic Horrors Club Podcast. In both, I like some of the ideas he raises. Here, they’re mostly spoken during speculation about what’s happening. Without mentioning the word, “aliens,” although the movie is also known as Fantastic Invasion of Planet Earth, Mark (Michael Cole) compares the situation to a kid putting a drinking glass over an insect… for study… or amusement.
The conflict between Mark and his wife, Catherine (Deborah Walley), feels realistic. He asks her if it’s about time she faces reality. She replies that if what he says is true, she’d rather it be a dream. He asks when there hasn’t been some kind of eye looking over him his entire life. She believes they can live out their lives there in perfect health and security. He wants to escape.
So, Mark digs… and digs… and digs. You’ve got to surrender to movie logic and believe that it’s possible for one man to do all the work, but he eventually goes deep enough that he reaches the bottom of the bubble and they can crawl under. I’ll give no spoilers but say that they may or may not take, or need to take, that route out. The ending is a little ambiguous. I mean, you know what happens, but you don’t have all the answers.
Coincidentally, I saw The End of Oak Street recently. Although the neighborhood isn’t inside a bubble, it’s been isolated from the rest of the world. It reminds me of The Bubble and raises its own compelling ideas, theories, and themes. I’ve merely scratched the surface here, not mentioning much about the cast or the acting. That means I think The Bubble is worth digging further into. At the very least, it caused me to think.
The Bubble was released by Arch Oboler Productions and premiered in Chicago, IL, on Dec. 21, 1966, making this year its 60th anniversary. I participated in the crowdfunding campaign for the restoration and Blu-ray release, but it’s available now direct from Kino Lorber.
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