I'm always amazed to see a classic movie having the same ideas as modern day movies I thought to be original. This movie reminded me of '' Hollow Man '' by Paul Verhoeven ( but without the fancy special effects of our modern day ). It's the story of two brothers - one of them playful and charismatic, the other one strict and serious - finding themselves in a struggle over a woman. At a certain point one of them gets the ability to alter molecular substances, making him able to speed the aging process inside human beings and to walk through concrete walls. Yep, pretty handy to become a thug if you can do these things.

I liked it. It's another nice story about someone gaining a superpower and using it for his own benefit. Like so many other movies, this is about how we human beings are able to do horrible things in a situation in which we gain power. It's like Spiderman once said: with great power comes great responsibility.

It's a SF-movie from the fifties, so the special effects are nothing compared to what we're used to. If you're able to look past that, you can enjoy a pretty decent movie. Not a masterpiece, but enjoyable on its own accord.

4-D man starts off very poorly, as the opening music sound like it was written for a 1950s strip club. Unfortunately, while it did get a bit better, it still was brash, loud and cheap and often seemed like music designed for a beatnik coffee house--not a sci-fi film. Additionally, the film features a romance that just isn't believable--happening almost instantly and making very little sense. This was less annoying than the music--more of a minor problem. However, despite having these two strikes against it, the film manages to still be a dandy sci-fi film--partly because it was NOT about some bug-eyed monsters or aliens.

The film begins with a young researcher (James Congdon) getting fired. He hitchhikes to the lab where his brother (Robert Lansing) is in charge of a team working on a new impervious metal. However, the younger brother says that he's been working on a matter amplifier that will allow ANYTHING to be permeated. Later, when Lansing is playing with Congdon's machinery, he manages to pass his hand through a block of metal--in a rather terrifying scene. Oddly, soon after this, Lansing finds he's able to continue passing through objects even without using the electronic equipment--just his own will! Naturally, being a 50s sci-fi film, this power turns out to be far greater and difficult to control than they'd imagine--leading to deadly consequences! The plot is interesting (and rather reminiscent of THE INVISIBLE MAN),the special effects pretty good for 1959 and the story was unique. I liked it a lot--too bad it was given such annoying and funky music--it deserved MUCH better.

I remember in the old Superman series there was an episode where George Reeves discovers that he has another hidden power, the power to pass through solid objects if he concentrates. In that episode it was an eight feet thick concrete wall built like a fallout shelter.

Nothing like that is attempted here, but I do wonder if that episode inspired the creators of the 4D Man.

Robert Lansing who is the scientist who becomes the 4D Man through his experiments made his big screen debut here. He and brother James Congdon have been experimenting at a scientific think tank run by Edgar Stehli where Lansing's girlfriend Lee Meriwether also works.

I think Lansing might have also been inspired by what Claude Rains did in The invisible Man. Every time Lansing does his 4D thing and passes through something solid he ages and then has to kill someone to drain their life energy to maintain himself. He's dangerous but sympathetic, a balance that Claude Rains also achieved in his performance.

Not a great science fiction classic, but a good piece of work by Robert Lansing for a debut.