The Philadelphia Experiment **** (1984, Michael Paré, Nancy Allen, Eric Christmas) – Classic Movie Review 9796

Director Stewart Raffill’s 1984 sci-fi film The Philadelphia Experiment is an excellent supernatural thriller, with Michael Paré and Bobby Di Cicco as US sailors on a Navy destroyer escort ship in World War Two who participate in a Navy invisibility experiment and inadvertently slip through a time hole and land in 1984. Sailors David Herdeg (Paré) and Jim Parker (Di Cicco) then meet Allison Hayes (Nancy Allen).

The Philadelphia Experiment is a beguiling and entertaining fantasy, effectively mixing adventure, humour (the seamen’s reaction to today) and romance with suspense (they have to get back in time to save the world). Sweet performances, strong direction and a good script make it an all-round success.

Michael Paré and Nancy Allen in The Philadelphia Experiment (1984).

The screenplay by William Gray and Michael Janover is based on the novel by William J Moore and Charles Berlitz, supposedly inspired by a true wartime event.

Also in the cast are Eric Christmas, Louise Latham, Michael Currie, James Edgcomb, Joe Dorsey, Stephen Tobolowsky and Kene Holliday.

It is followed by the sequel Philadelphia Experiment II (1993) and the TV movie remake or re-imagining The Philadelphia Experiment (2012).

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9796

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