Ian Bayley Curteis (1 May 1935 – 24 November 2021) was a British dramatist and television director. Curteis was born in London on 1 May 1935, and began his career as an actor, joining Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop in the mid-1950s, and later working in this profession in regional theatres, and as a stage director or producer. His career in television began as a script reader for both the BBC and Granada Television. Curteis joined the staff of the BBC as a trainee director in 1964. The Projected Man (1966), which he directed, is his only cinema film. Around the same time Curteis directed...
The Projected Man
Dr. Paul Steiner (Bryant Haliday) and Dr. Christopher Mitchell (Ronald Allen) work on a projection device that enables them to transmit any object within a few miles of the machine. While they find the device works with inanimate objects, the living creatures they use it on always seem to die. When Dr. Patricia Hill (Mary Peach) arrives, she helps them fix the error, making Steiner think the problem has been solved. Meanwhile, Dr. Blanchard (Norman Wooland), Steiner's boss and head of the institute he works for, is being blackmailed by Mr. Latham (Derrick De Marney), who wants credit for Steiner's discovery. He forces Blanchard to demand Steiner to give a premature presentation to Professor Lembach (Gerard Heinz). Steiner, Mitchell, and Hill feel they are ready to present, but at the event, Blanchard places acid on the machine when everyone is unaware, causing an explosion. The funding for Steiner's project is ended instantly; however, Mitchell later discovers that the device has been tampered with. Steiner goes to Blanchard's house, where Lembach and Latham are having dinner. He presents the men with the evidence that his machine was deliberately tampered with, and Lembach allows him to have another chance. Steiner decides to try to project himself to Lembach's house, and, with help from his secretary, Sheila (Tracey Crisp), he begins the procedure. However, right then, Mitchell and Hill return to the laboratory. The two try to convince Sheila to stop the projection, but as she is inexperienced with the device, she instead ends up projecting Steiner to somewhere else. He ends up at a construction site, the hideout of a band of thieves who are attempting to break into a bank. It is learned that an error in the projection has given Steiner the ability to kill people by touching them, and has mutilated one half of his body. Steiner kills the criminals, and then enters a store, where he steals a pair of rubber gloves and a coat. He then breaks into the institute, where he finds Latham and kills him. He also destroys the building's power supply, alerting Hill and Mitchell that something is wrong. By this time, Inspector Davis (Derek Farr) has discovered the bodies of the criminals and is determined to stop Steiner. Sheila is kidnapped by Steiner, who interrogates her in her apartment. She reveals that Blanchard and Latham planned against him, angering Steiner. Before leaving, Steiner sets Sheila's apartment on fire with her inside (unaware that she survives) and goes to hide at Blanchard's house. When Blanchard returns home, he is killed by Steiner. Meanwhile, Davis has examined Latham's body and realizes that the electric marks left on Latham were the same as the criminals. Steiner shows up at Hill's house, where he finds her and Mitchell. Steiner demands that they tell him where he can find more electricity, since after the projection he needs energy to survive. Hill and Mitchell try to convince him to return to the laboratory so they can try reversing the projection, but Steiner rebuffs them and leaves toward a power plant. Davis, Hill, and Mitchell find him rumbling around in the power plant. Davis tries to kill him, but Steiner resists his bullets, so Hill again tries to persuade Steiner to return to the laboratory. Steiner is eventually convinced, so he goes with them, but when he arrives, he tricks them and begins destroying things. With the laboratory on fire and the projection device wildly out of control, Steiner is hit by the projection device's laser, causing him to disappear as the fire rages on.
