The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything

In the review listed initially on the site, it's said that the first thing Robert Hays does when he uses the watch is to undo the bikini top of a young girl. Actually, this isn't QUITE true: It's his girlfriend, played by Pam Dawber (who has a beautiful southern accent and a racy sense of humor) who does that, and Hays looks a bit (though not too) disapproving.

For the first 40 minutes of this film all robert hayes does is sleep ... the rest is even a bigger waste of time

I haven't watched this since it came out (in 1980 apparently) but I was just remembering it fondly. After watching it I had a lot of childish fantasies of stopping time so I could gobble up all of the candies at the bulk food store. I can't speak to the cinematic quality of this work, but to me as a child, it was highly inspirational. :)

Episode #5.4 of _"The Twilight Zone" (1959)_(qv), "A Kind of Stop Watch", has a storyline that is nearly identical to that of "The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything". The episode, however, aired in October of 1963, the year after publication of John D. McDonald's novel on which the movie is based. Some people, obviously unaware of the novel, considered the movie a ripoff of the episode, and a number of reviewers who wrote unfavorably on this basis had to spend numerous inches of column space apologizing.

One of the contributing factors to the misunderstanding is that the novel quickly went out of print, overshadowed by the author's "Travis McGee" detective series and other adventure novels. In 1980, the year the movie aired, three of his science fiction-oriented novels, "Wine of the Dreamers", "The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything" and "Ballroom of the Skies" were published in 1980 in an omnibus volume titled "Time and Tomorrow" by Doubleday and Science Fiction Book Club. This still, however, did not contribute significantly to clearing up the ripoff accusations because of the limited distribution through the book club.

I remember first seeing this movie on reruns when i was 4. I'm 22 now and love the fact that i was able to find a copy of this movie and the sequel. The movie was so ahead of its tim. I'm surprised that anyone got the concept. The part of the movie that always pops up in my head is when our hero stops time just before some baddies cap him and his honey. I can't remember and its been a few years since i viewed the tape, but i think somehow the hero reverses the direction the bullets were flying. Anyways, the story was excellent, the sequel was great, and the only movie dealing with time travel that has comes even close to this original idea (besides the HOLY Back to the Future Trilogy) is Frequency. Ok , maybe Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (you have to admit, the way they got out of jail was cool.) TNT played this movie and its sequel about 3 or 4 years ago during a late night shift (midnight to 4am.) They might do again sometime soon.