The Time Machine

In the early 1960s my mother used to take my younger sister and me to a nearby one-screen theater to see Saturday kiddie matinees. It was a great way to keep us entertained and out of her hair for a few hours, particularly after our baby sister was born.

One movie I saw during those matinees was the 1960 version of The Time Machine. It made such an impression on me that, for quite a while afterward, I would play Time Machine with my sister and cousin with me as the Time Traveler.

It wasn't until sometime in the 1990s that I was able to see it again when I got a VHS copy. It was very much the way I remembered it to be. I have since read the book and have found that the movie is quite faithful to the text, though some scenes involving two stops in the 1900s were added and a few bright spots appeared that weren't in the book, which is pretty dark.

The special effects look primitive by today's standards, but they did win the Academy Award for Special Effects in 1961, and rightfully so, though I have no idea what other films had been nominated.

This is still one of my top 10 movies and likely always will be. I haven't seen the 2002 version, which is probably just as well, since I'm happy with the 1960 version and don't want to ruin it.

This is a very well-done adaptation of the H. G. Wells novella, with an Oscar for the special effects that are still impressive more than 40 years later. Good performances by an ensemble cast and a good script also help. One interesting side note: character actor Whit Bissell was in both the 1960 version here and the version done for television in 1978, playing essentially the same part with two different character names! Recommended.

One of my favorite films back when I was a lad was George Pal's production of the H.G. Wells novel, The Time Machine. As I've gotten a lot older since the 13 I was when it came out, I can more appreciate the meticulous care that went into the making of this film.

Considering that we didn't have computer generated images back in the day, the special effects hold up remarkably well. The make up and costumes for the villainous Morlocks still have the power to frighten.

What I look at now though was the United Kingdom of the turn of the last century in which Wells wrote his book. As much as George Pal was able to capture the future, he did as well with the past, the recreation of the Victorian/Edwardian era from which our time traveler Rod Taylor goes to the future and back.

A lot of that has to do with the casting of the four men who are Taylor's friends and looked like they stepped from that era. Tom Helmore, Sebastian Cabot, Whit Bissell, and Alan Young all comport themselves as proper English gentlemen who are concerned and support their friend anyway in his theories and experiments.

Especially Alan Young's performance, it's my favorite in the film. Young plays a dual role as Taylor's friend and as his own son over several generations of the 20th century. He's the kind of true friend we should all in life be fortunate to have.

Also note that the mechanics of the Time Machine itself are never explained, just how the thing works and what powers it. It was probably beyond even the fertile imagination of H.G. Wells to conceive, our own best minds of science now debate whether it is even theoretically possible.

Rod Taylor after playing several good supporting roles in many films since arriving in America from his native Australia, got his first lead and real big break in The Time Machine. He's excellent as the time traveler who essentially saves the future for mankind and rescues it from the world that has developed.

The Time Machine was also ahead of it's time. no pun intended, in its depiction of the peaceful Eloi. During the sixties age of flower power, the gentle Eloi are like a bunch of hippies who seemingly have attained their version of paradise. No one is old and they live in a garden of Eden. Little do they know what the underground Morlocks are using them for.

Yvette Mimieux who as Weena of the Eloi got her break out role her. She's the quintessence of the flower power generation soon to come.

Even though new versions have been done, this version of The Time Machine still stirs the imagination and appeals to the scientifically curious in all of us.

OK, so some people are intent on pointing out factual or historical inaccuracies. Some people ridicule the costumes and accents, but what's important is the spirit of the film. I sincerely doubt anyone made the same kind of comments back in 1960. It was a seminal film and must have inspired a generation of film makers. You don't need CGI to make a good film. It's all about the story and the ingenuity of having to make do with the things you've got to hand. This film exemplifies that attitude.

I first saw The Time Machine as a 10 year old in 1970 and was utterly captivated. The stop-motion photography was spell-binding to me; particularly when George kills one of the attacking Morlocks. The gory footage of the body decomposing will abide with me forever. More importantly, and for the first time in my life, I was completely swept away with the concept of time travel. This film was unlike anything I had ever seen before and sowed seeds of profound thought for many years after.

This film may not be for everyone, but it was for a certain 10 year-old boy all those years ago. How I wish I could go back and recapture those moments...

In 1960, filmmaker George Pal brought to fruition a visionary concept for a film based on a novel by H.G. Wells, about an inventor who builds a machine that enables him to travel through time, specifically into the future, where he learns a timeless, universal truth about the machinations of society and some of the basic tenets of human nature. `The Time Machine,' which Pal produced and directed, stars Rod Taylor as George, the inventor/time traveler/hero, who, born into a time and world that doesn't suit him, decides to do something about it.

A week into the 20th Century, four of George's closest friends, Dr. Philip Hillyer (Sebastian Cabot), Anthony Bridewell (Tom Helmore), Walter Kemp (Whit Bissell) and his best friend, David Filby (Alan Young), are gathered at his house for dinner, but George is late; when he finally shows up, he is disheveled, disoriented and hungry-- and has a story that is beyond belief. It's a tale that actually began one week earlier, on New Year's Eve, 1899, when the five had last been together. On that evening, George, after a discussion of the reality of a `Fourth Dimension,' had given them a demonstration of a model of a `Time Machine,' he had built, a miniature prototype of the machine he hoped would take him some day into the future.

His demonstration is met with interest, but skepticism; only Filby, it seems, is able to keep an open mind, but even he encourages George to accept the constraints of Time, which to the rational mind are absolute and immutable. George, however, views Time as a parameter; a variable whose value is subject to change. And on that last night of the 19th Century, after his friends leave-- gone off to celebrate the arrival of the new century-- George acts on his theory by stepping into his machine and beginning a journey that will prove to be the adventure of a lifetime. A journey during which he sees a number of wars and changes in the world around him, and which ultimately transports him some 800,000 years into the future, where he finds a world ravaged by fate, where humankind has been divided into two sects: The gentle Eloi, living on the surface of the earth, and the Morlocks-- mutants who dwell beneath as the Master Race, and who prey upon the weak and simple Eloi.

He also discovers the dark secret of the Eloi and the Morlocks, and determines to address the situation. But first he returns to his own time, to tell his friends the story, and to retrieve something he needs. When his guests leave, Filby remains behind with words of caution for George; but as soon as he leaves, George is off to fulfill his destiny, and he has all the time in the world to do it.

Going into this project, George Pal had a definite vision of what he wanted to accomplish with this film, from the way the time machine itself looked, to the way he wanted to present the future of mankind and the world. And working from the intelligent, imaginative screenplay by David Duncan, he succeeded by delivering a film that has since become a classic of the Science Fiction genre. The nature of the story demands that the viewer suspend disbelief, of course, but Pal develops his story in such a plausible, straightforward manner that it is easy to do just that. He puts George on the journey of a lifetime, and he takes his audience along for the ride. He does an exquisite job of establishing the Victorian era in which the story begins, as well as the world of the Eloi and the Morlocks. The F/X he employs to convey the sense of George's movement through time-- like the swift arcing of the Sun and Moon, and the quick, subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) changes George observes-- are entirely effective. Pal obviously had a devotion to detail that pays off handsomely here. A dedicated filmmaker, he refused to settle for less than what he knew was right for his picture, and it shows. The result is a film that is entertaining, timeless and memorable.

As George, Rod Taylor is perfectly cast and gives a solid performance in which he embodies the boldness, the imagination and tenacity of his character. Most importantly, he makes George believable and his motivations credible, which enables the viewer to be swept along with the story. Taylor has a commanding presence that serves his character well, and he is, in fact, the veritable personification of the explorer/adventurer, a man willing to take a chance or face unbelievable odds to accomplish his goal. Taylor is a fine actor who has made a number of movies, but of them all, this is the role for which he will probably be best remembered.

Also perfect in her role is Yvette Mimieux, as one of the Eloi, Weena. A talented actress-- now something of a ‘60s icon, in fact-- her fair beauty, along with the innocent demeanor and vulnerability she manages to convey, makes her character entirely convincing. And the way she plays it makes George's actions more likely, as well. Granted, her character is well written to begin with, but Mimieux's the one who sells it in the translation from page to screen.

The supporting cast includes Doris Lloyd (Mrs. Watchett), Bob Barran (Eloi Man), James Skelly (Second Eloi Man) and Paul Frees (Voice of the Talking Rings). A transporting flight of fantasy, expertly crafted and imaginatively presented, `The Time Machine' is captivating entertainment that will make you believe that time travel is possible. it paints a bleak picture of the future, to be sure, but it gives you and leaves you with that which has kept Man putting one foot in front of the other since Time began: Hope. That's the legacy of H.G. Wells and the promise of George Pal. And it's the magic of the movies. I rate this one 8/10.