L'uomo venuto dall'impossibile

Often overlooked, "Time After Time" is probably one of the best time travel movies (if there is such a genre) ever made. The time travel effects are cheesy and mercifully few, but the film puts story and character way above visual effects, making for a good trade off.

Malcolm McDowell is H.G. Wells who, in this movie, actually invents a time machine rather than just writing about one. "The Time Machine" is told in flashback as "the time traveler" emerges from his time machine and recounts his adventures to a gathering of friends at his home. "Time After Time" borrows that scene from the book, having Wells announce that he has built the time machine and will embark on an adventure to the future utopia as soon as he works up the nerve. The proceedings are interupted by police at the door conducting a search in the wake of a new attack by Jack the Ripper. As it turns out, one of Wells' guests, Dr. John Leslie Stevenson (played by David Warner), is the Ripper. While the police comb through the house looking for him, Stevenson makes his way to the basement. There, he enters Wells' time machine and escapes to the future.

Feeling responsible for having turned the maniacal Jack the Ripper loose on the future utopia, Wells enters the machine (which returns to it's point of origin unless a special key is used) and follows Stevenson 90 years into the future. The time travel sequence consists of cheesy optical effects accompanied by a clever audio montage that depicts most of the 20th century. Wells emerges from the machine shocked to find himself in San Francisco, California in the year 1979. The time machine, as well as most of his possesions, are on display in a San Francisco museum.

While searching for Jack the Ripper he meets Amy Robbins (Mary Steenburgen), a foreign currency exchange officer at a bank. She reveals that she exchanged very old pounds for dollars with another Englishman, wearing similarly antiquated clothing. This leads Wells to find Jack the RIpper, now decked out in 70s threads, well integrated into modern society...and continuing his fiendish deeds.

From there, the movie engages the audience in Wells' and Robbins' pursuit of the Ripper through the streets of San Francisco with an entertaining mix of close-calls, sly humor, and the inevitable romance between Wells and Robbins.

Malcolm McDowell plays the part of H.G. Wells with his usual intensity and skill, and comes off as very believable. Mary Steenburgen is well cast as the feminine but strongly independent bank employee, and is adorably frail but surprisingly tough. As for David Warner....well, villians don't get much better than Warner. A fine actor, Warner plays Stevenson/Jack the RIpper as a cool, sophisticated psychopath - exactly, in my humble opinion, as Jack the Ripper should be played.

"Time After Time" makes good use of artistic license to integrate fact with fiction. Scotland Yard has always suspect that Jack the Ripper might have been a surgeon, as he is in this film. Also amusing is the fact that in real life, H.G. Wells did marry an Amy Robbins who was an outspoken feminist. All in all, 'Time After Time" is a well written and acted romantic adventure, and remains one of my favorite time travel movies.

"Time after Time" is a clever battle of wits between Jack the Ripper, who has used H.G. Wells' time machine to escape to the year 1979, and H.G. Wells, who steps into the machine to get to 1979 too, and chase after the Ripper. (This kind of brain-to-brain combat between two very special people is a theme that Nicholas Meyer will return to in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.")

Particularly interesting is how Jack the Ripper, an evil serial killer, finds himself completely at home in the year 1979, while H.G. Wells, with his idealistic dreams of a perfectible society, is completely out of place in our modern era.

Malcolm McDowell is believable yet comical as the intellectual Wells, almost bird-like in his quick, darting movements. David Warner is adequate as Jack the Ripper, but you don't get enough of a feeling of the Ripper's insanity and evil. Mary Steenburgen, as Wells' newfound love interest in 1979, acts well enough, but she delivers some of her lines unconvincingly.

The lush Miklos Rosza score is a treat.

Worth seeing.

"Time After Time" is the sort of escapist fantasy that you just need to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy--and very enjoyable this film certainly is. Additionally, it's quite romantic and is a movie I strongly recommend you watch.

The film begins in London during the time of Jack the Ripper (David Warner). Coincidentally, the famous writer H.G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) has just built a working time machine and the Ripper uses it to avoid being caught by the police. But Wells knows he cannot allow this maniac to escape and travels to 1979 in search of the murderer. There, Wells falls in love with a lady (Mary Steenburgen) and enlists her help to find the killer.

This movie works for a variety of reasons. It's certainly one of McDowell's best performances and it's nice to see him being vulnerable and more multidimensional than his other famous roles (such as in "A Clockwork Orange"). The film also looks and sounds wonderful (with a lovely score by Miklós Rózsa) and is wonderfully directed by Nicholas Meyer. Well worth seeing and a rousing adventure that both men and women will likely enjoy.

Having a premise of HG Wells ( Yes that one ) pursue Jack the ripper ( Ditto ) to the 20th century has all the makings of a really camp and totally crap film , but despite the outrageous idea TIME AFTER TIME is a very enjoyable fantasy .

Unlike most time travel films ( THE TERMINATOR , BACK TO THE FUTURE not to mention several DOCTOR WHO and STAR TREK stories ) TIME AFTER TIME doesn`t really concern itself with concepts like the blinovitch limitation effect ie a temporal paradox , instead it concentrates on how a radical 19th century idealist like Wells would have found 20th century " Utopia " and how he would have been sickened by it . It`s here that the film works best with Wells travelling through the time vortex listening to the history of the 20th century and the scene with Wells and Jack watching television . It`s also interesting to note that the movie`s most amusing moments ( And they are genuinely amusing )are when Wells notices the difference in sexual mores of the present day . The film is much weaker when it switches to " Hero tracks down serial killer " type thriller but that`s not really what the film is about .

Easily one of the most charming science fiction films made in terms of subtle humour, romantic elements, and the bridging of today with yesterday, Time After Time tells the story of English author H. G. Wells coming to 1970's San Francisco in search of Jack the Ripper by way of his time machine. Sure the story has some holes, but in many ways it is extremely literate and thought-provoking. Malcolm McDowell excels in his role as the author looking for a better place in the future that ultimately finds that life has degenerated rather than progressed....at least in Wellsian terms. McDowell plays the Victorian literary giant with restraint and subtlety rather than hamminess. The rest of the cast is also very good. David Warner makes for a good Jack the Ripper. I am not sure I ever saw him give a bad performance. He seems to gravitate toward roles of an evil nature. Mary Steenburgen also does well in playing a woman who yearns to be a woman in the working world. The special effects are not so special, but the film is nicely filmed. Director Nicolas Meyer does a workman-like job with the material while also bringing forth many social issues from the script. More than anything, the film for me is a commentary on the state of our civilization. At every corner, on every channel, one can find violence and sex... in the film, H. G. Wells is disgusted with the evolution of man over the 20th century....is it with good reason? Would the real H. G. Wells be shocked at our "Utopia"? A thinking, yet entertaining film to be sure.