It took a legendary movie maker to turn a legendary science
fiction novel into a film. George Pal, who produced The War Of The Worlds in
1953, directed another movie based on an H.G. Wells novel, The Time Machine. On
a chilly January night in London, in the year 1900, David Filby (Alan Young)
visits his friend George’s house for a friendly gathering. However, although
everybody’s on time, their host is not. In fact, George is nowhere to be seen,
with not even his housekeeper, Mrs. Wacthit, having seen hair or hide of him.
When they sit down to start dinner without him, George appear, looking dirty and
disheveled with is clothes torn. But before anybody can assume that he’s had a
rough night in the lab, George sits down and begins to tell a fantastical tale
of traveling through the centuries in a Time Machine of his own making.
Released 37 years ago, in the still-innocent era of 1960, The Time Machine still
stands the test of time as a classic movie, despite some anachronisms. The movie
has George traveling to the mid-1960s, where he witnesses England falling prey
to an atomic attack by an unseen enemy. The nuclear destruction unleashes a
volcano, which smothers the Time Machine under a mountain of volcanic rock. We
know now that a massive nuclear exchange would invariably bring a nuclear
winter, along with immense doses of radiation, but no volcanoes. Yet the
Eloi/Morlock societal arrangement still resonates in this day and age, and the
Morlocks, with their purple skin and glowing eyes, are still very potent
cinematic villains.
Rod Taylor is also very good as George, whose last name is never actually spoken
aloud in the film--but if you look at the plaque on the control panel of the
Time Machine (around the 1 hour and 35 minute mark), you’ll finally see his full
name spelled out: H.G. Wells. The rugged Taylor is effective at portraying both
the deep thinker and the man of action that the role calls for. Alan Young shows
off his great acting skills as Filby, a part which calls for him to play his own
son, and then an elderly version of the same man--all parts that Young plays to
perfection. The fetching Yvette Mimieux shines in her role as Weena, the Eloi
woman whom George meets in the far future.
But the Eloi themselves, with their beach bunny blonde looks, are a bit hard to
take. The 2002 remake actually does a better job at realistically portraying the
Eloi as a blended future society. The Time Machine DVD has some cool special
features, including a pseudo-sequel that reunites Taylor and Young in a slightly
sappy story that’s still fun to watch. And there’s the Time Machine itself,
which is a marvelous, classic design of elegant Victorian-Era technology with
its giant spinning wheel in back. It’s become just as classic a science fiction
design as Forbidden Planet’s Robby The Robot, or Star Trek’s U.S.S. Enterprise.
Whatever little nitpicks in this film are really forgivable, because the Time
Machine still has to power to captivate an audience by taking them on a temporal
journey of the imagination.
--SF
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