The Time Machine (1960 Film)
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''The Time Machine'' (also marketed as ''H. G. Wells' The Time Machine'') is a 1960 American period post-apocalyptic
science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses Speculative fiction, speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as Extraterrestrial life in fiction, extraterrestria ...
based on the 1895 novella of the same title by
H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...
. It was produced and directed by George Pal, and stars Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, and Alan Young. The story is set in Victorian England and follows an inventor who constructs a machine that enables him to travel into the distant future. Once there, he discovers that mankind's descendants have divided into two species, the passive, childlike, and
vegetarian Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the Eating, consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects as food, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slau ...
Eloi and the underground-dwelling Morlocks, who feed on the Eloi. The film was originally released on August 17, 1960, and was distributed by
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (also known as Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, commonly shortened to MGM or MGM Studios) is an American Film production, film and television production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered ...
. It received the Academy Award for Best Special Effects for its time-lapse photographic effects, which show the world changing rapidly as the time traveler journeys into the future.


Plot

On January 5, 1900, four friends arrive for a dinner at the
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
home of their inventor friend George. He is absent, then suddenly appears, bedraggled and exhausted. He recounts what happened to him. At the group's earlier dinner on
New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...
, George stated that time is the fourth dimension. He shows David Filby, Dr. Philip Hillyer, Anthony Bridewell, and Walter Kemp a scale model time machine. When a tiny lever on it is pressed, the device quickly disappears. George says it went forward in time, but his friends are skeptical. The group leaves George's house, Filby reluctantly, as he senses George is not himself. George then retires to his private laboratory that holds a full-size time machine. George travels forward in time, first in small increments, and then to September 1917. He meets Filby's son, James, who says Filby died in a war. George returns to the time machine and stops in June 1940 during the Blitz, finding himself in the midst of " a new war". A disillusioned George then travels to August 1966. People are rushing to fallout shelters as air raid sirens are blaring. An elderly James Filby urges George to take cover. George barely makes it back to his time machine as an "atomic satellite" detonates, destroying London and causing a local volcanic eruption that buries the ruins. The approaching lava rises, cools, and hardens, trapping George as he travels far into the future, waiting for the rock to erode. Eventually the lava wears away, revealing a lush, unspoiled landscape. George stops on October 12, 802,701, near the base of a
sphinx A sphinx ( ; , ; or sphinges ) is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle. In Culture of Greece, Greek tradition, the sphinx is a treacherous and merciless being with the head of a woman, th ...
. He encounters young men and women wearing simple clothing gathered by a stream. One woman, carried off by the current, screams for help. When her indifferent companions do nothing, George rescues her. She is named Weena and her people are the Eloi; they do not operate machines, work, or read, and know little of their history. Their food is always provided for them. One young man shows George a library, but the books crumble to dust when touched. Outraged, he decides to leave, but his machine has been dragged inside the closed sphinx. Weena, who stays with him, says that Morlocks are responsible, noting they only come out at night. A hideous-looking Morlock jumps out and tries to drag Weena away, but is warded off by George's lit torch. The next day, Weena shows George truncated cone structures dotting the landscape, air shafts that lead down to the Morlocks' caverns. Weena also shows George an ancient museum where "talking rings" tell of long-ago war between East and West that lasted 326 years and contaminated the atmosphere. Another ring describes humanity's struggle for survival; many people lived underground, while some eventually returned to the surface. George realizes this was the beginning of the speciation that resulted in the Morlocks and Eloi. He starts to climb down a shaft, but stops when sirens emerge and blare from the sphinx. The Eloi go into a trance-like state and head for the opened doors at the sphinx's base. The sirens stop and the doors close, trapping Weena and others inside, while those outside merely walk away. George enters the caverns through the air shafts. He discovers that the Morlocks raise the Eloi as food. He finds Weena and fights off the creatures, finally inspiring the Eloi to defend themselves. George sets fires and urges the Eloi to climb to the surface. He directs them to drop tree branches down the shafts. The resulting fires cause the caverns to burn, then collapse. The next morning, the sphinx's doors are open. George sees his time machine inside. When he enters the sphinx, the doors close and George is attacked by Morlocks. He escapes in his machine and returns to 1900. After George recounts his story, his friends remain skeptical. He produces a flower Weena gave him, and Filby, an amateur
botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...
, says it is an unknown species. George bids his guests good evening. Filby returns shortly thereafter to find George and his time machine gone. His housekeeper, Mrs. Watchett, notes that nothing is missing except three books that she is unable to identify. Filby speculates that George has returned to the distant future to help the Eloi build a new civilization. When Mrs. Watchett wonders if George will ever return, Filby remarks that "he has all the time in the world".


Cast

* Rod Taylor as H. George Wells * Alan Young as David Filby/James Filby * Yvette Mimieux as Weena * Sebastian Cabot as Dr. Philip Hillyer * Tom Helmore as Anthony Bridewell * Whit Bissell as Walter Kemp * Doris Lloyd as Mrs. Watchett * Paul Frees as voice of the Rings ''(uncredited)''


Production


Pre-production

George Pal was already known for his pioneering work with stop-motion animation, having been nominated almost yearly for an Oscar during the 1940s. In 1958, Pal was approached by Shiro Kido to co-produce a Japanese adaptation of the novel with Shochiku Productions. After Kido left the project and Pal was unable to sell Hollywood on the concept of the film, he found MGM's British studio (where he had filmed '' Tom Thumb'') open to his proposal. The name of the film's main character (alluded to in dialogue only as "George") connects him both with George Pal and with the story's original science fiction writer H. G. (George) Wells. The name "H. George Wells" can be seen on a brass plaque on the time machine. The film was created on a tight budget and given a filming schedule of just 29 days.


Casting

Taylor was already Pal's first choice to play the time traveller, after having lunch together numerous times where they discussed the project. Taylor admitted being fascinated with Pal's rough drawings detailing various scenes. In a 1986 interview, he commented how he had been asked more questions about his role in this film than any other across his career. Pal originally considered casting a middle-aged British actor like David Niven or James Mason as George. He later changed his mind and selected the younger Australian actor Rod Taylor to give the character a more athletic, idealistic dimension. It was Taylor's first lead role in a feature film. Mimieux was cast in the role of Weena despite having no previous acting experience. During a screen test, director George Pal observed an innocent persona she portrayed, yet despite being his first choice, she was turned down by MGM. Following Pal's insistence and despite Taylor's preferred choice being Shirley Knight, Mimieux was asked back for another screen test where she was offered the part. Taylor observed her inability to act, describing how he thought she was like "kind of a strange hippie child" and was concerned that her lack of experience meant she would be difficult to act alongside. Mimieux lied about her age to Pal, stating she was 18 despite being only 17 when filming began. Having initially struggled on set, Mimieux gradually improved as her confidence in acting grew, to the extent that Pal requested that some of her earlier scenes be reshot to take advantage of her improved acting ability.


Design

The time machine prop was designed by MGM art director Bill Ferrari and built by Wah Chang. Recognized today as an iconic film property, Ferrari's machine suggested a sled made up of a large
clockwork Clockwork refers to the inner workings of either mechanical devices called clocks and watches (where it is also called the movement (clockwork), movement) or other mechanisms that work similarly, using a series of gears driven by a spring or wei ...
rotating disk. The disk rotated at various speeds to indicate movement through time, evoking both a spinning
clock A clock or chronometer is a device that measures and displays time. The clock is one of the oldest Invention, human inventions, meeting the need to measure intervals of time shorter than the natural units such as the day, the lunar month, a ...
and a solar disk. In a meta-concept touch, a brass plate on the time machine's instrument display panel identifies its inventor as "H. George Wells", though the Time Traveler is identified only as "George" in dialogue. In Wells' original story, the protagonist is referred to only as the "Time Traveler". As a means to cut costs, the dome habitat of the Eloi was constructed without a ceiling so that natural light could be used instead of costly artificial lighting. The look of the Morlocks was designed by Wah Chang.


Filming

With a budget of under $1 million, the film could not be shot on location in London. Live-action scenes were filmed from May 25 to June 30, 1959, in
Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. It is mostly surrounded by Los Angeles, but also shares a border with the unincorporated area of Ladera Heights, Californi ...
, with the backgrounds often filled in with matte paintings and models. Some of the costumes and props were re-used from '' Forbidden Planet'' (1956), such as the Civil Defence air raid officer uniform, which was the C-57-D crew uniform, and the large acrylic sphere in the talking rings room, a prop from the C-57-D's control bridge. In scenes where lava is shown to overrun the streets of London onto a miniature replica set, oatmeal was used as a substitute. The oatmeal had been prepared several days prior and left over a weekend, where it fermented in high temperatures, creating a "foul stench" in the air when it was released.


Home media

Released multiple times on
Beta Beta (, ; uppercase , lowercase , or cursive ; or ) is the second letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 2. In Ancient Greek, beta represented the voiced bilabial plosive . In Modern Greek, it represe ...
and VHS video cassette, Capacitance Electronic Disc (CED), and both letterboxed and open matte
LaserDisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...
, the film was released on DVD in October 2000 and on
Blu-ray Disc Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of ...
in July 2014 from Warner Home Video.


Soundtrack

An original film score CD was released in 1987 produced by
Arnold Leibovit Arnold Leibovit (born June 18, 1950) is an American director, producer, and screenwriter of feature films and musical productions. Life and career An acting member of the Producers Guild of America, he has produced, directed, and written sever ...
, the original soundtrack recording was composed and conducted by Russell Garcia himself and released by GNP Crescendo. Arnold Leibovit Entertainment produced and re-released a new updated stereo digital remaster in 2022 with expanded tracks and uncut as composer Garcia originally wrote it. Included is a 20-page collector's booklet with an exclusive interview with Garcia. The track listing is as follows:


Critical reception

''The Time Machine'' received generally mixed reviews upon release. Bosley Crowther of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' wrote a mixed review, praising the "familiar polish and burnish" of the production values but finding that "the drama, for all its invention, is creaky and a bit passé. (Apparently there has still been no contact with other planets in 800,000 A.D.) And the mood, while delicately wistful, is not so flippant or droll as it might be in a fiction as fanciful and flighty as this one naturally is". A generally positive review in '' Variety'' praised the special effects as "fascinating" and wrote that "Rod Taylor definitely establishes himself as one of the premium young talents on today's screen", but faulted the pacing of the film, finding that "things slow down to a walk" once the protagonist arrives in the far distant future. '' Harrison's Reports'' called the film "an excellent science-fiction melodrama ... jammed full of suspense, action and out-of-this-world special effects", although the review lamented a lack of comic relief. Whitney Balliett of ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'' wrote in a negative review that the film "converts this good simple-minded material into bad simple-minded material", by including such Hollywood touches as a love interest. He was also unimpressed by the production values, writing that the model sets "don't touch the lowest-price Lionel train". Richard L. Coe of ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' wrote that with the exception of the "gooey" love interest, "the tale is an engrossing one, boasting adroit camera tricks by Paul C. Vogel and an exceptionally easy, likable performance of the Time Traveler by Taylor. The youngsters will like this, and their elders will be kept wide awake". '' The Monthly Film Bulletin'' wrote that the film was "at its best in the scenes where George explores his new surroundings at each time stop", but found the acting "inadequate: Rod Taylor lacks both intellect and period sense, belonging more to an American science fiction world, and Weena is just a doll. Nevertheless, Pal's visual flair and genuine feeling for his fantasy world help to maintain an entertaining surface for most of the time". On review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film holds a score of 76% based on 38 reviews, with an average rating of 7.0/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Its campy flourishes tend to subdue its dramatic stakes, but ''The Time Machine'' brings H.G. Wells' story to life with plenty of sci-fi charm and a colorful sense of visual design." On
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 67 out of 100 based on nine critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".


Box office

According to MGM records, the film earned $1,610,000 in the United States and Canada and $1 million elsewhere, turning a profit of $245,000. The film had admissions of 363,915 in France. ''Kine Weekly'' called it a "money maker" at the British box office in 1960.


Awards and honors

Gene Warren and Tim Baar won the 1961 Academy Award for Best Effects, Special Effects. The film was nominated for the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.


Comic book adaptation

*
Dell Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...
Four Color #1085 (March 1960)


1993 documentary

In 1993, a combination
sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music, or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...
- documentary short, '' Time Machine: The Journey Back'', directed by Clyde Lucas, was produced. In its third section, Michael J. Fox talks about his experience with the DeLorean sports car time machine from ''
Back to the Future ''Back to the Future'' is a 1985 American science fiction film directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover, and Thomas F. Wilson. Set in 1985 ...
''. In the short's final section, written by screenwriter David Duncan, Rod Taylor, Alan Young, and Whit Bissell reprise their roles from the original 1960 film.


In pop culture

* '' Time After Time'', a 1979 science-fiction film in which H. G. Wells (played by Malcolm McDowell) travels to modern-day
San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
in his time machine in pursuit of Jack the Ripper. * ''
The Time Machine ''The Time Machine'' is an 1895 dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction novella by H. G. Wells about a Victorian scientist known as the Time Traveller who travels to the year 802,701. The work is generally credited with the popularizati ...
'', a 2002 remake directed by Simon Wells and an uncredited Gore Verbinski, and starring Guy Pearce in the Taylor role. * The '' Quantum Leap'' episode "Future Boy", which takes place on October 6, 1957, features a character who builds a time machine very similar to that used in Pal's film. * In "The Nerdvana Annihilation", a 1st season episode of ''
The Big Bang Theory ''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady for CBS. It aired from September 24, 2007, to May 16, 2019, running for 12 seasons and 279 episodes. The show originally centered on five charact ...
'', the characters purchase a scaled-down replica of the film's time machine at an online auction site, only to discover that it is full-size; Morlocks later haunt Sheldon's dreams of time-traveling to the far future. * "Journey to the Bottom of the Crash Pit", a 5th season episode of ''
Regular Show ''Regular Show'' (known as ''Regular Show in Space'' during its Regular Show season 8, eighth season) is an American animated sitcom created by J. G. Quintel for Cartoon Network. It ran from September 6, 2010, to January 16, 2017, over the cours ...
'', in which Mordecai, Rigby, Muscle Man, and Hi-Five Ghost have to venture into the bottom of the crash pit to find their video camera before their boss Benson notices it is gone; the Carlocks they meet are based on the Morlocks from the H. G. Wells novel and their appearance is based on the Morlocks in Pal's film. * In '' Gremlins'', at the inventors' convention, the time machine can be seen in the background with a man sitting in it and the disk spinning. In the next shot, it has disappeared, leaving a cloud of smoke.


References


Citations


Sources

*


Bibliography

* Hickman, Gail Morgan. ''The Films of George Pal''. South Brunswick, New Jersey: A. S. Barnes and Company, Inc., 1977. . * Warren, Bill. ''Keep Watching the Skies: American Science Fiction Films of the Fifties'', 21st Century Edition. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 2009 (First Edition 1982). .


External links

* * * *
Colemanzone.com: A tribute to the classic 1960 MGM movie ''The Time Machine''

''The Time Machine'' - synopsis of film scenes




* {{DEFAULTSORT:Time Machine, The (1960 film) 1960 films 1960s American films 1960s English-language films 1960s science fiction adventure films American science fantasy films American science fiction adventure films Apocalyptic films Cultural depictions of H. G. Wells Films about hypnosis 1950s and 1960s films about time travel Films adapted into comics Films based on science fiction novels Films based on works by H. G. Wells Films directed by George Pal Films produced by George Pal Films set around New Year Films set in 1899 Films set in 1900 Films set in 1917 Films set in 1940 Films set in 1966 Films set in England Films set in London Films set in the 1800s Films set in the future Films set in the Victorian era Films that won the Best Visual Effects Academy Award Films using stop-motion animation Films with screenplays by David Duncan (writer) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films The Time Machine English-language science fantasy films English-language science fiction adventure films