Subject: Retrospective: Time Machine, The (1960)

From: Jon Popick <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 05 Mar 2002 21:40:32 -0000

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This weekend, you can either visit the googleplex and see the spiffy new
version of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine (directed by Wells' great-grandson,
Simon) or do a little time-traveling of your own over to the Dryden Theatre
at the George Eastman House (or, if you're a total geek like me, you'll do
both).  Saturday night, the Dryden is screening the 1960 version of that
film, which took home the Best Special Effects Oscar for visuals at which we
can only roll our eyes in this day and age.

Anyone who digs those incredibly cheesy and wonderfully campy '50s
sci-fi/horror films won't want to miss out on this one.  Machine is based on
Wells' 1895 novel (he also wrote The Invisible Man and The Island of Dr.
Moreau) and was adapted for the screen by David Duncan, who penned
unintentionally hilarious gems like The Monster That Challenged the World,
The Thing That Couldn't Die (a/k/a The Jesse Helms Story) and Monster on the
Campus.  The film was directed by George Pal, who was an Oscar nominee seven
years in a row (1942-1948, for short cartoons) and helmed the popular screen
version of Wells' The War of the Worlds, in addition to the effects-heavy
Seven Faces of Dr. Lao and tom thumb.

Like all good sci-fi films, Machine isn't just about monsters or aliens -
it's social commentary, too, and this one tackles the huge gap between the
rich and the poor.  Rod Taylor plays H. George Wells, a Victorian scientist
in South London who, as the film opens, has been missing for nearly a week.
Four of his educated friends have gathered at his house for a dinner party
and are shocked when George emerges wearing tattered clothes and on the
verge of collapse.  He begins to relate an incredible story, which started
just five days earlier on December 31, 1899.

Via flashback, George tells his friends about the fourth dimension and
claims he's made a machine that will prove time travel is possible.  They
all laugh at his declaration, even when George produces a miniature version
of the machine, which takes off into the future (or so he claims).  With his
friends gone, George steps into a room with a full-size model of the time
machine, hops in and slowly starts to travel into the future.

From his seat, George can see the dress shop across the street and the
mannequin in its front window, which shows bold new fashions arriving in
stop-action style.  He makes stops and learns of the first two World Wars as
well as the third (in 1967, which was seven years after the film was made)
that destroyed civilization and encased George and his machine in molten
lava (the miniatures and stock footage used here are tremendously funny).
He shoots forward until the lava erodes, hopping out in 802710 to see a
large group of lackadaisical, Village of the Damned-style blonds with the
same clothes and the same hairstyle (it's just like going to Tonic!).

People who saw Machine when they were kids probably only remember the battle
between the Eloi and the Morlocks, but there's so much more to take away
from the film, like the fact that the English language is able to survive
the nuclear holocaust and that the future will offer a complete lack of
minorities (hey - maybe this should be The Jesse Helms Story).  Pal made
Machine for under $850,000, which is one-tenth the cost of the new version
and, by today's standards, would pay for either three of Mel Gibson's toes
or two of Marlon Brando's chins.

1:43 - G

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