After filming, the Time Machine prop was largely forgotten. In the 70s, filmmaker Bob Burns found it in an antique store, in poor condition. He bought it, restored it and used it in a live Halloween show he did at his own house...George Pal showed up for this, and was photographed sitting in it, something he said he never did while they were making the movie. Currently, it's still in Burns' collection, along with decades of sci-fi/horror/fantasy movie memorabilia.
Not exactly a sequel, but in 1993 there was a documentary titled "The Time Machine: The Journey Back" hosted by Rod Taylor. It includes a scene reuniting Taylor and Alan Young, playing their original characters in which George returns and tells Philby what he's learned from his adventure.
George Pal is one of my favorite filmmakers, he was one of the masters of practical effects and a contemporary of Harryhausen. Just about every film he made was brilliant.
There is a 1990's documentary on the DVD called "Time Machine: The Journey Back". Rod Taylor & Alan Young reprise their roles in a short scene, where George returns during WW1, and tries to convince Philby not to go to Europe, knowing he'll be killed. There is a clip on TH-cam.
Not only a classic, but a near perfect adaptation of H. G. Wells immortal story. Some changes were needed for a book to movie medium. The 2002 version, while radically different adaptation wise, is a smashing movie as well. Orlando Jones haunting performance in the 2002 version, still sends chills down my spine to this very day. Fun Fact: When George arrives in the year 802,701 his time machine reads the date of October 12th. So, George arrives into a "New World" on the anniversary of Christopher Columbus' first reaching the "New World" of the Americas.
George Pal's adaptations of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine are both iconic. If you like the steam punk aesthetic, then the 2002 film is worth watching for the machine alone. It was the most expensive movie prop ever made.
George Pal shopped the idea of the film to all of the American studios, none of which were interested. However, MGM's British studio was (where Pal's earlier film "tom thumb" had been produced). The budget didn't allow for location shooting, so interior filming was done at MGM's Culver City studio. The film won the 1961 Academy Award for Best Special Effects, and was nominated for the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. The 2002 remake was a co-production between DreamWorks and Warner Bros. I've only seen it once, whereas I've seen the 1960 version more times than I can count.
I was fascinated with the concept of time travel after watching this movie for the first time. In the past I’ve made reference to the Eloy and Morlock when talking to coworkers about management and laborers at work.
This film happened to be my first favorite film as a child that I shared watching it with my father. Since then I’ve been drawn to the Victorian era. You should watch an epilogue scene they did in the ‘90’s or early 2,000’s, where Filby visits George’s house one last time before shipping out in WWI, and then an unexpected surprise.
The number of nightmares I had when a child about the Morlock I could count off a hundred hands. The moment when Rod Taylor punches that Morlock attacking Meena, and ir slams against a rock, and blood spills out of its mouth as it dies... Those eyes glowing in the dark, and the way they lurk through the dark together in search of Eloi to devour!!! Yes, together with "The Day The Earth Stood Still" (1951), this is one of the greatest Science-Fiction movies ever made. Thanks for your reaction to this, Alexa. Yours is THE channel to tune in to! 😀😀
The Morlocks truly are the stuff of nightmares. Their design is a pretty classic monster design (fangs, hairy bodies, glowing eyes, etc) which could still frighten kids today. I've actually realised something. The Eloi are like children that are afraid of the dark and fear what may be under their beds. The Morlocks live underground which is pretty much another version of the monster under the bed.
I must get this dvd and the year this film came out, was three years before classic Dr Who started its debut on tv in black and white with William Hartnell.
I love listening to your insightful comments on aspects of films such as costume, admirable behaviour and practical effects, Alexa. As Queen Victoria died in 1901 though and this was set on New Year's Eve 1899, he's a Victorian time traveller not an Edwardian one!
From a technical standpoint, yes, from a costuming standpoint no. Late Victorian has come to generally refer to the bustle era into the early 1890s. The turn-of-the-century silhouette was due to a more modern influence, and it is easier to refer to it as Edwardian, even though to split hairs she passed in 1901.
@@alexachipman An annotated version of the Wells story pointed out that the Time Traveller mentions a lecture given by a famous scientist about the Fourth Dimension that occurred a month or two earlier. Amazingly, Wells was referring to an actual speech at an actual scientific convention, which pinpointed the beginning of the story to (iirc) February of 1893. I guess the New Year's Eve 1899/1900 seemed more symbolic to George Pal.
Steampunk is essentially retro-futurism. Because H.G. Wells was a Victorian/Edwardian, his setting wasn't retro, it was simply sci-fi. Otherwise, we would have to say that Austen wrote historical romances.
Time After Time (1979) is definitely worth watching. The plot takes a real turn from the original but it is still better than 2002's The Time Machine which has a real made for TV vibe to it.
The "lava" in the volcano scene in downtown was actually oatmeal with orange and red food coloring spilled onto a platform and slowly moved down the miniature set
An old favorite, I remember back in the late 60s my mother let us stay up very late (many decent old movies were on TV after 11pm) to watch it as she herself was intrigued.
My first experience of this was the 'Classics Illustrated' comic, as a 10 y-o, later the novel, then the film. It was the comic that made the deepest impression, and I guess it was my childhood intro to the possibilities of sci-fi and futuristic worlds. The Morlocks in the comic were creepy, deformed skinless gnomes and most of the action takes place deep in a forest. I remember the architecture fascinated me - great marble halls in (I think) art deco style. In H G Wells's original novel, the cannibalism aspect is hinted at but not spelt out. In fact we should keep in mind that this was very much a pioneering work and much of the story is not really thought through. Were the Morlocks and the Eloi different races or different species? What happened to the rest of the whole biosphere? How could they live without sunlight, agriculture, medicine? How global was this society? What was the technology based on etc. etc.? Wells lived in a world where evolution was not well understood and other planets were widely believed to be inhabited. He was also a known occultist. His ability to envision an Earth 600,000 years in the future and a whole human society within it was I think severely limited. As for the film, it was thrilling to watch and the effects were pretty good for the time. Rod Taylor and Alan Young were well cast, and it was an auspicious debut for the decorative Yvette Mimieux, but I was disappointed it didn't resemble the comic or the novel much. Thanks for covering it anyway, Alexa. It was a long time since I'd seen it. I like how you tackle subjects that seem to be off most reactors' radars. Btw, Mimieux features in 1969's 'The Picasso Summer', an otherwise unremarkable film which ends with a long and fascinating, unforgettable animated sequence of the artist's iconic images. I'm sure you would love it just for that if you can track it down.
I've really enjoyed watching this movie over and over again as a child. Years later I've decided to read the novel and I was struck by the differences to the movie adaptation (or adaptions by that time). Wells definitely had a sense of writing dystopia, that didn't seem far fetched at all and could be read and re-interpretated by numerous generations and everyone could find themselves or their time period in it. I would absolutely agree with you, Alexa, that I also had wished for a longer movie, especially since the ending (of the novel) is missing and the time he spends with the Eloi is massively shortened. I also felt that the ending when life on Earth comes to an end was one of Wells' main literary devices that contributed to the notion of dystopia and was one of the key aspects of the novel. To me it always seemed that the decay of Earth and the realization of ones own insignificance was his main motivation to travel into the future again after telling his story. The movie maybe focussed a bit too much on the emotional bond to the Eloi - at least the way I've understood Wells.
Alexa has seen Dark Angel and The Prisoner...good to know! George Pal tried *for years* to get a sequel greenlit, to no avail. There was a wonderful interview he did for Starlog magazine where he talked about it. I don't remember much, but there was a memorable accompanying piece of concept art with George leading the Eloi into battle against an army of giant insects! Harlan Ellison once said that Pal ran into a roadblock when it came to the new, younger studio executives who thought he was old hat. A shame, he was a marvelous creative person responsible for some unforgettable films...
The sequel never appeared -- in movie form, but George Pal's script, adapted as a novel, appeared in 1981 as "Time Machine II." I have it . . . but I've yet to read it. Speaking of sequels, I've read some stinkers. There was one where the Time Traveller stops in the 1600s -- and catches the Plague and dies; one where they invented a plethora of "new" time travel rules -- including one that if you go back before you were born, you disintegrate (which happens to Weena), and one I couldn't follow at all, but I vaguely remember that a philosopher explains that the Time Machine is logically absurd, and it stops working. Why doesn't anyone want the Time Traveller to have amazing (and fun) adventures?
“The Time Machine” is one of the best films in the steampunk cycle that came out between the late ‘50s and mid-60s, filling a void when serious sci-fi largely took a backseat (literally) to cheap drive-in B-movie fare geared toward teens (a drought that finally ended with the arrival of “Fantastic Voyage,” “2001,” and “Planet of the Apes” in the late ‘60s -- It was a bad time for horror too, with mostly only the Vincent Price/Poe cycle and Italian imports serving up quality in the early ‘60s). If you dig this steampunkery, check out the other excellent Verne- and Wells-derived films from the era, e.g., “From the Earth to the Moon,” “Mysterious Island,” “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” “First Men in the Moon,” “Master of the World,” and “War Gods of the Deep.” (I don’t count “Around the World in 80 Days,” as it’s really borderline fantasy, i.e., the odds of such a long-distance balloon trip succeeding suggest fantasy, but the story and the science are mired in reality overall). As for which books to bring, he seemed to be a thinker and not just a tinkerer, so I don’t think it would have been merely science/how-to/nuts-and-bolts stuff. I think possibly the Bible to teach ethics and maybe the Magna Carta for civics and the idea of individual rights, as well as Greek classics to ensure they form a democratic society. Maybe even the complete works of Shakespeare to give them a sense of comedy, tragedy, and human vice and virtue. Definitely at least one history book because how can humanity know where it’s going without learning where it’s been
The Time Machine (1960) is part of an incidental trilogy of big budget steampunk classics from the 50s/60s. The other two are of course Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). All of them are great fun and very well made. There are others, but these three are the standouts of that era for high quality entertainment in that particular genre niche.
The Journey to the Centre of the Earth one is very differetn from Verne's book, but I was surprised at how much I liked it. I was even stealing myself for more Pat Boon tunes but as it turned out he only sang a couple of short songs and they weren't bad at all. The rest of the score, by Bernard Hehrman if I remember right, was incredible, and while it was lacking the cool dinosaur creatures that are in the book, it threw in a bunch of Atlantis stuff.
@@DamnableReverend It's true that the movie has a lot of departures from Verne, but I think they did capture the feeling of the novel and the script works on its own terms. Even the dinosaur stand-ins are about the best prosthetic lizards I've seen. I have vivid memories of the big red one, although a lot of the effect is due to the Herrmann scoring of those scenes.
Books to bring: • _The Way Things Work_ - both volumes • _A Barefoot Doctor’s Manual_ (a modern Chinese guide to medicine for the people in the countryside) • Any of the extensive guides to formulas - _Henley’s Formulas_ is one good one
This was one of my favorite Sci-fi stories. When this movie came out I think I went to the theater for the Saturday and Sunday matinees, sitting through two showings. One problem I always had was that the guy has a time machine, and yet he was late for dinner.
Alan Young who played his friend was always likeable in everything. He had a TV series called Mr Ed where he owned a talking horse, so he was preopared to believe anything!
A horse is a horse, of course of course... Joined by Topper, I Dream of Jeannie, My Mother the Car, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, It's About Time, Bewitched, The Addams Family, My Favorite Martian, oh I grew up on a whole raft of such shows.
I think its important as an ideal to be a well rounded person, to be thinking and intellectual, but also physically conditioned and able to defend yourself, to be mentally and physically strong. But most important by far to be humane, thoughtful and caring.
So much to cover here. My brother told me decades ago about the plan for a sequel that never came off. He said it began with H. George Wells (Never realized the H.G. Wells name before this moment!) and Weena were in the time machine racing to the past because Weena was in labor and George wanted her to deliver their baby in a "modern" hospital. But the time machine crashes. The point of view widens out and a young man on a futuristic looking motorcycle watching what is happening. It is George and Weena's son going back in time on his time motorcycle discovering where he came from. Never happened. If you want a treat, Check out the history of George Pal. He was a pioneer of animation. Check out Puppetoons. Tubby the Tuba is an example but certainly not the most amazing. George had a crew of (I believe) German wood carvers who made his puppets. He invented a system where each puppet had interchangeable faces. The faces had a series of expressions. The faces were exchanged to create the animation. He even made animations with glass creations ("The Ship of the Ether"). It was magical. All of this was decades before computer generated effects. He started crossing over mixing live action with his animations in movies like "The Great Rupert" (1950) about a musical squirrel, "Tom Thumb" (1958) and "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" (1962). I am now watching your reaction to Thunderbirds episode 1 and am thinking about the parallels of how the Andersons went from puppets to "UFO" and "Space:1999" with how George Pal transitioned from an artform that he was the master of to live action and what a career risk that was. As to the three books, I agree about the books on mechanics, but I would think a man of that era would also take a copy of the Bible.
I'm an "old guy." I saw this film on Saturday Night at the Movies (on NBC TV). I really appreciate the design and construction of the Time machine -- the way the upholstery on the seat was appointed -- like the interior of a wealthy man's coach. The brass railings and trim are definitely "steam punk." I really liked the acting in this film. Rod Taylor was perfect as "George." Bravo H.G. Wells, George Pal, MGM, cast, and crew! The only other Time travel movie that I enjoyed was "Time After Time" (1979) starring Malcom McDowell, Mary Steenbergen and David Warner. Many thanks, Alexa Chipman. You, dear lady, would fit perfectly into late-Victorian England (even if only for a short time).
After watching your reaction video I came to the realization that the Morlock we’re not just supplying food and clothing, but also pallets of Aqua net.
The Time Machine was the first major time travel scifi that inspired other film stories and use in TV. Saw this at 5 or 6 in the cinema back in 1960 or '61 and it dazzled me! It was my first BIG science fiction experience and locked it in as my favorite genre. I didn't understand every little thing going on, but I did understand time travel. Have you seen the Back to the Future trilogy because there is one little tie or shout-out to "The TM"? I know how you are on spoilers so I don't want to say it right out. 😉 There was a mini-sequel made! Rod Taylor and Alan Young got together to do a brief one during the mid-80s as a kind of promotion to BTTF as it even includes Michael J. Fox as a host. It's the 'special feature' on my DVD called "Time Machine: The Journey Back". It's a 48 minute documentary about the making of The Time Machine, BUT the last 13 minutes is the sequel drama to The TM that includes Whit Bissell starting it off. It's a nice end story the "The TM". The Time Machine prop itself has a long torturous story as to what happened to it, its purchase and restoration many years later. They even fixed the poor giant dish so it didn't wobble anymore! LOL! It was on tour and rented out for things like in Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" (1980) science series on PBS during the episode called "Travels In Space and Time" where Carl got to ride in it. It a good science series mostly about astronomy, but delves into the other sciences as well along with wonderful reenactments using live actors. There's another Time Machine movie adaptation that's pretty good too made in 2002, worth a watch and perhaps you should do that one someday. There is a 3rd related movie that is a must "Time After Time" (1979) starring Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen and David Warner and all I'll tell you about that one is "Watch it! Do it!" LOL! I don't know if you caught it, but the nameplate on George's time machine at 7:16 reads "Manufactured by H. George Wells" thus the name George in The TM. Just start watching Time After Time and you'll see why my lips are sealed! 😁 Enjoyable video you did here and keep plugging away at these scifi classics, Alexa! 🖖😎
The Morlocks are still scary to this very day. I actually came up with a theory on why the Morlocks are easy to kill by using simple biology. Despite the Morlocks being able to put up a fight, their bodies are pretty frail and lack certain vitamins and minerals which help make the body and bones strong. Even though they feed on the Eloi, it still isn't enough to strengthen their bodies. When the Eloi struck the Morlock in the back, he may have broke a few of the Morlock's vertebrae causing it to arch back in pain and when it slams against the rock after George pushes it off him, the impact may have caused it's back ribs to instantly break and puncture it's lungs which then filled with blood killing the Morlock instantly.
This explanation makes a lot of sense. After all, while the argument could be made that the Morlocks are not * technically * cannibals since the Eloi are a different species, they are certainly close enough to human for all the problems cannibalism causes to crop up and weaken them.
Hello and best regards from Germany. I enjoyed watching one of my favourite movies together with you. I loved your calm and relaxed way of commenting. Please do more of it. Since we are talking about a time machine: Belated all the best for 2023! Greetings, Thomas.
This is one of my favorites, I got a lifetime crush on Rod Taylor because of this movie, he was not only a great action actor but he was great in Rom-Coms like Sunday in NY and the Glass Bottom Boat. I'm so glad you enjoyed it.
This was my favorite movie is a child. I even have a 1,000 dollar replica of the small time machine from the movie. It is the same size as the tabletop model he used at the begining. It was custom made and the shadow box is also a replica. It is powerd and the dish rotates and lights up. The actual full size machine has quite a backstory and was restored and it was featured on an episode of the BIG BANG THEORY. You should check it out.
Yeah, season 1, episode 14. Here's a clip (I believe they made a mistake, Leonard wants to move forward in time but he pulls instead of pushes the lever) th-cam.com/video/5OHtb3lg5C8/w-d-xo.html (Even the Morlocks make an appearance in that episode!)
Glad you took the time to watch this great classic. I still enjoy watching it after soo many times seeing it. The remake from 2002 is pretty good. Obviously using more current effects. But the overall story is pretty close. I like that they didnt say what books he took, it gives the audience a chance to think more about it like you did. And when I was younger and saw it the Morlocks creeped me out for sure.
I completely gave up building my time machine when I realized suddenly jumping even an hour through time would leave you very far from the Earth. All my stuff is here.
That’s true. If you consider an absolute position in the universe, Earth is rotating around the sun, the solar system is rotating in one spiral arm of the Milky Way, and the galaxy itself is moving through the universe. Probably in mere fractions of a second the Earth would have moved quite a distance away from you and the Time Machine which moved in time but not in space.
One of the best science fiction films ever. Also the actor who plays David is Alan Young who people would know best from Mister Ed and the longtime voice of Scrooge McDuck. Another great one I recommend if you haven’t seen it is Time After Time with Malcolm McDowell.
There is a now very rare and out of print sequel novel called 'The Time Machine II', based on George Pal's unfilmed script. The book and the unfilmed movie would have dealt with George and Weena's son and the paradox created when George and Weena die during the Blitz of London before the son is born.
The piano riff when the traveller wanders through the future forest is 'borrowed' for 'Back to the Future'. There's a bonus on the DVD which is sort of a short sequel. The 2002 remake starts really well, and then goes off the rails in the future sequences. The remake time machine is a really nice design too. You might like to watch it to compare and contrast with the George Pal version. You might also like to try 'Time After Time' (1979)...
One of my ever green favourites. Other's if you haven't seen them Alexa, being 1959's Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. First Men In The Moon, Quatermass and the pit and Jason And The Argonauts. Since you also loved the Space:1999 Troubled Spirit episode like I did. The ghostly 1989 TV movie The Woman In Black is excellent, as is 1979's The Changeling and 1957's Night Of The Demon. All films being good because they have plots and marvellous dialogue for good actors to sink their teeth into.
13:06 I like the implication that centuries of war caused an ingrained instinct for people to head underground at the sounds of sirens 16:20 it’s zuzu’s petals
Another great H.G. Wells adaptation from a few years earlier was "The War of The Worlds" (which was also produced by George Pal, who produced and directed "The Time Machine".) Both movies used to play on T.V. when I was a kid and I loved them!
The very first Dalek story, in black and white with, Bill Hartnell got its roots from this film and the elements used in the first Dalek story the Daleks were reused by Terry Nation in Blake,s Seven in the series B episode Countdown radiation killing human tissue and leaving buildings and cities and towns intact.
Thanks for choosing this immortal classic. You're only the second person to react to it on TH-cam, while vastly inferior, but more recent, movies are reacted to over and over and over. Again, thanks.
I adore this movie. In reality though, this machine wouldn’t work, because though it appears to us that we’re static in space, in reality we never occupy the same space at the same time. Our planet, solar system, galaxy is constantly moving through space at thousands of miles per hour. We never occupy the same point in space again. If you got into that machine and flicked the switch, you’d instantly end up in the vacuum of space and not long for this Universe - which is also probably moving! I still love the film. I guess if one is smart enough to make a time machine, they would have those details sorted. I just wish there was a line about it being “geolocked” or something so it isn’t swept away into the void.
You mentioned that the model should be on the ground instead of the table in case the table wasn't there. What if the ground wasn't there? The surface of the Earth is spinning while the Earth itself is orbiting the sun while the sun is orbiting the center of our galaxy etc. In my favorite time travel story the time machine is a space ship and the limiting factor on far you can travel in time is how far away will earth have moved away from your original fixed point in space.
Time travel is really neat and exciting! It has been a human fascination for a long time. This is either going forward and envisioning the future or going back in time. No pun intended. No wonder there have been so many books and movies on it.
Top hidden gem time travel movies are: Time After Time starring David Warner, Malcom McDowel and Mary Steenburgen from 1979. Somewhere In Time starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour and Christopher Plummer from 1980. I think you’ll love both movies. It crazy how time changes your reality so much. First time watching Space:1999 in 1976 with old dial knobs and no remote. Not to mention, you had to be in front of a tv at the scheduled time or you missed it to the 1990’s watching it on VHS on my VCR to buying them in the 2000’s on DVD for DVD player to streaming it on TV or my iPhone in the 2020’s. Maybe in 2040’s I’ll be watching it from some viewing implant in my eye.
The Guy Peace version of this film is very different but still good and I highly recommend it. But there's also another Time Machine movie from 1979 with Malcolm McDowell playing H.G. Wells who constructs his own Time Machine. This film is call 'Time After Time' and includes the actors Mary Steenburgen and David Warner.
I think I'd take a compendium of Vogon Poetry. The celestial homecare omnibus. And, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - with it's cover saying in those now notoriously large and famously friendly letters, "Don't Panic" - after all, it contains suggestions for any eventuality.
Back in 1992 when this film was released in Widescreen on LaserDisc I was dating a school teacher. She kept borrowing it as she taught English as a second language. She would have the class read the book and then they'd watch the film and compare it to the book. We broke up (on friendly terms) just before I met my future wife. All these years later I still have that LaserDisc (and more importantly, the same wife).
This is a very important film, to this day, a clear warning about a future world to come and beautifully shot also full of original ideas Again another great example of 1960s experimentation in film, it hooks your interest & doesnt let go until the end
I just found your Channel, and I'm so glad I did, looking over your movie review list, I see you watch a lot of movies that are great films, but are not watched or reviewed by other channels, that alone made me subscribe. I know of quite a few movie treasures that no (or very few) channels react to. I don't want to bombard you with movie suggestions, but from time to time I can drop a great movie your way. I noticed you react to old movies as well, you should do a reaction to the old original "Wuthering Heights" (1939) with Merle Oberon, and Sir Lawrence Olivier. It's a classic masterpiece, yet nobody does reactions to it. I don't know if you do musicals or not, but how about "Calamity Jane", (1953) with Doris Day, or "The Music Man", (1962) with Robert Preston, and Shirley Jones.
Thank you, the others I have seen, but I don’t think I have seen Wuthering Heights yet. I loathed the book, so likely not. But I am willing to give any Sir Lawrence Olivier film a try!
It was extremely popular in that time period, much more so than today. Also this is a warning - you have been posting a lot of borderline trolling comments.
@@alexachipman Seriously mate, they were ment as a genuine conversation in a friendly manner. Look if I've offended you then I'd better unsubscribe know. My apologies.
This is one of my absolute favorite movies! The remake is not bad either when taken on it's own merits and not compared to this one. It made some interesting points that this one did not. Definitely worth a watch.
This was my favourite version, I did not really like the re-makes. A sequel was made in 1979 called Time after Time with Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen, and David Warner. I really liked it.
I didn't know you reacted to this! (Although on a moment's consideration, it makes sense, after who else *would* react to this? Just watched Just SUMM Reaction's reaction and searched, so I am watching this one now! XD)
@@alexachipman I know you tend to do older classic films and shows, tons of which I haven't even seen myself. There're quite a few I still need to catch myself, like Disney's 20,000 Leagues.
Hi Alexa, I suspect this has probably been suggested to you more than once before, but I highly, highly recommend the loose collection of time-travel stories and novels by Connie Willis. They've won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, and are some of my all-time favourite speculative fiction reads and re-reads. The main sequence starts with "Fire Watch" (short story 1982), then "Doomsday Book" (1992), "To Say Nothing of the Dog" (1998), and the diptych of "Blackout" and "All Clear" (2011). Some of them are solemn, some are funny, some are tragic, and all of them are memorable - I would kill to be able to create characters as fully-fledged as hers in my writing. (Well, okay... maybe not actually _kill_... but I'd think about it.) At least one more novel is planned. "Lincoln's Dreams" (1987) and particularly "Passage" (2001) are wonderful too, although not set in the same shared universe. Finally, she's a forceful advocate for "A Christmas Carol" as the best Christmas story ever (including the Muppets' adaptation!); and she has a collection of her own Christmas short stories and commentary, appropriately enough as "Miracle and Other Christmas Stories" (1999). My favourite of those is "Epiphany"... for reasons I can't really describe without spoilers, so you'll just have to take it on faith :).
Hi Alexa I say the year 1960 when this film came out I would love to have been born in that year, instead of been born 9 years later had I been alive when classic Dr Who started I would have got to see many of the black and white Dr Who stories with doctors 1 and 2 in the role . I certainly will have to think about, getting this sci-fi film on dvd and I hope to watch it frequently
I read the book a long time ago. I thought it was arguably more interesting because it was more complex, but I liked the movie more because it did a much better job of getting me emotionally invested in the characters. 2:21 The "block universe" theory (which is based on the idea that past, present and future all exist simultaneously as a 4 dimensional "block" of interlocking puzzle pieces), kind of agrees with Sabastian Cabot. It would say that Rod Taylor's trips back and forth through time are already built into the puzzle and therefore can't alter events. A few years ago (I think it was) 2018, one of the booths at the Great Dickens Christmas Fair in Daly City, California had a life sized replica of George Pal's time machine you could sit in and get your picture taken (it had a larger seat so two people could sit in it together). It would be great if they brought back the fair and the machine this year. You might enjoy the movie "Time After Time" in which H.G. Wells pursues Jack The Ripper to 1979 San Francisco. Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen gives likable performances as the fish out of water Wells and the modern woman, Amy Robbins, who befriends him, and David Warner is an intelligent and menacing Jack The Ripper.
@@alexachipman As I recall, it was tucked away by the door next to the stage where they have performances by the juggler and magician and Scrooge is visited by the ghosts and Prince Albert introduces the tradition of the Christmas tree to Queen Victoria. It built by the man who made the machine where you throw a dart to pop a balloon and set off a Rube-Goldberg-like chain reaction resulting a candy cane being dispensed to you. Sorry I can remember the name of places and things. My brain is getting fuzzy from inactivity.
What is most interesting to me is the new knowledge that the Time Machine is a story of our past as much as it is our future. We now know that Neanderthals invaded the Levant 50,000 years ago, and early humans had to learn how to fight back. Those Neanderthals were far stronger, had night vision, and were cannibals.
My most favorite book as an early teen, and film. Keep both close at hand. Have collection of films and books that involve time travel. I actually dreamt visiting my mother who was holding me as a newborn. Questioned her about remembering if a much older gentleman from the area, ever visited her back then. Dream was shockingly real in every aspect.
I really like H.G. Wells, and I think this probably still is the best adaptation of The Time Machine. Wells later in life always seemed slightly annoyed that his early "scientific romance" novels seemed to be remembered more than what he considered his more important "social novels/work", but they really were so seminal to everything we know as science fiction, and all those early SF works are really great. He also has dozens of cool short stories from his early career. Recently I read War in the Air, which was published a little under a decade before the first world war, and I had a great time with it, though the conclusion was quite depressing about the future of civilisation. It definitely had a bit of that steapunk vibe as well as a surprising number of humorous scenes and relatable characters. Next up will be a re-read of the Island of DR. Moreau sometime this year as it's on the table for us to read for my podcast. Looking forward to that. BTW there is a fantastic audio drama of the Invisible man starring John hurt....I think it's the last thing he ever recorded.
Time to watch TIME AFTER TIME (1979) now if you haven't seen it. The remake I couldn't get through. I prefer a film to closely follow the novel, which the original does beautifully with a sense of wonder.
The model time machine continues to go forward, never stopping, until whatever powers it runs down. If he'd thought to equip it with a simple clockwork device, he could have had it carry a fob-watch forward an hour or two, re-appearing during brandy and cigars, and perhaps convincing one more person, who bet his fob-watch and got it back. Geniuses tend to overestimate others, while incompetents can not know they are incompetent...
Nice one on a favorite SF film of mine. Hope you will do Pal's 1953 War of the Worlds. While differing from the novel in significant ways, it's still a true classic. BTW, there is a made-for-tv film version of Time Machine from around 1977/78 which I recall as being average. Thought you might want to look for it, though, anyway😊
I loved this movie as a kid, I love time travel movies. The remake is terrible, strange thing the effects in this 1960 film are way more fun to watch than the 2002 version. One of my all time favorite time travel movies, which has such a big fan club the movie is celebrated every year were it was filmed (MacKinac Island) is "Somewhere In Time". Maybe the most romantic film of all time Starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, who are so perfect in this film.
the time machine is a classic. great reaction and choice Alexa. the other film you were talking about is a remake from 2002 which I have. its good but obviously its up to you.
Hi. I loved your vibe on this movie you were so thoughtful about everything that made this great . Seriously, until the 'Lord of the Rings' came out this was my favorite sci-fi/ fantasy movie of all time it's still awesome plus being a little girl fell in love with Rod Taylor.✌i also loved' The day the earth stood still' Planet of the Apes' " Valley of the Gwangi' as far as 60 sci-fi's go. Really love your appreciation of this movie it's something i hold dear being a little kid with my big brother falling In love with movies. Thank you.
After filming, the Time Machine prop was largely forgotten. In the 70s, filmmaker Bob Burns found it in an antique store, in poor condition. He bought it, restored it and used it in a live Halloween show he did at his own house...George Pal showed up for this, and was photographed sitting in it, something he said he never did while they were making the movie.
Currently, it's still in Burns' collection, along with decades of sci-fi/horror/fantasy movie memorabilia.
One of the greatest props of all time.
Did the machine appear in the film Gremlins, or was that a duplicate?
th-cam.com/video/i8LIffvjnb8/w-d-xo.html
The Time Machine also made an appearance in the movie Gremlins and promos for Back To The Future,
@@thomashumphrey48 that's true as the dvd features Time Machine: The Journey Back which tells everything that is already mentioned here.
👍👍
Not exactly a sequel, but in 1993 there was a documentary titled "The Time Machine: The Journey Back" hosted by Rod Taylor. It includes a scene reuniting Taylor and Alan Young, playing their original characters in which George returns and tells Philby what he's learned from his adventure.
George Pal is one of my favorite filmmakers, he was one of the masters of practical effects and a contemporary of Harryhausen.
Just about every film he made was brilliant.
There is a 1990's documentary on the DVD called "Time Machine: The Journey Back".
Rod Taylor & Alan Young reprise their roles in a short scene, where George returns during WW1, and tries to convince Philby not to go to Europe, knowing he'll be killed. There is a clip on TH-cam.
And that glorious Russell Garcia score !!
Not only a classic, but a near perfect adaptation of H. G. Wells immortal story. Some changes were needed for a book to movie medium.
The 2002 version, while radically different adaptation wise, is a smashing movie as well. Orlando Jones haunting performance in the 2002 version, still sends chills down my spine to this very day.
Fun Fact: When George arrives in the year 802,701 his time machine reads the date of October 12th. So, George arrives into a "New World" on the anniversary of Christopher Columbus' first reaching the "New World" of the Americas.
George Pal's adaptations of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine are both iconic.
If you like the steam punk aesthetic, then the 2002 film is worth watching for the machine alone. It was the most expensive movie prop ever made.
I still prefer the original machine and movie though.
George Pal shopped the idea of the film to all of the American studios, none of which were interested. However, MGM's British studio was (where Pal's earlier film "tom thumb" had been produced). The budget didn't allow for location shooting, so interior filming was done at MGM's Culver City studio. The film won the 1961 Academy Award for Best Special Effects, and was nominated for the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. The 2002 remake was a co-production between DreamWorks and Warner Bros. I've only seen it once, whereas I've seen the 1960 version more times than I can count.
I was fascinated with the concept of time travel after watching this movie for the first time. In the past I’ve made reference to the Eloy and Morlock when talking to coworkers about management and laborers at work.
This film happened to be my first favorite film as a child that I shared watching it with my father. Since then I’ve been drawn to the Victorian era. You should watch an epilogue scene they did in the ‘90’s or early 2,000’s, where Filby visits George’s house one last time before shipping out in WWI, and then an unexpected surprise.
The number of nightmares I had when a child about the Morlock I could count off a hundred hands.
The moment when Rod Taylor punches that Morlock attacking Meena, and ir slams against a rock, and blood spills out of its mouth as it dies... Those eyes glowing in the dark, and the way they lurk through the dark together in search of Eloi to devour!!! Yes, together with "The Day The Earth Stood Still" (1951), this is one of the greatest Science-Fiction movies ever made.
Thanks for your reaction to this, Alexa. Yours is THE channel to tune in to! 😀😀
The Morlocks truly are the stuff of nightmares. Their design is a pretty classic monster design (fangs, hairy bodies, glowing eyes, etc) which could still frighten kids today.
I've actually realised something. The Eloi are like children that are afraid of the dark and fear what may be under their beds. The Morlocks live underground which is pretty much another version of the monster under the bed.
I must get this dvd and the year this film came out, was three years before classic Dr Who started its debut on tv in black and white with William Hartnell.
I love listening to your insightful comments on aspects of films such as costume, admirable behaviour and practical effects, Alexa. As Queen Victoria died in 1901 though and this was set on New Year's Eve 1899, he's a Victorian time traveller not an Edwardian one!
VR!
From a technical standpoint, yes, from a costuming standpoint no. Late Victorian has come to generally refer to the bustle era into the early 1890s. The turn-of-the-century silhouette was due to a more modern influence, and it is easier to refer to it as Edwardian, even though to split hairs she passed in 1901.
@@alexachipman An annotated version of the Wells story pointed out that the Time Traveller mentions a lecture given by a famous scientist about the Fourth Dimension that occurred a month or two earlier. Amazingly, Wells was referring to an actual speech at an actual scientific convention, which pinpointed the beginning of the story to (iirc) February of 1893. I guess the New Year's Eve 1899/1900 seemed more symbolic to George Pal.
Steampunk is essentially retro-futurism. Because H.G. Wells was a Victorian/Edwardian, his setting wasn't retro, it was simply sci-fi. Otherwise, we would have to say that Austen wrote historical romances.
Time After Time (1979) is definitely worth watching. The plot takes a real turn from the original but it is still better than 2002's The Time Machine which has a real made for TV vibe to it.
It's on the list - although every time someone suggests it I have to sing the "Time After Time" song that they used in "Strictly Ballroom" :)
@@alexachipman Great. I believe nobody on TH-cam has reacted to this classic movie before. It's definitely an overlooked gem.
@@alexachipman you should watch king Kong movie from 1933 its a great film 😎
@@mikesilva3868 It had too much shrieking from the main female character, it put me off, alas! Women don't scream like that IRL.
@@alexachipman interesting to me it's a great film but everybody has their opinions 😎
The "lava" in the volcano scene in downtown was actually oatmeal with orange and red food coloring spilled onto a platform and slowly moved down the miniature set
An old favorite, I remember back in the late 60s my mother let us stay up very late (many decent old movies were on TV after 11pm) to watch it as she herself was intrigued.
My first experience of this was the 'Classics Illustrated' comic, as a 10 y-o, later the novel, then the film. It was the comic that made the deepest impression, and I guess it was my childhood intro to the possibilities of sci-fi and futuristic worlds. The Morlocks in the comic were creepy, deformed skinless gnomes and most of the action takes place deep in a forest. I remember the architecture fascinated me - great marble halls in (I think) art deco style.
In H G Wells's original novel, the cannibalism aspect is hinted at but not spelt out. In fact we should keep in mind that this was very much a pioneering work and much of the story is not really thought through. Were the Morlocks and the Eloi different races or different species? What happened to the rest of the whole biosphere? How could they live without sunlight, agriculture, medicine? How global was this society? What was the technology based on etc. etc.? Wells lived in a world where evolution was not well understood and other planets were widely believed to be inhabited. He was also a known occultist. His ability to envision an Earth 600,000 years in the future and a whole human society within it was I think severely limited.
As for the film, it was thrilling to watch and the effects were pretty good for the time. Rod Taylor and Alan Young were well cast, and it was an auspicious debut for the decorative Yvette Mimieux, but I was disappointed it didn't resemble the comic or the novel much. Thanks for covering it anyway, Alexa. It was a long time since I'd seen it. I like how you tackle subjects that seem to be off most reactors' radars.
Btw, Mimieux features in 1969's 'The Picasso Summer', an otherwise unremarkable film which ends with a long and fascinating, unforgettable animated sequence of the artist's iconic images. I'm sure you would love it just for that if you can track it down.
I've really enjoyed watching this movie over and over again as a child. Years later I've decided to read the novel and I was struck by the differences to the movie adaptation (or adaptions by that time). Wells definitely had a sense of writing dystopia, that didn't seem far fetched at all and could be read and re-interpretated by numerous generations and everyone could find themselves or their time period in it. I would absolutely agree with you, Alexa, that I also had wished for a longer movie, especially since the ending (of the novel) is missing and the time he spends with the Eloi is massively shortened. I also felt that the ending when life on Earth comes to an end was one of Wells' main literary devices that contributed to the notion of dystopia and was one of the key aspects of the novel. To me it always seemed that the decay of Earth and the realization of ones own insignificance was his main motivation to travel into the future again after telling his story. The movie maybe focussed a bit too much on the emotional bond to the Eloi - at least the way I've understood Wells.
Alexa has seen Dark Angel and The Prisoner...good to know!
George Pal tried *for years* to get a sequel greenlit, to no avail. There was a wonderful interview he did for Starlog magazine where he talked about it. I don't remember much, but there was a memorable accompanying piece of concept art with George leading the Eloi into battle against an army of giant insects! Harlan Ellison once said that Pal ran into a roadblock when it came to the new, younger studio executives who thought he was old hat. A shame, he was a marvelous creative person responsible for some unforgettable films...
The sequel never appeared -- in movie form, but George Pal's script, adapted as a novel, appeared in 1981 as "Time Machine II." I have it . . . but I've yet to read it.
Speaking of sequels, I've read some stinkers. There was one where the Time Traveller stops in the 1600s -- and catches the Plague and dies; one where they invented a plethora of "new" time travel rules -- including one that if you go back before you were born, you disintegrate (which happens to Weena), and one I couldn't follow at all, but I vaguely remember that a philosopher explains that the Time Machine is logically absurd, and it stops working. Why doesn't anyone want the Time Traveller to have amazing (and fun) adventures?
Yes, Pal was great. It's a shame Hollywood wasn't better to him.
“The Time Machine” is one of the best films in the steampunk cycle that came out between the late ‘50s and mid-60s, filling a void when serious sci-fi largely took a backseat (literally) to cheap drive-in B-movie fare geared toward teens (a drought that finally ended with the arrival of “Fantastic Voyage,” “2001,” and “Planet of the Apes” in the late ‘60s -- It was a bad time for horror too, with mostly only the Vincent Price/Poe cycle and Italian imports serving up quality in the early ‘60s). If you dig this steampunkery, check out the other excellent Verne- and Wells-derived films from the era, e.g., “From the Earth to the Moon,” “Mysterious Island,” “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” “First Men in the Moon,” “Master of the World,” and “War Gods of the Deep.” (I don’t count “Around the World in 80 Days,” as it’s really borderline fantasy, i.e., the odds of such a long-distance balloon trip succeeding suggest fantasy, but the story and the science are mired in reality overall). As for which books to bring, he seemed to be a thinker and not just a tinkerer, so I don’t think it would have been merely science/how-to/nuts-and-bolts stuff. I think possibly the Bible to teach ethics and maybe the Magna Carta for civics and the idea of individual rights, as well as Greek classics to ensure they form a democratic society. Maybe even the complete works of Shakespeare to give them a sense of comedy, tragedy, and human vice and virtue. Definitely at least one history book because how can humanity know where it’s going without learning where it’s been
Yvette Mimieux who played Weena actually died back in January a couple weeks after her 80th birthday.
Oh no! :(
She was in another of my favorite films ‘the Black Hole’(1979)
The Time Machine (1960) is part of an incidental trilogy of big budget steampunk classics from the 50s/60s. The other two are of course Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954). All of them are great fun and very well made. There are others, but these three are the standouts of that era for high quality entertainment in that particular genre niche.
The Journey to the Centre of the Earth one is very differetn from Verne's book, but I was surprised at how much I liked it. I was even stealing myself for more Pat Boon tunes but as it turned out he only sang a couple of short songs and they weren't bad at all. The rest of the score, by Bernard Hehrman if I remember right, was incredible, and while it was lacking the cool dinosaur creatures that are in the book, it threw in a bunch of Atlantis stuff.
@@DamnableReverend It's true that the movie has a lot of departures from Verne, but I think they did capture the feeling of the novel and the script works on its own terms. Even the dinosaur stand-ins are about the best prosthetic lizards I've seen. I have vivid memories of the big red one, although a lot of the effect is due to the Herrmann scoring of those scenes.
Books to bring:
• _The Way Things Work_ - both volumes
• _A Barefoot Doctor’s Manual_ (a modern Chinese guide to medicine for the people in the countryside)
• Any of the extensive guides to formulas - _Henley’s Formulas_ is one good one
This was one of my favorite Sci-fi stories. When this movie came out I think I went to the theater for the Saturday and Sunday matinees, sitting through two showings. One problem I always had was that the guy has a time machine, and yet he was late for dinner.
Alan Young who played his friend was always likeable in everything. He had a TV series called Mr Ed where he owned a talking horse, so he was preopared to believe anything!
A horse is a horse, of course of course...
Joined by Topper, I Dream of Jeannie, My Mother the Car, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, It's About Time, Bewitched, The Addams Family, My Favorite Martian, oh I grew up on a whole raft of such shows.
A favorite of mine. The dress shop time travel sequence was my favorite part.
Yes! I love oldies. And this one is one of my very fav. I never thought I would ever see a reaction of it. Thx.
I think its important as an ideal to be a well rounded person, to be thinking and intellectual, but also physically conditioned and able to defend yourself, to be mentally and physically strong. But most important by far to be humane, thoughtful and caring.
The Futurama episode that spoofed this did touch on what you mentioned about the table being moved.
16:40 i love how he tells it, like its a story set in the past; when in reality its far, far in the future.
So much to cover here. My brother told me decades ago about the plan for a sequel that never came off. He said it began with H. George Wells (Never realized the H.G. Wells name before this moment!) and Weena were in the time machine racing to the past because Weena was in labor and George wanted her to deliver their baby in a "modern" hospital. But the time machine crashes. The point of view widens out and a young man on a futuristic looking motorcycle watching what is happening. It is George and Weena's son going back in time on his time motorcycle discovering where he came from. Never happened.
If you want a treat, Check out the history of George Pal. He was a pioneer of animation. Check out Puppetoons. Tubby the Tuba is an example but certainly not the most amazing. George had a crew of (I believe) German wood carvers who made his puppets. He invented a system where each puppet had interchangeable faces. The faces had a series of expressions. The faces were exchanged to create the animation. He even made animations with glass creations ("The Ship of the Ether"). It was magical. All of this was decades before computer generated effects. He started crossing over mixing live action with his animations in movies like "The Great Rupert" (1950) about a musical squirrel, "Tom Thumb" (1958) and "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" (1962). I am now watching your reaction to Thunderbirds episode 1 and am thinking about the parallels of how the Andersons went from puppets to "UFO" and "Space:1999" with how George Pal transitioned from an artform that he was the master of to live action and what a career risk that was.
As to the three books, I agree about the books on mechanics, but I would think a man of that era would also take a copy of the Bible.
I appreciate the double reference to Outlander and Dr. Who. George Pal also wanted a sequel, but he could never get the studio grunts to sign on.
2:50 ...
Basil: I suggest you don't worry about those things and just enjoy yourself.
Basil: That goes for you all, too.
I'm an "old guy." I saw this film on Saturday Night at the Movies (on NBC TV). I really appreciate the design and construction of the Time machine -- the way the upholstery on the seat was appointed -- like the interior of a wealthy man's coach. The brass railings and trim are definitely "steam punk." I really liked the acting in this film. Rod Taylor was perfect as "George." Bravo H.G. Wells, George Pal, MGM, cast, and crew! The only other Time travel movie that I enjoyed was "Time After Time" (1979) starring Malcom McDowell, Mary Steenbergen and David Warner. Many thanks, Alexa Chipman. You, dear lady, would fit perfectly into late-Victorian England (even if only for a short time).
Thank you! Just in case you don't know, there is also a reaction to "Time After Time" available on this channel :)
@@alexachipman - - You are most welcome. I will view your reaction to "Time After Time." It's a favourite of mine. Peace be your journey. Cheers - W
After watching your reaction video I came to the realization that the Morlock we’re not just supplying food and clothing, but also pallets of Aqua net.
The Time Machine was the first major time travel scifi that inspired other film stories and use in TV. Saw this at 5 or 6 in the cinema back in 1960 or '61 and it dazzled me! It was my first BIG science fiction experience and locked it in as my favorite genre. I didn't understand every little thing going on, but I did understand time travel. Have you seen the Back to the Future trilogy because there is one little tie or shout-out to "The TM"? I know how you are on spoilers so I don't want to say it right out. 😉
There was a mini-sequel made! Rod Taylor and Alan Young got together to do a brief one during the mid-80s as a kind of promotion to BTTF as it even includes Michael J. Fox as a host. It's the 'special feature' on my DVD called "Time Machine: The Journey Back". It's a 48 minute documentary about the making of The Time Machine, BUT the last 13 minutes is the sequel drama to The TM that includes Whit Bissell starting it off. It's a nice end story the "The TM".
The Time Machine prop itself has a long torturous story as to what happened to it, its purchase and restoration many years later. They even fixed the poor giant dish so it didn't wobble anymore! LOL! It was on tour and rented out for things like in Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" (1980) science series on PBS during the episode called "Travels In Space and Time" where Carl got to ride in it. It a good science series mostly about astronomy, but delves into the other sciences as well along with wonderful reenactments using live actors.
There's another Time Machine movie adaptation that's pretty good too made in 2002, worth a watch and perhaps you should do that one someday. There is a 3rd related movie that is a must "Time After Time" (1979) starring Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen and David Warner and all I'll tell you about that one is "Watch it! Do it!" LOL! I don't know if you caught it, but the nameplate on George's time machine at 7:16 reads "Manufactured by H. George Wells" thus the name George in The TM. Just start watching Time After Time and you'll see why my lips are sealed! 😁
Enjoyable video you did here and keep plugging away at these scifi classics, Alexa! 🖖😎
The Morlocks are still scary to this very day. I actually came up with a theory on why the Morlocks are easy to kill by using simple biology. Despite the Morlocks being able to put up a fight, their bodies are pretty frail and lack certain vitamins and minerals which help make the body and bones strong. Even though they feed on the Eloi, it still isn't enough to strengthen their bodies.
When the Eloi struck the Morlock in the back, he may have broke a few of the Morlock's vertebrae causing it to arch back in pain and when it slams against the rock after George pushes it off him, the impact may have caused it's back ribs to instantly break and puncture it's lungs which then filled with blood killing the Morlock instantly.
This explanation makes a lot of sense. After all, while the argument could be made that the Morlocks are not * technically * cannibals since the Eloi are a different species, they are certainly close enough to human for all the problems cannibalism causes to crop up and weaken them.
@@chrisc6857 true as the Morlocks are still human by blood, just not by nature.
Hello and best regards from Germany. I enjoyed watching one of my favourite movies together with you. I loved your calm and relaxed way of commenting. Please do more of it. Since we are talking about a time machine: Belated all the best for 2023! Greetings, Thomas.
Thank you, happy new year!
This is one of my favorites, I got a lifetime crush on Rod Taylor because of this movie, he was not only a great action actor but he was great in Rom-Coms like Sunday in NY and the Glass Bottom Boat. I'm so glad you enjoyed it.
This was my favorite movie is a child. I even have a 1,000 dollar replica of the small time machine from the movie. It is the same size as the tabletop model he used at the begining. It was custom made and the shadow box is also a replica. It is powerd and the dish rotates and lights up. The actual full size machine has quite a backstory and was restored and it was featured on an episode of the BIG BANG THEORY. You should check it out.
Yeah, season 1, episode 14. Here's a clip (I believe they made a mistake, Leonard wants to move forward in time but he pulls instead of pushes the lever) th-cam.com/video/5OHtb3lg5C8/w-d-xo.html (Even the Morlocks make an appearance in that episode!)
The TM in the Big Bang Theory is another full scale replica, not the original.
Glad you took the time to watch this great classic. I still enjoy watching it after soo many times seeing it. The remake from 2002 is pretty good. Obviously using more current effects. But the overall story is pretty close. I like that they didnt say what books he took, it gives the audience a chance to think more about it like you did. And when I was younger and saw it the Morlocks creeped me out for sure.
I completely gave up building my time machine when I realized suddenly jumping even an hour through time would leave you very far from the Earth. All my stuff is here.
That’s true. If you consider an absolute position in the universe, Earth is rotating around the sun, the solar system is rotating in one spiral arm of the Milky Way, and the galaxy itself is moving through the universe. Probably in mere fractions of a second the Earth would have moved quite a distance away from you and the Time Machine which moved in time but not in space.
The new version is AMAZING . They gave real purpose to the Tim Machine being built and made the protagonist human and believable.
1:10 "Look at the state of that waistcoat!"
That made me laugh out loud haha!
One of the best science fiction films ever. Also the actor who plays David is Alan Young who people would know best from Mister Ed and the longtime voice of Scrooge McDuck. Another great one I recommend if you haven’t seen it is Time After Time with Malcolm McDowell.
‘Time after Time’ is a fun movie. I’d love to see Alexa’s reaction.
Now I'm imagining No. 6 stumbling upon the time machine and using it to escape.
A few minutes later, we see No. 2 appearing in their own time machine, hot on the chase.
@@alexachipman And his time machine is just Rover.
There is a now very rare and out of print sequel novel called 'The Time Machine II', based on George Pal's unfilmed script. The book and the unfilmed movie would have dealt with George and Weena's son and the paradox created when George and Weena die during the Blitz of London before the son is born.
The piano riff when the traveller wanders through the future forest is 'borrowed' for 'Back to the Future'. There's a bonus on the DVD which is sort of a short sequel. The 2002 remake starts really well, and then goes off the rails in the future sequences. The remake time machine is a really nice design too. You might like to watch it to compare and contrast with the George Pal version. You might also like to try 'Time After Time' (1979)...
I’ve been adoring this movie since I saw it the first time as a child. Saw it probably 50 times since then.
"Time is a minefield of wars" now that's a quote :(
One of my ever green favourites. Other's if you haven't seen them Alexa, being 1959's Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. First Men In The Moon, Quatermass and the pit and Jason And The Argonauts. Since you also loved the Space:1999 Troubled Spirit episode like I did. The ghostly 1989 TV movie The Woman In Black is excellent, as is 1979's The Changeling and 1957's Night Of The Demon. All films being good because they have plots and marvellous dialogue for good actors to sink their teeth into.
All good recommendations.
13:06 I like the implication that centuries of war caused an ingrained instinct for people to head underground at the sounds of sirens
16:20 it’s zuzu’s petals
"It's All Clear"
Another great H.G. Wells adaptation from a few years earlier was "The War of The Worlds" (which was also produced by George Pal, who produced and directed "The Time Machine".) Both movies used to play on T.V. when I was a kid and I loved them!
Loved this film as a kid as I was obsessed with anything Time Travel related.
Oh bless you. One my old school favorites. Thanks much
The very first Dalek story, in black and white with, Bill Hartnell got its roots from this film and the elements used in the first Dalek story the Daleks were reused by Terry Nation in Blake,s Seven in the series B episode Countdown radiation killing human tissue and leaving buildings and cities and towns intact.
Thanks for choosing this immortal classic. You're only the second person to react to it on TH-cam, while vastly inferior, but more recent, movies are reacted to over and over and over. Again, thanks.
I adore this movie. In reality though, this machine wouldn’t work, because though it appears to us that we’re static in space, in reality we never occupy the same space at the same time. Our planet, solar system, galaxy is constantly moving through space at thousands of miles per hour. We never occupy the same point in space again. If you got into that machine and flicked the switch, you’d instantly end up in the vacuum of space and not long for this Universe - which is also probably moving!
I still love the film. I guess if one is smart enough to make a time machine, they would have those details sorted. I just wish there was a line about it being “geolocked” or something so it isn’t swept away into the void.
You mentioned that the model should be on the ground instead of the table in case the table wasn't there. What if the ground wasn't there? The surface of the Earth is spinning while the Earth itself is orbiting the sun while the sun is orbiting the center of our galaxy etc. In my favorite time travel story the time machine is a space ship and the limiting factor on far you can travel in time is how far away will earth have moved away from your original fixed point in space.
Time travel is really neat and exciting! It has been a human fascination for a long time. This is either going forward and envisioning the future or going back in time. No pun intended. No wonder there have been so many books and movies on it.
Top hidden gem time travel movies are:
Time After Time starring David Warner, Malcom McDowel and Mary Steenburgen from 1979.
Somewhere In Time starring Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour and Christopher Plummer from 1980. I think you’ll love both movies. It crazy how time changes your reality so much. First time watching Space:1999 in 1976 with old dial knobs and no remote. Not to mention, you had to be in front of a tv at the scheduled time or you missed it to the 1990’s watching it on VHS on my VCR to buying them in the 2000’s on DVD for DVD player to streaming it on TV or my iPhone in the 2020’s. Maybe in 2040’s I’ll be watching it from some viewing implant in my eye.
There's a sequel to the novel by Stephen Baxter called "The Time Ships". Baxter nails H.G. Wells's style and voice. It's epic. Check it out.
The Guy Peace version of this film is very different but still good and I highly recommend it. But there's also another Time Machine movie from 1979 with Malcolm McDowell playing H.G. Wells who constructs his own Time Machine. This film is call 'Time After Time' and includes the actors Mary Steenburgen and David Warner.
This was one of my favorite Sci Fi movies and his Time Machine was Beautiful
I think I'd take a compendium of Vogon Poetry.
The celestial homecare omnibus.
And, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - with it's cover saying in those now notoriously large and famously friendly letters, "Don't Panic" - after all, it contains suggestions for any eventuality.
Plus a towel, of course!
@@alexachipman
Of course 😁
One of my favorite movies. This is the version to go with.
The three books he took were Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. Without these fundamentals, the Eloi could never hope to progress.
Back in 1992 when this film was released in Widescreen on LaserDisc I was dating a school teacher. She kept borrowing it as she taught English as a second language. She would have the class read the book and then they'd watch the film and compare it to the book. We broke up (on friendly terms) just before I met my future wife. All these years later I still have that LaserDisc (and more importantly, the same wife).
This is a very important film, to this day, a clear warning about a future world to come
and beautifully shot also full of original ideas
Again another great example of 1960s experimentation in film, it hooks your interest & doesnt let go until the end
I just found your Channel, and I'm so glad I did, looking over your movie review list, I see you watch a lot of movies that are great films, but are not watched or reviewed by other channels, that alone made me subscribe.
I know of quite a few movie treasures that no (or very few) channels react to. I don't want to bombard you with movie suggestions, but from time to time I can drop a great movie your way.
I noticed you react to old movies as well, you should do a reaction to the old original "Wuthering Heights" (1939) with Merle Oberon, and Sir Lawrence Olivier. It's a classic masterpiece, yet nobody does reactions to it.
I don't know if you do musicals or not, but how about "Calamity Jane", (1953) with Doris Day, or "The Music Man", (1962) with Robert Preston, and Shirley Jones.
Thank you, the others I have seen, but I don’t think I have seen Wuthering Heights yet. I loathed the book, so likely not. But I am willing to give any Sir Lawrence Olivier film a try!
Absolutely love the logic jump of 'he's an Edwardian so he'll know how to box' (WTF!) 😉😊
It was extremely popular in that time period, much more so than today. Also this is a warning - you have been posting a lot of borderline trolling comments.
@@alexachipman Seriously mate, they were ment as a genuine conversation in a friendly manner. Look if I've offended you then I'd better unsubscribe know. My apologies.
This is one of my absolute favorite movies! The remake is not bad either when taken on it's own merits and not compared to this one. It made some interesting points that this one did not. Definitely worth a watch.
This was my favourite version, I did not really like the re-makes. A sequel was made in 1979 called Time after Time with Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen, and David Warner. I really liked it.
Having my own sizable library, the book crumbling scene really gets to me.
I didn't know you reacted to this! (Although on a moment's consideration, it makes sense, after who else *would* react to this? Just watched Just SUMM Reaction's reaction and searched, so I am watching this one now! XD)
Thanks! If you enjoy older, more classic films, I have a whole playlist for them :)
@@alexachipman I know you tend to do older classic films and shows, tons of which I haven't even seen myself. There're quite a few I still need to catch myself, like Disney's 20,000 Leagues.
I love this movie. I first time seen it in 1977.
You are inspiring with your comments!!
Hi Alexa,
I suspect this has probably been suggested to you more than once before, but I highly, highly recommend the loose collection of time-travel stories and novels by Connie Willis. They've won multiple Hugo and Nebula awards, and are some of my all-time favourite speculative fiction reads and re-reads. The main sequence starts with "Fire Watch" (short story 1982), then "Doomsday Book" (1992), "To Say Nothing of the Dog" (1998), and the diptych of "Blackout" and "All Clear" (2011). Some of them are solemn, some are funny, some are tragic, and all of them are memorable - I would kill to be able to create characters as fully-fledged as hers in my writing. (Well, okay... maybe not actually _kill_... but I'd think about it.) At least one more novel is planned.
"Lincoln's Dreams" (1987) and particularly "Passage" (2001) are wonderful too, although not set in the same shared universe.
Finally, she's a forceful advocate for "A Christmas Carol" as the best Christmas story ever (including the Muppets' adaptation!); and she has a collection of her own Christmas short stories and commentary, appropriately enough as "Miracle and Other Christmas Stories" (1999). My favourite of those is "Epiphany"... for reasons I can't really describe without spoilers, so you'll just have to take it on faith :).
Hi Alexa I say the year 1960 when this film came out I would love to have been born in that year, instead of been born 9 years later had I been alive when classic Dr Who started I would have got to see many of the black and white Dr Who stories with doctors 1 and 2 in the role . I certainly will have to think about, getting this sci-fi film on dvd and I hope to watch it frequently
I read the book a long time ago. I thought it was arguably more interesting because it was more complex, but I liked the movie more because it did a much better job of getting me emotionally invested in the characters.
2:21 The "block universe" theory (which is based on the idea that past, present and future all exist simultaneously as a 4 dimensional "block" of interlocking puzzle pieces), kind of agrees with Sabastian Cabot. It would say that Rod Taylor's trips back and forth through time are already built into the puzzle and therefore can't alter events.
A few years ago (I think it was) 2018, one of the booths at the Great Dickens Christmas Fair in Daly City, California had a life sized replica of George Pal's time machine you could sit in and get your picture taken (it had a larger seat so two people could sit in it together). It would be great if they brought back the fair and the machine this year.
You might enjoy the movie "Time After Time" in which H.G. Wells pursues Jack The Ripper to 1979 San Francisco. Malcolm McDowell and Mary Steenburgen gives likable performances as the fish out of water Wells and the modern woman, Amy Robbins, who befriends him, and David Warner is an intelligent and menacing Jack The Ripper.
Augh I was there in 2018 (I go every year) and must have missed that booth :(
@@alexachipman As I recall, it was tucked away by the door next to the stage where they have performances by the juggler and magician and Scrooge is visited by the ghosts and Prince Albert introduces the tradition of the Christmas tree to Queen Victoria. It built by the man who made the machine where you throw a dart to pop a balloon and set off a Rube-Goldberg-like chain reaction resulting a candy cane being dispensed to you. Sorry I can remember the name of places and things. My brain is getting fuzzy from inactivity.
I've seen the 2002 movie adaptation of The Time Machine. It's good, definitely worth watching, but the 1960 version is still better.
Best Regards!
What is most interesting to me is the new knowledge that the Time Machine is a story of our past as much as it is our future. We now know that Neanderthals invaded the Levant 50,000 years ago, and early humans had to learn how to fight back. Those Neanderthals were far stronger, had night vision, and were cannibals.
Nice to see someone reacting to this scifi film classic. Thanks.
The Ewoks in STAR WARS were named by sort of combining Elois and Morlocks.
Nice!
The 2002 version was pretty good. Not on my lift of favorite movies, but it had some nice touches.
I enjoyed that so much Thankyou
My most favorite book as an early teen, and film. Keep both close at hand. Have collection of films and books that involve time travel. I actually dreamt visiting my mother who was holding me as a newborn. Questioned her about remembering if a much older gentleman from the area, ever visited her back then. Dream was shockingly real in every aspect.
I really like H.G. Wells, and I think this probably still is the best adaptation of The Time Machine. Wells later in life always seemed slightly annoyed that his early "scientific romance" novels seemed to be remembered more than what he considered his more important "social novels/work", but they really were so seminal to everything we know as science fiction, and all those early SF works are really great. He also has dozens of cool short stories from his early career. Recently I read War in the Air, which was published a little under a decade before the first world war, and I had a great time with it, though the conclusion was quite depressing about the future of civilisation. It definitely had a bit of that steapunk vibe as well as a surprising number of humorous scenes and relatable characters.
Next up will be a re-read of the Island of DR. Moreau sometime this year as it's on the table for us to read for my podcast. Looking forward to that. BTW there is a fantastic audio drama of the Invisible man starring John hurt....I think it's the last thing he ever recorded.
The lava was oatmeal dyed with red food coloring.
Time to watch TIME AFTER TIME (1979) now if you haven't seen it. The remake I couldn't get through. I prefer a film to closely follow the novel, which the original does beautifully with a sense of wonder.
Watch out for the morloks. And you mentioned the prisoner awesome tv show
The model time machine continues to go forward, never stopping, until whatever powers it runs down.
If he'd thought to equip it with a simple clockwork device, he could have had it carry a fob-watch forward an hour or two, re-appearing during brandy and cigars, and perhaps convincing one more person, who bet his fob-watch and got it back.
Geniuses tend to overestimate others, while incompetents can not know they are incompetent...
Ive only watched the movies of the Time Machinenbut i never knew Weena died in the book
I watched this version a long time ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't like the 2002 version, although it had updated effects.
Nice one on a favorite SF film of mine. Hope you will do Pal's 1953 War of the Worlds. While differing from the novel in significant ways, it's still a true classic.
BTW, there is a made-for-tv film version of Time Machine from around 1977/78 which I recall as being average. Thought you might want to look for it, though, anyway😊
I loved this movie as a kid, I love time travel movies. The remake is terrible, strange thing the effects in this 1960 film are way more fun to watch than the 2002 version. One of my all time favorite time travel movies, which has such a big fan club the movie is celebrated every year were it was filmed (MacKinac Island) is "Somewhere In Time". Maybe the most romantic film of all time Starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, who are so perfect in this film.
the time machine is a classic. great reaction and choice Alexa. the other film you were talking about is a remake from 2002 which I have. its good but obviously its up to you.
Thanks - I don't choose them usually! I think Sharpe is my first choice in a long time. It's all based on audience / patreon voting :)
@@alexachipman your welcome
1) Gray's Anatomy · 2) Newton's Principia Mathematica · 3) Grimms' Complete Fairy Tales
I tried 1 & 3, not a fan, but will make a note about 2!
Hi. I loved your vibe on this movie you were so thoughtful about everything that made this great . Seriously, until the 'Lord of the Rings' came out this was my favorite sci-fi/ fantasy movie of all time it's still awesome plus being a little girl fell in love with Rod Taylor.✌i also loved' The day the earth stood still' Planet of the Apes' " Valley of the Gwangi' as far as 60 sci-fi's go. Really love your appreciation of this movie it's something i hold dear being a little kid with my big brother falling In love with movies. Thank you.
Valley of the Gwangi is great. Check out Mighty Joe Young the original from (1949).