The year is 1899, just before the turn of the century. The place: London. At issue is
a man named George, who tells his assembled party guests that he has built
a machine to travel through the fourth dimension.
A week later, when the guests reunite for another dinner party, George arrives late
and in shambles to tell a fantastic story about his journey into the distant
future, where global warfare has turned the world into a bizarre echo of its
former glory. There, two societies maintain a shaky coexistence. On the
surface are the carefree and primitive Eloi living in luxurious peace, but
underground are the barbaric and hostile Morlocks, creatures who have evolved in
the dark with a taste for human flesh. After watching George Pal's adaptation of
The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells' younger son, Frank Wells, got in
touch with Pal about making another adaptation of one of his father's
classic works. Even though the studio behind War of the Worlds, Paramount
Pictures, didn't care for the idea, George Pal went ahead with plans to adapt
The Time Machine, H.G. Wells' seminal time travel story that gave birth to an
entire sub-genre of science-fiction. Pal wasn't interested in a faithful,
straightforward adaptation, but instead wanted to modernize things the way he
had for War of the Worlds, so he hired David Duncan to work up a screenplay.
Years later, while filming Tom Thumb for MGM, George Pal, with the help of MGM's
British head Matthew Raymond, convinced studio exec Sol Siegel to budget
$850,000 to make The Time Machine. Pal wanted to devote a significant amount of
the budget on special effects, and so he brought in a relatively inexperienced
cast and decided to film in America, where studio resources were more
abundant. Instead of his first choices for the lead role of H. George Wells,
which were Paul Scofield, James Mason, and The Day the Earth Stood Still's own
Michael Rennie, Pal hired the much cheaper Australian actor Rod Taylor in
what would be his first turn as a leading man in an American production.
I feel the need to point out that, despite appearances, Rod Taylor is not in fact a
bizarro version of Robin Williams. For the lead actress, the Eloi love interest
Weena, Pal hired Yvette Mimieux, an actress who appeared to be on her way
out of Hollywood, with her options having recently been dropped by MGM and passed
on by other studios. The Time Machine marks a major turning point in Mimieux's
career, and she would go on to be a star in other successful films, like Where the
Boys Are, Dark of the Sun, also alongside Rod Taylor, and Disney's The Black
Hole. Finally, for the key role of David Philby, and his son James Philby, Pal
brought in Alan Young. Young had a long and storied career spanning seven
decades, but for me, he will always and forever be Scrooge McDuck. Pal's gamble
paid off in the end, with the lesser known actors proving excellent in their
respective roles and with the special effects earning an Academy Award. The
matte paintings and stop-motion animation were pretty astounding in 1960,
even though through modern eyes, some of the sets and costumes look a bit cheap.
The special effect that really stands out, though, is the titular time machine
itself, a contraption that is never really described in the novel but which
is realized here as something so intricate and iconic that, nearly six
decades later, it's instantly recognized even by people who have never seen the
movie. While the book upon which it is based is something of an anti-utopia
that could be loosely interpreted as a parable about the evils of capitalism or
the problems of inequality, the movie is more concerned with discussing the evils
of nuclear war, something H.G. Wells hadn't imagined when he wrote his story in the
late 19th Century. Given the fears of the 50's and 60's, this is hardly shocking;
nuclear panic was one of the most prevalent themes in science-fiction
cinema at the time, and it's handled in a way that makes logical sense. I'd even
call the recontextualizing of Wells' future as the long-term result of
nuclear war clever. Unfortunately, by making its theme so abundantly clear
through heavy-handed plot devices like the "rings that talk," the film loses one
of the novel's best attributes: its thematic flexibility. H.G. Wells' novel
has maintained a long academic life, largely because its ideas are open-ended
enough to permit multiple interpretations and analyses, but the
film doesn't have that. A deviation that helps, though, is the inclusion of a
romantic subplot between the time traveller and the Eloi Weena. In Wells'
novel, their relationship is more akin to an adult caring for a child, and when she
is suddenly and unceremoniously killed off, it doesn't affect the time traveller
too much. In the film, however, George succeeds in
saving Weena and even decides to go back for her in order to help her kind, which
marks another significant and successful difference between the film and its
source material: George is more proactive in trying to
change the disturbing reality he finds in the distant future. This allows for an
explosive climax in which he teaches the Eloi to overthrow their underground
masters, and though the wisdom of such action is questionable at best,
especially in light of the film's anti-war themes, it makes for a more
exciting third act and a more believable motivation for the protagonist.
George Pal's The Time Machine debuted in the summer of 1960, to decent if not glowing
reviews, and earned a respectable $250,000 profit at the box office. In the
decades after its release, it cemented its reputation as a classic of the genre
and one of the best H.G. Wells film adaptations of all time, right beside
George Pal's own War of the Worlds. It was remade in 2002 by HG Wells'
great-grandsons Simon Wells, and though the remake isn't a good movie, it has its
redeeming qualities. For a more detailed breakdown of that film and what I
actually like about it, you can find a link to my written review in the
description. That aside, there is another adaptation of The Time Machine in the
works to be directed by Andy Muschietti of It fame, and I'll allow myself to be
cautiously optimistic. It probably won't be anywhere near as good as George Pal's
classic, though. And that's all for today, fellow Earthlings. If you like what I'm
doing here, please like and subscribe, and be sure to keep an eye out for my
Patreon, which should be starting up soon. You can check out a written review of
the novel and both film versions of The Time Machine, along with plenty of other
classic works of science-fiction, on my website at emagill.com. Until next
time, this is The Unapologetic Geek, telling you to never be ashamed of what
you love... as long as you're not hurting anybody.
"Will you answer me one question, honestly?"
"Yes, I'll try."
"You can't be serious about this crazy idea. There's no profit in it!"