ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

The Time Machine - part 3
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This post is in three parts so that the large number of pictures won't have to load all at once for you to enjoy it!

Click on this link to go back to part 1

Click on this link to go back to part 2
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Fortunately there was no harm done, so Rod takes the key out of the ignition and then strolls around to see the sights.



And there was plenty to see, too. (My two friends, Jimmy and Chuck, whispered comments about the strange architecture.)







Mom leaned over and said the table settings looked nice.



I just nodded a lot and agreed with everybody.

Rod didn't like his chances for a social life in this lonely place when he started wondering if he was the only person there. Naturally he was delighted to find all those nice tables settings my mother admired, so he went a-huntin' for the local folks.



He found a Beach Party filled with laughing people —



— and he obviously liked the lay of the land (you might say).



But there was a sad lack of lifeguards on duty, and that turned out to be a real problem. However, when an emergency arose, our hero jumped right in and made a good first impression on the prettiest little wahine at the Eloi luau!



The party broke up, and the Eloi headed off for lunch without a single how-do-you-do or a thank-you-very-much from anybody in the whole crowd. Rod stood on the sandy bank of the stream and wondered if he'd really found human beings or just the futuristic Mattel proving grounds for life-sized Barbie dolls!



Next time you watch this film, listen for a high-pitched twittering laugh that the soundtrack uses over and over during these scenes with the Eloi. You'll hear it at least seven times during the scenes between the beach party and the conclusion of lunch.

I read somewhere that the sound was supposed to resemble Woody Woodpecker's laugh — a tribute to Walter Lantz, the creator of Woody, and the lifelong buddy of George Pal.

These claims are dead wrong, however.

Woody's laugh is very different from the frequent twittering noise we hear in The Time Machine. However, the real Walter Lantz tribute can be found in the YouTube video below, which shows a scene back before the A-bombs fell on London and destroyed all those nice Thunderbirds.

<— LINK TO YOUTUBE

I'll be watching that little girl drop her toy every time I see this movie from now on . . .

My amazing afternoon at the movies was packed with great moments that shine in my memory like a burning match in a Morlock-filled cave. We see Rod try to have a pleasant lunch with people he didn't realize were on the Morlocks' menu!



(Ever notice how much fun the people are having at all the other tables? Obviously Rod sat with the unpopular kids . . . )



When Weena joins Rod after the sun goes down, I discovered that my mother (the young Mrs. Watchett) had lied to her six-year old son years earlier when she told him there was never any reason to be afraid of the dark.

_

Later on, I witnessed the invention of CD's (Chatting Discs — with holes in the middle ) all of which sounded remarkably like Paul Frees.



It's odd to think that just four years earlier, in 1956, I saw several of the objects in this museum, prominently displayed on the bridge of the C-57-D. And I was at this same movie theater . . . with the same Mrs. Watchett look-alike!



Soon thereafter, the dinner bell rang for the Morlocks, sounding exactly like a certain siren we'd heard back in futuristic 1966 London, and the Eloi made like the Walking Dead and headed for the sphinx.







Outraged by the Eloi's apathetic nature, Rod took off to rescue his new blond honey pie from being turned into an order of Eloi McNuggets.





My friend Chuck whispered an urgent warning to Rod on the screen, begging him to stay out of strange holes usually reserved for utility workers. The rest of us agreed — but Rod didn't listen.



At this point the movie goes into high gear, and the action barely lets up for a moment throughout all these jaw-dropping scenes!

























We finally end up back at the dinner table, with Rod looking worn and weary, reconciled to the fact that his friends don't believe a word of his incredible story.





After the other guests leave (with Bridewell stumbling and burping all the way), Rod says a sad farewell to Alan —



— and we all knew what he was planning to do. In less than a minute, Rod was off on yet another temporal adventure, leaving us behind this time with nothing but the burning question we've asked ourselves for over six decades.

Which three books did he take?



Alan wanders off into the snowy night, all bundled up against a cold world that now lacks his very best friend — and Russell Garcia's music makes absolutely sure there isn't a dry eye in the house.



And so my cinematic adventure ended. The lights in Loew's Grand Theater came up, and the four of us wandered out with the slow-moving crowd like mesmerized Eloi shuffling towards the Morlock sphinx.

My mother and I took my two friends home, and I went to sleep that night with images from the movie on display in my head . . . like paintings in a museum.

However, for several weeks after that, my buddies and I stayed up late during those Friday sleep-overs and drew invisible diagrams with our fingers on the kitchen table to show timelines that skipped forward and looped back — all of which is contrary to common sense and the things we would learn in the high school science classes we'd be taking in the years to come.

But I think that was time well spent for three young boys who were growing up in the dawn of a new technological age.

This movie stimulated the growth of brain cells we would use frequently in the years to come — long before smart was cool and science was the key to makin' big bucks for people with names like Bill G and Steve J.

The high school jocks that snickered at science fiction might have picked fights with us because they were sure they would win — but just like Jimmy did when Dracula's sister, Mrs. Hughes, made him sing in front of the class, we held our heads high and waited for the day when a college degree meant a lot more than seniority on the assembly line down at the auto factory.

The times they were a'changin'. Even young nerds like us could sense it in the wind.
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If I've succeeded in putting you in the mood to watch The Time Machine — but you don't have the DVD — you can download a very good copy from the link which I got from Archive.org and added to own WeTransfer account, .

Just click on this click and download the movie.

https://we.tl/t-YJYMWw4ukJ

Watch this movie as if it's 1960 and you're a twelve-year-old monster kid. You're guaranteed to have a good time!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[boaz]

Lock the door, disconnect the door bell, shut off the phone and sit down with a steaming bowl of chili and a slice of pie!

This post takes time to get thru. But it was well worth it!

Excellent Bud! I have only seen this film 2 or 3 times. The last time was too long ago. I've pulled out the disc and it will be watched in a few days.

The best part of loving these films from our youth is the memories it brings gushing back like a flood. Only you have your memories. Thank you for sharing them.

[Bud Brewster]

Thanks, boaz! I needed that.

(A lot . . . )
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Eadie]

Here is a better view of Woody Woodpecker.



Publicity pictures.



















Notice that the Morlock hands resemble Robby's hands! Portrait shot of Allan Young as Jaime Filby (the son) in WWI uniform.



The original poster painting.



There was even a tribute on Lois And Clark The New Adventures Of Superman

[boaz]

I just watched this last night. Great film.

I wonder if the band Pink Floyd got the idea of the chiming clocks and gongs from the beginning of this film for their song "Time"..

Also I could not help but think of the singer Paul Williams when looking at the Morlocks..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qjtj9lliXU

[Bud Brewster]

[Robert (Butch) Day]

Actually George came back to 1899 multiple times.

Just before he makes his dramatic 1900 appearance, Mrs. Watchett states that he has appeared but mostly stayed in the lab and only picking at his food.
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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Bud Brewster]

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Robert (Butch) Day]

George and Weena's daughter?


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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Robert (Butch) Day]

Yvette and Rod fooling around:


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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Pow]

I've always enjoyed TTM & felt that for many years George Pal was an unsung hero of some wonderful sf & fantasy films.He is getting his due now but it came years after his demise unfortunately.

The Time Machine itself is iconic to this day.

As much as I found the spinning discs fascinating,it always seemed an impractical way to retrieve information.
The discs spin for brief amounts of time & then fall down.
You'd be there all day just to get 60-minutes worth of info.

[Bud Brewster]

[Robert (Butch) Day]

Apparently you have never been in a storage area of a museum.

As to the spinning disk machine, you only saw them in a general mode unpowered. The thinking (at the time) was that a powered disk machine would last up to 1/2 hour. It was based upon early experiments in wire recorders in the late 1930s. They just imagined that instead of a long wire stretched-out, the wire would be coiled into a disk.

Extrapolate from there.
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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[orzel-w]

What I understand you're saying is that the spinning rings were an extrapolation from a coil of wire, rather than the spool-to-spool wires on which early recording machines (before magnetic-coated tape) were based.

Then the round table would ordinarily be powered, keeping the rings spinning for longer recordings.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[Bud Brewster]

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Ummm . . . "unpowered"?


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)