This review is about the 1960 film The Time Machine starring Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux.
I am a great fan of this movie. Which is why Iâm reviewing it here, haha. Hmm, well, the film only pays lip service to the H.G. Wells book. It glosses over Wellsâ socialist leanings and theories which formed the background behind the novel and instead, takes aim at the pure scientific romance and adventure aspects.
It opens pretty much the same way the book does; the Time Traveller and a group of his friends are gathered in the Time Travellerâs house one English evening at the end of the 19th Century. The Time Traveller demonstrates his model of the machine to his incredulous friends and states his intentions to go travelling. Quite logically, his friends consider him to be a fruitcake and bid him a good evening. All except Filby, who pleads with the Traveller not to use his machine. Thankfully, for literature and film hostiry, he doesnât listen to Filby.
The film deviates from the book from about this point onward. I read The Time Machine when I was 16 and I havenât yet been as moved or stirred by a book since. It inspired me to take up fiction writing, to be honest. All of the hackwork youâll find on this site can be directly attributed to my reading of the novella, and not being impressed with how it concluded. đ
Anyhow, the film was hailed as a technological marvel with its portrayal of the nuclear destruction of London and resultant lava flows. Thereâs no such event in the book and the film-makers had the advantage of a 1960 hindsight that Wells in 1895 didnât have. It grossly simplified the reasons why people went underground and why the split between the Eloi and the Morlocks happened. In post-McCarthy 1960, it probably wouldnât found an audience if it hadâve discussed Wellsâ socialist theories in any great depth.
Rod Taylor plays the Time Traveller with aplomb. I have to admit to a certain patriotism here as Taylor is a fellow Australian that made it fairly big in Hollywood. This film didnât exactly tax his acting ability and he does phone it in on occasion, as do the rest of the cast. Itâs all very science fiction film by acting mumbers.
The Morlocks here are distilled down to a nocturnal bad guys. In the book, they are the result of the blue-collar worker forced to go underground. They arenât baneful as such, just a product of their heritage. Again, the film makes no attempt to explore the issues or the causes. The Morlocks are villains and thatâs that.
In the novella, the Eloi are a diminutive people, probably no taller than 5 or 6 year old children and they cannot speak English. Considering the English of 1000 CE is barely comprehensible to us today, logic would dictate that the language of 802701 AD would be entirely something else. Wells knew this, and the Time Traveller had to learn bits and pieces of a new language.
Rather, the film version stops off in the middle of World War 1, World War 2, and a putative World War 3. The futility of war is well illustrated. The Time Travellerâs momentary fixation with a mannequin in a store window is an amusing aside too.
Missing from the book is the Time Travellerâs voyage to the end of the world, his expedition to the Palace of Green Porcelain, the green metal chair and a few other minor details.
One of the more off-putting things about the film is Weenaâs question about how women do their hair in 1899 or whether the Time Traveller has a woman. Since the Eloi live in a custom-built utopia where the only things to worry about are being caught outside in the dark, it doesnât make a whole lot of sense, and in fact, it was probably added to the script to give the story a more human feel and satisfy 1960â˛s sentiments.
In conclusion, I love the film, simnply because itâs a grand old SF adventure. not itâs nothing more than that.