Sadly Over-hyped

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Blistering performances.

For those who don't know the story, Rod Taylor is the man who creates a time machine at the turn of the century. Undaunted by the disbelief of his friends, he climbs into the machine and finds himself soaring forward through time, witnessing both World Wars, and then the nuclear wars of the future (or, in this case, 1966). The lava engulfing vehicles in the high street might resemble jam engulfing Matchbox toys today, but we get the idea. Taylor finally finds himself hundreds of thousands of years in the future, where mankind has split into two separate races - the gentle Eloi and the cannibalistic Morlocks.Befriending Weena, one of the Eloi, Taylor learns through talking discs (an uncanny prediction of CD technology?) the history of the world. He is disconcerted when his time machine disappears inside a giant Sphinx-like building, and comes to realise that the Morlocks which live underground, have stolen it. Soon Weena too disappears into the Morlocks' caverns, and Taylor climbs down an air vent to battle with the creatures...This is by all respects a superb adaptation of the H. G. Wells story about a man who travels forward into the future. Made in 1960, this film has hardly dated, and the special effects are still effective even today (when I was younger I was scared out of my wits by the decaying of the Morlock in the final reel). Okay, so they might not be realistic, but they're still brilliantly conveyed. Also, the crisp colour photography really makes this one stand out from the crowd, as well as a high action content which is always a crowd-pleaser.Rod Taylor may not be everyone's choice to play a Wellsian hero, but he is intensely likable and makes a good action figure (similar to the character he played in Hitchcock's THE BIRDS). He remains cool throughout the film, his hair never gets messed up, and he's just the kind of macho figure that a film like this needs. The film benefits from some fine sets (especially the sitting room, where Taylor relates his story - dozens of clocks line the walls), authentic costumes, good special effects, and having such a charismatic actor as the lead. Taylor is supported well by Yvette Mimieux as a shy, child-like love interest, and Alan Young as a kind-hearted fellow scientist who overdoes the stereotypical Scottish thing a bit too much.The best part of the film is the spectacular ending where Taylor fights the dreaded Morlocks in the burning caverns! The Morlocks are essentially rubber-suited monsters, with lumpy faces and pig-like eyes, this made them very hideous and extremely frightening to me when I was young. It's simple things which are most effective. THE TIME MACHINE is a very light-hearted romp and lots of fun, this is a delight to watch if you want cheering up, a film to make you happy, excited, awed and fearful. One of the best Wells adaptations around, and also one of my favourite films.

I man travels through time.Since my 1970s childhood, science fiction has always been one of my very top interests and movies like this (and Irwin Allen TV) turned me into a sci-fi nut. In those days there was less sci-fi around so re-runs of movies like The Time Machine were big events.However, over the last 50 years or so just about everything in this film has been re-used or copied and put somewhere else. So part of the flick's impact has now been lost.I am also a very big fan of the 30 episode TV series, The Time Tunnel (1966), and I would advise all followers of this movie to see The Time Tunnel (it even has Time Machine star Whit Bissell in every episode).

Before Back to the Future their was The Time Machine! Just saw The Time Machine on Turner classics and reminds me of seeing it as a child. My grade 4 teacher let us see the movie while he read the H G Well's book time machine at the same time. The class thought the book was better. Like all great story's, The Time Machine had great material for a story. The Time Machine had a riveting story where the viewer/reader is intrigued and wanting to know more as each scene/chapter evolves. The special effects stood up well. The acting was anything but corny. The endings much more positive than the book. Being a English lit major, one sees the class conflict in the book, and why the two groups cannot co-exist. For a movie made in the 1960's, it is better than many movies made today. 8 out of 10 for time travel.

I recently read the book "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells. It kept me from sleeping for a while because I thought the Morlocks were chasing me! This film I have loved since childhood but now I see that it differs from the book quite a lot. Nevertheless, the spirit of the novel is in this film and it is so much better than the Guy Pearce film of 2002.That film was bizarre, especially in the way it showed the Eloi living in cages on cliffs above the sea. Then there was the incomprehensible part played by Jeremy Irons.This film starred Rod Taylor and he was ideal for the part.The book was written in 1895. The film has him starting off on the last day of 1899. He sees 1917, 1940 and 1966 before going to 802,701. The world of the Eloi and the Morlocks is evoked extremely well and there is great imagination in the sets. Rod Taylor is exactly the way I imagined the Time Traveller to be when I was reading the novel.Yvette Mimieux also plays Weena in just the right way. The book ends with the narrator saying that he is glad that "mutual tenderness still lived on in the heart of man." Rod Taylor died at the beginning of this year and "The Birds" and this are the two films for which he will always be remembered. Some things have been changed, but I feel sure that if he had lived to see it H.G. Wells himself would have approved of this film.