The Time Travelers

First saw this one when I was 12 and loved it ever since(I'm now 44-a geezer,I suppose}Probably the best low-budget sci-fi ever made,as far as I'm concerned,and one of the best endings of a movie ever(thanks to Ib Melchior and Dave Hewitt).Cast is quite good,especially Steve Franken and the always-excellent Preston Foster.And Merry Anders is,as always, a real babe.Watch it if you get the chance!!!

The reason a film such as this (low budget '50s or '60s sci-fi) is on many viewers favorites lists is not necessarily fond childhood memories or nostalgia - it's because it's well made. Of course, they had very little money for props and such, but the story is more inventive than 95% of the stuff that's released now or has been since the nineties; no, make that the eighties. Yes, I'm one of those guys who saw it 30 years ago as a kid on TV during a Saturday matinée slot or something; but I've seen it again within a couple of years ago and it's still quite entertaining. Here, the writers proposed a question, a 'what if?' question about time travel. What if certain people, a small group of scientists, accidentally invented a time travel device? What if they used it? (Again, accidentally). What if the device short-circuited too early? What if this, what if that - and so on, with inventive answers provided to each question. If you've never seen this picture, you're in for a treat - you'll be wondering what's the next answer every 5 to 10 minutes. This is a quality sorely lacking in most films today. Maybe all the good ideas have been used. The same concept was utilized a couple of years later in the short-lived "Time Tunnel" TV series, but that show lacked the wild turns of this sci-fi set up. Some of the further situations in this story of the future are a bit goofy, but I believe it's intentional. The ending, which I won't give away here, actually puts some pressure on the viewers to wrap their minds around. Watch for famous sci-fi fan & publisher Forrest J.Ackerman in a cameo. Whatta trip!

Whew! Had someone remind me of this movie just recently and I

did a "Boy, did that take me back". A time travel in & of itself.

Here is one that should get released on DVD, or at least get some

TV play on a late-night show. I remember this being great fun

when I was a kid, new to the movie experience.

Yes, saw it in an actual theatre, probably the same one where I

saw "Crack in the World" (1965) with Dana Andrews. Both high in

"cheese" content, but no less fun.

Not really giving anything away, plotwise, this movie deals with our

fearless scientists who because of having the ability to time travel

into the future, try to go about changing it. Something that has been

dealt with over & over again in the ensuing years. Just remember

they are in fairly new territory here. Can one change what

"happened" in the future?

I also remember being scared witless by the mutants they run

across in the future. One guy who has legs, but no feet. You don't

have to be a rocket scientist to figure out they had an actor with

birth defects or an amputation, but to a kid in a dark theatre – it

was really frightening!

Let's see if someone can get this out as a "late night" DVD, eh?

If it weren't for Ib Melchior, Irwin Allen would never have made Lost in Space or The Time Tunnel. Yet Allen had connections so Ib mostly shut up. This, one of my three favorite time travel movies from the 60s (then others being the incomparable The Time Machine & Beyond the Time Barrier) is so well done it transcends it's low budget. Every penny is on screen. A group of scientists opens a portal into the future - a horrible one - and must find a way home.

The person who commented on this movie needs to remember when it was made. It was 1964, and for that time, I thought it was done pretty well, if you look at the themes the movie was trying to portray. Sure it was full of cheesy effects, but the premise was pretty good. Filmaking had at least progressed from the '50's Cold War hysteria to the 60's trying to understand one another (somewhat). Some people need to stop trying to be witty and hope they get to be the next Roger Ebert, and be be honest about a movie. I have great memories of seeing this movie in the 1960's at a theater, and I have a copy I obtained on the Internet simply because of the fun such sci-fi was and continues to be for fans of the genre. Without such movies, you would not have the Star Wars franchise!!! Think about the history of the genre, and not how clever you are!