The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything

You know how kids -- especially boys -- grow up fantasizing about having a particular superpower? Flying, X-ray vision, or that thing Superman does with the Earth to move time backward?

Well, I've been plagued into adulthood by the fantastic power posited by this ultra-trashy, made-for-*SYNDICATED*-TV movie ever since I saw it at age nine. The idea of a watch that stops time for everyone except the bearer is so original, so powerful, that as I near my 30s I still fantasize almost daily over what I'd do with it.

The execution of the gimmick was so simple, F/X-wise, but remarkably memorable. The first time Hays's character receives the watch -- an inheritance from his mad-scientist uncle -- he's on a beach, trying to wind it. But upon turning the hands past a certain time, everything around him freezes, turning red, and the only sound he hears is the now-amplified ticking of the watch. He sees frisbees and a volleyball frozen in midair, people running in midstride, and the woman to whom he was talking moments ago (Pam Dawber) frozen, mid-sentence. He can wander freely throughout the reddened scene and move anything he wants, which will then freeze in position until he "unfreezes" time. Naturally, given the setting and the trash-TV nature of the movie, one of his first stunts is to untie a volleyballer's bikini top so when he unfreezes time, it falls to the ground.

Later, once the film has established the concept, we see Hays turn the watch and just instantaneously disappear, then reappear in the place he ran off to while time was frozen -- effectively giving us the POV of the non-watch-possessing bystander.

Since I haven't seen the movie since I was a preadolescent, I have it filed in the same "youthful indiscretion"/"trashy on reflection" category in which I have filed 'Cats' and 'The Greatest American Hero.' Any boy who was a fan of the TV megahit 'Mork and Mindy' probably tuned into 'The Girl...' for then-hottie Dawber, and Hays was himself on a warm streak, having just appeared in the seminal comedy 'Airplane!' Last bit of trivia: This film was apparently successful enough in syndication (in New York, where I grew up, it was on a pre-WB channel 11/WPIX) to spawn a sequel, with the even more embarrassing title, 'The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Dynamite!' I don't see that title anywhere on the IMDb, so I must assume it has been utterly forgotten.

I remember first seeing this movie on reruns when i was 4. I'm 22 now and love the fact that i was able to find a copy of this movie and the sequel. The movie was so ahead of its tim. I'm surprised that anyone got the concept. The part of the movie that always pops up in my head is when our hero stops time just before some baddies cap him and his honey. I can't remember and its been a few years since i viewed the tape, but i think somehow the hero reverses the direction the bullets were flying. Anyways, the story was excellent, the sequel was great, and the only movie dealing with time travel that has comes even close to this original idea (besides the HOLY Back to the Future Trilogy) is Frequency. Ok , maybe Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure (you have to admit, the way they got out of jail was cool.) TNT played this movie and its sequel about 3 or 4 years ago during a late night shift (midnight to 4am.) They might do again sometime soon.

I only had the pleasure of seeing this movie once. But have been trying to find a copy or another playing of it... The script was very good and it kept me waiting for what was going to happen next. I saw this movie 12 years ago and still have not found another listing for it sense. I would like to view it with my family, As it was late when I viewed it last time and every else had retired for the night. but after all these years I am loosing hope of getting to view this movie again. All of the actors in this movie performed with great realism that really had me hooked on this movie. I would recommend it to all age groups as it has a great story line, Just like the book it was created from written by John Macdonald.

Episode #5.4 of _"The Twilight Zone" (1959)_(qv), "A Kind of Stop Watch", has a storyline that is nearly identical to that of "The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything". The episode, however, aired in October of 1963, the year after publication of John D. McDonald's novel on which the movie is based. Some people, obviously unaware of the novel, considered the movie a ripoff of the episode, and a number of reviewers who wrote unfavorably on this basis had to spend numerous inches of column space apologizing.

One of the contributing factors to the misunderstanding is that the novel quickly went out of print, overshadowed by the author's "Travis McGee" detective series and other adventure novels. In 1980, the year the movie aired, three of his science fiction-oriented novels, "Wine of the Dreamers", "The Girl, the Gold Watch & Everything" and "Ballroom of the Skies" were published in 1980 in an omnibus volume titled "Time and Tomorrow" by Doubleday and Science Fiction Book Club. This still, however, did not contribute significantly to clearing up the ripoff accusations because of the limited distribution through the book club.

For the first 40 minutes of this film all robert hayes does is sleep ... the rest is even a bigger waste of time