1959

The last year of the 50s saw a decline in the number of sci-fi offerings -- down from the peak in 1958. The golden era was winding down, but far from finished. This year's sci-fi films were mostly B films by small independents following fairly safe formula plots.

Hideous Sun Demon -- Another nuclear test gone awry. Dr. MacKenna "reverts" to a reptile-man when exposed to sunlight.

Monster On Campus -- A recasting of the Jekyll & Hyde tale. Fluids from a coelacanth cause creatures to revert to "prehistoric" form. A university scientist becomes an ape-man and rampages.

The Robot vs. the Mummy -- A Mexican import, an evil scientist wants the mummy's aztec treasure to fund an army of conquering robots.

The Cosmic Man -- Yet another remake of the TDESS story. A mysterious alien comes to deliver a warning that mankind must clean up our act before venturing into space.

First Man Into Space -- A cocky test pilot flies too high and becomes covered in an impenetrable crust which makes him a murderous monster.

Invisible Invaders -- Invisible aliens inhabit dead bodies in an effort to take over the earth. Developing a sonic weapon is earth's only hope.

The Mysterians -- Dubbed 1957 Japanese movie about aliens who pretend to be peaceful, but really want to control earth and take our women. Red-blooded earth men fight back.

The H-Man -- Dubbed 1958 Japanese sci-fi and film noir hybrid. Nuclear testing has created watery liquid men. They convert whoever they touch to liquid. Can Tokyo be saved?

Plan 9 From Outer Space -- Ed Wood Jr.'s infamous eclectic story about alien invaders who plan to animate dead humans to help conquer the earth.

Destination Space -- CBS pilot for a TV series that didn't happen. Drama among the men and women in the nascent space program.

Teenagers From Outer Space -- Aliens want to use earth as a farm to raise their food: giant lobsters. One of the aliens comes to love an earth girl and helps earthlings defeat the scheme.

Giant Gila Monster -- The title creature rampages around a remote southwest county. Only the plucky hero and his hotrod full of nitro can save the town.

The Killer Shrews -- Yet another science-gone-wrong tale where genetically altered shrews become as big a dogs and eat everything on the remote island. Can the scientists escape?

The Womaneater -- A british scientist feeds young women to a carnivorous amazonian tree so he can extract sap which the natives say will be a fountain of youth.

The Return of the Fly -- Phillipe Delambre tries to clear his father's reputation by rebuilding his machine. An industrial spy causes the same fly-man transformaiton but with a happier ending.

The Alligator People -- A newlywed loses her husband and finds that misguided scientist thinks extract of alligator can help injured people heal faster, but it turns them into alligator people.

The 4D Man -- A scientist exposed to radiation discovers that he can alter the 'time' of his body to pass through walls. He becomes mad with power.

Attack of the Giant Leeches -- Radiation causes leeches to mutate to man size in the swamps of Florida. They take townsfolk to dine on later, until the hero deals with them.

Wasp Woman -- An aging cosmetics magnate, desperate to restore her youth, tries a serum of queen wasp jelly. The predictable side effect causes mayhem at corporate headquarters.

The Atomic Submarine -- Ships are being mysteriously sunk around the arctic circle. The Tigershark is dispatched to investigate and finds an aquatic flying saucer is behind it all.

The Monster of Piedras Blancas -- A lonely lighthouse keeper has unwittingly given a deepsea reptile-man beast a taste for red meat. It satisfies it's appetite on local townsfolk.

Have Rocket, Will Travel -- The Three Stooges star in their first full length film. The bumbling janitors end up in a rocket to Venus where many of their usual gags can play out.

The Giant Behemoth -- The basic Godzilla story, but set in England with London getting trashed. Radiation spawned the beast, but yet more radiation may kill it.

Journey to the Center of the Earth -- Big-budget rendition of Jules Verne classic.


And so ended an amazing golden decade of science fiction films. The number of films would be far fewer in the 60s. Audiences would come to expect more elaborate sets and special effects, such that the 50s style of army-surplus electronics and rubber monster suits would just not cut it any longer.
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Nebo Zovyot (The Heavens Call)

This Soviet film never made a clean debut in America, simply dubbed into English as so many Japanese sci-fi films had. Perhaps this was because the story had pro-soviet messages and disparaged America. Nonetheless, Nebo Zovyot (NZ) was too grand and impressive to simply ignore. NZ was a "hard" sci-fi on the order of Conquest of Space ('55). Roger Corman bought the American rights to the film. He had it edited, dubbed and some new footage added. The result was his oft-maligned Battle Beyond The Sun. Footage from Nebo Zovyot also showed up in a couple of later 60s American B movies. As such, it seemed fitting to make note of this original, in its own time.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A reporter interviews a Dr. Kornev about his work in space travel. While writing his story, the reporter daydreams about such a future. In the daydream, he and others board a rocket that takes them to an orbiting space station. There, he learns of more techno-wonders, such as the large rocket, the Rodina docked at the station. A short while later, an American rocket, the Typhoon, arrives at the station too. With obvious impartial hospitality, the soviet scientists hold a dinner for the visitors. At the dinner, Kornev announces that the Rodina's will travel to the planet Mars in a few days, The Americans, Clark and Verst are taken aback. The Typhoon was secretly prepared to make the first Mars mission. The reckless American authorities order Clark to take the Typhoon to Mars immediately. In their haste to blast off, they inure Somov, the Rodina's pilot. Gordiienko steps in as the new pilot. He and Kornev take off in Rodina as planned. Not long after departure, things go wrong aboard Typhoon. Their course is off and they don't have enough fuel to correct it. Now they're headed for an asteroid belt and if they survive that, a collision course with the sun. Clark radios the bad news. Kornev decides they can help and fly Rodina to the rescue. Doing so, however, used too much fuel, so Rodina must land on the asteroid Icarus where they all get at least a fine view of Mars. A pilotless refueling rocket is sent to Icarus, but crashes. The men on Icarus despair. Verst awakens to see a fifth man on Icarus. It's Somov. He flew another pilotless refueling rocket to Icarus, but since it wasn't built for being manned, he suffered lethal cosmic radiation and dies. The four are able to blast off and return to a hero's greeting in the Soviet Union. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The models and sets for NZ are impressive for late 1959.

Cold War Angle
Being a Soviet film, the messages are all from the other side. In this case, the Soviets are cast as the reasonable folks. The Americans are the reckless and impetuous ones. Avoiding easy jingoism, NZ suggests brotherhood as enlightened path.

Notes
Parallel Conquest -- NZ has much in common with George Pal's The Conquest of Space ('55). Both featured a manned mission to Mars, being launched from a big-wheel space station. Both films were in the "hard" sci-fi sub-genre. Both had their missions go awry such that pluck and daring were needed to save the day. Both featured elaborate enough models and props that later low-budget films would recycle them.

Models With Mileage -- The miniatures and model work in NZ were elaborate and well done. B-movie producers were already comfortable with recycling models and effects footage from prior films into their new ones. The lift off of the XM-1 showed up in several films. The rocket from Mission to Mars was reused several times too. The rocket interior set from Catwomen of the Moon was in at least three films. With recycling in mind, Roger Corman could see the gold mine of footage in NZ. Since American audiences had not seen the original, it would look fresh.

Children of Nebo -- Corman's more lavish re-use of NZ footage was his Battle Beyond The Sun ('63). That was not the end of it, however. Footage will also be mashed into Women of the Prehistoric Planet ('68) along with footage from Planeta Bur, another russian sci-fi epic.

Bottom line? Nebo Zovyot is not easy to come across. There doesn't appear to be a version with English subtitles either. Even without the dialogue, story is fairly easy to follow. The visuals are worth the effort.

Lost World

Intended as a grand sci-fi/fantasy epic remake of Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel. The first film adaptation, shot in 1925, was a milestone in many ways, but movie making and special effects had come a long way in 35 years. Irwin Allen's Lost World (LW) & 20th Century Fox version was derailed on the way to greatness, but managed to still be a respectable, (if more modest) A-film. Allen's screenplay followed the book fairly well, telling of Professor Challenger's expedition to a remote plateau in the Amazon upon which dinosaurs still lived. Aside from the paleontological presumptions in the premise, there is little "science" in The Lost World. Nonetheless, dinosaur movies have traditionally been lumped into the sci-fi genre.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Professor Challenger proposes as new expedition to the amazon to prove him right or wrong about seeing dinosaurs. A publisher agrees to bankroll the trip, if his reporter can come along. The party includes Challenger, Professor Summerlee, Sir John Roxton, and Ed Malone, the reporter. In Brazil, they are joined by Gomez, the helicopter pilot, Costa, a local and Jennifer Holmes, daughter of Malone's publisher and keen to marry Roxton. The group land on the remote plateau and make camp. At night, a dinosaur scares them and wrecks the helicopter. After a bit of exploring, the group encounter (capture) a native girl. After encountering some dinosaurs and a giant green spider, the group are captured by native warriors. They're held in a cave pending sacrifice. The native girl helps them escape. In doing so, they come across old blind Burton White, lost from an earlier expedition. White tells them the way out is through several perils. The group press on with warriors close behind. They pass one lake of lave. Gomez pulls a gun on Roxton, revenge for death of his brother in first expedition. Malone throws a bag of diamonds at Gomez. His gun goes off, awakening a dinosaur which eats Costa. Malone and Gomez dislodge a lava flow that kills the dinosaur, but Gomez dies too. The rest make it out a passage to the jungle. Roxton still has some diamonds in his pockets. He gives one to Malone so he can marry Jenny. Challenger has a baby dinosaur to take to London. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The 50s had seen several examples of the dinosaur sub-genre. LW is one of the more lavish ones, owing to color by DeLuxe and CinemaScope. The A-level actors help too. Claude Rains plays the flamboyant Challenger. Michael Rennie plays Roxton, perhaps a bit too cooly. Jill St. John and Vitina Marcus do well as the customary eye candy. David Hedison as Malone and Fernando Lamas as Gomez round out the bill.

Cold War Angle
Unlike what usually befell adaptations of Jules Verne's novels, the writers avoided any grafting in of Cold War elements into Doyle's pre-WWI novel. LW is pure dino-romp.

Notes
Remake -- The first film version of LW was a silent movie shot in 1925: screenplay by Marion Fairfax. The film featured stop-motion animated dinosaurs by a young Willis O'Brien. Fairfax followed Doyle's text, but Fairfax added a young woman to the team, Paula White. Ostensibly trying to find her father from the first failed expedition, she provided the love triangle interest between Malone and Roxton.

Variations -- Allen's screenplay tried to stick to Doyle's text as much as Hollywood would allow. It carried on Fairfax's invention of the young woman member of the group as triangle fodder. Fairfax had Doyle's ape men (ape man) but omitted the native humans. Allen had the natives, but no ape men. Allen revived the Gomez/revenge subplot, which Fairfax skipped. Doyle's story had Challenger bringing back a pterodactyl. Fairfax made it a brontosaur who rampaged through London streets (spawning a popular trope). Allen suggested the baby dinosaur traveling to London.

All For the Queen -- Willis O'Brien pitched 20th Century Fox in the late 50s, to do a quality remake of LW. He had gained much experience in the intervening 35 years, so his stop-motion dinosaurs were to be the real stars. Fox bass liked the idea, but by the time the ball started rolling, there was trouble in studioland. Fox's grand epic Cleopatra was underway, but was already 5 million dollars over budget. Cleo would nearly sink 20th Century Fox when it was finally released in 1963. To stay afloat, all other Fox films' budgets were slashed. Allen could no longer afford the grand O'Brien stop-motion.

Fake-osaurus -- Allen's production is often criticized for its "cheap" dinosaurs, which were live monitor lizards and alligators with fins and plates and horns glue onto them. (more on that below) These were already a bit cheesy when used in the 1940 film One Million B.C.. O'Brien is still listed on the credits as "Effects Technician," but all Allen could afford was lizards with glued on extras. Somewhat amusingly, the script still refers to them as brontosaurs and T-Rexes.

Typical Female -- The character of Jennifer Holmes starts out promising. She's a self-assured to the edges of pushy, and is said to be able to out shoot and out ride any man. Yet, when she gets to the Amazon jungle, she's little more than Jungle Barbie, dressed in girlie clothes and screaming frequently. She even does the typical Hollywood trip-and-fall when chased by the dinosaur, so that a man must save her.

Bottom line? FW is a finer example of the not-quite-sci-fi dinosaur sub-genre. The actors are top drawer, even if some of their acting is a bit flat. Nonetheless, FW is a fair adaptation of Doyle's classic adventure novel, given the constraints of Hollywood culture.

Cape Canaveral Monsters

Phil Tucker directed the cult classic Robot Monster in 1953. He carried on the tradition with Cape Canaveral Monsters (CCM) which he wrote and directed. CCM sits squarely in 50s tradition of low-budget B sci-fi films. There is ample stock footage, marginal acting by relative unknowns, rudimentary special effects and an abundance of surplus radio gear. Yet, CCM manages to capture some of Robot Monster's quirkiness. No one could accuse Tucker of following well-worn paths. His tale of an alien invasion vanguard inhabiting a man and woman (now zombies), who then set about sabotaging America's nascent space program, was far from formulaic.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Two white dots come to earth and inhabit a man and wife driving home from a day at the beach. In the shock of (or adjustment to) inhabitation, they are both killed in a car crash. Yet, the bodies arise, the female now called Nadja and man Hauron. He lost his arm in the crash, but Nadja sews it on later. An atlas rocket is fired from nearby Cape Canaveral, but fails and blows up. Young Tom suggests it was sabotage from "outside". He is derided for believing in flying saucers. Later, a guard and his dogs chase a furtive man in the dark. Shots don't stop him, but the dogs rip off his arm. Tom and Sally, Bob and Shirley double-date parking. Their radio picks up interference. An illegal transmitter nearby? Tom and Sally go investigate. Nadja and Hauron are trying to raise the home world. They are told to send more specimens back, especially females. The invasion preparations are going slowly. Next day, Hauron causes another test rocket to crash. That night, the four young folk sit at a campfire. Tom and Sally go look for the transmitter. Bob and Shirley go back to the car. As they doze, Nadja and Hauron kidnap them. Shirley is prepped for sending back. Bob loses his arm for Hauron. Bob dies. Tom and Sally find the alien's cave, but trip a detector. They're captured. They're held in Hauron's lab. Tom and Hauron chat about science things. Tom escapes while Sally is prepped for shipment. Tom summons the authorities. Eventually, two detectives, two generals and a few other folks converge on the cave, ordering the aliens to surrender. Nadja simply captures them all. The aliens plan to return home with all their nice specimens, but while they're gone, the humans all figure out how to make some bubbly super-hydrogen explode using salt and common plastic. They do this and the cave blows up. It seems a happy ending, but the police car with Sally in it crashes and two white dots zip by. The end?

Why is this movie fun?
The plot is just too zany not to love. Aliens using zombies was not new, but these two villains are fascinating. Most of CCM is good old fashioned 50s B-movie fun, but with a hint of the bizarre.

Cold War Angle
CCM has the classic trope of aliens as stand-ins for communist spies. They're out to sabotage our space program. They also plan to invade our planet.

Notes
Horror Hybrid -- Science fiction and the horror genre have long seemed like siblings. CCM is another of the crossover hybrids that mix traditional horror elements, like zombies, with sci-fi. Many films featured aliens taking over living human bodies. Creature With The Atom Brain ('55) had a scientist animating corpses. Invisible Invaders ('59) had the alien take over Dr. Noymann. Plan 9 From Outer Space is the most famous example, with the aliens animating zombie Tor and Vampira to do their bidding.

Great Villains -- Tucker wrote some great villain zombie parts in Hauron and Nadja. Unlike the usual mindless zombies, these two have personality. The two are somewhat uneasy rivals assigned to the same mission. They bicker. Nadja nags Hauron about always losing his arm. Katherine Victor puts quite a sinister spin on the Nadja zombie. The other actors are so flat that these two steal the show.

Stasis Starts -- A "freeze ray" was especially new. Captain Video used one in lieu of a destructive weapon back in the early 50s. But Nadja's "stasis field" was pretty innovative for B sci-fi. She used it to stop Tom and Sally who entered in their cave. Stasis Fields would get a lot of use in later sci-fi.

Quirky, But Logical -- Much of CCM seems like a plot hole, but actually works if you think about it. As mere dots of light, the aliens needed human bodies to affect things on earth -- to sabotage our rocket tests. Naturally, their cave lab would be full of cobbled-together surplus earth equipment.

They're After Our Women! -- When Hauron gets the communicator tube working, the Leader says, "We need more earthlings for our experiments, especially females." We always knew the aliens were after our women.

Rocky Florida -- Even though the story is supposed to be set in eastern Florida, near Cape Canaveral, the landscape often seen is most un-Florida-like. It's hilly and very rocky like, well, Bronson Canyon, where Ro-Man lived.

Never Ending -- A few sci-fi movies of the 50s toyed with non-endings. Not Of This Earth ('57) suggested a new invasion when the first one failed. Jack Harris like to end his movies with a question mark. At the end of CCM, the police car crashes off camera, Sally screams and two white dots fly by. Nadja and Hauron in new bodies now? Two new aliens? The story didn't really end.

Bottom line? If you're a fan of quirky old B sci-fi, and maybe liked Robot Monster, then CCM will entertain you. If you expect good acting, a tight plot and special effects, CCM may annoy you.

Dinosaurus

Movies about dinosaurs in the modern world have traditionally been classified as sci-fi, though the science part has typically been thin. In Dinosaurus, the science is completely lacking. They're just there. No techno-babble is offered to explain them. But, since it's listed as a sci-fi movie, it's reviewed here. Dinosaurus was brought to you by the same team that gave you The Blob and 4D Man. This movie was crafted more as amusement and entertainment for a younger demographic, than any sort of statement or social commentary. The stereotype characters fit this task by being predictable. There's a brave hero, a pretty woman to be in peril (many times), a trusting boy, a cowardly villain (complete with bumbling sidekicks), drunk Irish guy, etc. etc.

Quick Plot Synopsis
A construction crew is blasting offshore on a caribbean island to deepen the harbor. The blasting uncovers two "frozen" dinosaurs, a T-Rex and a brontosaur. The workers haul them up on the beach. Lightning from a thunderstorm awakens them. A local villain also finds a "frozen" neaderthal in the seaweed. He too, is awakened by the storm. This same storm knocks out all power and communications on the island. A tangled mass of subplots consumes the middle of the movie. The villain wants the neaderthal so he can sell him. The hero and heroine search for a lost orphan (whom the villain abuses). The construction crew try to evacuate the islanders to the ruins of an old fort for protection from the T-Rex. There are comic scenes of the caveman discovering modern life, like wax fruit and mirrors, etc. The boy, caveman and brontosaur become friends. When Rex causes a cave-in of the abandoned mine everyone hiding in, caveman sacrifices himself holding up a timber so everyone else can escape. Eventually, Rex fights bronto and wins. Bronto staggers into quicksand, denying Rex his meal. Everyone has run to the fort. Rex turns on the fort, which cannot hold out. The hero duels with Rex with a steam shovel. Our hero delivers the roundhouse knockout punch with the big bucket and Rex falls off the cliff into the sea. The End. (?)

Why is this movie fun?
Fans of stop-motion dinosaur movies will be amused. The fact that the cast are relative unknowns provides some freshness (even if the characters are flatly predictable.)

Cold War Angle
There are no cautions about nuclear testing or commie spies or world domination. Dinosaurus is just good clean rampaging-dinosaur fun. Nothing deeper than that.

Notes
Big Budget B -- Color filming and CinemaScope were becoming a bit less expensive by the late 50s. This allowed some bolder independent teams, such as Harris', to dabble in what was once A-only territory. Harris saved on actors' pay, employing second and third tier talent. The stop motion, while not Harryhausen, got a fair amount of screen time. For a B-film, Dinosaurus was fairly plush.

Popular Anachronism -- Sober-faced science types pooh-pooh the mixing of "cavemen" and dinosaurs, on the assumption that they lived millions of years apart. The popular mind, however, has no such trouble. Cavemen and dinosaurs were natural neighbors. Q.v. Johnny Hart's "B.C." comic strip and "The Flintstones" cartoon.

Ahead Of His Time -- Harris and his writers included some comic scenes of the "Neaderthal" man encountering the modern home: glass windows, plastic fruit you can't eat, paintings, mirrors and flush toilets, etc. The scenes did not advance the plot at all, but were entertaining -- a sort of vignette skit-within-a-story.

Questionable Ending -- Producer Jack Harris seemed eager to keep his options open for sequels. Both The Blob and now Dinosaurus ended with the words "The End" morphing into a question mark. Sadly, Harris and his friends never followed up with "Return of the Blob" or "Rex's Revenge."

Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em -- The climax of the movie is worth the wait. The battle of T-Rex vs. Steam Shovel is fascinating for its quirkiness. Bart delivers several good boxer-style punches to Rex's jaw with the big steel bucket. The whole scene seemed based on the toy Rock 'Em-Sock 'Em Robots.

Bottom line? Dinosaurus is not deep in any way, but does manage to entertain. Don't look for any science amid the fiction. Fans of stop-motion dinosaur movies should find something to like.

The Time Machine

The first block-buster sci-fi of the 60s was the George Pal production of H.G. Wells' classic, The Time Machine (TM). It followed the novel in that a victorian era inventor travels into earth's future to find civilization as he knew, to be replaced by an enigmatic and grim world. The movie won awards for its time-lapse photo effects. Though not a huge budget movie, the overall effect is an impressive A-level film. Rod Taylor gets his first starring role. Yvette Mimieux stars as Weena.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Several dinner guests arrive at the home of H. George Wells on New Years Eve, 1899. The host staggers in late, his clothes a shambles. He recounts his adventures. He had called them together a week earlier to announce his invention of a time machine. They all scoffed. Undaunted, George travels forward in time. He advances to 1917. He meets James, the son of his friend David Filby, but learns that David died in the war. George reenters his machine and advances to 1941. London is being bombed. He advances just as a bomb levels his house. He advances to 1966. Sirens wail. Civil Defense men rush people to bomb shelters. George meets a very old James Filby briefly before the attack begins. George reenters his machine just as the mushroom clouds "sprout." Volcanos erupt. Lava fills London's streets and bury him in his time machine. He waits until the future years have eroded the lava rock. He then sees an idyllic landscape with hints of structures. He stops in the year 802,701. His machine sits at the base of a scowling stone sphinx. George explores the Eden-like forest. He finds content, though oblivious, people, the Eloi. He rescues one of them from drowning. She, Weena, eventually shows gratitude and shows George around their shallow life amid the ruins. George is upset with the Eloi for letting progress atrophy. A siren wails and all the Eloi march, zombie-like to the sphinx. Many go in, including Weena, before the doors close. George clambers down an access shaft to rescue her. He fights the Morlocks and frees the Eloi. They get out, but George is trapped with his machine. He fights off more Morlocks, but escapes in time. He returns to 1900 and the dinner party. His friends don't believe his tale, except David Filby, who wonders. George and his machine disappear again. This time, he took three books with him. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
Wells' tale is fascinating on its own. Pal's adaptation is well crafted in its own right. Once he begins time traveling, the pace is brisk.

Cold War Angle
A nuclear-armegeddon is inserted into the story, where Wells had none. The attack in 1966 is what people had been preparing for (Civil Defense officers, bomb shelters, warning sirens) since the Soviets got nukes. The nuclear destruction that audiences always feared became the catalyst which split humanity into Eloi and Morlocks.

Notes
Booking a View -- A movie based on a classic novel invariably draws fire for not exactly matching the book. David Duncan's screenplay tried, at times, to be close to Wells' text, though with obvious Hollywood deviations. While not a perfect copy, TM is a pretty good effort, given the pre-CGI limitations. The Eloi as young vacuous blonds was a prudent choice. Skinny child actors would have better matched Wells' description, but would have given the George & Weena interaction some creepy pedophile undertones.

Predicting the Past -- Wells' novel did not attempt to predict World War I or II. Duncan's script added those vignettes to set up the overall anti-war cautionary moral. The time-lapse through women's fashions, in the shop window across the street, was a neat device for implying the passage of time.

Hot War vs. Class War -- Wells' novel focused more on social inequality, oppression of the working class by the elites, for the eventual split of mankind into Eloi and Morlocks. Duncan's script blamed the nuclear armageddon for having sent some survivors underground while the survivors on the surface 'evolved' separately. Wells' Morlocks were the extension of the underground society the artilleryman imagined in Wells' novel "War of the Words" (Man on Putney Hill chapter).

Metropolis Extreme -- The Eloi and Morlocks make a tidy parallel to the penthouse elite and under-city workers in Fritz Lang's Metropolis ('27). In Lang's vision of the nearer future, mankind was in the process of separating into two distinct groups. Wells' tale fast-forwards that split. By the time of the Morlocks, the workers were no longer the oppressed, but the oppressors.

Hippy Preview -- Pal's Eloi presage (and exaggerate) a trait of later 60s youth culture -- the flower children. There is no one over 30 to mistrust. They exude a meek and flaccid detachment from "the materialist world", nothing to do all day but cavort in an endless summer, eat fruit and never work. No laws, no government -- a libertarian hippy Eden. George gets to be the voice the frustrated 50s generation (the parents of their underachieving hippy children). "What have you done? Thousands of years of building and rebuilding, creating and recreating so you can let it crumble to dust. A million years of sensitive men dying for their dreams... for what? So you can swim and dance and play."

Hot Seat -- Fans of TM are fond of the Time Machine prop itself. It led a tough life after the movie. It languished in disrepair and suffered as a sideshow novelty. It was eventually rescued by Bob Burns and restored.

Remakes Galore -- Pal's TM set the standard. A 1978 made-for-TV-movie version amounts to an adaptation of Pal's story more than a remake of Wells' novel. The '78 Eloi are more normal human -- still all pretty, but not as simple-minded. A 2002 version sought to wow audiences with GCI effects. The '02 remake was still further from Wells' novel. The '02 Eloi were more politically correct "nobel savages" which were even more normal human than the '78 Eloi. In both the '78 and '02 versions, the fear and antagonism between Eloi and Morlock remains, but the horrible symbiosis was gone. Pal's '60 Eloi still had that from Wells' story.

Everybody Speaks English -- A pet peeve of some folks is that no matter which planet you go to, or which alien civilization, or which time you go to, everyone still speaks 20th century english. This is a necessary concession to an english-speaking audience, of course. That said, it need not be a flaw in Duncan's story. Weena and the others learned their language from the recordings on "the rings." Recorded speech tends to freeze the language in its last form. The Eloi were not innovators anyway.

Bottom line? Time Machine is one of those milestone films which everyone ought to see, not just sci-fi fans. It has something for everyone: action, romance, lavish sets and quality acting. It retains enough of Wells' deep thoughtful commentary to be valuable to anyone.