The Time Machine

Actors:  Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, Alan Young
Rating:  9 out of 10, as I was putting together this year’s Christmas list I went back and asked for a number of films from my youth.  I could not believe that I didn’t own the 1960 version of this movie.  This movie along with Forbidden Planet started me on my life long adoration of all things science fiction.  The special effects are incredibly bad by today’s standards but this film still hold up well.  Taylor was a true movie star and his turn as HG Wells was one of his best parts.  He lends a post-WW 2 earnestness to the role that probably wouldn’t work nowadays but is spot on here.  The plot follows Wells from the turn of the 19^th century to a million years in the future where he battles Morlocks who are eating their more human seeming relatives, the Eloi.  Mimieux plays the incredibly dense but beautiful Weena.  This movie still had the same power of middle aged me that it did over a ten year old boy in the 1960s.  I especially like the ending scene where Wells’ friends try to guess what three books he takes back with him into the future to rebuild civilization.  One of my favorite movies of all time.
MVP:  Taylor as HG Wells, intrepid savior of the Eloi