The Time Travelers (1964 film)
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''The Time Travelers'' (also known as ''Time Trap'') is a 1964
science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar ...
directed by
Ib Melchior Ib Jørgen Melchior (September 17, 1917 – March 14, 2015) was a Danish-American novelist, short-story writer, film producer, film director, and screenwriter of low-budget American science fiction movies, most of them released by American Inter ...
and starring
Preston Foster Preston Stratton Foster (August 24, 1900 – July 14, 1970), was an American actor of stage, film, radio, and television, whose career spanned nearly four decades. He also had a career as a vocalist. Early life Born in Ocean City, New Jersey ...
,
Philip Carey Philip Carey (born Eugene Joseph Carey, July 15, 1925February 6, 2009) was an American actor. Early life and education On July 15, 1925, Carey was born in Hackensack, New Jersey.Merry Anders Merry Anders (born Mary Helen Anderson; May 22, 1934 – October 28, 2012) was an American actress and model who appeared in a number of television programs and films from the 1950s until her retirement from the screen in 1972. Early life Ander ...
,
Steve Franken Stephen Robert Franken (May 27, 1932 – August 24, 2012) was an American actor who worked in film and television for over fifty years. Career Franken, the son of a Hollywood press agent, was born in Brooklyn, New York and graduated from Corne ...
, and
John Hoyt John Hoyt (born John McArthur Hoysradt; October 5, 1905 – September 15, 1991) was an American actor. He began his acting career on Broadway, later appearing in numerous films and television series. He is perhaps best known for his film and TV ...
. (
Delores Wells Delores Marie Wells (October 17, 1937 – February 9, 2016) was an American model and actress. She was ''Playboy'' magazine's Playmate of the Month for its June 1960 issue and was one the cover models in January 1961. Early life Wells was fro ...
, ''
Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...
s Miss June 1960, has a bit part, as does superfan
Forrest J. Ackerman Forrest James Ackerman (November 24, 1916 – December 4, 2008) was an American magazine editor; science fiction writer and literary agent; a founder of science fiction fandom; a leading expert on science fiction, horror, and fantasy films; a pr ...
.) The film inspired the 1966 TV series ''
The Time Tunnel ''The Time Tunnel'' is an American color science fiction TV series written around a theme of time travel adventure starring James Darren and Robert Colbert. The show was creator-producer Irwin Allen's third science-fiction television series and ...
'', as well as the 1967 remake ''
Journey to the Center of Time ''Journey to the Center of Time'' is a 1967 U.S. science fiction film, directed by David L. Hewitt, and starring Scott Brady and Anthony Eisley. It is a remake of '' The Time Travelers'' (1964), and was also known as ''Time Warp''. Plot Stanton ...
''. The plot involves a group of scientists who find that due to an electrical overload their time-viewing screen suddenly allows them to ''travel'' through time.
American International Pictures American International Pictures (AIP) is an American motion picture production label of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In its original operating period, AIP was an independent film production and distribution company known for producing and releasing fi ...
released the film as a
double feature The double feature is a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theatres would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which one feature film and various short subject reels would be shown. Opera use Opera ho ...
with ''
Atragon is a 1963 Japanese tokusatsu science fiction film produced and distributed by Toho. It is based on ''The Undersea Warship: A Fantastic Tale of Island Adventure'' by Shunrō Oshikawa and ''The Undersea Kingdom'' by Shigeru Komatsuzaki. The film i ...
''.


Plot

Scientists Dr. Erik von Steiner, Dr. Steve Connors, and Carol White are testing their time-viewing device, drawing enormous amounts of power. Danny McKee, a technician from the power plant, has been sent to tell them to shut down their experiment. During the test, odd shadows quickly cross the room immediately before the screen shows a stark, barren landscape. Danny discovers the screen has become a portal and steps through. The portal becomes unstable, and the others enter it to rescue him. The portal disappears, stranding them. Pursued by hostile primitives they seek refuge in a cave, which they discover leads to an underground city – all that is left of civilization in a future devastated by nuclear war. The year is A.D. 2071. City leader Dr. Varno explains that Earth is unable to support life, and that the residents, along with their androids, are frantically working on a spacecraft which will take them to a planet orbiting
Alpha Centauri Alpha Centauri ( Latinized from α Centauri and often abbreviated Alpha Cen or α Cen) is a triple star system in the constellation of Centaurus. It consists of 3 stars: Alpha Centauri A (officially Rigil Kentaurus), Alpha Centaur ...
. The four time travelers, told they may not join that space voyage, are however allowed to work on recreating their time portal to return to their own time. Before the residents can lift off, the degenerate mutant humans break in, destroy the ship, and encroach on the city proper. Dr. Varno determines that now the only hope is the time portal, so he commits the city's remaining resources to help von Steiner, Connors, White, and McKee rebuild the time portal. They feverishly work as the mutants continue their invasion. Along with a few people from the future, the four travelers escape back to the present just ahead of the mutants, leaving a rear guard of androids. One person throws an object back through the portal which damages the equipment on the other side and shuts down the portal. The survivors and their futuristic companions return to the lab, only to make a strange discovery. Their past selves are still in the lab, yet to pass through the portal, but they appear frozen. The travelers then realize that they are experiencing time at an accelerated rate; the rest of the world, including their past selves, is moving in extremely slow motion. Their only option is to travel to the date the portal had briefly been set to before being more firmly set to A.D. 2071. That previous date is over 100,000 years in the future, but the screen is, as before, dark; what lies ahead is unknown. They quickly cross the room, casting the shadows which had been seen before. When the last one goes through, the screen flashes on briefly and shows the travelers walking in a clearing with trees and grass; the surface of the Earth habitable again. They begin to build a future there. The film then shows their past selves moving at normal speed again, repeating their actions at an ever accelerating rate to a resounding musical score; the sequence of events of the entire movie rapidly cycles, repeating with ever briefer and fewer clips, leaving the viewer in a time-loop until it abruptly ends (without further explanation) with a shot of the
Andromeda Galaxy The Andromeda Galaxy (IPA: ), also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224 and originally the Andromeda Nebula, is a barred spiral galaxy with the diameter of about approximately from Earth and the nearest large galaxy to the Milky Way. The gala ...
.


Cast

*
Preston Foster Preston Stratton Foster (August 24, 1900 – July 14, 1970), was an American actor of stage, film, radio, and television, whose career spanned nearly four decades. He also had a career as a vocalist. Early life Born in Ocean City, New Jersey ...
as Dr. Erik von Steiner *
Philip Carey Philip Carey (born Eugene Joseph Carey, July 15, 1925February 6, 2009) was an American actor. Early life and education On July 15, 1925, Carey was born in Hackensack, New Jersey.Merry Anders Merry Anders (born Mary Helen Anderson; May 22, 1934 – October 28, 2012) was an American actress and model who appeared in a number of television programs and films from the 1950s until her retirement from the screen in 1972. Early life Ander ...
as Carol White *
John Hoyt John Hoyt (born John McArthur Hoysradt; October 5, 1905 – September 15, 1991) was an American actor. He began his acting career on Broadway, later appearing in numerous films and television series. He is perhaps best known for his film and TV ...
as Dr. Varno *
Dennis Patrick Dennis Patrick (born Dennis Patrick Harrison; March 14, 1918 – October 13, 2002) was an American character actor, primarily in television. Early years Patrick was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Career Patrick is known for his work in ...
as Councilman Willard *
Joan Woodbury Joan Elmer Woodbury (December 17, 1915 – February 22, 1989) was an American actress beginning in the 1930s and continuing well into the 1960s. Early life Woodbury was born in Los Angeles, California on December 17, 1915. Her father was Elmer ...
as Gadra *
Delores Wells Delores Marie Wells (October 17, 1937 – February 9, 2016) was an American model and actress. She was ''Playboy'' magazine's Playmate of the Month for its June 1960 issue and was one the cover models in January 1961. Early life Wells was fro ...
as Reena *
Steve Franken Stephen Robert Franken (May 27, 1932 – August 24, 2012) was an American actor who worked in film and television for over fifty years. Career Franken, the son of a Hollywood press agent, was born in Brooklyn, New York and graduated from Corne ...
as Danny McKee, the Electrician * Berry Kroeger as Preston * Gloria Leslie as Councilwoman * Mollie Glessing as Android * Peter Strudwick as The Mutant * J. Edward McKinley as Raymond * Margaret Seldeen as Miss Hollister


Production

Production began in 1963 under the
working title A working title, which may be abbreviated and styled in trade publications after a putative title as (wt), also called a production title or a tentative title, is the temporary title of a product or project used during its development, usually ...
''Time Trap''. Director Melchior was unable to secure an adequate budget to fully exploit the potential of the story line. His work, however, remains notable in that later critics and later viewers regard the
production values Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...
as secondary and the film as a solid
B-film A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...
. In some scenes conjuring tricks are used to compensate for the lack of
visual effects Visual effects (sometimes abbreviated VFX) is the process by which imagery is created or manipulated outside the context of a live-action shot in filmmaking and video production. The integration of live-action footage and other live-action foota ...
; for instance, in one uncut shot, a mask-wearing actor playing an android appears to have his head removed and replaced by another, before walking away. "In spite of the low budget, this still looks pretty good thanks to intelligent use of the resources available. The portal the scientists create, as Danny discovers, is more than a mere window on the coming years, because they can actually walk through it and pass through the decades to exist in the future."


Cameos and Bit Parts

At 44 minutes into the film
Forrest J Ackerman Forrest James Ackerman (November 24, 1916 – December 4, 2008) was an American magazine editor; science fiction authors, science fiction writer and literary agent; a founder of science fiction fandom; a leading expert on science fiction, horror ...
appears briefly in a scene depicting several technicians. Ackerman's only line in the film is "Don't worry. I'm keeping our spacemen happy. Getting things squared away." The joke is a self-referential
sight gag In comedy, a visual gag or sight gag is anything which conveys its humour visually, often without words being used at all. The gag may involve a physical impossibility or an unexpected occurrence. The humor is caused by alternative interpretation ...
; his character is working on a device that turns a circular frame into a square frame (one of the magic tricks referred to above). At the time, Ackerman was editing a science-fiction magazine titled ''Spacemen''. ''The Time Travelers'' was heavily promoted in his magazine on the basis of Ackerman's cameo appearance in the film.
Delores Wells Delores Marie Wells (October 17, 1937 – February 9, 2016) was an American model and actress. She was ''Playboy'' magazine's Playmate of the Month for its June 1960 issue and was one the cover models in January 1961. Early life Wells was fro ...
' and Steve Franken's characters Reena and Danny McKee develop a romance, and furthermore Reena "sunbathes" with several other female characters (an early example of fan service) in a demonstration of the sexual mores of The Future.


Reception

''The Time Travelers'' was a
B film A B movie or B film is a low-budget commercial motion picture. In its original usage, during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the term more precisely identified films intended for distribution as the less-publicized bottom half of a double feature ...
, evident by its meagre production values, although both the plot and actors were singled out for mention by critics.
Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fil ...
considered the film "not bad with a downbeat ending, one of the first American films photographed by
Vilmos Zsigmond Vilmos Zsigmond ASC (; June 16, 1930 – January 1, 2016) was a Hungarian-American cinematographer. His work in cinematography helped shape the look of American movies in the 1970s, making him one of the leading figures in the American New Wave ...
".Maltin, Leonard. ''Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide 2009''. New York: New American Library, 2009 (originally published as ''TV Movies'', then ''Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide''), First edition 1969, published annually since 1988. . p. 1442. It was lampooned decades later in the
Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...
revival of ''
Mystery Science Theater 3000 ''Mystery Science Theater 3000'' (abbreviated as ''MST3K'') is an American science fiction comedy film review television series created by Joel Hodgson. The show premiered on KTMA-TV (now WUCW) in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on November 24, 1988. ...
''.


See also

*
List of American films of 1964 A list of American films released in 1964. ''My Fair Lady'' won the Academy Award for Best Picture. __TOC__ A-C and 0-9 D-F G-H I-K L-Q R-V W-Z See also * 1964 in the United States References External links 1964 filmsat t ...
*
List of apocalyptic films This is a list of apocalyptic feature-length films. All films within this list feature either the end of the world, a prelude to such an end (such as a world taken over by a viral infection), and/or a post-apocalyptic setting. Pre-1950 * '' The ...
*
List of films featuring time loops This list of films featuring time loops where characters experience the same period of time which is repeatedly resetting: when a certain condition is met, such as a death of a character or a clock reaches a certain time, the loop starts again, w ...


Notes


References


External links

* * * *
''The Time Travellers''
at
Trailers from Hell ''Trailers from Hell'' (branded as ''Trailers from Hell!'') is a web series in which filmmakers discuss and promote individual movies through commenting on their trailers. While the series emphasizes horror, science fiction, fantasy, cult, and expl ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Time Travelers, The 1960s science fiction films 1964 films American International Pictures films American science fiction films American independent films Films about time travel Films scored by Richard LaSalle Films set in 1964 Films set in 2071 1960s English-language films 1960s American films