The Time Machine (1960)

Victorian inventor George (Rod Taylor) discovers a way to move forward and back in the fourth dimension - time. His friends scoff at the notion, and weary of man using his ingenuity to kill more people, he chooses to move forward into a more enlightened time. He learns from a mannequin across the street the horrors of The Great War, then of WWII, then WWIII in 1966.

Because nuclear war has caused vulcanism, the time machine is trapped underground and our hero must wait until the new mountain is worn away before he can stop. When he does, it's the year 800 thousand something and he finds an idyllic setting where everyone is blond and nobody has a care in the world. In fact, when one is drowning in the river, nobody in the world cares. Except George.

After rescuing her, because she's hot, he soon learns that the pretty, empty headed surface dwellers live in fear of the ugly troll-like people who live deep in underground datacenters. Or whatever. Time for a revolution!

Can't go wrong with George Pal. Visually appealing, family friendly, but with a touch of social commentary. The practical effects may appear slightly cheesy today, but they were state of the art, and quite visionary. It won the Oscar for effects and was nominated for a Hugo. The Twilight Zone won.

There is a panel on the time sled that reads invented by H. George Wells, meaning that the protagonist IS the author of the source material. That's a cool detail. Young hot Yvette Mimieux was underage when filming began and turned 18 during the shoot.

One can quibble about time travel paradoxes and issues with the story, but this is a story about man using his ingenuity for destruction and it's ultimate fate when he turns it's back on learning, so keep your nits! The movie is fairly thin and moralistic, but it is wonderfully crafted, visually interesting, and edited to perfection. Rod Taylor's performance was perfect for the story. AMRU 3.5.

"Which three books would you have taken?"

Things to Come (1936)

It's Christmastime in Everytown, USA (London) and the world is on the brink of war. Unnamed foreigners with funny accents are threatening whatever values we hold dear. Despite this, rich guy John Cabal (Raymond Massey) is concerned. He somehow feels that world war is some kind of harbinger of disaster. His friends humor him.

Lucky for everyone, global war lasts only 26 years and society enters a golden age of feudalism that SCA geeks are so fond of. They even have their very own plague. Then our village is visited by a fancy man in an aero-plane who wears clean clothes (Raymond Massey). This spiffy owner of a hot wings franchise hails from a society of scientists and engineers and preaches peace. Rather than follow his inspirational words, Boss man (Ralph Richardson) locks him in the basement and tries to use his aero-plane to kill the people who infected them with the plague (not an altogether unreasonable idea).

The mechanic repairs an aero-plane and instead of bombing the evil Nazis (or whoever), he flies to the closest franchise of Wings Over the World and warn them so that they can bomb our war-ravaged Everytown. Bomb them with love. And sleeping gas that kills only one person. Guess who.

Now with all forms of war eliminated, Everytown is rebuilt into a marvelous shining city. A grand metropolis ... no, scratch that. It's a shining city. That's what I said.

But things aren't perfect in this future utopia. People grow tired of this peace and progress, and long of the days of pestilence and war. Ah, memories. Anyhow, the new big boss (Raymond Massey) decides what he needs to do is to send a rocket around the moon. Did I say rocket? Well, we all know that rockets are so primitive and barbaric. Instead they load a young couple into a giant bullet and fires them around the moon. Just think, it's 2036 and already they have the technology to shoot projectiles around the moon!

What a tedious disappointment. Images of the horrors of war are beaten over our heads while Massey preaches endlessly in all three parts of the film. It scores points because it is the second oldest feature film to show people travelling into space in a rocket (albeit fired from a gun), it's real close with it's prediction of World War II, and also some aspects of future life. Also, Richardson was great as the despotic warlord. However, this grand spectacle presents it's philosophy with all the subtly of a cannon ball.

You see, H.G. Wells hated Fritz Lang's Metropolis, what with it's dystopian view of the future, so he decided to tell the opposite story. The hands must do what the head tells them, and who invited the heart in the first place?

Well made, visually appealing, somewhat prophetic, kinda boring, and clumsy as all hell. AMRU 2.5.

"If we don't end war, war will end us."

The War of the Worlds (1953)

An meteor hits the earth and noted scientist Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry) is called in to take a look. Soon he is teamed up with young hottie librarian Sylvia (Ann Robinson) and notice odd things about the impact. For instance, the creator should have been much larger. Also, when alien war machines come up, that was real odd, too ... Jeesh.

Well, the military is called in and we soon learn that our war machines, so effective against those nasty nazis, are useless against the Martians. As more Martian-bearing meteoroids land over the globe, it becomes a matter of time when the human race becomes extinct.

I saw this once in my youth and never again until last week. In the genre I would have expected it to be high up, but IMDB, the definitive movie ranking system, puts it 187th, behind such powerhouses like Dragon Ball Z and the animated Transformers movie. Such disrespect.

Anyhow, here are a few interesting factoids: Barry and Robinson also appeared together in the 05 version, which I've never seen. The ships from the book walked on three legs, and in this movie they were to walk on three electric beams, but the sparks they used for the special effect became a fire hazard.

At the climax Sylvia and Clayton are separated and each seek out their comfort. For Sylvia, it's the church to pray. For Clayton, it's Sylvia. Classic film, tops in the sub-genre of 50's rocket and saucer movies, and very well made. Weak ending and you can totally see the wires, but AMRU 4 anyhow. What did they have against Venus?

"Guns, tanks, bombs - they're like toys against them!"

Island of Lost Souls (1932)

Dashing Edward Parker (Richard Arlen) is the victim of a shipwreck. Lucky for him, he is picked up by a passing ship that has a doctor as a passenger. Foolish of him, he punches the captain (Stanley Fields) over how he treated a dog-eared man. So, Captain gets back at him by dropping him off, along with the good doctor and his cargo of exotic animals, at his first port of call instead of taking him back to California, where his hot blond Fiancee' (Leila Hyams) waits patiently for him. 

The island's owner, Doctor Moreau (Charles Laughton), isn't too keen to have an unexpected visitor, but appears helpful enough. Maybe Mister Parker can aid him somehow in his research! Gosh, the natives look awfully peculiar ... 

This is the film first attempt at H.G. Wells' "The Island of Doctor Moreau", and maybe the best. Wells himself was still alive to hate it and caution people from seeing it. Spoil sport. Anyhow, Paramount was trying to come up with a movie more shocking, more terrifying than anything Universal was producing at the time. They may have over reached. This was after the Hays code was in effect, but before they started enforcing it. Somehow themes of rape, vivisection, and bestiality got through the censors. 

The end result is a fantastic movie with great acting and atmosphere to spare. When Paramount tried to re-release it a couple years later, the board said, umm, No. It was banned in Britain for twenty six years. Localities everywhere insisted that various scenes and lines cut ("Do you know what it means to feel like God?") making the movie a distributed patchwork. Luckily, there is a complete version that modern audiences can watch. Under different circumstances, classic horror lists might post Lost Souls above Dracula and Frankenstein (IMDb ranks it higher than Dracula). 

And much of the credit goes to Laughton. No conflicted mad scientist is he. He simply LOVES what he does and doesn't for a moment doubt the outcome. Know that feeling you get when you're wearing something absolutely luxurious to the touch and eat something decadently delicious? That's how Moreau feels when he carves up living beings without anesthesia and listens to them scream. Simply delightful.

Bela Lugosi had a small but exceptional role as the Sayer of the Law. Not willing to wear makeup to be Frankenstein, it would seem he recanted to be all but indistinguishable here, recognizable only by his voice. Mark this as one of his best rolls. Also, recognize the name of Hyams? She also appeared in another banned pre-code movie, Freaks, which I recently watched again. Available on Amazon Prime. Luckily the controversy didn't stunt her career. She continued to work until the ripe old age of 31. 

Before returning the disk to the library, I watched all of the commentary (man, does Landis love the sound of his own voice!) and rewatched it with commentary (in a mob scene, a beast-man accidentally lights the head of another beast-man!). Unfortunately that was before I purchased my Samsung LED. The picture on my old CRT was dying and some of the subtleties of the movie were lost. AMRU 4.5.

"Dr. Moreau: What is the law?
Sayer of the Law: Not to eat meat, that is the law. Are we not men?
Beasts (in unison): We are Devo!"

The Invisible Man (1933)

"... Claude Rains was The Invisible Man ..."

Yes. Yes he was. Third movie referenced in the song Science Fiction/Double Feature. Nine down, two to go.

Before I begin, I want to acknowledge the passing of film great Elizabeth Taylor. I understand she was quite pretty in her early years and a top notch actress, but I remember her as the overweight caricature of her former self. Then the thought struck me that I had not ever seen one of her movies, ever. Further research revealed that I did see The Taming of the Shrew back in high school and, sadly, The Flintstones. I decided to add Cleopatra to my Netflix queue because I'm quite fond of catastrophes, but after learning that it's about 16 hours long I don't know if I'll ever get to it.

Back to The Invisible Man, shall we? Here's the story. Noted scientist discovers the secret to invisibility but then realizes he forgot to search for the secret of VISIBILITY. So, he goes out into the snow with his science gear and tries to come up with the solution. The hottie and colleagues he left behind grow concerned. It seems the secret ingredient to make one self invisible ALSO makes them insane. Crazy and invisible, what a combination.

The rest of the movie is a cat and mouse game where doc's friends are trying to find him and doc lives out his secret ambition. Not to sneak into girls locker rooms, but to just screw with people. It seems the one thing he's always hated was people.

Who should turn up but Una O'Connor, the ugly housemaid. Shrill and completely over the top, she's a total delight. In a Hollywood where a character named Ugly Betty is played by a hot chick, it's nice to know that once upon a time us regular (and sub-regular) looking folk could get screen work.

Very good movie. The special effects were way ahead of their time. Director James Whale isn't well remembered now-a-days but he directed many of the early great horror films: Frankenstein and Bride of, plus The Old Dark House, which I understand is excellent. The studio grew tired of him turning out great work so they forced him to do crap.

One could spend a lifetime watching the infinite sequels and adaptations, but I will for now leave it right here. AMRU 4.

"The drugs I took seemed to light up my brain. Suddenly I realized what power I held, the power to rule, to make the world grovel at my feet."