* AwardSnub:
** Despite its tremendous acclaim, Music/JohnBarry's score was ''not even nominated'' for an Oscar. It did get a Golden Globe nod, however.
** It got a single Oscar nomination, for Best Costume Design, but lost to ''Film/{{Tess}}''.
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: Music/JohnBarry's score is simply ''wonderful'' and has been popular at weddings for decades. Universal put out a limited run of promotional soundtrack albums but soon had to produce hundreds of thousands of copies because demand was so high.
* CultClassic: To the extent that it has its own fan club that gathers annually on Mackinac Island, a gathering that eventually attracted visits from both Creator/ChristopherReeve and Creator/JaneSeymourActress.
* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: While it flopped in America, it was a huge hit in China and Hong Kong, where the film continued playing in theaters ''for an entire year'' and later was rereleased due to its popularity.
* HarsherInHindsight: [[spoiler:The death of Richard, considering that Creator/ChristopherReeve himself died at the not particularly old age of 52 in real life.]]
* {{Narm}}: The sheer abruptness of Richard [[spoiler:looking at the penny and]] being catapulted back to the present, especially with the dramatic musical sting and Elise screaming [[SayMyName "REEEEE-chaaarrd!!!"]], is a bit too overwrought to completely work as a horrifying climax, and even comes off as unintentionally humorous, though it ''does'' succeed in snapping us out of the story the same way Richard is snapped out of his time travel.
* NarmCharm: The plot is clichéd, melodramatic, and there's more than one plothole... and somehow, '''it still works'''.
* OneSceneWonder:
** Creator/TeresaWright appears in just two scenes at the beginning as Laura Roberts, the housekeeper for the elderly Elise.
** Professor Finney (played by George Voskovec) appears in just one scene but is a crucial character, inspiring Richard's MentalTimeTravel method.
* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/WilliamHMacy has a bit part in the opening scene as a theatre critic. Creator/GeorgeWendt was in the scene too but it ended up as a DeletedRole (he's still credited). Future ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' cast member Creator/TimKazurinsky is the photographer who takes the portrait of Elise.[[note]]The Trivia section for the film on Website/{{IMDB}} claims that Creator/MegRyan is the young woman with her back turned to the camera who's sitting at the same table as Richard at the library, but there's not independent confirmation of this, and the timeline of Ryan's life compared to the film suggests that she would've been finishing up high school in Connecticut at the same time the movie was being filmed in Michigan and Chicago.[[/note]]
* SpiritualAdaptation: In a lot of ways this is like an extended episode of ''Series/NightGallery'', with its mix of human drama and fantasy, helped by the fact that Creator/JeannotSzwarc and Creator/RichardMatheson both worked on ''Night Gallery''. If it ''were'' a ''Night Gallery'' episode, it would've probably focused on a painting of Elise rather than a photograph.
* StrawmanHasAPoint: From Robinson's perspective, he has every right to be suspicious of a strange man who shows up out of nowhere and starts following Elise around for no discernible reason.