YMMV / The Time Machine (1960)

• Alternate Character Interpretation: A popular fan theory basically goes, "George went to the future to interact with the peaceful, future humanity - and he destroyed it". The Morlocks, while monstrous looking, are the only one of the two decedent races of humans to show societal intelligence by domestication, preservation of old technology; and are coming up with a civilization of their own after ancient humanity blew itself to bits. The Eloi look pretty by human standards, but show very few degrees of sentience and are as dependent on the Morlocks for survival as something like domestic cattle and pigs are to humans. While George does go back to try and educate the Eloi, how effective is that going to be? It could be entirely fruitless given their low intelligence. Yes, the Morlocks did attack him, but only after he invaded their home and happened to look exactly like their primary food source. But because Weena and the Eloi are dumb but pretty and the Morlocks are smart but ugly, George kills the latter for the former. What Measure Is a Non-Cute? indeed!
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: After George first lands in the future, he stops too fast and is tossed from the machine, and a small, brief rainfall suddenly covers him and leaves the surrounding ground visibly steaming. Why is never explained.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Considering the familiar accent that Alan Young skillfully provided for his character, he sure put it to more popular use many years later.
  • Can you even guess what Rod Taylor's voiceover narration connected with a year later?
• Literary Agent Hypothesis: Though the Time Traveler is referred to as "George", the machine's date indicator plate clearly reads "Manufactured by H. George Wells" meaning the Time Traveller's actual name is... H. G. Wells.^note Wells' middle name really was George, though he typically went by "Bertie."
• Misaimed Fandom: Of course the Morlocks are evil and the Eloi are good! Although at least this version is also critical of the Eloi's indolence and willful ignorance.
• Narm Charm: The depiction of a nuclear blast is...strange to say the least. However, thanks to Rod Taylor's performance, he manages to make George's fear and panic terrifyingly believable.
• Science Marches On: In 1960, a man being able to run for safety while close enough to an exploding nuclear bomb that nearby houses are bursting into flame while London is consumed by lava from an erupting volcano was thought to be perfectly realistic. However, as the years went on and the public gained more knowlege of how atomic bombs work and the theory of tectonic plates became widely accepted, both of the above circumstances lapsed over into Artistic License.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • Granted, it was 1960, but the nuking of London looks painfully like a model. The early episodes of Doctor Who actually look better. There was even a literal special-effects failure on the set. The day before the crew was set to "destroy" the London of 1960, they made a huge batch of oatmeal, which would stand in for the lava flow. Unfortunately, there came a very hot day, which caused the oatmeal to ferment! It no longer had that thick consistency, but the effects team had to just roll with it.
  • Another real life example had Alan Young commenting on his make-up as the aged James Filby failure:
    "They made a face mask of me to fashion all that rubber stuff — the old age pieces — all around. On the morning of that shot, I got made up by Bill Tuttle, and as I left, he gave me a little jar of glue, and he said, 'That's in case it comes off,' and I said, 'Well, won't you be on the set?," and he said, 'No, the budget can't afford a makeup man on the set.' So, I had this jar of glue, and that was at 6:00 or 7:00 in the morning. Well, they didn't get around to shooting that scene until late afternoon, and by then I could feel bits of my face falling off, so I'd get the glue out and stick it back on again, but by the time they actually got around to shooting that scene, it was about 4:30 or 5:00. So George said, 'Alan, I can't do any close-up's because I can almost see the glue brush strokes on your eyes.' So, if you remember the scene, it was done in a two-shot all of the time. There were no close-up of this old man because bits of the face were peeling off."
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • The stop motion done for the time travel sequence is pretty cool and even holds up nicely more than 60 years later.
  • The Morlocks are quite scary looking, and the dead Morlock decomposing as George travels into the future is beautifully done.
• Ugly Cute: The chubby, shaggy-haired Morlocks are kind of adorable in a monster-y way.

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