Thursday, April 27, 2017

THE TIME TRAVELERS (1964) **


A group of scientists open up a time portal that allows them to travel over a hundred years into the future.  When the portal closes, they find themselves trapped in a barren wasteland where the humans live in caves and try to keep out mutants who wish to cause them harm.  The scientists of the future are working on a spaceship that will send them to a new Earth-like planet, and the arrival of the scientists from the past ruffles some feathers.  Reluctantly, they decide to help our heroes find a way home.

The Time Travelers has a colorful, mod production design that evokes the best work of Irwin Allen and The Planet of the Apes movies.  The scenes of the creepy robot factory (they look like a cross between Trumpy and C-3PO) are pretty cool too, and the some of the futuristic touches (like the hula dancing machine that looks like the prototype for Dance Dance Revolution) are neat.  Too bad the unsatisfying ending is a complete washout.

The film was written and directed by Ib Melchior, who also wrote Reptilicus.  Like that flick, the movie is at its best when the scientists are working together and trying to solve their problems.  However, the conflict with the futuristic scientists is predictable and dull, and the pacing slows down considerably during the second act.  The scenes of the nude women (well, they have their naughty bits hidden from the camera) add to the cheeky fun though.

AKA:  Depths of the Unknown.  AKA:  The Return of the Time Travelers.  AKA:  This Time Tomorrow.  AKA:  Time Trap. 

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