Now Playing At The Bijou Of Cool

I have spoken many times about the Saturday and Sunday Matinees that were shown to us kids at the theatre on the military bases where I lived. It was a whole afternoon affair with cartoons, trailers, newsreels, movie serials, a B movie and then an A movie. The Time Machine was one that we saw often in the course of a year. Anything with great effects and monsters were a big hit among with the soldiers and the children so those were the kind of films that the military bought for their collection - then circulated them from base to base. Before the days of DVDs and video tapes that was the only way to see movies that were twenty or more years old but still enjoyable classics.



You couldn't beat the special effect of the time by George Pal who was as great a creative effects genius as Ray Harryhaussen.  The story is also a good one based on the HG Wells classic. For an adventure film, it's also quite philosophical in it's discussions on the nature of man.

I also love the Time Machine itself. As a device it has a glorious design. How many of us didn't want to just jump into it to take it for a spin?

 

 

If I was a modeller this would be one of the first kits I would want to put together. After the Flying Sub of course. I saw one built in a toy store in Calgary and it was one of the most gorgeous pieces I had ever seen.

 

 

As a kid, I found the Morlocks absolutely terrifying but I found the Eloi to be absolutely frustratingly stupid. I half wanted them to be eaten up by the Morlocks...because they are too stupid to save each other or themselves.