The Time Travelers (1964)

"Well, it's deep enough. What do you want - a lovely liver?", 17 April 2017

Four scientists use a device they've created to view future events to actually travel into the future. They visit an almost barren Earth in the year 2071. Escaping mutants on the surface, The Time Travelers find themselves in a cave where they meet a small group of survivors working on a spacecraft to take them to a new world. They're running short on time, so our heroes agree to help. Before the ship can take off, however, there is growing resentment between the future humans and The Time Travelers. The mutants eventually break through and destroy everything. Our heroes, with a small band of future humans, try to escape back through the time portal.

Let me begin with what is quickly becoming a standard disclosure – I watched The Time Travelers courtesy of the new MST3K. This was a first time viewing for me. I've always prided myself in my ability to separate MST3K from the movie being presented and not let the jokes cloud my judgment of the movie. In this case, I really enjoyed The Time Travelers. It seemed smarter than your average early 1960s era B Sci-Fi film. I liked the idea of the time viewer and they manner it was used to travel in to the future. It's a little different from the standard spaceship that goes off course and ends up years in the future. The special effects, though cheap, were more than adequate. Director Ib Melchior keeps things moving at a brisk pace. The acting in The Time Travelers is especially strong given the film's budgetary limitations. The cast, featuring Preston Foster, Merry Anders, Dennis Patrick, John Hoyt, and Joan Woodbury, is good. Even the comic relief, Steve Franken, isn't as annoying as you'll find in a lot of these films.

A lot of the film, however, felt familiar to me. Whether it's Queen of Outer Space, Missile to the Moon, Phantom Planet, or a half dozen other movies I can think of, the notion of an advanced civilization living and sometimes working on an escape plan from beneath the surface while constantly being attacked by monsters or mutants was a common theme in 50s/60s Sci-Fi. I suppose that part of the reason was budgetary, but it does give these movies a tight, confined feeling that usually works. Some of these movies are better than others and The Time Travelers is on the positive side of this scale. A strong 6/10 from me.

6/10