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Author
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Topic: The Time Machine, 3x 400ft Ken Films Version
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Tom Photiou
Film God
Posts: 4837
From: Plymouth U.K
Registered: Dec 2003
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posted November 27, 2016 02:07 PM
Here is a pretty lucky find, not in as perfect as condition as I was hoping & little more expensive than i would normally pay for something not in 1st class condition of this length, there are some light lines to the right, but bearing in mind how rare this Ken films 3 x 400ft version is I can live with these, they are invisible during the dark sections of which this film has many. The colour considering the age is very good. Good image, not as pin sharp as the Derann full feature I suspect but better than the MGM 400 footers.
The boxes, although original, were quite tacky, for some reason the previous owner had split the tops of all three, pritt sticked his own computer printed images inside the front clear plastic, then used some sort of glue to try and seal it. What a trashy job he did, why balls around with the original plastic cases anyway? It beats me.
Anyway, all the original leaders are there but spliced on, so this was probably put onto an 800ft spool, or a 1200, either way that’s what it will go for us later.
I took the boxes apart and used motor trade brake cleaner on a cloth to get all the crap and crud off the boxes inside and out, then gave them all a ponsy clean up with pledge. They now have a new lease of life.
Onto the plot, I have borrowed our friend wiki and edited it to cover this 3 x 400ft version.
On January 5, 1900 four friends are having dinner at the London home of their inventor friend H. George Wells (Rod Taylor). Bedraggled and exhausted, George arrives and begins to describe the strange experiences he has had since the group last met. At their earlier dinner on New Years Eve, George described time as "the fourth dimension" to David Filby (Alan Young), Dr. Philip Hillyer (Sebastian Cabot), Anthony Bridewell (Tom Helmore), and Walter Kemp (Whit Bissell). He shows them a small model time machine and asks a guest to press a tiny lever. The device disappears, validating his claim, but his friends remain unconvinced; their reactions vary from curiosity to frank dismissal.
George bids his guests a good evening, then heads downstairs where his full-size time machine awaits. He presses a lever and moves forward through time 17 years into the future. He meets Filby's son, James, who tells him of Filby's death in the Great War. Saddened, he resumes his journey, stopping in 1940 during The Blitz, finding himself in the midst of "a new war"; George resumes his journey and stops in 1966, finding his neighbourhood now part of a futuristic metropolis. People are hurrying into a nearby fallout shelter amid the blare of air raid sirens. An elderly James Filby urges George to immediately take cover. A nuclear explosion causes a sudden volcanic eruption around him. George continues his journey forward as the lava rapidly cools and hardens, trapping him inside. He travels much farther into the future until the rock eventually erodes away, revealing a lush, green, unspoiled landscape.
George stops in AD 802,701 near the base of a towering sphinx. He goes exploring and finds a group of delicate young men and women with simple clothing gathered at a stream. One woman, carried off by the current, screams for help but none of her companions show any concern. George rescues her and is surprised when, revived, she walks away without a word; later, she seeks him out and gives him a flower. She says her name is Weena (Yvette Mimieux) and tells George her people are called the Eloi. The Eloi do not operate machines, work, read, and know virtually nothing of history; they do not even understand fire.
George discovers his machine has been dragged into the sphinx. Weena tells him "Morlocks", who only come out at night, have moved it. A Morlock jumps out from behind bushes and tries to drag her away, but the creature's light-sensitive eyes are blinded by George's fire torch.
The next day, Weena shows George domed, well-like structures that dot the landscape: air shafts that double as access to the Morlock underworld. She takes him to an ancient museum where "talking rings" tell of a nuclear war in the distant past. A reduced population fought for survival in the poisoned landscape; many decided to live underground in permanent settlements, while some returned to the surface. George realises this was the beginning of speculation for the Morlocks and the Eloi. He starts to climb down a shaft, but stops when sirens blare from atop the sphinx. He finds Weena gone and crowds of Eloi in a trance-like state, entering open doors at its base. The sirens stop and the doors close.
George enters the Morlocks' subterranean caverns and is horrified to see that the Eloi are the free range livestock for the creatures. Finding Weena, he begins fighting the Morlocks. His efforts inspire others to defend themselves. George sets a fire and urges the Eloi to clamber to the surface, where he directs them to gather dry tree branches and drop them down the shafts. Smoke billows out of the shafts, and the subterranean cavern later collapses.
The next morning, George finds the sphinx in charred ruins and its doors open. His time machine sits just inside. He enters, the doors close, and he is attacked in the dark by Morlocks. George sends his time machine into the past, back to 1900, coming to rest on the lawn outside his home, where his story ends.
George's friends are again sceptical. He produces Weena's flower and Filby, an amateur botanist, says the species is unknown in the 19th century. George bids his guests a good evening. Filby steps out but returns to find George and his machine gone. There are drag marks where it would be positioned outside the sphinx. Filby and Wells' housekeeper notice three books are missing. Filby asks, "Which three would you have taken"? While she wonders if George will ever return. He observes that George has "all the time in the world".
This, as I have said, is a really well cut down version of this classic 1960 sci-fi movie we all know, all the main scenes are in there and there is no awful abrupt cuts on the soundtrack or within the image. Makes a nice change there.
I have to say although the feature would be great I really do think this version flows at a more satisfying pace than the whole movie which did at times slow up a little. I would be interested to see how many of these 3 x 400ft versions of this title are out there, I for one didn’t know it was released other than a full feature.
This one is keeper. As always, these images taken during projection do not really show the true extent to the colours, the greens blues and yellows are all very deep.
[ August 08, 2018, 02:58 PM: Message edited by: Tom Photiou ]
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