The Polite Dead Morlock

Larry Abbott, an English teacher in Ohio who is a frequent contributor to this page (see below) reports that one of his students, John Simms, (who's in the ninth grade), spotted an interesting goof. When George is in the underground home of the Morlocks, attempting to rescue the Eloi, he knocks a Morlock backward into a large rock, apparently killing the creature. Yet... in the following wide shot of the scene, as the Eloi start to rush past the fallen Morlock, the Morlock very carefully pulls his right leg out of their path so he won't trip anyone."

Larry also asks: "How many different movies have featured the uniforms of the air-raid wardens seen in the 1966 "future" segment of The Time Machine?" Larry recognizes the suits as being used in Forbidden Planet and believes he's  seen them in at least one other science fiction film. Props used in Forbidden Planet can be seen in the background of the museum seen in the "talking rings" sequence.

This section now updated by Sandra Petojevic, March 6, 2011:

The Australian cartoonist Steve Panozzo spotted that the air raid wardens are wearing the C-57D crew's spacesuits from the movie Forbidden Planet (Fred M. Wilcox, 1956) and I spotted that also the astrogator was used when George Wells is in the museum with Weena. Steve also discovered that the Forbidden Planet astronaut's uniforms also appeared in a movie called Queen of Outer Space (Edward Berndts, 1958), starring Zsa Zsa Gabor, of all people!

This section now updated by Sandra Petojevic, February 5, 2012:

Steve also saw these uniforms featured in the movie Amazon Women on the Moon (John Landis, 1987) as well. It's pretty clear that the costumes for Amazon Women on the Moon are slightly different to the original uniforms, which means they were made specially for the movie as a visual homage. A nice touch.
Steve thinks that the Queen of Outer Space was the movie that John Landis drew inspiration from when he made Amazon Women on the Moon.

Wasting Matches

Correspondent Jerry Search asks: if the date readouts on the Time Machine's control panel are illuminated from inside (and they are), why does George need to light a match to read them when he's sealed inside the mountain? Jerry points out that this "waste of a match" costs George dearly later in the film, when he's "down to his last match" in the lair of the Morlocks trying to save Weena and her friends.

Dust-Repellent Pants?

Larry Abbott... an English teacher... wonders why George's pants aren't the slightest bit dirty after he sits in dust and dirt that's thick enough to write in!

 

The Other  Stars of "The Time Machine"

To Jim Mihal -- a teacher of astronomy -- there are a couple of  "obvious" goofs in the scene where George begins his journey through time. "In that scene," writes Jim, "the sun and moon are seen zipping across the window pane. Then -- in the same window --the stars are seen whirling around Polaris (in circles). 

"The only problem with this is that Polaris is due north ... and the sun moves along the ecliptic which, at best, is 67 degrees away. 

"The movie is set during the winter in England. This is even worse! The sun, as you know, makes a very shallow angle with the southern horizon at this time of the year ... causing it to be about 110 degrees from Polaris. 

"Another minor error  is the path of the sun and moon during these same scenes. My recollection is that this is a full moon... and it takes roughly the same path as the sun. This would not be the case, in fact, the winter full moon would follow a path nearly equal to the path of the summer sun (which as you know is quite different from the path of the winter sun)."

Thanks to Jim for his comments... and for those "as you knows" he kindly added  into his comments. Jim... I need to take your course!

Rembrandt - De Staalmeesters (1662)

It's been so long since I've discovered any new "Time Machine" trivia of my own. So much has been provided by the nice people who visit this site and share their enthusiasm for, and knowledge about, The Time Machine. Their names appear below with the trivia they 'discovered.' So, I'm kind of proud of the two pieces of trivia I 'discovered' - the missing background plate (see below) and this new one.

Let me ask you... what does the picture above have to do with George Pal's "The Time Machine?" (Click on the picture for the answer)

French Poster		American Artwork

The French Version... does not end well.

Charlie in The Chair

The Time Machine's chair was not constructed especially for the film, but rather came from 'stock' - the prop department provided a 1901 Eugene Berninghaus barber chair, modifying it slightly - most notably by taking the footrest and making a headrest out of it. The chair is very distinctive... and the same chair has appeared in other films, most notably Charlie Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" (1940). Whether this is the same exact chair later used in The Time Machine is open to debate, but there's no question but that it's the same model - compare the frame enlargement to Chris Perrotta's blueprint. (Chaplin information courtesy Harvey Mayo) (Click thumbnails to see a frame blow-up).