Film Review: THE TIME TRAVELERS (1964)

THE TIME TRAVELERS *** U.S.A. 1964 Dir: Ib Melchior 84 mins

The year is 1964 and a team of scientists have accidentally created a portal, a kind of rip in time that makes it possible for them to go to the year 2071 where Earth is nothing more then a barren wasteland and mutants roam in search of their next meal.
Unfortunately for our group of scientists the portal collapses and they are trapped in the future. They will soon meet the only human inhabitants of the planet, and there they are left with the dilemma of finding their way back to their own timeline or succumb to what the Earth has become. Previous to directing this 1964 sci-fi, Ib melchior had brought the world another sci-fi film THE ANGRY RED PLANET (1959). Possibly his most well known work is the short story ‘The Racer’ which would become the 1975 film DEATH RACE 2000. The budget for this film is an estimated $250,000 but you will find it hard to find a fault in where that money was spent. The special effects are of course of the time but they are really well done and look better then some of the stuff you see in todays age of cgi. Look out for editor/writer of Famous Monsters Of Filmland magazine, Forrest J Ackerman as a technician in the android building scene. The film would later inspire the 1966 tv series ‘The Time Tunnel’ as well as get remade in 1967 as JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF TIME.

Review by Peter ‘Witchfinder‘ Hopkins