FILM · 1960 · USA
The Time Machine
74 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (74)
- #001
Yvette Mimieux was not of legal age when filming began (she turned 18 during production) and was not legally required to follow a full shooting schedule, but she worked anyway. She was inexperienced, but she improved as she worked on the film, so at the end of production the filmmakers went back and reshot some of her earliest scenes.
- #002
This was Rod Taylor's first leading role in a major film.
- #003
Alan Young (David Filby/James Filby) is the only actor to appear in both this film and the remake The Time Machine (2002).
- #004
Judging by the clocks in the scene, George's telling of his story at the dinner party lasted an hour and a half.
- #005
The shape of the time machine was inspired by a sled, one of George Pal's favorite childhood vehicles. That is why the machine has a sled-like design, so that it can slide through time.
- #006
According to additional material on the DVD, George Pal wanted the disc on the machine to turn clockwise to travel into the future and counterclockwise to travel into the past. Because of the way the mechanism was built, adding the reverse feature was considered too expensive and time-consuming.
- #007
Rod Taylor was a little under five feet tall; to make him look bigger and therefore more impressive, all the Eloi and Morlocks were played by much shorter actors.
- #008
The sphere seen in the background while George listens to the information rings had been used as the navigation globe in Forbidden Planet (1956). Beyond the sphere, there is also a large circular screen in a square panel on the wall of the cruiser's Control Deck.
- #009
The original time machine was sold in 1971 at the MGM studio auction, the same auction at which the ruby slippers were sold (see the entries on The Wizard of Oz (1939)). The winner of the auction owned a traveling show. Five years later, the propeller was found in a second-hand store in Orange, California. Film historian Bob Burns bought it for $1,000. Using plans his friend George Pal had given him years earlier, he and a group of friends restored it. The restoration team included D. C. Fontana, script consultant and writer on Star Trek (1966), and Michael Minor, art director on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982).
- #010
The grand staircase leading up to the great dome is one of MGM's famous landmarks among trivia enthusiasts. The building, constructed for Kismet (1944), was miraculously saved from demolition by an executive who wisely thought it could be used again. Located outdoors on Lot 3, not far from the Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) street set, the site appeared in numerous films and TV shows over the years (twice in The Twilight Zone (1959)).
- #011
The "lava" in the volcano scene in the city center actually consisted of oatmeal, with orange and red food coloring poured onto a platform and moving slowly downward over the miniature set.
- #012
Rod Taylor fights a Morlock just outside the time machine and then sends the device into the future, causing the body to decay rapidly. This effect was achieved by making a wax figure of a Morlock, then melting it with intense heat and speeding up the footage, creating the illusion of flesh decaying.
- #013
During George's stop on August 19, 1966, the air-raid wardens are wearing the gray C-57D crew uniforms from Forbidden Planet (1956).
- #014
Trapping George inside a cooled lava mountain between 1966 and 802,701 spared the filmmakers from having to show continuously changing backgrounds over thousands of centuries.
- #015
Yvette Mimieux was the last surviving cast member of this film until her death on January 17, 2022.
- #016
The film takes place on December 31, 1899, January 5, 1900, September 13, 1917, June 19, 1940, August 19, 1966 and in October 802,701.
- #017
The talking rings were not part of Wells's novel; they were an invention of the film's production designers. They became one of the film's most memorable elements. They were voiced by prolific voice artist Paul Frees.
- #018
In the 1966 air-raid scene, the little girl running up the stairs was recorded dropping her Woody Woodpecker doll. Woody was chosen because his creator, Walter Lantz, was a good friend of director George Pal.
- #019
In the air-raid scene, as everyone rushes to the shelter, a little girl crossing the street stops to pick up something she has dropped. When she does, you can immediately see that it is a small Woody Woodpecker figure.
- #020
In the inventors' meeting scene in Gremlins (1984), the time machine appears and then vanishes.
- #021
George Pal initially considered casting a middle-aged English actor such as David Niven or James Mason in the role of George. He later changed his mind and cast the young Australian actor Rod Taylor to give the character a more athletic, idealistic dimension.
- #022
When George arrives in the year 802,701, the time machine reads the date October 12. George thus arrives in a "New World" on the anniversary of Columbus's first reaching the "New World" of the Americas.
- #023
Makeup artist William Tuttle used the Morlocks' appearance for the main Abominable Snowman model in 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964).
- #024
At the time this film was released, all four of H. G. Wells's children were still alive.
- #025
George Pal had long planned a sequel to this film. Numerous submitted scripts were reportedly rejected by MGM.
- #026
Alongside many other references to time (clocks, watches, hourglasses, a sundial, calendars and so on), George's maid/cook, played by Doris Lloyd, is named Mrs. Watchett.
- #027
When George discovers the Eloi swimming in the stream, the long woody vines hanging around them are Passion Flower vines.
- #028
Many nineteenth-century fantasy and science fiction writers used their tales to comment on the faults and blunders of their own governments and civilizations. George's imposition of modern man's ideals and sensibilities on the Eloi ultimately destroys their paradisiacal Eden and forces them to cope with a harsh, ordinary world for which they are wholly unprepared. H. G. Wells himself openly criticized the imperialism of the British Empire and the irreparable damage it inflicted on foreign countries.
- #029
This was Yvette Mimieux's first film.
- #030
When the question of which three books George took arises, it is interesting to note that most of the books on the shelf had been rearranged at some point between the beginning of the film (when George writes his dinner note) and the moment Filby asks which three books he took.
- #031
In the scene where Rod Taylor (H. G. Wells) examines the decaying books in the Eloi library, the green Egyptian statue sitting on a pedestal is the same statue used in Valley of the Kings (1954). The statue was used in the scene in which the hidden chamber in the Egyptian tomb is discovered and was said to be a statue of Joseph.
- #032
In real time, the evening on which George invites his friends to dinner, December 31, 1899, was a Sunday. As George reminds them when he begins his story, they meet five days later, on a Friday.
- #033
Many analysts note that, though it is rarely seen as a decline in the film's quality, in the novel George continues on into the future immediately after escaping the Morlocks and finds the Earth returned to a prehistoric state full of desolate beaches and crab-like creatures. In fact, before the book was published, Wells had discussed with his editor a third possibility: George eventually encountering a half-frozen, savanna-like world of furry marsupials and giant centipedes. Some modern publishers have chosen to include this segment.
- #034
In the novel, Wells did not portray the Eloi as emotionless and indifferent. That was an invention of the film's creators. This approach, however, emphasizes the effect of the human race turning into "vegetables" as George describes it.
- #035
The Cosmic Ray Diffuser, a cult science fiction film prop created by Ken Strickfaden and featured in numerous films, is visible at the beginning of the Talking Rings scene, at around 1:11:06.
- #036
While rebuilding the Time Machine, they had to reproduce entirely the missing chair (originally a barber's chair), the disc and the control panel. The panel had been removed from the machine during production so that close-ups could be filmed. What happened to the original props is unknown.
- #037
Rod Taylor wanted Shirley Knight for the role of Weena.
- #038
The large exotic bushes George runs through while chasing Weena during the air-raid drill are actually giant pampas grasses that grow naturally in South America.
- #039
Paul Scofield was George Pal's first choice to play the time traveller.
- #040
Whit Bissell (Walter Kemp) later played Ralph Branly in the 1978 TV film The Time Machine.
- #041
The statue with the 'talking rings' in the corridor of the room is the same statue seen in the film The Ten Thousand Bedrooms (1957). Its creator, the character Anton, called it Hunger.
- #042
A replica of the time machine was built for use in the episode The Nerdvana Annihilation (2008) of the first season of The Big Bang Theory (2007). The owner of the restored original did not want to lend it to the series.
- #043
In each of the four productions of The Time Machine, the time traveller was played by an Australian: 1949 (BBC) - Russell Napier; 1960 - Rod Taylor; 2002 - Guy Pearce; 2018 (one-man stage show) - Mark Lee.
- #044
The disc of the time machine has exactly 365 rivets. Given that a year has 365 days, this makes sense.
- #045
The meaning of the air-raid sirens and the second 'all clear' announcement was distorted over the centuries, but the sound was left completely unchanged to connect with the distant past. In an irony of fate, those who sheltered underground became deformed beings living in an unnatural environment, while those who somehow survived on the surface kept normal human traits; the exact opposite of what was expected during the war and the brief sheltering.
- #046
The original design of the giant dish behind the time machine consisted of a series of solid metal rings, exactly 365 of them, one for each day of the year, but the producers wanted something more flamboyant.
- #047
When George returns to 1900 and tells his friends about time travel, he tells the group that Filby will die as a soldier in World War I. Filby believes George's story about Weena and the Eloi/Morlock, so he must also believe that he will die during the war. It is implied that Filby, as a good and honourable character, enlists anyway, which does not change the future. George, on the other hand, never visits Filby or begs him not to enlist.
- #048
This film is Guillermo del Toro's personal favourite.
- #049
The small beach where George saves Weena from drowning was part of MGM's backlot number 3. It can also be seen in other MGM films such as Two Weeks with Love (1950).
- #050
The actors playing the Morlocks are obviously professional wrestlers. Their thick bodies, supportive defensive stances, sneaking postures, leaps and attacks, and especially their exaggerated reactions to blows, are straight out of the professional wrestler's ring-performance handbook.
- #051
Although the film repeatedly states that New Year's Eve is 31 December 1899 and that the next day will be the first day of the new century, the 20th century would not actually begin until the following year, 1901.
- #052
The Morlocks' use of air-raid-style sirens and the Eloi's mindless reaction of taking shelter underground is a neat parallel to how societies generally keep their tendencies but distort their meaning over time.
- #053
The professions of George's friends can easily be deduced. Filby is a merchant, Hillyer a doctor, Kemp a businessman (probably a banker), and Bridewell independently wealthy.
- #054
When H. George Wells (Rod Taylor) starts the time machine for the second time, the clock shows 8:15, and the candle continues burning until it shows 3:05, a difference of six hours and 50 minutes. However, the elapsed time on screen is about 3.10 seconds.
- #055
Piano-key sounds. At 1:01:00, after George leaves the Dining Pavilion, the piano-key sounds later used throughout all the Back to the Future films can be heard four times.
- #056
Paul Frees not only voiced the Talking Rings but also narrated the trailer.
- #057
It is fair for viewers to ask why George's time machine has a large spinning disc. From a cinematic standpoint, the ornate disc is a striking visual designed to grab the audience's attention, and it also suggests that the machine does something serious beyond flashing lights. It reinforces the idea of a clock and time as well. And it could be argued that the disc's rotation generates the energy cocoon needed to separate the machine and the traveler from outer space, where time is normal.
- #058
The Morlocks' original design was far more terrifying and frightening than the ones in the film; it was watered down and made more ape-like so as not to give audiences nightmares.
- #059
The Eloi's story carries a distinct Garden of Eden echo. They live a paradise-like life, that life is interrupted by the time traveler as an Adam-type character, and after the Morlocks are destroyed the Eloi must fend for themselves in the real world. When George returns to them from the past, he will become a kind of Moses or Abraham figure, the guide and provider of the new mortal Eloi.
- #060
The original time machine was lost in the props department until it was rediscovered in a barn decades later, but because it had suffered serious damage and several of its parts were completely missing, it required extensive restoration.
- #061
The miniature time machine that George sent into the future ahead of himself on New Year's Eve 1899 will eventually race past the Morlocks' sphinx in the park and travel on toward infinity. And after its energy supply runs out, it will stop in the far future, at an indeterminate moment, where London, where England, once stood.
- #062
When George's guests set off for the New Year's festivities, it is clearly daylight. The clocks in the room read 18:05. On 31 December 1899, sunset in London was at 16:01. It would have been dark outside.
- #063
Sebastian Cabot was known for playing dull, absurd characters such as Dr. Hillyer, who mocks George's theories and inventions. Interestingly, these sensitive characters appeared over the years in various fantasy films and television programs such as Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone, Twice-Told Tales, cartoons and even a Jerry Lewis film.
- #064
This was the last film shown on 26 April 1974 in the afternoon movie presentation "Movie 4" on the New York station WNBC-TV (Channel 4).
- #065
On New Year's Eve, George promises Filby that he will not go out his front door that night. In fact, he walks out the door only 17 years later, during the First World War.
- #066
The original store used for Filby's shop can be seen in the 1951 Fred Astaire mystery Royal Wedding (at about 123 minutes). That film also used MGM backlots dressed to stand in for London, England.
- #067
The absence of adults among the Eloi is explained by the Morlocks' feeding habits. However, nothing is said about why there are no children among them, or how they are born and raised.
- #068
When H. George Wells (Rod Taylor) first starts the time machine, the clock beside the candle reads 6:31 and stops at 8:09, a difference of 1 hour and 38 minutes.
- #069
Although many different camera angles and focal lengths were used to suggest a larger environment in the Morlock's underground lair, the opening shot shows the viewer that it is in fact just a large studio set.
- #070
The concept of the talking rings was used in alt-J's music video for "Deadcrush."
- #071
When Filby enters George's house at the start of the film, he is wearing the iconic clothing of an English winter: a heavy overcoat, a tweed suit jacket, a thick wool sweater, a waistcoat (vest), a dress shirt and probably some kind of knitted undergarment or possibly long johns.
- #072
George's choice of 1966 as the second stop on his journey seems like an arbitrary decision. The film was made in 1959 and released in 1960, and it is interesting for modern viewers to think that in this scene, when George encounters the elderly Filby in the street, the Vietnam War was in full swing, the Beatles had already conquered America, and the Batman and Star Trek TV series had premiered, yet the filmmakers and audiences of 1960 knew nothing of any of it. One wonders what George would think about the civil unrest, the Chevy Stingray and Gilligan's Island.
- #073
Italian censorship visa # 31864 was issued on 6 May 1960.
- #074
When George first leaves the empty dining hall, he passes the white X on the floor as he walks toward the door. The white 'x's on stages and sets are markers showing actors where they must stand in particular scenes. It inspired the show-business term "hitting your mark." In this case, it is the positioning target for the extra round dining table to be placed in the scene to which George and Weena return for dinner. There is probably another x where the camera was in the first scene, because the camera later moves along the point where George and Weena's dining table will be in the dinner scene.
Continue through the archive
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work