THE TIME MACHINE, 1960

Directed by...George Pal  

Starring... Rod Taylor, Alan Young, Yvette Mimieux, Sebastian Cabot, Tom Helmore, Whit Bissell, Doris Lloyd

On New Years Eve 1899, George, an inventor (Rod Taylor) gives a demonstration of a time machine to a few friends, they think he's fooling them and don't believe him... Later that night he uses the machine to travel to the future... At first he moves forward slowly, watching the clothes of a manequin in a store window across the street change as the seasons pass... He arrives in 1917 as WW1 is in full bloom and goes out on the street and meets the son of a friend who tells him that his father was killed in the war... He then moves ahead to 1940 and sees that there is another war going on... Moving ahead to 1966, he goes outside and runs into the same man as he met earlier, and yes, there is another war going on... This time it involves "Atomic Satelites", and he escapes just as the World is being destroyed...

He now shoots thousands of years ahead and encounters a lethargic group of people that call themselve "The Eloi"... They are all blonde and beautiful, especially "Weena" (Yvette Mimieux) who he immediately falls in love with... However, they also have lost all forms of technology and wisdom, even the ancient books crumble to dust when picked up...

But that's not their main problem, there is a group of troll like mutants called the "Morlocks" that live underground and like to feast on the tasty Eloi... Every now and then a bunch is taken underground for just this purpose... The Morlocks have also grabbed the Time Machine which really pisses off George who now goes into the Morlocks lair and single-handedly defeats the beasts by burning their underground realm...

He now returns to the past and tells his friends about his travels and they still don't believe him... One secretly remains behind as he takes off in the machine again... All he seems to have taken with him is three books... So we are left with the question, what three books would you take with you to the future?