Time After Time (1979)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Nicholas Meyer

Writers:

Karl Alexander (novel) &
Steve Hayes (story) ...

Release Date:

31 August 1979 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller | Romance | Drama

Tagline:

H.G. Wells Races Through Time To Catch Jack The Ripper!

Plot:

H.G. Wells pursues Jack the Ripper to the 20th Century when the serial murderer uses the future writer's time machine to escape his time period.

Plot Keywords:

Time Machine | Jack The Ripper | Bank | Writer | Bank Clerk

Awards:

5 wins & 7 nominations

Cast

Malcolm McDowell	...	H. G. Wells
David Warner	...	Jack the Ripper - John Leslie Stevenson
Mary Steenburgen	...	Amy Robbins
Charles Cioffi	...	Police Lt. Mitchell
Kent Williams	...	Assistant
Andonia Katsaros	...	Mrs. Turner
Patti D'Arbanville	...	Shirley
James Garrett	...	Edwards
Leo Lewis	...	Richardson
Keith McConnell	...	Harding
Byron Webster	...	McKay
Karin de la Penha	...	Jenny (as Karin Mary Shea)
Geraldine Baron	...	Carol
Laurie Main	...	Inspector Gregson
Joseph Maher	...	Adams

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:16 | West Germany:16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:15 (re-rating) | Norway:16 (original rating) | Singapore:PG | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

1800 Block of Union Street, Cow Hollow, San Francisco, California, USA

Company:

Orion Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Both stars, Malcolm McDowell and David Warner, played the Wing Commander character Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn: Malcolm McDowell in Wing Commander III: Heart of the Tiger (1994) (VG) and Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom (1996) (VG), and David Warner in Wing Commander (1999).

Goofs:

Factual errors: Jack the Ripper's last murder victim was indoors (Mary Kelly - November 1888), not outdoors in an alleyway as the film shows.

Quotes:

[as Wells and Amy are kissing on Amy's couch, she begins to remove pieces of his clothing - first taking off his glasses, then unfastening his collar]
H.G. Wells: Amy, I don't want to compromise you. Are you quite certain I'm not forcing you to...
Amy Robbins: Forcing me? My God, Herbert, I'm practically raping you.
H.G. Wells: [smiles] Yeah, that's true.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Sabrina, the Teenage Witch: Time After Time (#6.15)" (2002)

Cracking Sci-fi/thriller.

I came across this film as I was browsing through some videos that I hadn't looked at in years. It did stick in my mind as being pretty good and on viewing it this time around I can say that my initial impressions were correct. McDowell is very believable as Wells, as is David Warner in his role. I found Mary Steenburgen slightly weak as Amy Robbins and at times she seems almost disinterested and just going through the motions. I think someone like Brook Adams or Karen Allen would have been much more suited to this role, but the rest of the plot and cast are so good this is incidental.

Someone mentioned this didn't do very well at the box office, which surprises me as science based fiction was all the rage at the time this film was released (1979). I can only imagine it was dwarfed by sci-fi giants such as Star Trek and Star Wars who were releasing films around this time, and it was subsequently overlooked.

The plot is fairly seamless as the brilliant but naive Wells creates his time machine only for it to be misused by the equally brilliant, but evil, Stephenson. Everything about it is well thought out, with the exception that why does he (Wells) get himself into such a panic about Stephenson's presence in late 20th century San Francisco, when Wells has the machine (and the key to it)to go back before Stephenson left and prevent him going in the first place! I don't pretend to be an expert on timelines(and alternative timelines)but if time is fluid (as is thought) and flows backward and forward, then by going back and preventing something from happening will obviously alter or stop it's progression into the future, no! But of course that would have undermined the films whole premise.

It's also quaint and naive to hear Wells speak of a socialist utopia, without realising that the socialist society, as with any other form of Government, can just as easily become corrupted and distorted from it's original ideal so it produces a monster like Stalin. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. In fact, Wells visited Russia after the Bolshevik revolution and met with it's then leaders (Lenin and Trotsky). I'm not sure how he felt about the revolution, but he did die a disillusioned man having lived through the 1st and 2nd World Wars.

All in all though this is a very good sci-fi adventure,and it is thoroughly recommended.