The Time Machine (1960 film)

The Time Machine
Theatrical release lobby title card by Reynold Brown
Directed by	George Pal
Produced by	George Pal
Screenplay by	David Duncan
Based on	The Time Machine 1895 novel by H. G. Wells
Starring	Rod Taylor Alan Young Yvette Mimieux Sebastian Cabot Whit Bissell
Narrated by	Rod Taylor
Music by	Russell Garcia
Cinematography	Paul Vogel
Edited by	George Tomasini
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release date	August 17, 1960 (1960-08-17)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$829,000
Box office	$2,610,000

The Time Machine (also known promotionally as H. G. Wells' The Time Machine) is a 1960 American time travel science fiction film in Metrocolor from MGM, produced and directed by George Pal, that stars Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, and Alan Young. The film was based on the 1895 novella of the same name by H. G. Wells that was hugely influential on the development of science fiction.

An inventor in Victorian England constructs a machine that enables him to travel into the distant future; once there, he discovers that mankind's descendants have divided into two species, the passive, childlike, and vegetarian Eloi and the underground-dwelling Morlocks, who feed on the Eloi.

George Pal, who had earlier made a film version of Wells' The War of the Worlds (1953), always intended to make a sequel to The Time Machine, but he died before it could be produced; the end of Time Machine: The Journey Back functions as a sequel of sorts. In 1985 elements of this film were incorporated into the documentary The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal.

The Time Machine received an Oscar for its time-lapse photographic effects, which show the world changing rapidly as the time traveler journeys into the future.

On January 5, 1900 four friends arrive for a dinner at the London home of their inventor friend H. George Wells (Rod Taylor). Bedraggled and exhausted, George arrives and begins to describe the strange experiences he has had since the group last met.