Saturday, May 31, 2008

THE TIME TRAVELERS - Richard La Salle - "Lost In Time" (1964)

Just like last night's film, this movie, "The Time Travelers" had an outstandingly odd cast of characters that is almost beyond Pop Culture belief. For some reason, you don't hear much about this film, and it's also very hard to find a copy!!! The music by composer Richard La Salle is literally all over the place, including space. What you're going to hear here is the main theme followed by something very akin to cartoon music crossed with some off the wall sitcom, as we tour the android assembly facilities! 
 
This crazy film starred Preston Foster, who was more known for his tough guy western roles. Merry Anders was in "Hypnotic Eye" and a couple of other scary features. John Hoyt we know from his roles in "Attack Of The Puppet People", "Curse Of The Undead" and "X." If you combined all the TV appearances from this troupe in the 50's and 60's, it would probably be a number around 1000. 
 
Steve Franken's face will always stand out as the guy who played rich kid Chatsworth
 Osborne Jr. in 29 episodes of "The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis" TV show! 
 
Reena was played by June, 1960 Playmate of The Month, Delores Wells!! 
 
Then you have Phillip Carey, a face easily recognized in TV commercials as Granny Goose. "I got your bag right here!!" 
 
After Reena invites Danny up to her cubicle, she plays her "Lumichord" for him as part of her seduction plan. It's 1960's bachelor pad space age lounge music at it's best!!! 
 
Now what shall we do?? 
 
The space spa scene is pretty racy as Merry Anders stands strategically behind the luminescent bars of a future tanning booth, as Reena and the other gals lounge around! 
 
This movie has a lot of tongue in cheek action going on, so it's a perfect place and a perfect role for our hero, Forrest J. Ackerman to do his bit as the Square-Frame Technician. 
 
Right about the time you get ready to write off the whole thing as just a campy space opera, all hell breaks loose into a giant melee of ugly bloody mutants and androids slamdance!! 
 
The writer and director of "The Time Travelers" was none other than IB Melchior, the man responsible for "The Angry Red Planet", "Reptilicus", "Journey To The Seventh Planet" and "Robinson Crusoe On Mars" among a mess of other things!! Thanx IB!!! And you can also thank not one, but two other mighty magnificent names for the way this film looks. Those would be the eyes of László Kovács and Vilmos Zsigmond. From working with Arch Hall, Al Adamson and Ray Dennis Steckler, all the way to winning Oscars, these two guys have done cinematography and camera work on more incredible movies than almost anybody, no matter what the budget, and have made some of the cheapest movies look fantastic. This was a very early effort for both of them!! Speaking of Ray Dennis Steckler, don't forget to go out and grab the latest issue of "Screem" magazine, issue #16. There's an very intriguing article in it called "Ray Dennis Steckler: One More Time" written by our favorite heckler and commenteer, Greg Goodsell. You owe it to yourself to read it!! Starting tomorrow, our "Classic Sunday Night Feature" is going to have a new host, everybody's hero, and all around nice guy, our best buddy, Rodan!!! We've known Rodan a long time and even though he's a mutant pterosaur, he's got a lot of knowledge up in that petrified cranium of his to share with you, and even better, I get another night off!! Get the popcorn and the Margaritas ready!! I'm going to watch a movie!!

5 comments:

bobby4ever said...

I loved seeing this movie as a teenager in the early 70s. Dumb and fun, like the best sci-fi movies are. Lots of peekaboo faux nudity, like your pictured "space spa scene." I had a crush on Delores Wells.

Founds this PG-rated pic of her online, more peekaboo, not-really-nudity.

http://tinyurl.com/4o3mmp

Greg Goodsell said...

Thanks for the plug, guys!

www.screemag.com

Realm Of Retro said...

I could only catch this on a few UHF stations in Boston in the 70s but when it was on it was well worth it.

If I had a VCR back then, the tape of this movie would probably be in a safe deposit box....just pure gold.

Those mutants!..big, fast, and VERY scary.
You could run circles around the sloth-ridden zombies from "Night of the Living Dead", but if you ran across the mutants from TIME TRAVELERS, forget it!!

Steve Franken can also be seen as the technician with he broken golf buggy in WESTWORLD.

JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF TIME is the "remake" (some say ripoff) of this movie with a script that is almost copied word-for-word.

I still love both of them as they bring back the memories, and in their own way they tell us what the 60s was like.

THE TIME TRAVELERS is a wonderful movie with a happy ending, but that type of movie does'nt sell sponsor's products like fear, anxiety, etc., so TIME TRAVELERS is viewed only by the lucky few...

Eegah!! and Tabonga! said...

Now that's what we like! Information!!

Lawrence Lay said...

Later remade as Journey the center of Time, as well as inspiration for The Time Tunnel TV show. Also similar to a previous film, World Without End.

Monster Music

Monster Music
AAARRGGHHH!!!! Ya'll Come On Back Now, Y'Hear??