1960: ‘The Time Machine’ Opens in Theaters

Based on H.G. Well’s book of the same name, The Time Machine was released in movie theaters on this day in 1960. The time traveling science fiction film was made by MGM and was produced and directed by George Pal who also directed the 1953 version of Wells’ The War of the Worlds. The movie starred Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, Alan Young, David Duncan, Whit Bissell and Sebastian Cabot. The film was a huge hit earning the studio $1,610,000 in the U.S. and Canada and $1 million more from everywhere else. The movie received an Oscar for the time-lapse photography elements. Pal had intended on making a sequel to the movie, but died before he could. However, in 1993, a combination sequel/documentary short titled Time Machine: The Journey Back, featured a scene where Duncan, Taylor, Young and Bissel reprised their roles from the original film. In 2017, ABC debuted the short-lived TV series, Time After Time, that featured H.G. Wells as a time traveler chasing Jack the Ripper.