Comments on: TCM Pick O’ The Day: Thursday, February 5th

By: paul

paul — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 21:20:38 +0000

The Beginning of the End had giant grasshoppers, or locusts, not ants as the starring creatures.

By: Grantman

Grantman — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 19:38:29 +0000

I’ve been hot for Yvette Mimieux ever since…

*sigh*

By: LifeLongLutheran

LifeLongLutheran — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 07:14:56 +0000

Thanks, Mr. Nolte, for posting this. The film used to be a big favorite of mine.

Chiming in with another great movie where the acting and story outbalance the cheesy costumes and effects: The Thing (from Outer Space).

Nor does the John Carpenter remake live up to the original.

By: John McClain

John McClain — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:21:15 +0000

Bill Brandt

comes to mind as a Peter Graves film with giant growing rocks…

That was “The Monolith Monsters” but Peter Graves did not star in it.

By: Gary

Gary — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:19:07 +0000

I could watch the scene where our hero sees the passing of years by the styles of dresses in the shop window every day.

Movie Trivia:

The uncredited actor changing the dresses in that store window was Don Sahlin who, a few years later, would build the muppet puppets for Jim Henson. Sahlin worked on “The Time Machine” as a stop-motion animator.

By: Hopper

Hopper — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 06:36:38 +0000

I loved this film. The Eloi v the Morlocks. About the same quality as the Sinbad films of the era.

great stuff

By: PerfectTommy

PerfectTommy — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:12:15 +0000

Bill Brandt – Good to see a fellow fan of “Disasterpiece Theater”, I remember they would accompany portions of “The Mole People” with Devo’s “Whip It”.
Loved “The Time Machine” as a kid, love it now. I actually like the film better than the book, a rare thing. Rod Taylor is very good (as he was in The Birds and 36 Hours.) I remember a controversy a few years ago about Taylor not being honored (taking the name off a some building or another) because of the role he played in testifying against Communists. Anyone recall the particulars?

By: cqness

cqness — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 01:37:45 +0000

Another scifi film from the same era that has poor special effects but good writing and always keeps my attention is the James Mason/Pat Boone “Journey to the Center of the Earth”.

Saw that and “The Time Machine” on a giant screen in an old rickety all-wood building of a theater in Chatauqua Park in Boulder, CO. You could hear the breezes on a summers night rustling the pines outside the theater. I’ve long thought that my affection for both films was some sort of boyhood intense-experience imprint as well but have viewed both recently on Netflix and they do hold up.

Another Subic Bay story – I was an US Navy officer aboard a ship in port for upkeep and went to the base theater to see “Alien”. Many of the sailors had brought local Filippino girlfriends on dates.

As the film progressed it was evident that the Filippinas had a different reaction to things in the film than the American sailors did. What made me laugh was that they (the Filippinas) sat through the monster popping out of John Hurt’s abdomen and the face hugger and a few other gory scenes but when the android had his head knocked off and was spewing hydraulic fluid they revolted. About a good dozen got up and left holding their dates hands and dragging them (reluctantly it seemed to me) along. This particular affect seemed to me not to be gory and much less shocking in the half second it took to realize that the victim was not human, and that was the intended effect, but I don’t think the girlfriends got the idea that it was not a human.

Another Subic Bay story

By: David

David — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:05:23 +0000

Yvette Mimieux… reason to watch
Rod Taylor was a someone you noticed on screen
Did they stop making actors in his size?

By: Eric Kendall

Eric Kendall — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:44:16 +0000

Bill Brandt posed the following question above: “I remember seeing one where giant ants were crawling up a sky scraper – but you could see the upturned glass they were walking on. (same movie?)”

The answer to your question, Bill, is no–not the same movie. I don’t recognize the film from your description, but it is not “Them.”