Journey to the Center of Time (1967)

One of my all time favorites.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Best movie ever!

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

A movie that starts out boring you to tears with a conference room sequence where the main scientists are trying to explain the technical aspects of time travel to a narrow-minded corporate exec. Turns out the audience ends up more confused by all the verbal masturbation than Jim Brady as the exec.The budget here is so small that the time machine seen in long shots looks like a model of a metallic sphere. But when we see the cast of scientists moving in and out of the thing, it is merely a vault door! Clearly the production team was influenced by Star Trek's Enterprise Bridge (classic series) when they built the interior set of the time machine: it is round with a lowered floor, complete with a railing that runs around the edge of the upper platform, with a large viewing screen at the other end of the room.After landing thousands of years in the future we're greeted to Lyle Waggoner and some other actors looking rather goofy as 'men from the future' wearing vests, silver 'Hammer Time' pants and over-sized boots. In the future, for some reasons, people stand around and orate on pedestals of varying heights.....very odd, that scene.The only scenes that included anything CLOSE to 'production values' were the prehistoric jungle, and cave sequences. Looked to me like Producer/Director David Hewitt got permission to film those scenes at 20th Century-Fox where TV series like "Lost in Space" and "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" used fairly impressive cave sets extensively. Likewise, I suspect the jungle scenes were filmed on the "Land of the Giants" set as the JTTCOT similarly had a foggy-type look to it. Otherwise, this film featured schlocky, minimalist sets (aka Limbo sets).The movie had too many gruelingly long scenes where the crew of the time machine (and the audience) is looking at various periods of time (mostly footage of wars) through the main view-screen. This movie just dragged on and on and on. Finally ending with a twist on the story of 'Adam and Eve'.Hewitt actually stole a cue from Irwin Allen's "Time Tunnel" series by having a band of young people back at "Time Central", a sort of mission control for the time machine. Funny thing: it was never included in the early scenes prior to the launch of the time machine, making it appear as though director Hewitt shot the 'Time Central' scenes later, as an after thought (or perhaps because he saw Allen's "Time Tunnel" and decided to copy the 'back-at-the-lab' setup for his film). Interesting that similar reel-to-reel type computers seen in "Time Tunnel" appear in JTTCOT.I guess Producer/Director David Hewitt wasn't thrilled with 'The Time Travelers' and so did this film in 'retaliation' against his former partner, Ib Melchoir. Either that, or perhaps Hewitt wanted to 'cash in' on the time-travel theme since "The Time Tunnel" TV series was in production at the time this movie was being filmed. Whatever the reason, this movie fails on so many counts that -- to me -- it's probably THE WORST movie I've ever seen. It sucks on (1) Acting, (2) Production Design (?), (3) Special Effects (?), (4) Screenplay, and (5) Music. It literally has NOTHING to offer. And yet both Brady and Abraham Sofer are true character actors that have done much better before and since this turkey.I bet you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who would actually ADMIT to sitting through this garbage when it was originally run in theatres.Sadly, I can only recommend this celluloid monstrosity to a true insomniac.

Low-budget romp through the backwaters of time and space. The distant past and far-off future collide in what amounts to a fiery blast furnace of ideas and images. A trio of scientists, on the threshold of a major breakthrough in time travel, race against the clock and a funding cut. Stanton, the main source of cash, played by a blustery Scott Brady, behaves like an ignoramus. He doesn't see a profit margin in such an endeavor. At first glance, this remake of A.I.P.'s The Time Travelers, would appear to be a poor relation. Not so fast. I think there are some good ideas spinning around here. You might notice that Star Trek helped themselves to a few. One plot device, involving a time-displacement and frozen duplicates of the main players in a conference room, was lifted for "Wink of an Eye." And the dark and minimalist set for the alien leader must have inspired "The Empath." Any takers? The one love scene, strangely, involves a time travel limerick and a lengthy kiss. Uncomfortable. The mutant attack has an Andy Warhol feel to it. Abstract. Cockeyed. Out of whack. The door to the lab breaks into quarters when opened. Cool effect. Even stranger is the small elevator that takes Stanton down four feet, when he could have easily walked down the four steps on his own. A very quick shot of the infamous bat-rat-spider-crab from Angry Red Planet, a previous writing credit of the director, is a shout out to that film's director. The opening credits reveal time pieces from the past. Good touch. So where's the original flick. Put it out on DVD now. Let's compare. The sands of the hour glass are running out. At warp speed.

I have to comment that the ONLY redeeming visual aspect of this movie is Poupee Gamin... just don't listen to her speech on her species and how humanity's only hope is for them to warn the past about how war kills.The movie is filled with useless and repetitive scenes. So far this is the most redundant movie I have ever seen. The characters are complete idiots! Were the poor folk of the 60's deprived of good writers! They could have made this movie 100% better if only they would have re-written the script! A good story can at times make up for horrid special effects and appalling props.Should you watch this movie? Of course, you can then see how fun and easy it is to make your own home movies! Grab the wife and kids and a few neighbors and you too can make your own low budget re-make of Journey to the Center of Time (1967) ... and please, send me a copy :)

I just saw this movie today. What a delightfully schlocky movie with deliciously cheesy special effects and wonderfully tacky, minimalist sets. I thought Anthony Eiseley was better used in "Navy vs. The Night Monsters" though he did give a believable performance. Scott Brady was gruff and menacing. I'm not sure what his character was thinking in attempting to return the ship back to it's original time. He didn't seem to scientifically inclined. Gigi Perreau was sweet, but just a bit of window dressing. I think a stronger female would have been more suitable and created some tension with the men.The end of the story left me just a bit confused as to how the ship managed to meet itself twice, get blown up twice and still return to the future. Overall, a decent movie in it's genre and budget.