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!!
