Time After Time

It's hard to believe that it's been 46 years ago this week, that one of my favorite films of the seventies hit the multiplex. 1979's TIME AFTER TIME is a smart, funny and clever thriller that mixes history, time-travel and great storytelling.

The film opens in 1893, where novelist HG Wells (Malcolm McDowell) shares with his close friends that he thinks he has penetrated the mystery of time travel while writing his real life novel "The Time Machine".

When one of his closest friends, Dr. John Stevenson is cornered and discovered to be Jack the Ripper, Stevenson escapes in the time machine to San Francisco in 1979.

Wells realizes that he too must follow and stop him from destroying what he is sure is the perfect utopia of the late twentieth century.

David Warner (Tron, The Omen) is terrific as Stevenson, creating an intelligent and twisted adversary to balance Wells' naive and hopeful assertions about the inherent goodness of man.

In modern day San Francisco (okay, 1979 modern day) Wells is shocked by what he finds, with the film deftly weaving in plenty of comedy around Wells expectations.

Mary Steenburgen is terrific as a bank teller who helps Wells and finds herself falling for him. Steenburgen and McDowell have great screen chemistry that carried over, with them marrying after the film and having two children.

Stevenson finds his Ripper much more suited to his new era and begins a gruesome killing spree across the bay.

Charles Cioffi (All the Right Moves, Klute) has one of his best roles as a police detective convinced Wells is a mad man, but.......

Writer/Director Nicholas Meyer deftly creates intelligent dialogue, a tense chase thriller and plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing. His storytelling is superb and he finds a great balance between truly shocking moments and a classic "fish out of water" tale.

Meyer was signed to write and direct "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" based on this well regarded film that broke even at the box office but found bigger audiences on cable.

Meyer stages chase scene after chase scene through the streets of San Francisco, all of the compelling. He also doesn't back off on the horrific nature of the ripper slayings, creating tight suspense throughout.

Sharp eyes movie buffs will recognize those Hyatt Regency San Francisco elevators from both "The Towering Inferno" and Mel Brooks "High Anxiety".

Composer Miklos Rosza (Ben Hur, Double Indemnity) accompanies the whole film with the type of swashbuckling, old fashioned music calls back to another, grander film era.

McDowell (Blue Thunder, A Clockwork Orange) is perfect here, creating a terrific hero you will root for across the centuries. He was looking for a very different role than his last in "Caligula" and he certainly found that here.

This is a fun, exciting movie that delivers TIME AFTER TIME, earning an A+ and a spot in my all-time Top 100 favorite films. If you've never seen it, I envy you! If you haven't seen it in years, I'm betting you'll be surprised just how effective it is, 46 years this week after its original release.