The story is set in Victorian England and follows an inventor who constructs a machine that enables him to travel into the distant future.

He shows David Filby, Dr. Philip Hillyer, Anthony Bridewell, and Walter Kemp a scale model time machine.

George barely makes it back to his time machine as an "atomic satellite" detonates, destroying London and causing a local volcanic eruption that buries the ruins.

The approaching lava rises, cools, and hardens, trapping George as he travels far into the future, waiting for the rock to erode.

The next day, Weena shows George truncated cone structures dotting the landscape, air shafts that lead down to the Morlocks' caverns.

Weena also shows George an ancient museum where "talking rings" tell of long-ago war between East and West that lasted 326 years and contaminated the atmosphere.

[9] Pal originally considered casting a middle-aged British actor like David Niven or James Mason as George.

He later changed his mind and selected the younger Australian actor Rod Taylor to give the character a more athletic, idealistic dimension.

During a screen test, director George Pal observed an innocent persona she portrayed, yet despite being his first choice, she was turned down by MGM.

Following Pal's insistence and despite Taylor's preferred choice being Shirley Knight, Mimieux was asked back for another screen test where she was offered the part.

[9] The time machine prop was designed by MGM art director Bill Ferrari and built by Wah Chang.

[11] Recognized today as an iconic film property, Ferrari's machine suggested a sled made up of a large clockwork rotating disk.

Live-action scenes were filmed from May 25 to June 30, 1959, in Culver City, California, with the backgrounds often filled in with matte paintings and models.

The oatmeal had been prepared several days prior and left over a weekend, where it fermented in high temperatures, creating a "foul stench" in the air when it was released.

Arnold Leibovit Entertainment produced and re-released a new updated stereo digital remaster in 2022 with expanded tracks and uncut as composer Garcia originally wrote it.

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote a mixed review, praising the "familiar polish and burnish" of the production values but finding that "the drama, for all its invention, is creaky and a bit passé.

(Apparently there has still been no contact with other planets in 800,000 A.D.) And the mood, while delicately wistful, is not so flippant or droll as it might be in a fiction as fanciful and flighty as this one naturally is".

[13] A generally positive review in Variety praised the special effects as "fascinating" and wrote that "Rod Taylor definitely establishes himself as one of the premium young talents on today's screen", but faulted the pacing of the film, finding that "things slow down to a walk" once the protagonist arrives in the far distant future.

[14] Harrison's Reports called the film "an excellent science-fiction melodrama ... jammed full of suspense, action and out-of-this-world special effects", although the review lamented a lack of comic relief.

Nevertheless, Pal's visual flair and genuine feeling for his fantasy world help to maintain an entertaining surface for most of the time".

The website's critics consensus reads, "Its campy flourishes tend to subdue its dramatic stakes, but The Time Machine brings H.G.

In 1993, a combination sequel-documentary short, Time Machine: The Journey Back, directed by Clyde Lucas, was produced.

In the short's final section, written by screenwriter David Duncan, Rod Taylor, Alan Young, and Whit Bissell reprise their roles from the original 1960 film.