Movie review: ‘Time After Time’

FloridaGator80
A promotional still photograph from the movie “Time After Time.”

A good crime thriller with a touch of humor is always appreciated (try the little-remembered “The Big Fix” with Richard Dreyfuss – click here to read my review) as is a film featuring time travel (try “Back to the Future,” of course). So, “Time After Time” from 1979 is an especially good example since it offers both together. It has an inventive storyline with H.G. Wells chasing “Jack the Ripper” into the future; wonderful direction; and the cast is more than capable if not mildly spectacular. You’ll have to work a little bit to find this one, but it is worth it because you have to think a bit to fully appreciate it.

‘Time After Time’
(1979; 112 minutes; rated PG; directed by Nicholas Meyer and starring Malcolm McDowell, Mary Steenburgen and David Warner)

THE FUTURE IS NOW FOR ‘JACK THE RIPPER’

(NOTE: I updated links in this review on July 29, 2015. I reorganized and expanded the review with additional opinion and trivia and the updating of links on March 22, 2020. I again expanded the review on Jan. 25, 2025.)

Nicholas Meyer obviously enjoys the Victorian delights of Sherlock Holmes and he wrote “The Seven Percent Solution” about the famous detective and was the writer when it was brought it to the big screen by Herbert Ross in 1976. Even better is the Meyer-directed “Time After Time” from 1979 in which H.G. Wells pursues “Jack the Ripper” into the future.

“Time After Time” is the total package: it has a meticulous screenplay (especially good are the details on the characters becoming adjusted between Victorian England and the then-modern day in 1979 of San Francisco), outstanding direction and the cast gives a mildly spectacular effort. All the bases are covered and not a single thread is left hanging as the credits roll here.

A promotional still photograph from the movie “Time After Time.”

Malcolm McDowell, who was also in Gore Vidal’s notorious “Caligula” in the same year, plays H.G. Wells, the noted writer and commentator (Wells wrote “The Time Machine” and “The War of the Worlds”). McDowell’s character is naïve, straitlaced, intelligent and clever. He’s far ahead of his time and believes the future holds utopia.

In the film, McDowell has built a time machine and plans to become humanity’s first time-traveler. However, a guest who is, unknown to his host, London’s infamous “Jack the Ripper” of the Whitechapel murders, is forced to use it on a spur of the moment need to escape the police. Since the time machine returns automatically, McDowell knows where to find him in the future and sets off on an adventure to bring him to justice and brings the audience to San Francisco in 1979.

A promotional still photograph from the movie “Time After Time.”

The best but most depressing moment of the film is when McDowell and Warner are talking in a hotel room after McDowell manages to track him down. In it, Warner shows McDowell television clips of terrorist violence, the murder of a civic official, violent sports and a clip from a World War II movie with tanks (actually, “Battle of the Bulge” – click here to read my review). McDowell tells Warner that they don’t belong in a modern world, while Warner’s stark reply includes, “… I belong here completely and utterly. I’m home. Ninety years ago I was a freak. Today, I’m an amateur.”

Unfortunately, that stinging, powerful and accusatory statement was all too true in 1979 when the film was released and much, much sadder for humanity today, that these things certainly haven’t changed and actually became much worse in the years since.

Now, let me first take a look at the two antagonists …

  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “Time After Time.”

    A Golden Globe nominee (not for this one), McDowell makes you believe you are watching Wells. Learning the innocuous details about a new century are amusing and well done: From ordering at McDonalds (think of what a man from Victorian England would say about a Big Mac) to hailing a cab (he stands on one leg waving his hat as he saw a woman do) to identifying himself as “Sherlock Holmes” to police (remember, he doesn’t realize that modern-day Americans know about Mr. Holmes), McDowell strides resolutely along to find his villain. He is truly excellent in this role. He was nominated for his role as the lead in the seminal “A Clockwork Orange” and has had a prolific career of 291 acting credits on both the big- and little screens coming into 2025 and I enjoyed him as the guest villain on an episode of TV’s “Monk.”

  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “Time After Time.”

    Just as good but the other side of the coin is David Warner, a Primetime Emmy winner and nominee who plays “Dr. John Leslie Stevenson” and is “Jack the Ripper.” Warner knows how to play menacing and is right at home here as the bad guy. His serial killer persona fits quite nicely in the future (see a further comment about this later in the review) and Warner flexes his acting talent here. Warner was in “The Omen” (click here for my review), “Tron” and “Titanic.” He also did a good job with a small part in Sam Peckinpah’s only World War II film “Cross of Iron” with James Coburn (click here to read my review). He’s as good here as in any of those and he won for the mini-series “Masada” and was nominated for “Holocaust.” A native of England, Warner died at 80 in 2022 of cancer. He had 251 acting credits from the first in 1962 and spanning seven decades.

The two play off each other wonderfully, with Warner superb in making it appear easy to toy with McDowell with his far superior and cold intellect. However, McDowell’s dogged pursuit of what’s honorable overcomes Warner’s advantage.

Now, let me take a look at the pivotal figure both men find in the 20th century …

  • A promotional still photograph from the movie “Time After Time.”

    An Oscar winner (not for this one) and Golden Globe winner and two-time nominee, co-star Mary Steenburgen plays “Amy Robbins” (Wells’ second wife in real life was Amy Robbins; his first was a cousin). The two meet as McDowell scours banks once he realizes Warner, like himself, will have to exchange old currency and coins for modern money. Steenburgen is a bank officer and that’s how she meets both. Steenburgen knocks this effort off with aplomb and makes a different character appear to be easy to accomplish. Far from it. Steenburgen offers an excellent turn from vulnerable to confident to scared, she is the right actor for this role. Steenburgen was also in “Ragtime,” “Parenthood” (click here to read my review) and “Step Brothers.” She won her Oscar and Globe for “Melvin and Howard” and was nominated for “Ragtime” and “Goin’ South” with Jack Nicholson. Steenburgen also a Primetime Emmy nominee for the TV movie “The Attic: The Hiding of Anne Frank.”

A promotional still photograph from the movie “Time After Time.”

The film has nice twists and turns as the characters navigate San Francisco either looking for each other or trying to avoid each other.

Especially nice is how Meyer offers the theory that time travel can go from place to place. Warner travels from Victorian London to San Francisco, where the time machine was on display in 1979. Traditionally, time machines travel to and from the same spot, but here it is dependent on the machine’s physical location. Further, a quick time demonstration by McDowell for Steenburgen plays a big part in the plot.

A promotional still photograph from the movie “Time After Time.”

After the three principal characters there’s little to offer, but that’s all right.

Charles Cioffi, a veteran supporting actor, plays “Lt. Mitchell” and Kent Williams plays his “Assistant.” Both are cops and McDowell turns to them for help (calling himself “Sherlock Holmes,” of course). Cioffi does his usual competent job and was wonderful in “Missing” and was also in “Klute.” Williams knows assistants, as he played one in the great TV movie “Barbarians at the Gate” (click here to read my review) as well as having worked on “WarGames” (click here for my review) and a string of TV shows.

“Time After Time” made $13 million at the box office in 1979, according to Wiki, and finished the year well behind the No. 1 film: The overrated snifflebag called “Kramer vs. Kramer,” which undeservedly raked in $106.2 million. Here are the other films from 1979 that I’ve reviewed …

Additional cast and notes (via IMDb.com):

  • McDowell’s birth name is Malcolm John Taylor and his nickname is “Mick;” Steenburgen’s middle name is Nell; and Warner’s middle name was Hattersley.
  • McDowell and Steenburgen met and fell in love while filming “Time After Time.” He was married at the time and they wed the year after “Time After Time’s” release and were married for a decade before divorcing. She’s currently married to TV actor Ted Danson, as she has been since the divorce. He remarried in 1991 and remains wed to Kelley McDowell. While married, the couple had two children.
  • Directly from IMDb.com: “A deleted scene featured H. G. Wells (Malcolm McDowell) meeting a punk who was playing extremely loud boom-box music on a bus in San Francisco. The idea was later reused in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), which was co-written by Nicholas Meyer.”
  • Corey Feldman of “The Lost Boys” fame – click here to read my review of that one – has a small role as a boy at the museum and it was his first in a film. He was also in “License to Drive” (click here to read my review) and “Stand By Me.”
  • Shelly Hack of TV’s “Charlie’s Angels” fame plays a museum docent here. She was offered a bigger role but declined because she was dating Meyer and didn’t want to get it just because of their relationship. Hack was also in “Annie Hall” and “The King of Comedy” before leaving acting in the late 1990s.
  • All four of the children of H.G. Wells were alive at the date of the release of the movie. Oh, the initials of H.G. Wells’ name stand for Herbert George.
  • Warner was limited in his physical work in front of the camera (most of his running scenes were done by a stunt double). He was recovering from injuries to both ankles and then sprained an ankle during filming.
  • Joseph Maher, who played the bad-guy in “The Evil that Men Do” with Charles Bronson, plays a Victorian London superintendent here.
  • Finally and directly from IMDb.com: “Despite the romance of the film, the real-life marriage of Wells and Robbins was anything but blissful. Wells cheated on his wife repeatedly, and was unapologetic about it. In fact, he was so egotistical that he told friends that men ought to be allowed to have as many mistresses as they pleased. Wives, though, Wells said, must be chaste, for appearance’s sake.”
  • Click here to read about the real suspects in the “Jack the Ripper” case …
  • Click here for IMDb.com’s extensive trivia page about the film …

© Chuck Curry and A Gator in Naples,
©2014, ©2015, ©2020, ©2025
Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material
without express and written permission from this blog’s author
and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links
may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given
to Chuck Curry and A Gator in Naples with appropriate
and specific direction to the original content.

Unknown's avatar

Published by FloridaGator80

Leave a Reply