CULT MOVIE STARLET MERRY ANDERS IN 'THE TIME TRAVELERS'

The Time Travelers Year: 1964 Rating: ***1/2

Takes place mainly within a technically-streamlined underground cavern where a relatively sparse number of survivors keep a horde of radiated mutants from gaining entry, and then playing host to our four time-trapped heroes, who had opened a portal in their university lab a hundred years ago but only ten minutes earlier...

Initially set in 2001 and led by "modern day" scientist Preston Foster; his younger, handsome sidekick Philip Carey; Carey's beautiful girlfriend Merry Anders; and scene-stealing comic relief (and everybody's sidekick) Steve Franken, THE TIME TRAVELERS is unfairly deemed bad campy schlock, and yet writer/director Ib Melchior created a true science-fiction story in which the viewer and visitors are continuously presented the inner-workings of this self-contained new world, from a wide range of monitors to a wondrously creative android factory: elaborate and highly impressive, labor-of-love sets that would simply be computer-generated today...

Merry Anders and a portal in The Time Travelers SCORE: ****

While bookended by a few clunky action sequences... from an initial chase through the scorched post-apocalyptic terrain to desperately fending off mutants inside... the scientists take on various problems related to their upcoming rocket ship departure from a "dying earth," and then try solving them — you know, like actual scientists...

Most of the finely tuned exposition is spouted by sophisticated leader John Hoyt while antagonistic Dennis Patrick, more of a dick than dangerous, wishes that the visitors had never showed up...

But it's not all talk — along with the studious explanations is a fun touch of drive-in exploitation featuring Merry Anders in a neon tanning booth, and beach movie babe Delores Wells sensuously playing a spacey discotheque organ, reminiscent of a future sci-fi show called STAR TREK that TRAVELERS may have influenced while directly forming THE TIME TUNNEL. Leading to an incredible, mind-blowing twist that both defines and redefines the entire experience: begging the viewer to rewatch in order to not only comprehend but truly appreciate its entirety.

Merry Anders tanning with Delores Welles in THE TIME TRAVELERS

Past/Present Preston Foster and future John Hoyt

Merry Anders, Philip Carey and some androids of THE TIME TRAVELERS

Merry Anders fights off a mutant in THE TIME TRAVELERS

Steve Franken and Preston Foster in THE TIME TRAVELERS

Merry Anders and Philip Carey in THE TIME TRAVELERS

Merry Anders, Philip Carey, Preston Foster and Steve Franken in THE TIME TRAVELERS

Some really cool science fiction sets of THE TIME TRAVELERS

Merry Anders and Steve Franken in THE TIME TRAVELERS

Delores Wells as Reena in THE TIME TRAVELERS

Delores Wells as Reena in THE TIME TRAVELERS

Delores Wells as Reena in THE TIME TRAVELERS

Dennis Patrick as Councilman Willard in THE TIME TRAVELERS

Delores Wells as Reena in THE TIME TRAVELERS w/ Steve Franken

Delores Wells as Reena in THE TIME TRAVELERS

Some really cool science fiction sets/matte of THE TIME TRAVELERS

Steve Franken and Steve Franken in THE TIME TRAVELERS

Merry Anders as Carol White in THE TIME TRAVELERS

Joan Woodbury, Merry Anders and Peter Strudwick in THE TIME TRAVELERS

Dennis Patrick and Merry Anders in THE TIME TRAVELERS

Preston Foster, Philip Carey, John Hoyt, Merry Anders THE TIME TRAVELERS Steve Franken

Delores Wells as Reena in THE TIME TRAVELERS with Steve Franken

Forrest J. Ackerman plays a square in THE TIME TRAVELERS

Dennis Patrick and Merry Anders in THE TIME TRAVELERS

Awesome sci-fi sets from THE TIME TRAVELERS

The androids of THE TIME TRAVELERS w/ Margaret Seldeen

Steve Franken, Preston Foster, Philip Carey and Merry Anders THE TIME TRAVELERS

Some really cool science fiction sets/matte of THE TIME TRAVELERS

Some really cool science fiction sets/matte of THE TIME TRAVELERS

Delores Wells as Reena in THE TIME TRAVELERS with a semi-nude Merry Anders

DENNIS PATRICK in The Time Travelers