Some scientists and comic relief Steve Franken open a "time window" to 100,000 years in the future which turns out to be a door, so they go through to discover it's gone to H.G. Wells' Eloi vs. Morlocks.... only the Eloi are scientists getting ready to fly away to another planet, and the Morlocks are mutants. There's some scientific bafflegab, nothing is really resolved, the comic relief is very mild, and someone plays. electronic music, but you do get to see Forrest J. Ackerman for eight seconds, so I'm sure it got a glowing review in Famous Monsters of Filmland.

The script and direction are by Ib Melchior -- he should've done a double act with Ub Iwerks. He was the son of Lauritz Melchior, and went into the business behind the screen, working for Perry Como at one point. After he wrote the script for DEATH RACE 2000, his credits faded away. He died in 2013, aged 97.

American International Pictures produced this science fiction film about four time travelers to the future who wind up in a conundrum. Preston Foster, Philip Carey, Merry Anders, and Steve Franken are the four intrepid travelers without a TARDIS.

What they have instead is a time portal, created quite accidentally because all they wanted was a window of the future in their university laboratory. Instead they get a portal and all step into a world over a 100 years in earth's future.

As for earth it has been ravaged by atomic war and the survivors are either these advanced scientists, savage mutants, or something in between. The scientists led by John Hoyt, Joan Woodbury and Dennis Patrick are constructing a rocket to take the survivors on a pre-set course to a new earth in the Alpha Centauri system. Will they make it before the mutants invade their citadel and how will that effect The Time Travelers?

This film will never be a classic in the genre, but it's not too bad and does raise some interesting questions especially with the conundrum ending that it has.

At least Rod Taylor when he was time traveling had a much better machine.

"The Time Travelers" is a sci-fi movie from American International Pictures, a studio famous for low-budget films as well as lousy sci-fi movies. Let me explain why I say lousy sci-fi. Back in the 1960s, AIP, MGM and other studios would buy foreign sci-fi films (Japanese, Italian and Russian). Then, they'd chop them apart and film a few new scenes and voila...instant crap film, such as "Queen of Blood" or "Battle of the Worlds". I assumed, incorrectly, that "The Time Travelers" was just another crap product....and I am glad I was wrong.

When "The Time Travelers" begins, a small group of scientists are working on a machine to look into the future. It turns out that they can not only LOOK at the future but actually WALK into it...much like the later TV series "The Time Tunnel". However, when they do this in the year 2071, they become stuck...and wow does the future suck! It seems that nuclear war killed most everyone and the few normal human beings live in tunnels underground....and the rest of the humans are evil mutants bent on killing them!

The few hundred humans left are planning on taking a rocket to Alpha Centauri IV...with androids working the ship while the humans remain in suspended animation. But there is no room for additional passengers so the team has one option...rebuild their time machine and get back. Otherwise, they'll be stuck on a dead planet with no food and angry mutants!

For 1964, the sets and special effects are very good. Sure, compared to "2001" (made only four years later) the effects look limp...but for its time, it was very nice. As for the story, it's also quite strong....and I have no idea why the film only has an overall score of 5.0...it's really a pretty good movie...quite entertaining and intelligently made.