Word: stevensonism
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Meyer's Jack the Ripper is the alter-ego of Stevenson, a gentleman and a good friend of the young H. G. Wells. Stevenson listens skeptically as the inventor displays a time machine he's just built to carry him into the perfect world of the future, but when the police burst in, he steals the machine to escape. Convinced that he's "turned that bloody maniac loose on Utopia!," Wells follows the Ripper to 1979 San Francisco, the time machine having automatically returned to its owner...
...nicely the disparate tone of the two eras: the sheltered, made-to-order past versus the open, anything-goes present. Meyer makes good use of the city, staging a riveting chase over San Francisco's split-level belvederes and sky-ways. Not that Wells spends all his time chasing Stevenson. Romance blooms in the person of Amy, an aggressive bank-executive who takes him to lunch, to the movies, and to her apartment, where Wells succumbs to her charms after a feeble struggle--"I don't want to compromise you," he worries. Ironically, this self-described "twentieth-century woman" becomes...
...over-emphasized clues aside, the movie is a fine, taut thriller. Meyer even finds a good excuse for the mayhem of the obligatory car chase scene--the fact that Wells, in pursuit of Stevenson, must manuever San Francisco's considerable hill without knowing how to drive. In blessed contrast to The Crucifer of Blood, another recent Jack the Ripper film, Meyer keeps the gore to a minimum. In one murder, we see only the flush of his knife, followed by a tear of blood on his face--a masterful bit of understatement...
...constant juxtaposition of styles would have worked less smoothly without Meyer's capable cast. David Warner creates a fine Stevenson: tightly disciplined, revealing his menace only through eyes that constantly shift and smiles that fade too quickly. Malcolm McDowell gives a broader performance as the warmer, more human Wells; from his wide-eyed appraisal of a Hare Krishna troupe to his relief at recognizing tea on the menu of "that Scottish place" MacDonald's, his visionary inventor is quite appealing. He perpetually exhibits what Amy calls a "little-boy-lost look", aided by his slight figure that contrasts nicely with...
...takes only an occasional jab, as when Amy takes Wells to Exorcist IV. Nor does Time After Time make any deep comment about the development of society, beyond the obvious one that the present's no paradise. "Ninety years ago, I was a freak. Today I'm an amateur," Stevenson says, treating Wells to a typical TV smorgasbord of news reports, war movies, and sadistic cartoons. Early on, Meyer sets up two conflicting theories of man's capacity for progress--Stevenson's conviction that man's dog-eat-dog nature will never change, versus Wells' optimistic faith--but the movie...