Trivia for
The Time Machine (1960)

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• Director George Pal was a close friend of fellow animator Walter Lantz, ever since Lantz did some cut-rate Woody Woodpecker work for Pal's Destination Moon (1950). As tribute, Pal tried to include Woody Woodpecker references in all his subsequent films. In the scenes where the Eloi are having a good time, every so often you can distinctly hear the "Woody Woodpecker" laugh.
  
  
• Also, during the air raid scene, as all the people rush into the shelter a little girl crossing the street stops to pick something up that she dropped. When she does, you can quickly see she picks up a small Woody Woodpecker figure
  
  
• The plaque on the control panel of time machine reads "Manufactured by H George Wells."
  
  

• The "lava" in the volcano scene in downtown was actually oatmeal with orange and red food coloring spilled onto a platform and slowly moved down the miniature set.
  
  
• The costumes that the air raid wardens wear just before the nuclear attack are the same ones worn by the crew in Forbidden Planet (1956).
  
  
• When George arrives in the year 802701 his time machine reads the date of October 12th. So George arrives into a "New World" on the anniversary of Columbus' first reaching the "New World" of the Americas.
  
  
• Paul Scofield was George Pal's first choice to play the time traveler.
  
  
• "Eloi" means "My God" in Aramaic.
  
  
• Alan Young (David Filby/James Filby) is the only actor to appear in both this film and the remake, The Time Machine (2002).
  
  
• George Pal had long planned to do a sequel to this film. Several submitted scripts were reportedly rejected by MGM.
  
  
• When George and Weena enter the ancient museum where the talking rings are kept, toward the right is the clear steering globe that was at the center of the spaceship in Forbidden Planet (1956).
  
  
• Singer and lyricist Peggy Lee wrote a song for the film called "The Land Of The Leal" which was not used.
  
  
• Yvette Mimieux was actually underage when shooting began (she turned 18 during the shoot) and was not legally supposed to work a full shooting schedule, but did. She was inexperienced - as she worked on this film she kept getting better and better so that by the end of the shoot they wound up going back and re-shooting some of her earliest scenes.
  
  
• The shape of the time machine itself was inspired by one of George Pal's favorite types of childhood vehicles -- a sled. This is the reason for the sled-like design of the machine, so that it could 'slide' into time.
  
  

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