Time After Time
I am thankful for bad boys and tweed.

It was a Rorschach inkblot test of the sexual psyche. When the request came through -- " Pick something in genre you're thankful for, and write a review of the video" -- it hit me like lightning:

Malcolm McDowell in Time After Time.

"Huh?" I thought, just seconds later. "Where did that come from?" It was a blast from some primitive part of my cerebral cortex, the part that knows "flame, bad -- chocolate, good." I mean, don't get me wrong. There are hotter actors, and probably hotter actors in movies that are a little more contemporary. Time After Time, released in 1979, is a delightful film trapped in a godawful era, and each shot that reminds us of its time period -- from the Hieronymus Bosch-like disco scene to, well, anyone in frilly-collared blouses or tinted glasses -- grates in that same place that knows "flame, bad."

But then, Time After Time is one of my guilty pleasures ... and, come to think of it, so is the concept of the repentant bad boy, clad in tweed. Malcolm plays tweedy H.G. Wells, famed author of The Time Machine. When we first meet Wells, it is 1893 and he is in his London home, hosting a dinner party of like-minded men of the time, having a rousing discussion of free love and the benefits of socialism. Their conversation is interrupted by the arrival of another friend, John Leslie Stevenson, whom we soon come to find out is ... Jack the Ripper!

Wells doesn't know this tantalizing bit of information, however, when he shows his friends a new invention -- a working time machine -- whose operation he conveniently manages to explain to John before the police arrive. John flees in the time machine to San Francisco, 1979, and Wells pursues, believing he's given a madman the key to "Utopia."

I've loved this movie for years, despite the fact that it looks even more tacky each time I see it. Any film that bases a significant amount of its plot on the "fish out of water" premise will fall prey to this, as the "water" itself continues to change. I mean, Ho-ho! Look at Wells use an electric toothbrush! Watch his eyes pop as he observes Mary Steenburgen (as the love interest) operate a really old Honda! See him goggle at the rotating rooftop restaurant!

Sigh.

But ... Malcolm is so yummy in this movie! Partly it's because he's just a lovely man, but some of it must be the Alex factor, the fact that, only a few years before, Malcolm played the most horrific of thugs in A Clockwork Orange. Now, there's nothing inherently sexy about truly vicious violence, and A Clockwork Orange is one of those movies I saw once, but will never see twice. But -- and here's a big but -- watching Malcolm transform from an unredeemable street thug to Mr. Clad-in-Tweed Sensitive Guy with a spine of steel evokes a certain... response.

I call it the "Hoo-boy" response, in honor of Scully's memorable line when faced with Luke Wilson's Sheriff Hartwell on The X-Files a few years ago.

It's the same response that every single friend of mine had to the "Ripper" storyline on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when librarian and Watcher Rupert Giles' past as -- hey! -- a violent street thug and practitioner of the dark arts was revealed. It's that unforgettable knowledge that plays around in the back of your head when faced with one of these characters, that all is not as it appears, that the most benign front can hide a truly delectable secret, like the decadently creamy filling to a sinfully chocolate --

Oh, ummm -- Where was I?

As he's aged, Malcolm McDowell has turned oddly pixie-like, the type of character you'd expect to see at the foot of your bed offering to take you to his pot of gold rather than just, say, offering to take you.

Time After Time, however, caught him at a truly delicious mid-point, halfway between bad boy and pixie, when the possibilities of his secret, wicked past could tease your imagination for hours.

And I am truly grateful for that.

DROOL FACTOR: "Hoo-boy."

GROSS-OUT FACTOR: The Jack the Ripper murders we witness are more suggestive than explicit, but there is one pretty nasty crime scene (complete with severed hand) on the videotape that was edited out of the TV version.

STRONG CHICK FACTOR: Steenburgen's Amy talks a lot about "women's lib" and her career ambitions and initially pooh-poohs Wells' invitation to return with him to Victorian England, but true love wins out in a Hollywood ending that leaves you wondering if Amy's feminism was a plot device like the electric toothbrush.

-- Jennifer Rose Hale

Time After Time is currently available on video.

We welcome your comments on The 11th Hour and this review. Please send letters to: letters@the11thhour.com