The Yesterday Machine (1965)

Interesting facts

The Yesterday Machine is a regional American science fiction film written, produced, and directed by Russ Marker. It stars Tim Holt, James Britton, Ann Pellegrino, and Jack Herman. Various sources give the film's release date as 1963, 1965, and 1966.

Production

The Yesterday Machine is a regional movie, following film historian Brian Albright's definition. Regional films in general "were conceived, produced and often distributed entirely in corners of the country not typically associated with the entertainment industry - from the backwoods of Utah to the bayous of Louisiana to the outer boroughs of New York.

While several sources date the film to 1963, Bryan Senn gives it a date of 1965 and Albright, in his introduction to an interview with Marker, says 1966. The automobile enthusiast users of the Internet Movie Cars Database dispute the 1963 date, having spotted in the film a 1964 Rambler American, a 1964 Ford Galaxie 500, and a 1965 Dodge Dart. Prints of the film show an undated copyright to Carter Films.

Marker told Albright in an interview that he got the idea for The Yesterday Machine shortly after World War II from reading press reports of Nazi super-weapons that had been planned but never built. He described the script as speculating about what might have happened if one of the super-weapons had been a time-travel device and had actually been made.

In the same interview, Marker said that the film was financed by several millionaires of his acquaintance, all World War II veterans, who "thought it was a damn good idea for a movie." As for himself, Marker said that he made "a few thousand dollars" from The Yesterday Machine.

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