Somewhere in Time **** (1980, Christopher Reeve, Jane Seymour, Christopher Plummer, Teresa Wright, Bill Erwin) – Classic Movie Review 3070

Director Jeannot Szwarc’s gorgeous, haunting, heart-aching 1980 sci-fi fantasy romance stars Christopher Reeve as Richard Collier, a young Chicago playwright who goes to the premiere of his new play. When an old lady (Susan French) begs him ‘come back to me’, he tries to find out about her, and learns that she is a famous stage actress from the early 1900s, Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour).

Richard becomes obsessed with a vintage picture hanging in a grand hotel of the dead actress with whom he’s had a romance in a former life. So he uses self-hypnosis to travel back in time to find her.

Based on the novel Bid Time Return by Richard Matheson, who also writes the screenplay, this gloriously beautiful period romance with a heartrending story is touchingly played by the handsome couple. And the project is rewarded the most sumptuous production, ravishing designs, lovely cinematography by Isidore Mankofsky and supremely confident direction by Szwarc.

However, lovely though the movie is, it fared disappointingly at the box-office.

It was principally made at the 19th-century Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island in Michigan. Many of the extras in the movie were residents of the island. The Grand Hotel’s water tower is visible from the lighthouse although it was built well after 1912 when the film is set.

Also in the cast are Christopher Plummer, Teresa Wright, Bill Erwin, George Voskovec, George Wendt, Eddra Gale, John Alvin, William H Macy and Sean Hayden.

Its ad slogan ran: ‘Beyond fantasy. Beyond obsession. Beyond time itself…he will find her.’

The 20th anniversary edition DVD is digitally remastered for better clarity and includes a new ‘making of’ documentary.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 3070

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