Somewhere in Time: Great #Timetravel #Movies and #Books

1/28/2015

This is the first of my blogs about time travel in both books and other media. I love time travel movies and I’m a fool for romance. Yes, even for a guy. Time travel and romance just seem to go together. Sure, I like the purely sci-fi time travel stories, like Minority Report, 12 Monkeys or Loopers, but the greatest stories have romance.

I have noticed that romance in time travel has changed over the years. Today it seems to be Scottish men with burly chests, written by women, such as Diane Gaboldon with her Outlander series, and there is nothing wrong with this. I will address these another time. But today, I want to focus on one of the greatest time travel romance stories ever created. It was written by a man named, Richard Matheson and titled, Somewhere in Time. Matheson started out writing horror films and Twilight Zone episodes. Remember the one with the Gremlin on the airplane wing with William Shatner, later portrayed by John Lithgow?

The book, Somewhere in Time was originally published in 1975 with the title, Bid Time Return. The movie adaptation was made by director Jeannot Szwarc and released by Universal pictures in 1980. It starred:

Christopher Reeve
Jane Seymour
Christopher Plummer
Teresa Wright

The book was great and I truly loved the film adaptation. Along with a great story, cinematography, and acting, it had the best musical score ever put to film. This hauntingly beautiful score was composed by John Barry who is famous for such movie compositions as, Born Free, Midnight Cowboy, Out of Africa, Dances with Wolves, Chaplin, most James Bond movies and Body Heat. The list goes on and on. He even composed two time travel scores with Peggy Sue Got Married and what I consider his swan song, Somewhere in Time.

The movie starts out in Chicago and ends up on Mackinac Island at the Grand Hotel, although the hotel is not supposed to be on Mackinac, and this becomes evident when the protagonist Richard Coulier (Christopher Reeve) drives up to it in his sports car.

I am not going to relay the entire story here, but I will tell you how he sees a beautiful portrait of Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour) hanging in the hotel and becomes obsessed with her. So much so, he finds a way to travel back in time to 1912 to be with her. The feelings he has for her, is what I would call “desperate love”. That love, along with the stunningly beautiful John Barry score, makes this the most wonderful time travel romance movie of all time. Nothing has done more to influence me in my own writing than this story. Coulier is taught to use the power of his own mind to make himself believe he is in 1912, therefore; he is able to actually transcend the physical and finds himself there. To me, this is the most plausible means to time travel. It may not be the most fun way, but in my opinion, it is the most believable.

Great book, great movie.

For some of my time-travel books, click on the pictures below:

12 Comments

Denise

1/27/2015 10:31:34 pm

As I am not as well versed in time travel books nor movies as Dennis, I must say that when I finally gave in to the countless urgings to see this movie I was wholly and delightfully entranced by it. Both the story and yes the musical score were incredible. I owned the music CD shortly after seeing the film. Truly something to watch if you haven't seen it yet! ! 👍👍👍👍

Denise Baer link

1/28/2015 08:27:16 pm

Nice post! I don't know much of time travel in writing or movies. I can't remember if I ever watched this movie, but I am putting it on my TBW list. Thanks Dennis.

Dennis Higgins link

1/28/2015 08:43:53 pm

Oh, you have got to see it Denise B. I will bug you like I did the commenter above, also named Denise.

Virginia Wright link

1/29/2015 01:09:23 am

Oh, my gosh...I don't remember if I have warched the movie with Christopher Reeves, but now I want to. Great blog post!

Dennis Higgins link

1/29/2015 09:14:07 pm

Yes Virginia, this is a must see movie. Thanks for commenting.

Lorna Collins link

1/29/2015 04:30:27 am

One of the most sensual and visually gorgeous films ever! It didn't do all that well in the theaters, but it really took off when it went to video. I agree about the score--haunting. I loved the book because it was set at the Del Coronado in San Diego. In the book the hero also knows he's dying and goes to the hotel to get away from everything and come to terms with his mortality. This one even makes men weep at the end.

Dennis Higgins link

1/29/2015 09:12:57 pm

Lorna, yes indeed. The book he also goes back a little further to the 1800s. Is the Del Coranado still in existence? Apparently, Richard Matheson really was taken by an old portrait of a woman which inspired this book.

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Jen link

11/29/2016 06:46:03 pm

I just found out that Somewhere In Time was adapted from this book. I have been a fan of the movie for years and never knew that! It has gotten great reviews by everyone and I'm going to have to go and buy it. I had the opportunity to go to Mackinac Island this October for the Somewhere In Time weekend. If you haven't done it, you should definitely go!
-Jen
http://bit.ly/2gh69Yz

Dennis Higgins

11/30/2016 03:49:31 am

Hi Jen,

That was a very nice and well made movie you made of the weekend. I have never done the weekend, but would love to one day. The man who was instrumental in the INSITE magazine and the weekend contacted me because of my blogs and time travel books. Are you on the Facebook page? Even the author Richard Matheson's granddaughter is on the page.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/sitfans/

Jen link

11/30/2016 04:44:15 pm

Yes I definitely recommend you go. That is so interesting! I will have to join the page now. Thanks!

David Baltzer

1/31/2019 08:17:38 am

I was 13 when the movie came out in 1980. I didn't see it in theaters, but I purchased a paperback copy of the book from Scholastic Books. They had changed the title from 'Bid Time Return' to 'Somewhere In Time' to tie in with the film. My order was delayed for a while and when the paperback finally arrived it was a somewhat miss-cut copy from the publisher. Interestingly, Scholastic apologized to me in the interim, for the delay, and sent me a free paperback of 'Mysteries from Forgotten Worlds' by Charles Berlitz. I really enjoyed Matheson's book and the movie when it came to tv. When I found that Matheson based his story on Maude Adams, and I learned about her, I fell in love with her. Fast forward to late 2004. I was 37 and never had a meaningful relationship. Nothing ever really clicked with anyone. I had visited a dating site on the internet a number of times, but had only encountered mentally unbalanced women on there. I was going to give up, but something told me to try one last time. In doing so, I met the woman of my dreams. We knew very quickly that we were right for each other. She had not posted a photo with her profile. When she sent me a picture, I could not have been more shocked. She looked EXACTLY like Maude Adams! Not a passing resemblance, mind you, but literally like her twin sister. The same face, same height, same weight, even the same hands. The only difference is eye color. Hers are hazel, whereas Maude's were light blue/gray. She was adopted, and her genealogy is unknown. Curiously, Maude's great-grandfather passed away exactly 111 years to the day before she was born. She was also born 7 years and 3 days after me. My personal favorite of Maude's plays is 'Quality Street'. In 1902, Maude gave a performance of that play in Youngstown, Ohio. She faltered on stage and barely made it through the performance. She had to cancel the next two weeks of performances. The very next place where she performed it was Elmira, New York. But after that she was just too tired and had to take a year off. My wife (we have been happily married for almost 14 years) was born in Youngstown, Ohio and grew up there. I was born in Elmira, New York and grew up in nearby Watkins Glen. We both enjoyed working in plays from from a young age. My father was a theater manager for the Schine chain across New York State for about a decade. It's difficult to find photos of Charles Frohman when he was young. When I finally found a couple of pictures, I discovered that except for him carrying more weight, I very closely resemble him....although, after at long last finding a photo of Maude's secretary, Louise Boynton, when she was younger, I share an amazing amount of resemblance with her, too! It all makes you wonder. On ebay, I purchased an old copy of the book 'Charles Frohman: Manager and Man' for 99 cents. No one had wanted it. When I received it, I found an inscription inside showing that this had been Maude's personal copy that she had kept with her for 35 years before donating it away in 1950, three years before she passed away!

Somewhere in Time: Great #Timetravel #Movies and #Books

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