One film I’ve always felt has never received its due respect is the wonderful time travel adventure Time After Time (1979), which posits that Jack the Ripper and H. G. Wells stage a fateful confrontation in modern day San Francisco.  Nicholas Meyer’s fable is soundly founded in history yet shrewdly blends fact into engrossing fiction with a trio of splendid actors making it all seem vividly real.

Malcolm McDowell stars as bookish author H. G. Wells, who has just constructed his time machine, but hasn’t yet found the courage to use it.  When a friend of his does try it to escape the authorities, Wells follows him into the future out of a sense of duty to bring the man back for punishment.  But John Leslie Stevenson (David Warner), who is better known as Jack the Ripper, likes the modern world, feels right at home, and isn’t planning on going back.

Wells is a fish out of water, and much of the enjoyment this movie provides is seeing how he reacts to a future that is utterly alien to his predictions.  His trip into a McDonald’s is hilarious. As strong as the writing is regarding Wells’ awkward transition to modernity, most of the credit has to go to McDowell, who is sensational as Wells.  Nowhere is the flamboyant, scene stealing ham that energizes If… or A Clockwork Orange.  Here, McDowell slips into H. G. Wells’ studious persona like a comfortable glove.  He’s great.

Just as sensational is Mary Steenburgen as the bank clerk who befriends Wells and becomes the lynchpin in the adventure.  In just her second feature, she delivers a star performance.  And David Warner is diabolically twisted as the killer who finds the modern world perfectly suited to his needs and urges.

Nicely designed and photographed, and backed with a flavorful score by Miklos Rozsa, Time After Time is quite handsomely mounted.  But unlike many other adventures, it follows through with its promise.  It’s ending is more than just suspenseful and exciting; it’s genuinely intelligent and moving.  Feminists may take issue with it but it feels just right in terms of story structure and resolution.  Nicholas Meyer’s film is one of the finest of 1979, which was a very good year for movies.  I cannot recommend this movie highly enough.  My rating:  ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆.  (9:4).