George Pal, a Hungarian emigré famous for his puppet-animation films in the '30s and '40s, became one of the masters of science fiction special effects in the 1950s in such films as Destination Moon, When Worlds Collide and The War of the Worlds. Pal produced and directed The Time Machine, an entertaining version of H. G. Wells' prophetic novel, written in 1895. Rod Taylor stars as the Time Traveler who perfects a machine that propels him from his cozy Victorian study into the future, to war-torn settings in 1917, 1940 and 1966, and finally to a seeming paradise in the year 802,701. Here, men and women called the Eloi live without a care, and virtually without an intelligent thought, while below them dwell the monstrous Morlocks. Exploring 20th-century surroundings along with the 19th-century scientist is sometimes fun, more often disquieting. Though Wells' story is simplified, Pal's version has a visual quality that is polished, inventive, and at times thrilling.