Good concept, poorly executed.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Tim Holt who besides being a B movie cowboy also was directed at different times of his must have wondered how he came to be in this rather atrocious science fiction film shot on your average household budget for a family on food stamps.His will be the only name you recognize from this cast of never wases in The Yesterday Machine. One of Hitler's top scientists escaped and has set up shop somewhere in the southern USA near the Battle Of Shiloh's site. We know that because a couple of Johnny Reb soldiers show up in the present day of 1963 and kidnap a young coed from that era.Investigative reporter James Britton follows up the story with Holt playing a police detective. Together with coed Linda Jenkins's sister Ann Pellegrino they find the source of the problem. It's Jack Herman playing a mad scientist who if he were a little more mad would be Professor Irwin Corey. Herman was one of Hitler's top physicists and he's cracked the space time continuum and he's even brought back a Nubian slave from the court of Rameses II. We don't get specifics, but Herman is going to a mess with time sufficiently that Hitler will triumph.My high school plays showed better talent than this one did. Poor Tim Holt played it tight lipped and grim which was how he must have felt for being in this wretched film.

*Spoiler/plot- The Yesterday Machine, 1963. A couple of college students stumble on a couple of Civil War soldiers while trying to get car repairs in a lonely rural road. The boy is shot and the girl disappears. The police investigate and find many improbable time travel matters located in an secret professor's lab under a abandoned Victorian house. *Special Stars- James Britton, Ann Pellegrino, Jack Herman, Tim Holt('Treasure of Sierra Madre').*Theme- Time is a river that flows and we are in it.*Trivia/location/goofs- B & W. During Natzi time travel doctor's lecture the chalk drawings change back and forth.*Emotion- A quirky, unique, and stylish low budget science fiction film. I would NOT call this a B-movie or a D-movie due to it's very good script, directing, casting, and acting. The low budget aspects of this film only become apparent with the time machine set piece and German doctor's lab sets. Maybe more money or creativity should have been shown there to treat the film viewer with a better reward for staying around to watch the whole film to it's finale. Exciting, suspenseful and frightening, this film is enjoyable.

This movie, its poor production values and picture qualities, and absolutely ABYSMAL Sound qualities aside, is actually a pretty effective sci-fi Horror story, told to the viewer in a pretty much intelligent manner.I have always liked the actor TIM HOLT, going back to his playing the clean-cut young Prospector in "The Treasure of The Sierra Madre" with Bogart and Walter Huston. In this flick, his Police Lieutenant Partane character adds some semblance of credibility to his role and the overall storyline.And Jack Herman, the apparently LIFELONG Yiddish Theatre Actor, who plays the "ESCAPED, VIRULENT NAZI SCIENTIST, Ernest VON HAUSER," absolutely steals the show, with his Mad Scientist's "Time-Travel Slave and Death Camp" of a deserted farmhouse, in Texas, no less!(* Actually, the Lonestar State has always been one of THE "All-American" Locales, for great MONSTER, HORROR and SCI-FI, Cinematic "Carnage"!)All the usual mad Nazi "thoughts" and CRUELTY is there of course, in "The Yesterday Machine," yet there is indeed thoughtful DIALOGUE, as Mr. HERMAN'S Von Hauser character explains the "real science" behind time travel, to the heroic news gatherer-guy, "Jimmy Crandell," whom I believe is played by James Britton.There are a couple of VERY WEAK, climactic plot points as the film closes out, but this one is still an A-OK to Good piece of SCHLOCKO Movie "AUTEUR-SHIP," let us, RIGHTLY, call it such!

I was honored to play Dectective Laskey in this Yesterday Machine movie. Tim Holt was a true professional to put up with a bunch of local Dallas actors and even thou this is a typically Bad Science Fiction movie-- for the time, it is OK to watch. The reason I am writing this today is I just found my VHS copy of the movie and made a DVD of it for my own restoration and to have something to play for my Grandkids. Actually, the quality of the DVD turned out pretty good even thou the VHS is quite old. I had a recording studio in Dallas, Texas at the time of the shooting of this movie and most of the interior scenes were done in the back rooms of my studio---sets built for the dungeons, and the time machine locations, etc. All of the music was recorded at my Studio with the Nick Nicklas band doing the playing. All in All-----it is a really good example of a Bad Sci-fi 1960's movie and worth the watch----if you can find a copy. I'm glad I have one and now a DVD that will last for a few more years.