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I’m trying to identify a movie I saw when I was very young. It was a “Saturday Matinee” playing on one of the local stations, and I likely watched it in the late 60’s. So I expect that the movie is from the 50’s or 60’s. I watched it in black and white, but it could have been a color movie on a black and white set.
I clearly recall a scene where scientists enter a lab and some see something move past them in a blur. Later in the movie, they come upon themselves in the same lab where they appear to be frozen and not moving. Then they notice that their “other selves” are moving, just almost inperceptibly slowly. They are encountering themselves but at a completely different time scale. Unfortunately, I don’t recall much else about the movie, just the idea that they encounter themselves once with the others flashing past, and again seemingly not moving at all.

If this rings any bells with anyone, I’d love some pointers to try to track this movie down.

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    Sounds a little like the ST:TOS Episode Wink of an Eye
    – Paulie_D
    Jan 2, 2018 at 22:06
  • Was it the Twilight Zone episode "Elegy"?
    – Spencer
    Jan 2, 2018 at 23:26
  • Excellent, thank you. The Wink of an Eye episode is interesting, with a similar device used for the time scales. It's not what I was looking for, but I enjoyed watching the episode, as well as the Elegy episode of Twilight Zone.
    – Pete
    Jan 3, 2018 at 15:39
  • probable duplicate of scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/73813/… (but this should be the duplicate target if it gets a formal acceptance)
    – Otis
    Jan 3, 2018 at 18:34

1 Answer 1

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"The Time Travelers"(1964)?

It was in color, and involved scientists traveling to the future. Near the ending, they encounter themselves in the lab and realize they're stuck in a time loop. Here is a section of the plot synopsis from Wikipedia describing this scene.

The survivors return to the lab, where they make a strange discovery. Their past selves are still in the lab, yet to pass through the portal, but they appear frozen. Through some error, the travelers are experiencing time at an accelerated rate; the rest of the world, including their past selves, is moving in extremely slow motion. Their only option is to travel to the date the portal had briefly been set to before being set to 2071 A.D., a date over 100,000 years in the future. But the screen is dark and what lies ahead is unknown.

I can't find that scene, but here is a trailer from YouTube:

I guess it's actually NOT a trailer, but the entire movie in 3 minutes!

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  • 3 minutes is about all that movie deserves. And I should know as I have previously watched the whole thing
    – Peter M
    Jan 3, 2018 at 1:01
  • @Peter M. I've seen it too, I own it, and I don't think it's THAT bad. It did serve as the inspiration for the 1966 TV series "The Time Tunnel ".
    – the guest
    Jan 3, 2018 at 1:24
  • I would describe it as "above average for MST3K", which is the context in which I saw it. Jan 3, 2018 at 1:28
  • This is great! I think that "The Time Travelers" is likely the movie I've been looking for. I found a copy on Amazon combined with three other movies for $6, delivered. So it's on its way. The trailer above is very enticing. Thank you!
    – Pete
    Jan 3, 2018 at 15:35
  • Thank you Pete! I hope you like the movie as much as I did, you have to look beyond the low budget trappings. Please, if this is it, select itby clicking on the check mark, thank you.
    – the guest
    Jan 3, 2018 at 16:23

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