How H.G. Wells Has Changed the Life and Fortunes of Malcolm McDowell by Dave Smith

    Playing the role of famous writer H. G. Wells, in Time After Time, has obviously had a great effect on Malcolm McDowell who no longer bears the cocky, insolent smile of one who can do no wrong.
    The combination of advancing years and a hit-and-miss success rate have mellowed the man who has, on the screen, machine-gunned teachers and battered old men without batting an eyelid. That, of course, was in if.... and A Clockwork Orange, as, first, the malevolent school kid, and then the space age bovver boy. Those two triumphs put McDowell on a pedestal that proved to be as vulnerable as it was cozy.
    More recently his films have been more miss than hit from The Passage to the yet-to-be seen curio called Caligula, with McDowell in the title role of a movie said to be so pornographic and silly that no-one seems to want to release it.
    Now along comes a film called Time After Time, already favorably received on the far side of the Atlantic, and looking likely to rescue Malcolm's ailing fortunes.
    Time After Time takes the ridiculous premise that H. G. Wells goes racing through time in hot pursuit of Jack the Ripper, who has found his way into the modern world. It turns out to be entertaining romantic-thriller, with much more to its merit than first appears.
    McDowell's co-stars in Time After Time are David Warner and a newcomer called Mary Steenburgen. The latter play Wells' romantic interest, and appears to have played the same role off-screen with McDowell.
    Malcolm, until now a confirmed Anglophile, has chosen stay in the States, where the film was made, apparently with Steenburgen, while his wife Margot remains in England.
    Time After Time was McDowell's first Hollywood venture and this is a story in the best traditions of the place. Furthermore it's surprising in view of the fact that Malcolm had only recently been telling the world he was settling down, and that his days as a restless wanderer were over.
    He was a late starter in acting, having earnestly begun a career as a coffee salesman, as mirrored In O Lucky Man, his part autobiographical follow-up to if...
    He made his London debut with the Royal Shakespeare Company, and spoke his first lines in "Henry V", missing his cue and cutting a paragraph of Shakespeare's best dialogue down to "come on, come on, they're waiting"- which had the stage rocking with laughter.
    After bits and pieces in TV shows like Z Cars, Emergency Ward Ten and Dixon of Dock Green he won central role in if... and a keen young coffee salesman was lost forever.
    Despite the success of if... and A Clockwork Orange McDowell's movies have hardly been in the box-office blockbusting class. The Raging Moon, with Nanette Newman, was far too dismal; O Lucky Man too obscure; Royal Flash and Voyage of the Damned almost sunk without a trace; and only Aces High has come anywhere near to recapturing his early glories.
    Filming Caligula was, by all accounts, a farcical experience with McDowell, at varying times, having to bed down with a horse; make love to his wife (Helen Mirren) and sister (Teresa Ann Savoy) at the same time, and be whipped by a girl, who had nothing to do with the scene but rushed on to the set with a whip to try and her make her name in the movies.
    "The one thing that film taught me," says McDowell, "is that it's better to work with the monster of this business, who are professionals, rather than amateurs who are nice - with amateurs it's always a disaster, and much harder work for all concerned. It seems now that Hollywood is where things are happening." That's a radical change of tune for one who, shortly after completely A Clockwork Orange, went to the States and "loathed" it.
    Clearly he enjoyed making Time after Time.
    "For every character, you usually have to find a hook, something to pull it together. But in this case I just had to believe in the script and let it do its work. I found Wells an amusing character. He had more that a bit of whimsy about him, and although he is an alien, he's prepared to have fun. He's a romantic in a different situation, but he is adaptable."
    McDowell chose not to imitate Well's looks or voice. "I heard a recording of his voice," he says, "but it was rather high-pitched and not very attractive." Instead he depended on his own voice and accent, with a moustache and cashmere suit to complete the picture.
    If the film is a success, the lure of Hollywood will be even greater, and we may not be seeing quite so much of McDowell over here in the near future.

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