Throwback Thursday: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About ‘Somewhere In Time’

The 1975 novel "Bid Time Return" by Richard Matheson was the basis for the movie. He also worked on the screenplay.

Author Richard Matheson became entranced by a portrait of actress Maude Adams in Nevada. He was traveling and felt like he had fallen in love with the woman in the picture. He began wondering if that was possible, and what a man would do if it happened to him.

The basic idea is that time exists only in our minds, so with hypnosis, a person could influence their personal place in time. But the method used by Richard Collier in the movie more closely resembles an interpretation of Priestley from Jack Finney's book, "Time and Again."

Richard Matheson also wrote the books "I Am Legend" and "What Dreams May Come." In the 1950s he wrote "The Shrinking Man" and later "A Stir of Echoes" that was turned into a film with Kevin Bacon.

Even though the movie's score is by John Barry, the movie's dramatic theme music is the 18th variation of Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini."

So often the best movies are box office failures, but not "Somewhere In Time" that gave investors a double return in theaters. Still, this was considered a mediocre performance at the time.

Many islanders were cast as extras. Many people involved in the film (and their family) were also allowed to make cameos.

Even though you can stay at the real Grand Hotel where it was filmed, you can't drive there as the characters do. The city had to grant special permission for automobiles to be brought.

RottenTomatoes.com gives it a 5.7 out of 10 critics rating.

Because Christopher Plummer (Seymour's agent in the film) is also a "Chris," the director called him Mr. Plummer and Christopher Reeve "Bigfoot."