Lewis R. Foster

I haven’t yet found a copy of this film to watch, but Blondes Prefer Bonds may well be the first talkie with certain time travel that’s not an adaptation of an earlier story. In the film, the heroine undergoes a scientific rejuvenation process—something to do with monkey glands according to Anthony Bald—that causes her and her husband to return to the time of their courtship. It’s unclear from the descriptions I’ve found whether the “return” is a literal return in time (and possibly the first Young Again story) or something else.

Please let us know if you run across a copy of this oddly-titled 21-minute film! —Michael Main

One day at the end of the 19th century, newspaperman Larry Stevens is given the gift of tomorrow’s newspaper by the ghost of the archive man, Pops Benson. That leads him to improve his position at the newspaper by scooping a story, but it also leads to trouble, more of tomorrow’s papers, and a romance with the alluring clairvoyant Sylvia.

So why do I count this as time travel when, for example, The Gap in the Curtain is not? The future newspapers in Gap never actually appeared, and it felt as if they were mere visions of a possible future, whereas we had no doubt that Larry holds an actual copy of tomorrow’s paper in his hands. And besides, It Happened Tomorrow had a great take on how events may be fated and yet, when accompanied by charming misunderstandings, lead to the unexpected.

Early Edition, one of my favorite TV shows, uses the same idea of tomorrow’s paper, but its creators said that the show was not based on this movie. —Michael Main