Continuity mistake: The Morlocks aren't affected by the light from metal in fusion in their foundry but they recoil from the light of a match.
Continuity mistake: When the time traveler is first starting to travel in time, the sun moves across the window from left to right, indicating that the window faces south. When night arrives, however, the view is of the stars moving right to left, indicating that the window is facing north.
Continuity mistake: When the time machine is traveling through time, close up shots of the control panel show the light bulbs flashing in exact synchronization with the time display. In far off shots of the time machine, the light bulbs are flashing more slowly.
Continuity mistake: When Rod Taylor is thrown by the Time Machine in the future, you can see dry ice pellets fall and hit the ground from the top of the screen, and he is not in this scene. Next shot you see him lying flat on on the ground with a little bit of fog around him.
Continuity mistake: When the Time Traveler is almost overpowered by the Morlocks, there is a shot of the torch which was whipped out of his hand. It has nearly burnt down, but as he regains it and orders the Eloi to escape, it burns strongly again.
Continuity mistake: At the very end of the movie, when Mr. Wells' housekeeper bids Mr. Filby goodnight, watch how quickly the upstairs lights get turned off after the downstairs lights. Considering that the time traveller was gone and she was the only one left in the house, that old woman must have RUN up those stairs faster than any human being could...
Continuity mistake: When George stops his time machine at 802701 A.D. he stops it too fast and falls out of his time machine. While he's lying on the ground rain falls out of the sky and only lands on him and a little bit of the ground. When George stands up however his hair and his clothes are completely dry and steam is rising from the ground.
Continuity mistake: In the scene when George and Weena are collecting wood for a fire outside the Morlock's entrance George throws a pile of sticks to where Weena is sitting. One of these lands precisely between her legs, in the next shot the stick has gone.
Continuity mistake: When George stops in 1917 he kicks some planks from a fence that has 4 small signs and a plank missing, in the next shot 3 signs are gone and the missing plank is reattached. After he talks with Filby Jr. he climbs back through the original fence (the one with the missing plank and 4 small signs, plus 3 other ones that were out of sight in the first shot). (00:34:00)
Continuity mistake: When the Time Traveller gets back into the machine after the volcano scene, because the numbers are turning so fast, you can only see the first number; the first time you see this, the first number says 8, then 9, indicating 8,000 then 9,000 years, then it cuts to the Traveller for a second, and when it is seen again, it says 8,000 then 9,000 then 10,000.
Continuity mistake: When Alan Young and Rod Taylor are talking outside of Filby's Department Store during World War 1, the curtains in the windows can be seen blowing in the wind because there is no glass in the frames.
Answer: Earlier in the movie, Mrs. Watchit hands an envelope to Philby with a note inside to inform everyone that if George doesn't show up at 8:00, then they can start dinner without him. This is what he most likely left on the mantle before he started his journey through time.