Before he became a critically-maligned writer, director and actor, Travis Belcher worked as a tour guide in the Presidential History Museum in Hoboken, NJ. He had a love of presidential history that was unparalleled and he regaled numerous tour groups with stories of president’s conquests and triumphs as well as anecdotes that other tour guides didn’t bother with. Many groups returned week after week, requesting him specifically and visiting new wings of the museum to learn about different presidents.

While in college, Belcher wrote articles on the presidents for a local history magazine, earning him many fans in the local community. After watching the time travel art house film Tempus Fugit, he began working on a story that would integrate time travel with his love of presidents, specifically the four featured on Mount Rushmore – George Washington,Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. With a time travel story, he realized, he could have these four great leaders meet and interact with one another. And so, Washington, B.C. was born.

Mary Crower, the editor of the magazine that published many of Belcher’s articles had a friend in Hollywood and when she heard of Belcher’s script idea, she encouraged him to write the story. She promised to pass it along to her friend, who turned out to be Arthur Russo, the legendary producer of such genre classics as The Cranberry Fields and House of Magic.

Russo loved what he called “the absolute insanity of the whole thing” and immediately commissioned a full script. After meeting with Belcher, Russo also put him in charge of directing, under Russo’s watchful eye. “The guy just had a great vibe to him,” said Russo. “You could tell he wanted to make this movie more than anything else in the world.”

The film opens in the year 1760, where a man hidden in shadow is working on a small metallic box, which looks more technologically advanced than his surroundings. There are diodes and glowing panels and the entire object hums with energy. The man, whose hands are scarred, gingerly places the metal box inside a larger, more time-appropriate crate and seals it with a lock.

We then flash-forward to 1778, where one of General George Washington’s men spots the box and unearths it, taking it to the future president. Theatre veteran Clive Pendergast plays Washington with a bemusement and an inquisitiveness upon being given the old box. He carefully breaks off the lock and opens the lid, finding the smaller metal box inside. As his eyes widen and his fingers touch the box, a bright light fills the screen and Washington vanishes.

These early scenes set the tone for the rest of the movie. Belcher doesn’t spend too long on any one shot, preferring to get his point across and move on. As a result, the film moves at a fast pace and never gets bogged down, even with all the characters running around.

Washington opens his eyes and finds himself clutching the metal box in the middle of a dense jungle. Birds caw in the distance and various animals scurry through the trees overhead. Russo insisted traveling to a South American rain forest to film the prehistoric sequences to lend them an unmatched authenticity.

As Washington attempts to get his bearings, there’s a rustling behind him and a towering Tyrannosaurus Rex tears through the jungle. The stop-motion effects on the dinosaur are fairly well-done and the jerky nature only adds to the terror of the situation.

In the film’s most riveting, pulse-pounding sequence, Washington stumbles through the jungle, trying to escape the beast, when suddenly a whooping man swings down from the trees, a knife in his teeth, and lands on the back of the dinosaur. Future president Theodore Roosevelt (portrayed by writer Belcher) cackles loudly as he spits the knife from his mouth and plunges it into the back of the T. Rex. As he shouts, “Now, Abe!,” a vine is pulled tight just as Washington runs past and the howling dinosaur is caught and tumbles over. Washington stares in amazement as Abraham Lincoln (former Cheer Up, Mr. Jack O. Lantern! child actor David Tet), sweaty and carrying an ax, steps from the jungle and jumps upon the beast, hacking at its giant neck. There is some spotty effects-merging, what with the live actors interacting with the stop-motion dinosaur, but it does nothing to minimize the sheer lunacy and incredible awesomeness of the sequence.

Roosevelt and Lincoln set about quickly neutralizing the dinosaur and soon all is quiet in the jungle. Washington falls to his knees and begins to gasp heavily. A hand lands on his shoulder and he looks up to see Thomas Jefferson (Ashes star Jeffrey Goldenthal), standing with several native tribeswomen. The third president looks down at Washington and says, “We have many things to discuss.”

Washington is led to their base of operations, and the tale of how they all arrived in this prehistoric time is revealed. Each president found a similar box and ended up here. Roosevelt was the first one transported and he had been there, by his calculation, almost six months. Belcher fits the role perfectly, with his over-enthusiastic guffawing and boxy frame. Russo is said to have wanted to cast character actor Dean Billows, but Belcher campaigned heavily for the role and Russo finally caved, allowing the former tour guide to write, direct, and star as a lead in his very first film. It was unheard of at the time, but it paid off handsomely, with Belcher’s Roosevelt giving us the movie’s best moments. And as Roosevelt is the most recent president of the four, he shares many facts about the future with his presidential brethren.

We learn that Jefferson arrived a month after Roosevelt and soon became enamored with many of the women in a nearby tribe. Lincoln arrived two months after Jefferson, and he and Roosevelt had spent their first month together wrestling and trying to best one another in various feats of strength, liking climbing trees and killing dinosaurs. In fact, Washington had landed right in the middle of one of their hunts.

As it just so happens, when Roosevelt was transported, so too was the White House. The four presidents reach a clearing where a dilapidated, crumbling building rests, overgrown with vegetation. When asked what happened to the remaining staff who were inside, Roosevelt mentions vaguely that they were  killed by dinosaurs, but goes into no further detail.

There is a great deal of exposition in the movie, but when delivered by Belcher’s Roosevelt, it’s a joy, just because it’s fun to hear him ramble on.

The four presidents each set out the boxes that transported them to this past land and realize that each can interlock with the others. As they puzzle over the boxes, Washington suggests perhaps they were brought here for a reason, for some purpose. Soon, the boxes are interlocked, forming a giant cube with an opening in the middle. Lincoln presses a button on the cube and suddenly it begins to glow bright yellow. A small portal opens in the middle of the room and a giant man with scarred skin steps forward. He introduces himself as Klaxor (Dean Billows, who was hired to portray the villain when he lost the role of Roosevelt).

Klaxor states that he has been traveling the time stream for a millennium and has determined that if he changed history by rerouting the course of these presidents’ lives, he could rule the world. He choose these four because of their monument on Mount Rushmore, which, to him, means they are the most important presidents in history. His plan is not entirely sane nor is the writing behind it, and this is where Washington, B.C. goes off the rails just a bit. Belcher was so determined to get these presidents together that honestly it didn’t matter to him how terrible the reasoning was or how it actually happened.

There are a few more fun moments throughout the film, including a knock-down drag-out fight between Klaxor and Roosevelt, with a last-minute assist from Lincoln (who also has to fight a Klaxor-transported John Wilkes Booth), and a daring escape from the mouth of a volcano on the back of a giant pterodactyl, where Jefferson loses one of the tribeswomen to the fiery lava below.

As you might have guessed, Klaxor has another box that must be inserted into the opening in the presidential cube to allow the men to get back to their respective times. The ending of the film won’t be spoiled here, for those who actually want to see it, but it does offer up a few interesting historical reinventions, including the idea of Mount Rushmore’s origination.

The movie wasn’t a critical or commercial success, but for those who saw it, it was a unique and altogether classic take on both time travel tales and presidential history.

Travis Belcher had a few more directing gigs later in life and a scant few acting roles, but he’ll always be remembered for Washington, B.C., a movie where he got to share his love of the presidents with the movie-going world. And some might argue we’re all the better because of it.