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Invaders from Mars (1953)

 -  Horror | Sci-Fi  -  22 April 1953 (USA)
6.4
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Ratings: 6.4/10 from 3,549 users  
Reviews: 93 user | 41 critic

A young boy learns that space aliens are taking over the minds of earthlings.

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(screenplay)
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Cast

Complete credited cast:
Helena Carter ...
Dr. Pat Blake
Arthur Franz ...
Dr. Stuart Kelston / Narrator
Jimmy Hunt ...
...
Mr. George MacLean
Hillary Brooke ...
Mrs. Mary MacLean
Morris Ankrum ...
Col. Fielding
Max Wagner ...
William Phipps ...
Sgt. Baker (as Bill Phipps)
...
Capt. Roth
Janine Perreau ...
Kathy Wilson
Edit

Storyline

One night, young David McLean sees a spaceship crash into a nearby sandpit. His father goes to investigate, but comes back changed. Where once he was cheerful and affectionate, he's now sullen and snarlingly rude. Others fall into the sandpit and begin acting like him: cold, ill-tempered and conspiratorial. David knows that aliens are taking over the bodies of humans, but he'll soon discover there have been far more of these terrible thefts than he could have imagined. The young doom-monger finds some serious help in a lady doctor and a brilliant astronomer. Soon they meet the aliens: green creatures with insect-like eyes. These beings prove to be slaves to their leader: a large, silent head with ceaselessly shifting eyes and two tentacles on either side, each of which branches off into three smaller tentacles. It's up to the redoubtable earth trio to stop its evil plans. Written by J. Spurlin

Plot Summary | Plot Synopsis

Taglines:

Murderous Martian creatures from out of space! See more »

Genres:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Certificate:

Approved | See all certifications »
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Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

22 April 1953 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Invasores de Marte  »

Box Office

Budget:

$290,000 (estimated)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

(RCA Sound System)

Color:

(Supercinecolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1
See  »
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Did You Know?

Trivia

This was actually one of the first science fiction scripts written in the 1950s. The revised version of the script was completed in September 1950. The film wasn't produced until 1952 and released in early 1953. See more »

Goofs

When David and Doctor Blake fall through the ground, the shot of the earth closing up behind them is one of the earlier shots of sand closing further up the path. But when Kelston runs over to the spot where they disappeared, the area is plainly covered with grass and dirt, not sand. See more »

Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: The heavens. Once an object of superstition, awe, and fear. Now a vast region for growing knowledge. The distance of Venus, the atmosphere of Mars, the size of Jupiter, and the speed of Mercury. All this and more we know. But their greatest mystery the heavens have kept a secret. What sort of life, if any, inhabits these other planets? Human life, like ours? Or life extremely lower in the scale? Or dangerously higher? Seeking the answer to this timeless question, forever seeking, ...
See more »

Connections

Featured in Laserdisc Memories: The Criterion Collection (2010) See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

See more (Spoiler Alert!) »

User Reviews

 
Deceptively Brilliant Masterpiece.
15 July 1999 | by (Savannah, GA) – See all my reviews

A child astronomer searches the skies with his father. Later the child astronomer wakes to the sound of a flying saucer landing in a sand pit across from his home. The child's father investigates, and returns "transformed." Soon father and mother both seem affected. Child, accompanied by his fetching teacher visits his astronomer friend, whom talks unashamedly about "invaders from Mars."

Within this deceptively simple plotline is a surrealistic masterpiece. With stunning use of color, forced perspective, oversized sets, eerie dreamlike music and carefully mannered performances and plotting, director William Cameron Menzies (an Oscar-winning art director) displays the nightmarish incidents from a child's perspective. Even the typically 50s ending takes on a different perspective. Was it a dream? Was it a foreshadowing of the future? Or is it a recurring nightmare, in a mind gone hopelessly mad.

Only since this film have widespread reports of alien "abductions" and "alien implants" become a reality. Coincidence?

INVADERS FROM MARS is one of the great fantasy sci-fi films of all time.


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