Invaders from Mars (1953)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

William Cameron Menzies

Writers:

John Tucker Battle (story)
Richard Blake (writer)

Release Date:

22 April 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Horror | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

NATURAL or SUPERNATURAL?

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Alien | Police | Astronomer | UFO | Flying Saucer

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Helena Carter	...	Dr. Pat Blake, MD
Arthur Franz	...	Dr. Kelston - astronomer / Narrator
Jimmy Hunt	...	David Maclean - boy astronomer
Leif Erickson	...	Mr. George MacLean
Hillary Brooke	...	Mrs. Mary MacLean
Morris Ankrum	...	Col. Fielding
Max Wagner	...	Sgt. Rinaldi
Milburn Stone	...	Capt. Roth - army technician
Janine Perreau	...	Kathy Wilson
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
William Phipps	...	Sgt. Baker (as Bill Phipps)

Runtime:

78 min | UK:83 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Supercinecolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G (TV rating) | West Germany:16 (nf) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) | USA:Approved (PCA #16228)

Filming Locations:

CBS Studio Center - 4024 Radford Avenue, Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

National Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

According to script supervisor Mary Yerke, director and production designer William Cameron Menzies filled 12 notebooks with charcoal sketches depicting every scene he planned to shoot. Just days before principle photography, all of these storyboard sketches disappeared from the production office.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: 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.

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...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in 'War of the Worlds': Revisiting the Invasion (2005) (V)

nostalgia trip

I was seven years old when I was taken to see this movie by my sixty-year old Lithuanian grandmother (to whom it must have made no sense at all). The images in the movie - the big green guys, the melting rock that looked like an explosion in a bubble gum factory, the people falling into the sand pit, the dreaded implant approaching the pretty neck of Dr. Blake, the little silver octopus-like guy in the fishbowl - all replayed themselves in my mind over many nights. I saw it again recently on AMC and can see many of the things that are dated, but can also understand why the movie made such an impact at the time. The concept, especially, of one's parents being taken under the control of evil forces is particularly disturbing to a young child. The music and sound effects, too, are particularly eerie. The almost abstract quality of the set in the police station scene lends it a foreboding quality. I'm ambivalent on how to rate it. It very much shows its age (and they could have shortened the stock army footage of tanks rolling) but has much that gives it a weird sort of drawing power even today. A curiously compelling movie.