Invaders from Mars (1953)

A Brilliant Conflict

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

I'm glad that "Invaders from Mars" was found and restored. My DVD of this film has reasonable picture and sound quality. The film itself is a fairly standard one, very low budget but there are still some effective moments. There aren't many famous or familiar faces here which is probably just as well. The film works up a fair bit of steam toward its climax, plus a slight twist to the tale.

Invaders from Mars is directed by William Cameron Menzies, has a screenplay by Richard Blake and stars Jimmy Hunt,Arthur Franz, Helena Carter, Leif Erickson and Hillary Brooke.David MacLean(Jimmy Hunt)is awoken by a strange noise and light in the middle of the night. Looking out of his window he sees a flying saucer land near his house. He wakes up his dad(Leif Erickson)who goes and looks but doesn't come back. David's mum(Hillary Brooke)phones the police, two officers come and search and also go missing. The dad and the officers then return sometime later seemingly devoid of emotion and all bearing strange marks on the back of their necks. Later David's mother is also changed.David is convinced that aliens have done something to them and runs to the police begging them to get help. Nobody believes him except his friend the Astronomer Dr. Stuart Keltson(Arthur Franz)and Doctor Pat Blake(Helena Carter). This trio soon discover that aliens have indeed landed and must try and alert the authorities to try and stop them.This film has it's moments but too many weaknesses to make it one you'd want to watch again and again. The people controlled by aliens are very creepy(this altered behaviour precedes Invasion of the Body Snatchers by several years)and seeing the horror from the perspective of a child is quite interesting. The little girl who burns her house is very creepy(that scary smile of hers would make you run a mile in real life).There is nothing more frightening than knowing something to be true but nobody believes you and the film portrays that very well. Seeing the people being dragged beneath the sand to be altered is very creepy as it allows you to imagine all sorts of scary things. Unfortunately most of the acting is pretty bad, the seemingly endless army stock footage is unnecessary and the reveal of the alien base beneath the sand is a big disappointment, some things work better when unseen. This one has it's moments but could and should have been so much darker than it was.

Another 50's Science Fiction classic. The U.F.O. craze was hitting the nation with mass sightings of Space ships and aliens visiting our countryside. Which leads us to this tale of visitors from another planet. Boy looks out of his bedroom window and sees an object crash into the grounds behind the wooden fence. David played by Jimmy Hunt tells his Dad, (Lief Erickson) to take a look out back . Dad goes out but doesn't return till morning. Jimmy's Dad Has a stark, cold demeanor as he says that he didn't find anything out there. Jimmy's Mom played by Hillary Brooke from the Abbott and Costello Show was also surprised by the changed personality of her spouse.Husband takes Wife off to the area out back and drops her in the sand pit with a chorus of singers. Jimmy notices that his parents are not the same as he also notices a mark in the back of their necks. Jimmy also has a run in with the law as the police chief also fell in to the pit and has a mark on his neck as well.Even little red head Kathy Wilson fell in the hole and came out an arsonist. Apparently these marked individuals are being controlled by a higher intelligent life form. Jimmy's cry's for help leads him to the observatory where he briefly meets Barbara Billingsly from (Leave it To Beaver)who plays Dr. Kelston's (Arthur Franz) secretary. Jimmy also be-friends Dr. Pat Blake child shrink with a strong British accent (Helena Carter) our leading lady. So much for introductions, The fact is these people with the marked necks are reeking havoc on the community and must be stopped and the source of the problem is in Jimmy's Backyard. Call in the Army and why not? Here's where the film goes south. TOO MUCH STOCK FOOTAGE and that annoying Army tune which would have John Philip Sousa rolling over in his grave entitled (Army Goes Rolling Along.)I was also intrigued by the Martian Leader in the fishbowl. To my amazement the actor was played by a woman. Movie could have been edited better and cropped down in time. The acting for the most part was adequate and those chorus of singers when the sand hole opens gets me every time.

It takes a little mental work -- rearranging the schemata, tweaking the synapses -- before you can accept Leif Erickson as a smiling husband, father, and respectable scientist. Usually, he's on an airplane in jeopardy or some other tense situation. And he's the angry guy who stands in the aisle, blocking everyone, shouting orders in a loud voice, and demanding to know what's going on because he has an important business meeting and -- why is that engine on fire? Is he going to be late? Once over that hurdle, you can settle down to an old-fashioned science fiction movie that hides its low budget by the sparing use of special effects. There are no monsters flapping around in ugly rubber suits. People just disappear in the sand. It's like an extended episode of "The Twilight Zone." The story follows the general template of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," except that instead of pods there are tiny electronic devices planted in the base of the skull. The scientific dialog is risible. "We've attached the standard frame to a variable oscillator. That should do the trick." The rest of the characters are pretty much stereotyped. The first victim to get it in the neck is the loving father, Leif Erickson, and for the rest of the movie we can let our archetypes go back to where they belong. He turns into a nasty brute who slaps his kid around and snarls. Oh, by the way, you can always tell who's under alien control. They stare expressionlessly into the camera and never blink. And if they get in trouble, their heads explode.I'd like to recommend William Cameron Menzies, an intuitive genius in his own way, but this is awfully clumsy. The dialog, lacking any touch of originality to begin with, seems to be read aloud for the first time from cue cards off screen. "Your father and mother are at the hospital, Davey." "But." "They'll be all right." There is a palpable pause before and after "but." Lapses like that recur.We win the final underground battle but I don't know how. Too many suspense devices are stirred into the narrative -- the earthlings are trapped in tunnels while a time bomb is ticking away; tanks are shelling the hell out of an area unoccupied by aliens; crazed Martian slaves wrapped like mummies lumber this way and that; the Ultimate Humanity that runs the whole Geschäft is a bronze disembodied head with the features of Idi Amin.The military defeats the Martians, which is rather an original touch. Usually the tanks are useless and some special device like a ray gun must be invented for the sole purpose of disabling and destroying the aliens and the junk they've brought with them. In movies of this caliber, nobody would ever dream of a solution like having the aliens undone by their lack of immunity to our germs.