The Day Mars Invaded Earth (1963)

Truly Dreadful Film

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

I was about 9 when this came out at the local theatre. I loved SyFy and horror movies and was expecting a good time. I was very disappointed. No monstrous aliens, no spaceships, no planetary surfaces, not even a clearly evil villain to be rattled by. Other than being fascinated by the ostentatious Greystone Mansion and its immaculate landscaping I was totally bored. I don't really think I understood what was going on at all.Decades later it was showing on some late night TV feature so I stuck in a VHS tape and went to bed. At 50+ years of age I found myself much more appreciative of the quality of this production. Though obviously low-budget with non-existent special effects I recognized that the director had created a superb atmosphere of mystery and fear. As a child I wasn't able to get it, but as an adult I most definitely did. (Interestingly, I was still enthralled by the Greystone Mansion. I have a peculiar romantic taste for such construction.)Though it will never be high on anyone's list of best science fiction movies it deserves far better than the short shrift rendered by my 4th grade analysis. I understand that it is now available on DVD and will definitely give it some consideration.

Very, very skimpy "the aliens are coming" movie. The acting is more than ordinarily bad, although the scientist father amusingly suggests a cross between Leave it to Beaver's Hugh Beaumont and Vincent Price. His neglected wife appears to be zonked on Xanax throughout the film, which might charitably explain her strangely sluggish, tepid reactions to rather momentous events.The dialogue is sub-rudimentary and doesn't even qualify for the respectable term "pedestrian". The screenwriter doesn't seem to have the basic awareness of how people talk to each other; e.g., when one person says A, the other will likely respond with B. This is especially frustrating when we're trying to get get specific information and a character fails to ask the obvious question from the one who has that information. Conversations are so disjointed, missing so many self-evidently necessary links, and so awkwardly inarticulate that the hopeful viewer may see it as some kind of deliberately murky screenplay experimentalism. This hope would probably not be justified.So despite what you may have read in other reviews here, this is not a "pleasant surprise", an interesting "find" or anything like that. It is terrible movie, in every category just about reaching the awfulness level of average porn, without the obvious mitigating factors.But for all of that, I was glad I stuck it out until the end. The final shot is genuinely chilling, even shocking, and made me feel far less embarrassed about my perseverance.

The Day Mars Invaded Earth (1963) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Dr. David Fielding (Kent Taylor) sends a probe to Mars to see if there's life there but it seems nothing was returned. Soon afterwards the doctor begins to realize that something did happen and that the aliens have copied his body (as well as his families) and are planning on an invasion. THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH really isn't all that original but I thought the film managed to be quite entertaining even with its incredibly low-budget. I thought the film managed to be quite interesting in regards to the story because instead of just giving us cheap looking aliens who look fate, the story decided to do something different and work with the budget. Here we never see any little green men or men with big heads but instead we just get doubles of the cast. I thought this made for some pretty effective scenes including one involving the daughter who wakes up in the middle of the night with the double in the room with her. I won't spoil the ending for those who haven't seen the film but it's quite unusual and very good. The performances are a major plus here as Taylor manages to do a good and believable job with his role. Noir regular Marie Windsor plays the wife and William Mims is good as a fellow scientist. The CinemaScope ratio really didn't add anything to the picture and I think more than anything it just exposed how low the budget actually was. Still, fans of the genre will want to check this one out. Even though it's not a classic it's at least entertaining.

This was a 60's sci-fi movie that had somehow escaped my radar until today. I'm a particular fan of the genre. I almost did not watch it due to the low 4.8 rating on IMDb. This is one of the rare instances where I'm glad to say I disagree with the general consensus. I can see where the under 40 crowd, used to CGI and faced paced action/thriller type sci-fi movies would be bored with this film. Actually I would consider it a combination paranormal/sci-fi flick. The estate on which the film was made is stunningly beautiful, even in black and white. Not your average backdrop for a science fiction film. The premise is terrifying. There are the obvious flaws of "why in the world would they stay once they've seen what they did?" and other arm-chair quarterbacking thoughts that I'd have done a lot differently in their situation. I think it's difficult for 21st century viewers sometimes to put themselves in a 50's or 60's setting. How could they if they did not live during those times? I found the film to be suspenseful and entertaining. Doubt it will make to anyone's "top 10 film" list, but it was a very pleasant surprise and great way to spend a rainy afternoon. There is something primeval about the plot of the film that is very unnerving and thus makes it so scary. There are no cheesy costumed Martians or monsters to spoil this one. It's all intellectual type fear. Give this one a shot - especially if you are age 50+, you won't be disappointed.