Seeing this classic sci-fi horror thriller again brought back some warm childhood memories. 1953's INVADERS FROM MARS was a Saturday afternoon movie I watched numerous times on KTTV/Channel 11 in Los Angeles when I was a child of the 60s. The modestly-budgeted movie came out during America's new atomic age, and that also contained paranoia as an offshoot of Senator Joe McCarthy's blacklisting. Like THE WIZARD OF OZ and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, INVADERS FROM MARS is a story related from a child's viewpoint.
Young David McLean is a smart, polite, loving little boy in Small Town America. He loves his parents -- his blonde and lovely mother and his brawny, devoted, scientist dad. David also loves science and has a telescope in his bedroom. He's up at 4:30 in the morning, gazing at the skies. His parents wake up and gently tell him to go back to bed. They fall asleep. The minutes later, a storm erupts. We notice that the trees outside are barren and the grass is not green.No flowers are growing. A sign that a crisis is about to happen. David sees a spaceship hovering in the sky and then it lands, disappearing into the sand behind the hill. "There's something out there," David says.
He has to tell his parents, but this taps into a fear many of us had as kids. Not being believed by our parents. But David's kind-hearted dad is different. He knows that David is not a kid who would fabricate tall tales. He goes to investigate.
He returns, but he's not the same. His face is frozen with a cold blank stare coming from his eyes. He's verbally brutish to David and his mother. He strikes David. The boy knows immediately that something changed his father -- something behind the hill. This taps into another childhood fear -- losing our parents in some way,.
David's mother goes behind the hill to look for her husband. She returns cold and changed. Soon other protective figures besides his parents are changed by an alien force -- local cops, members of the military.
David must contact scientists in town and get the story out. He must be believed. There are evil Martians under the sand and in the earth. The Martians leave a mark on the back of the necks of those humans they've changed.
Originally, a 20th Century Fox release, 1953's INVADERS FEOM MARS has received a mighty fine restoration and is now available thanks to Ignite Films.
This film is so modestly-budgeted that it looks as though it might have been made for TV. But it's art direction, the slightly expressionistic look of it, is something I vividly recall from my childhood viewings. Some of the evil Martian slaves to their leader did look like big middle-aged guys in some ill-fitting costumes, but I was still thrilled. And the Martian leader, a head in a large globe, really creeped me out.
Jimmy Hunt had a perfect All-American 1950s look for his role as David. He's excellent in the role. I felt his anxiety and fears and determination. His determination to be believed by policemen who say, "Flying saucers, disappearing scientists. What next?" Jimmy Hunt carries you into and through the horror of the movie. In a bit part, you'll see Barbara Billingsley four years before she won fame as a TV sitcom mom on LEAVE IT TO BEAVER.
When I was a kid, TV sets came in either black and white (picture-wise) or color. We had a black and white set. INVADERS FROM MARS is in color and seeing this restoration was a thrill. I had not seen the movie in quite a few years, but I was amazing at how much I remembered about the visuals of the set design and the way the actors were photographed. INVADERS FROM MARS was directed by William Cameron Menzies. He also designed the production. That explains the creative visuals. Menzies received a special Oscar for his use of color in 1939's GONE WITH THE WIND. His other credits as an art director include Alfred Hitchcock's REBECCA, Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
His direction, production design, tone and simplicity give an immediacy and depth to the horror of INVADERS FROM MARS. It truly is one of the top entries in the 1950's sci-fi horror genre. I can't remember much about the big-budgeted 1986 Tobe Hooper remake. But I remember a lot about the original. 1953's INVADERS FROM MARS still sends chills.
Great film. The lead alien is creepy as heck.
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