Invaders from Mars
In the early hours of the night, young David Maclean sees a flying saucer land and disappear into the sand dunes just beyond his house. Slowly, all of the adults, including his once loving parents, begin to act strangely.
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- Cast:
- Jimmy Hunt , Arthur Franz , Helena Carter , Leif Erickson , Hillary Brooke , Morris Ankrum , Walter Sande
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Reviews
Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike
i must have seen a different film!!
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
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.
Acceptable , estimable and well-made science-fiction/suspense/thriller in which a kid and military are confronted by an alien invasion . This film , nowadays , has achieved cult stature and with the passing of the years has attained rave reviews . A boy named David MacLean (Jimmy Hunt) tries to stop aliens that came from above and attack from below . As the aliens have taken over his town and are attempting to brainwash its inhabitants . As his parents (Hilary Brooke , Leif Erickson) are zapped by the weird and diabolic creatures . He can't convince the townspeople of this invasion because they've already possessed by the outer beings . As the people fall into a sandpit where martian slaves carry on their fiendish work guided by a malicious mastermind . As David is only helped by Dr. Stuart Kelston (Arthur Franz , also narrator) and the sympathetic Dr. Pat Blake (Helena Carter) . Later on , the boy enlists the aid of Col. Fielding (Morris Ankrum) and his U.S. Marines . The soldiers go under the surface where the Marines encounter extraterrestrials in the tunnels , leading to the powerful alien leader .The earlier first version loosely based on a story by John Battle results to be a potent lesson how to direct a film in low budget and it holds a subtle but efficient intrigue . Gradual as well as notable built-up suspense is quite superb as when the aliens are shown largely at the ending and to create a real menace . This exciting film packs chills , thrills , guessing , paranoia , absence of all characterization and spectacular FX by that time , though today dated . In fact , the sandpit opening and closing was done by cutting a long slit in a piece of heavy canvas and inserting a large funnel . And including stock footage , as it shows tanks being loaded onto train flatcars that were actually WW2 M10 tank destroyers and by the time of this film were superseded by newer models . Chilling tale of an alien invasion , this is a nice thriller/SciFi in its own right , dealing with a saucer descends on earth and takes over human beings when they fall into a sandpit . The story is told from the view point of a kid , including a surprising and unexpected finale . Several actors performed the slaves , working in shifts , which meant each performer who did the "walking" for a Martian needed his own custom-made footwear . It is one of the best of the Cold War allegories and a lot of filmmakers cited the movie as a key , influential film in their lives . Colorful cinematography by John Seitz in garish Cinecolor that gives the movie a distinctive , almost muddy look appropriate in particular to the strange underground atmosphere . This motion picture (1953) was well directed by William Cameron Menzies who shows real skill in the way that everyday things are made to carry a sense of menace . Cameron was one of the best production designers of film history and directed a few movies , such as : ¨The Maze¨ , ¨The Whip Hand¨ , ¨Drums in the Deep South¨ ,¨The Green Cockatoo¨ , ¨Thief of Bagdad¨ , and another classic Sci-Fi : ¨Things to come¨ . In ¨Invaders from Mars¨ Menzies provides a punchy suspenseful Sci-Fi in green-and-gold color about some unwelcome aliens . Although it aroused no great attention in its day and despite its commercial and critical failure , it has become a cult classic . This oddball vintage 50s SF tale is remade 33 years later with similar plot , as a Martian invasion perceived only by one young boy , being directed by Tobe Hooper again with Jimmy Hunt , who played young David MacLean in the original and the police chief in this remake , and Hunter Carson who is the real life son of Karen Black who plays a hysterical school nurse , Timothy Bottoms , Laraine Newman , James Karen , Bud Cort , Louise Fletcher , Eric Pierpoint . This second high-tech outing pays homage to the first retelling but being really inferior to precedent .
In recent years I have made an effort to find and watch classic films that evoke the time period in which they were made, this is a very good example of one such film, directed by William Cameron Menzies (Things to Come). Basically one night young David MacLean (Jimmy Hunt) is awakened by a thunderstorm, then a strange light appears, from his bedroom window he sees a large flying saucer descend and disappear into the sandpit area behind the house. His scientist father George (Leif Erickson) knows that his son is not the sort of child to make up things, so he investigates, when he returns the next morning David notices a strange red puncture on the back of his neck, and his father behaves cold and hostile. David soon realises that something is wrong, he notices certain townspeople with the same mark on the back of their neck and acting the same sort of way, then he witnesses his child neighbour Kathy Wilson (Janine Perreau) disappearing underground walking in the sandpit, she later returns with hardly any emotion at all. David flees to the police station for help, he is placed under the protection of health-department physician Dr. Pat Blake (Helena Carter), who slowly begins to believe his crazy story, and taking David to local astronomer Dr. Stuart Kelston (Arthur Franz), he confirms with the boy and Dr. Blake that there is likely to be an upcoming invasion from the planet Mars. Dr. Kelston convinces the U.S. Army to investigate immediately, and soon enough the Pentagon assembles troops and tanks, command by Colonel Fielding (Morris Ankrum). David and Dr. Blake near the sandpit are suddenly sucked underground, two tall slit-eyed green humanoids have captured them, but Colonel Fielding and some troops find the entrance to the flying saucer. Inside they confront the Martian mastermind: a giant green head with a humanoid face atop a small, green partial torso with several green arm-tentacles, encased in a transparent sphere, it is served by tall, green, silent mutants. The human victims taken have been implanted with mind-control devices, they are attempting to sabotage an atomic rocket, if they are captured the devices implode and cause a fatal cerebral haemorrhage. Dr. Blake and David are rescued, Colonel Fielding and the troops open fire at the pursuing mutants, the army plant a timed explosive charges aboard the saucer. Following a large explosion, David wakes to find himself in his bed, just like at the beginning, his parents are back to normal, he returns to bed assured that he had a nightmare, but then he goes to the window and sees the same flying saucer from his dream descending into the sandpit, it is unclear what happens next. Also starring Hillary Brooke as Mrs. Mary MacLean, Max Wagner as Sergeant Rinaldi, Milburn Stone as Captain Roth, Walter Sande as Police Desk Sergeant Finlay, John Eldredge as Mr. Turner, Robert Shayne as Dr. Bill Wilson, Luce Potter as Martian Intelligence and It's a Wonderful Life's Todd Karns as Jim the Gas Station Attendant. Over the years this film has gained a cult status, its distorted and abstract surrealistic are the big reasons, you can maybe laugh now at the ridiculous of it, especially the low-budget special effects and costumes for the alien creatures, but in a way, that is part of the appeal, and it certainly plays on the paranoia that went on at the time, it could have been less chatty and have more alien stuff, but overall it is a relatively entertaining classic science-fiction thriller. Good!
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.