Invaders from Mars (1953 film)
Encyclopedia
Invaders From Mars is a science fiction film
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...

 directed by William Cameron Menzies
William Cameron Menzies
William Cameron Menzies was an Academy Award-winning American film production designer and art director who also worked as a director, producer, and screenwriter during a career spanning five decades...

, taken from a scenario by Richard Blake, and based on a story treatment by John Tucker Battle who was inspired by a dream recounted by his wife. It was produced independently by Edward L. Alperson Jr. and starred Jimmy Hunt
Jimmy Hunt
Jimmy Hunt is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as David in Invaders from Mars . In the 1986 remake of the same film he plays the police chief.-Filmography:*The Mating of Millie...

, Helena Carter
Helena Carter
Helena Carter was an American film actress in the 1940s and 1950s.Carter was born Helen Rickerts in New York City, and her family was of Scottish descent. She attended Columbia University, studying for a teaching degree. During this period she worked as a fashion model, which led to her becoming a...

, and Arthur Franz
Arthur Franz
Arthur Franz was a B-movie actor whose most notable role was as Lieutenant, Junior Grade H. Paynter, Jr. in The Caine Mutiny. He also appeared in Roseanna McCoy , Invaders from Mars , Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man and The Unholy Wife , among others...

. After it was completed, Invaders was distributed by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp.
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...



The film is notable for telling its story from the point of view of an older child in an adult world heading into crisis. An Eastmancolor negative was used for principal photography, with vivid SuperCinecolor
Cinecolor
Cinecolor was an early subtractive color-model two color film process, based upon the Prizma system of the 1910s and 1920s and the Multicolor system of the late 1920s and 1930s. It was developed by William T. Crispinel and Alan M...

 prints struck for the film's initial release to provide an oddly striking and vivid look to the film's images. (Regular Eastmancolor prints were used thereafter for later releases.) The production also made use of subtle, imaginative set designs for certain scenes, and a unique, outre sound effect in the musical score consisting of an ethereal, rhythmically wavering tonal composition sung in unison by a choir.

While some film sources have claimed that Invaders was designed for the early 3-D
3-D film
A 3-D film or S3D film is a motion picture that enhances the illusion of depth perception...

 process (it was already in production before the breakthrough 3-D film, Bwana Devil
Bwana Devil
Bwana Devil is a 1952 drama based on the true story of the Tsavo maneaters. It was written, directed, and produced by Arch Oboler, and is considered the first color, American 3-D feature. It started the 3-D boom in the U.S. film making industry from 1952 to 1954...

, was released), it was not filmed in or released in 3-D. Despite being a quickly shot, low-budget 1950s feature, Invaders also uses occasional camera angles set lower or higher than usual to enhance the dramatic and visual impact of certain key scenes. Some of Menzies' set designs (notably those in the police station, the planetarium, and the interiors of the Martian flying saucer) also consist of elongated structures with stark, unadorned walls, sometimes much taller than necessary, adding touches of dreamlike surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....

.

Plot synopsis

Late one night, a small boy, David MacLean (Jimmy Hunt
Jimmy Hunt
Jimmy Hunt is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as David in Invaders from Mars . In the 1986 remake of the same film he plays the police chief.-Filmography:*The Mating of Millie...

), is awakened by a thunderstorm. From his bedroom window he sees a large flying saucer
Flying saucer
A flying saucer is a type of unidentified flying object sometimes believed to be of alien origin with a disc or saucer-shaped body, usually described as silver or metallic, occasionally reported as covered with running lights or surrounded with a glowing light, hovering or moving rapidly either...

 descend and disappear into the sandpit area behind his home. After rushing to tell his parents, his scientist father (Leif Erickson
Leif Erickson
Leif Erickson was an American film and television actor.-Background:Leif Erickson was born William Wycliffe Anderson in Alameda, California. His father was commander of a fleet of ships and his mother was a noted newspaperwoman and writer...

) goes to investigate David's claim. When his father returns much later in the morning, David notices an unusual red puncture along the hairline on the back of his father's neck; his father is now behaving in a cold and hostile manner. David soon begins to realize something is very wrong: one-by-one he notices certain townsfolk are acting in exactly the same way. Through his telescope, David sees child neighbor Kathy Wilson walking in the sandpit, when suddenly she disappears underground. David flees to the police station for help, and he is eventually placed under the protection of health-department physician Dr. Pat Blake (Helena Carter
Helena Carter
Helena Carter was an American film actress in the 1940s and 1950s.Carter was born Helen Rickerts in New York City, and her family was of Scottish descent. She attended Columbia University, studying for a teaching degree. During this period she worked as a fashion model, which led to her becoming a...

), who has begun to believe his story.

With the help of local astronomer Dr. Stuart Kelston (Arthur Franz
Arthur Franz
Arthur Franz was a B-movie actor whose most notable role was as Lieutenant, Junior Grade H. Paynter, Jr. in The Caine Mutiny. He also appeared in Roseanna McCoy , Invaders from Mars , Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man and The Unholy Wife , among others...

) and Dr. Blake, David soon learns the flying saucer is likely the vanguard of an invasion from the planet Mars
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun in the Solar System. The planet is named after the Roman god of war, Mars. It is often described as the "Red Planet", as the iron oxide prevalent on its surface gives it a reddish appearance...

. Dr. Kelston contacts the army and convinces them to immediately investigate: an important government rocket research plant is located nearby. In short order the Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...

 marshals its forces and sends troops and tanks under the command of Colonel Fielding (Morris Ankrum
Morris Ankrum
Morris Ankrum was an American radio, television and film character actor.-Early life:Born Morris Nussbaum in Danville, Illinois, Ankrum originally began a career in academics. After graduating from USC with a law degree, he went on to an associate professorship in economics at the University of...

). An alien sabotage plot at the plant is soon uncovered, leading back to the sandpit, and the army surrounds the saucer landing site.

Standing well away from the army search, Dr. Blake and young David are suddenly sucked underground. They are captured by two tall, slit-eyed green
Green
Green is a color, the perception of which is evoked by light having a spectrum dominated by energy with a wavelength of roughly 520–570 nanometres. In the subtractive color system, it is not a primary color, but is created out of a mixture of yellow and blue, or yellow and cyan; it is considered...

 humanoid
Humanoid
A humanoid is something that has an appearance resembling a human being. The term first appeared in 1912 to refer to fossils which were morphologically similar to, but not identical with, those of the human skeleton. Although this usage was common in the sciences for much of the 20th century, it...

s and taken through underground tunnels to the flying saucer. Army troops locate and blow open an entrance to the tunnels, and Colonel Fielding and a small detachment make their way to the saucer entrance. Inside they confront the Martian mastermind; it has a giant green head with a humanoid face atop a small, green partial torso with several green arm-tentacles, and is encased in a transparent sphere. The Martian mastermind is served by the tall, green, silent mutants, . Under their master's mental commands, the mute humanoids have implanted mind-control devices in the lower skulls of their kidnapped victims, forcing them to attempt to sabotage an atomic rocket project being built at a military plant near the town; if they are caught the mind control devices implode, causing a fatal cerebral hemorrhage. The troops and Colonel Fielding open fire on the mutants, finally escaping from the saucer with Dr. Blake and young David. After a short running battle in the tunnels they climb their access ladder to the surface. Orders are given for everyone to quickly leave the sandpit area: Fielding's troops have planted timed explosive charges aboard the saucer.

In an extended montage, David runs downhill (towards the camera), away from the sandpit. As he does so, flashback
Flashback (narrative)
Flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial backstory...

s of the film's important events are superimposed
Superimposed
Superimposed is an Indie Metal band based in Manchester, England. The exact membership of the band is subject to speculation, as the number of members appearing at gigs varies, and their identity is heavily masked...

 over a close-up
Close-up
In filmmaking, television production, still photography and the comic strip medium a close-up tightly frames a person or an object. Close-ups are one of the standard shots used regularly with medium shots and long shots . Close-ups display the most detail, but they do not include the broader scene...

 of his face, including several scenes played backwards for surreal effect. These are inter-cut with shots of the army artillery opening fire on the sandpit or close-ups on the ticking timer slowly approaching zero. Over this climactic montage plays the wavering, ethereal choral score that has punctuated prior scenes, now indicating the saucer's drive is powering up to depart.

Following a large explosion, David is suddenly back in his bed. Thunder and lighting are heard again, as in the beginning of the film. His runs into his parents bedroom confused and frightened; they reassure him he was just having a bad dream, telling him to go back to sleep. More wind and loud thunder is heard; David climbs out of bed, goes to the window, and witnesses the very same flying saucer of his dream, slowly descending into the sandpit.

The film then poses a question that only the viewer can answer: Is young David trapped in a recurring nightmare or was the first a premonition of this now real event?

Special effects

The Martian heat-ray effect showing the bubbling, melting walls of the underground tunnels was created by shooting a large tub of boiling oatmeal from above, colored red with food coloring and lit with red lights.

The cooled, bubbled-up effect on some areas of the blasted tunnel walls was created by first using inflated balloons pinned to the tunnel walls. But in film tests they looked like balloons stuck to the walls, so the effects crew tried inflated latex condoms. Further testing showed the inflated condoms were much more convincing, and the crew wound up using 3,000 of them on portions of the tunnel set's walls. In some shots the condoms can be seen moving as the Martian mutants rush past them.

The sandpit sequences showing the sand closing access to the Martian tunnels below were created by simply reverse optical printing the gravity-fed, sand-trap collapse effect used for opening the various holes. (The same type of physical effect was used in MGM's 1956 science fiction film Forbidden Planet
Forbidden Planet
Forbidden Planet is a 1956 science fiction film directed by Fred M. Wilcox, with a screenplay by Cyril Hume. It stars Leslie Nielsen, Walter Pidgeon, and Anne Francis. The characters and its setting have been compared to those in William Shakespeare's The Tempest, and its plot contains certain...

 to create the depressed tracks left by the moving invisible Id monster
Monster
A monster is any fictional creature, usually found in legends or horror fiction, that is somewhat hideous and may produce physical harm or mental fear by either its appearance or its actions...

).

British release

A different ending was added in response to objections raised by the film's British distributor. Portions of Invaders were re-edited, and the original U. S. "was-it-all-just-a-nightmare?" ending was dropped in favor of a more straightforward conclusion. New sequences were also filmed, including one showing the destruction of the flying saucer in the air when the army's charges finally explode. The British release also includes a re-shot and greatly expanded planetarium
Planetarium
A planetarium is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation...

 scene. The new footage was shot several months after the original U. S. release, and while the adult actors had not changed significantly, child actor Jimmy Hunt had grown in height and looked older and had shorter hair. In the new sequence Hunt wears a sweater vest -- the vest materializes about 3 minutes into the scene at which time Dr. Kelston's necktie also appears to be retied -- and discusses with Dr. Kelston various flying-saucer accounts, such as the Mantell UFO Incident and the Lubbock Lights
Lubbock Lights
The Lubbock Lights were an unusual formation of lights seen over the city of Lubbock, Texas, from August-September 1951. The Lubbock Lights incident received national publicity and is regarded as one of the first great UFO cases in the United States....

.

Cast

  • Jimmy Hunt
    Jimmy Hunt
    Jimmy Hunt is an American actor. He is perhaps best known for his role as David in Invaders from Mars . In the 1986 remake of the same film he plays the police chief.-Filmography:*The Mating of Millie...

     as David Maclean
  • Helena Carter
    Helena Carter
    Helena Carter was an American film actress in the 1940s and 1950s.Carter was born Helen Rickerts in New York City, and her family was of Scottish descent. She attended Columbia University, studying for a teaching degree. During this period she worked as a fashion model, which led to her becoming a...

     as Dr. Pat Blake, MD
  • Arthur Franz
    Arthur Franz
    Arthur Franz was a B-movie actor whose most notable role was as Lieutenant, Junior Grade H. Paynter, Jr. in The Caine Mutiny. He also appeared in Roseanna McCoy , Invaders from Mars , Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man and The Unholy Wife , among others...

     as Dr. Stuart Kelston
  • Morris Ankrum
    Morris Ankrum
    Morris Ankrum was an American radio, television and film character actor.-Early life:Born Morris Nussbaum in Danville, Illinois, Ankrum originally began a career in academics. After graduating from USC with a law degree, he went on to an associate professorship in economics at the University of...

     as Col. Fielding
  • Leif Erickson
    Leif Erickson
    Leif Erickson was an American film and television actor.-Background:Leif Erickson was born William Wycliffe Anderson in Alameda, California. His father was commander of a fleet of ships and his mother was a noted newspaperwoman and writer...

     as George MacLean
  • Hillary Brooke
    Hillary Brooke
    Hillary Brooke was an American film actress best known for her work in Abbott and Costello and Sherlock Holmes films...

     as Mary MacLean
  • Max Wagner
    Max Wagner
    Max Wagner was a Mexican-born American film actor who specialized in playing small parts such as thugs, gangsters, sailors, henchmen, bodyguards, cab drivers and moving men, appearing in over 300 films in his career, most without receiving screen credit...

     as Sgt. Rinaldi
  • Milburn Stone
    Milburn Stone
    Milburn Stone was an American television actor, a nephew of Broadway comedian Fred Stone and the son of a shopkeeper, best known for his role as "Doc" on the CBS western series Gunsmoke. He also played a doctor, CDR Blake, in the 1943 film Gung Ho!.Stone was born in Burrton in Harvey County in...

     as Capt. Roth
  • Janine Perreau as Kathy Wilson
  • Barbara Billingsley
    Barbara Billingsley
    Barbara Billingsley was an American film, television, voice and stage actress. She gained prominence in the 1950s movie The Careless Years, acting opposite Natalie Trundy, followed by her best–known role, that of June Cleaver on the television series Leave It to Beaver and its sequel Still...

     as Secretary (Uncredited)
  • Bert Freed
    Bert Freed
    Bert Freed was a prolific American character actor, voice over actor, and the first actor to portray "Detective Columbo" on television.-Life and career:...

     as the Police Chief
  • Robert Shayne
    Robert Shayne
    Robert Shayne , born Robert Shaen Dawe, was an American actor.-Career:Shayne played many character roles in movies and television, such as a 1943 movie entitled Wagon Wheels West, but he is best remembered for his portrayal of the recurring character Police Inspector William "Bill" Henderson on the...

     as Professor Wilson

Critical reception

Critic Patrick Legare wrote of the film: "Originating during the science-fiction/Red-Scare boom of the '50s, Invaders From Mars is an entertaining little picture that holds up reasonably well."

Adaptation

In 1986
1986 in film
-Events:*April 12 - Actor Morgan Mason marries The Go-Go's Belinda Carlisle.*April 26 - Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger marries television journalist Maria Shriver.*May - Actress Heather Locklear marries Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee....

 Invaders from Mars
Invaders from Mars (1986 film)
Invaders from Mars is a 1986 science fiction film directed by Tobe Hooper from a screenplay by Dan O'Bannon and Don Jakoby. It is a remake of the 1953 science fiction film Invaders from Mars, and is a reworking of that film's screenplay by Richard Blake from an original story by John Tucker Battle...

was remade using the same title. It was directed by Tobe Hooper
Tobe Hooper
Tobe Hooper is an American film director and screenwriter, best known for his work in the horror film genre. His works include the cult classic The Texas Chain Saw Massacre , along with its first sequel, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 ; the three-time Emmy-nominated Stephen King film adaptation...

 and stars Karen Black
Karen Black
Karen Black is an American actress, screenwriter, singer, and songwriter. She is noted for appearing in such films as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Great Gatsby, Rhinoceros, The Day of the Locust, Nashville, Airport 1975, and Alfred Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot...

, Hunter Carson
Hunter Carson
Hunter Carson is an American actor, screenwriter, producer and director.Carson was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of actress Karen Black and actor, producer, screenwriter and director L. M. Kit Carson. He is stepson of Stephen Eckelberry and stepbrother of Celine Eckelberry, Stephen's...

 and Timothy Bottoms
Timothy Bottoms
-Early life:Bottoms was born in Santa Barbara, California, the eldest son of Betty and James "Bud" Bottoms, who is a sculptor and art teacher. He is the brother of actors Joseph Bottoms , Sam Bottoms and Ben Bottoms . In 1967, Bottoms toured Europe as part of the Santa Barbara Madrigal...

. The original film's child star Jimmy Hunt plays the part of the police chief.
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK