Welcome back to “From My Collection” where I take a look at a movie pulled from my very own collection! Word of warning, though, I’m often talking about films that have been out for years or even decades, so I’m not afraid to drift into SPOILER territory, so if you haven’t seen any films I discuss in this series and don’t want to be spoiled, please stop reading and go see the film first before you come here and read the review.
If you’ve already seen the film or you just don’t care about spoilers, then read on and I hope you enjoy the article!
How do you adapt a 1898 story from H.G. Wells about an alien invasion from Mars for the 1950s? You take the story, change the location from London to California and add a nice sized helping of Cold War fears into the mix. Producer George Pal was tasked with bringing the classic story to the big screen in 1953.
The story starts in Linda Rosa, California, when a mysterious meteor falls from outer space. Eventually, the meteor opens up and deadly spacecraft from Mars emerge and begin to terrorize multiple locations around the world. Eventually, the Martians prove to be way more advanced and intelligent as their invasion continues and nothing humanity does to defend itself seems to be effective.
The story is told mostly from the perspective of Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry), a scientist that is trying to figure out a way to penetrate the Martian forces so that humanity can fight back. With him is school teacher Sylvia Van Buren (Ann Robinson), a character that mostly screams throughout the picture because… well, let’s just say it was a different time for female protagonists vs. male protagonists.
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| The Martians attack in the classic 1950s sci-film epic, "The War of the Worlds". |
The movie is the pinnacle of 1950s sci-fi with state-of-the-art special effects for its time that also earned the movie an Academy Award. Surprisingly, while you can definitely see how the effects were made, the movie holds up extremely well. You see the DNA of other alien invasion movies such as 1996’s “Independence Day” and, of course, Steven Spielberg’s own adaptation of the story from 2005, “War of the Worlds”.
As far as the performances go, all of the actors are pretty solid here. Barry is great as the typical leading man who stands out amongst the cast as a leading man tended to do back in those days. Robinson is given the short end of the stick by having to play Sylvia as a shrieking and oftentimes annoying character but that’s not her fault and she plays the role well at least. Again, different times and if that character were written today, she’d be a far more stronger character in spite of any fear she may be facing.
My only real problem is the problem that I have with H.G. Wells’ original story. The ending is anticlimactic. The movie seems to be hitting a new height when suddenly Wells’ abrupt ending to the story kind of stalls it. At the end of the day, it is not humanity that stops the invasion, it’s the various bacteria and diseases of Earth that take them down due to their bodies not being immune to them as ours are.
It’s not the worst ending in the world, but it is definitely a deus ex machina ending that has plagued every adaptation of Wells’ story. It feels like Dr. Forrester is going to work for a solution to the invasion, but Earth beats him to the punch and the Martians go out not with a bang, but with a whimper.
Still, the conclusion aside, the movie is still incredibly entertaining and if you’re a fan of 1950s sci-fi and you somehow haven’t gotten around to this one, you owe it to yourself to correct that oversight. If you’re not new to the film, then maybe it’s time to pop some popcorn and revisit this bonafide classic!
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