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Ignite Films: Invaders from Mars (1953) - Reviewed
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| Courtesy of Ignite Films |
A deceptively simple but steadily frightening story of a
young boy David MacLean (Jimmy Hunt) who sees a neon-lit green flying saucer
landing in his backyard, the son alerts his father to the scene who goes to
investigate. Many hours later David’s
father returns with some sort of surgical marking on the back of his neck and
his personality has changed from friendly and personable to hostile and
domineering. Gradually more and more
people of the neighborhood start exhibiting the same peculiar characteristics and
the boy finds himself on the run from both of his parents with only Dr. Pat
Blake (Helena Carter in her final film role) believing in his otherwise insane
story. Meeting up with astronomer Dr. Stuart
Kelston (Arthur Franz), they conclude the strange phenomenon are the beginning
of a full-scale invasion from Mars, prompting a military battle ala Byron
Haskin’s film of The War of the Worlds between man and extraterrestrial.
Despite being made independently on a low budget, Menzies’
film based on a screenplay by Richard Blake and inspired by a story told by John
Tucker Battle’s wife involving dreams of alien conquest, Invaders from Mars is
mostly remembered as that other space alien film that was desperately trying to
beat the aforementioned The War of the Worlds of the same year to the
finish line. While Invaders from Mars
did indeed make it there first with its striking experimental SuperCinecolor
theatrical printing process that enhanced colors in the same way nitrate illuminated
early black-and-white films, its legacy is overshadowed by the much more
expensive and polished The War of the Worlds.
For being tightly budgeted however, the film nevertheless
makes use of spectacular visual design from the Norman Rockwell Americana to a
surreal use of gold-green colors including a recurring vista of a bright green
saucer shaped craft burrowing underground.
Also present are the director’s trademark Dutch angled bird’s eye view
shots looking down from atop alien machinery slowly creeping down to surgically
alter the minds of their human hosts. But
even when it isn’t swimming in alien spacecraft replete with tall green aliens
with lasers running around tunnels back and forth, the film takes a surrealist
look at locations we take for granted such as a police station with an opacity
and sterility that feels more like dream than reality.
Brilliantly photographed by John F. Seitz, best known for
his work on Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity, The Lost Weekend and
Sunset Boulevard, Invaders from Mars is, in fully restored 4K
form by the independent distributor Ignite Films, really very visually
striking. While mostly shot in the open
outdoors and interiors of the household interspersed with stock military
footage of tanks firing and convoying, when it finds its way into the alien
ship with a strange orb-like tentacled being in gold makeup being carefully
guarded by taller green aliens it has a glisten and glitter most neon drenched
filmmakers today would be drooling over.
Then there’s the score by Raoul Kraushaar, best known for
his work in television for The Abbott and Costello Show and Lassie. Serving up a hair-raising score that ranges
from subtly unnerving to shrill brass screeches in addition to an eerie chorus
of voices some would say forecasted the use of Gyorgy Ligeti’s Requiem famously
played during the shrieking monolith sequences in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A
Space Odyssey. While used as
diegetic sound taking place in the movie, it nevertheless was a peculiar if not
ethereal, haunted sound of dissonant disembodied voices howling away.
The ensemble cast of Arthur Franz, Helena Carter and Jimmy
Hunt is splendid with most of the film’s weight resting solely on the shoulders
of its plucky child hero David. While
the film is populated by adults, Invaders from Mars is primarily focused
on the child sensing something terrible is happening to the adults all around
him. Much of the film looks directly at
his face with green lighting shining on him suggesting the magnitude of what
he's seeing and the sense of fear and desperation he exudes is palpable. Plus when he says that famous line “Gee whiz!”,
you know you’re in a very special particular time and place in sci-fi lore.
Upon release of the film, critics initially wrote it off as
a good yarn for kids while others charged the film was too frightening for
youngsters but all agreed upon the gloss and color of the imagery. However, in the years since the film’s
stature has only grown with filmmakers such as Don Coscarelli citing Invaders
from Mars as influential on his iconic cult horror hit Phantasm with
respect to a child actor running around in a horror world intended for adult
viewership. Then in 1986, Cannon Films
greenlit a remake directed by Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre),
penned by Dan O’Bannon (Alien) with visual effects by Stan Winston (Aliens)
and John Dykstra (Star Wars) that is despite the negative reception
startlingly close to the original Menzies film.
Strangely however, the original 1953 Invaders from Mars was hard
to come by.
That wrong has been righted however by independent
distributor Ignite Films who, in conjunction with the George Eastman Museum and
the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, have released a 4K
restoration of the film available on both blu-ray disc and 4K UHD disc in a
limited collector’s edition many home theater buffs are already calling “the number
one 4K disc of 2023”. For audiences who
have never seen the film or only know of the Tobe Hooper remake, they’re in for
a most special treat of one of the best top-to-bottom film restorations in
recent memory. Though expensive and only
available online through Ignite Films’ website, their disc of Invaders from
Mars marks an incredible opening to what will hopefully be a fruitful year
of film restorations made available in lovingly rendered boutique special
editions. Bravo!
--Andrew Kotwicki
