The War of the Worlds
                                                                    
Director: Byron Haskins
Year: 1953
Rating: 7.0
It was the middle of the Cold War when this film came out and I suspect that influenced the making of this film as it did Invaders from Mars, Body Snatchers and other sci-fi films of the time. They were paranoid times full of anxiety and fear. This film certainly plays into the mood. It is based on the H.G. Wells novel but is brought up to date from the Victorian Age and over from England to America. The enemy is relentless, inhuman and scientifically advanced. The Soviet Union had tested the atom bomb in 1949 and seemed to be producing prodigious amounts of steel and other industrial goods (which proved to be false). I am not sure what inspired Wells to write this - some suggest his animosity towards imperialism - but it is a brilliant novel that focuses on one man looking for his wife among the destruction of the world around him and trying to survive the invaders from Mars.



This was produced by George Pal very early on in his move over to live action after years both in Europe and then in America of making animated short films. Puppetoons as they were called. Like so many others he had left Germany, first to France and then to America to escape the Nazis. In his time in animation, he had become a master of special effects and that is the strength of this film. It won an Oscar for them. Perhaps Pal was thinking more of the Nazis than of Russia as in his wonderful short Tulips Shall Grow from 1942. The film is directed by Byron Haskins who was to work with Pal a few times and also had a background in special effects.



They come first in what appear to be comets or meteors crashing into earth. A crowd from the town comes out to see them and oohs and aahs at them and thinks about how this will increase tourism and how they can make some money from it. One of the on-lookers is a scientist who was fishing nearby - Clayton Forrester played by Gene Barry in large horn-rimmed glasses to look intellectual. That night as he romances the town belle Sylvia (Ann Robinson) at a square dance the lights go off, the phones are dead and watches become magnetic. Being the genius he is, he says something is off. Up at the comet, three men look on in wonder as the comet begins to unscrew and these long-legged creatures come out. Like any good American would, they go up to them and say hi. A second later they are ash. The War has begun. They are winning everywhere and mankind is literally on the run as the large cities are destroyed. This part captures the pessimism of the novel nicely.



Two good scenes to come. The space ships are landing all over the world. The creatures that come out of them are robots with the Martians staying inside. They are indestructible - even to an atom bomb being dropped on them. When this happens Barry and the army and on-lookers are about 200 yards away. Certainly, a safe distance from an atomic blast! Like us hiding under our desks at school in drills. Duck and cover. Next the machines head to Los Angeles and this part is brilliantly done with the city being destroyed, people evacuating, panic in the streets and God saving us in the end. Thank You God. The Martians didn't know that God was on our side. This was way better than I was expecting - moves quickly, has some solid characters and the special effects for the time are terrific. I could have done with less screaming by Sylvia but then I would be screaming too.