War Of The Worlds (1953)
Loosely
adapted from H.G. Wells' classic novel of the same name, this 1953
doomsday sci-fi was billed as a "mighty panorama of
Earth-shaking fury as an army from Mars invades".
 The War of the Worlds hit movie screens smack in the
middle of the Cold War, preying insidiously upon America's fear of
anything foreign and red, be it Russian or Martian.
An ominous monologue describes the Martians as a civilisation
on the brink of demise.
Stranded on a withering planet, they have no choice but to look
for colonisation on the lush, ready-to-stake-your-claim canvas we
call Earth. And as decades of sci-fi have taught us, there's
nothing scarier than desperate, homeless aliens.
Like Orson Welles did in his infamous 1938 radio adaptation of
H.G's book, producer (and former animator) George Pal sets the
stage in contemporary America, specifically a small Southern
California town called Linda Rosa.
A meteor crash-lands in the hills, and the kindly townspeople
are curious. Scientist Clayton Forrester, however, is much more
interested in square dancing the night away with the local
minister's niece, the lovely Sylvia.
 Three
deputies are sent to watch the glowing rock that night, and
unfortunately for them, a hatch unscrews and venal Martians pop
out.
The deputy triptych is evaporated, and soon the Martians are
wreaking havoc in their mushroom-shaped space ships. Sylvia's
minister uncle is also vaporised, so she and Barry run away
together in an attempt to get help.
The two take off in a sputtering aeroplane, which crashes and
forces them into hiding at an abandoned farmhouse. Three alien
ships surround them and a creepy Martian puts his arm on Sylvia's
shoulder, only to be clubbed by Dr. Forrester for his advances.
Meanwhile, the military and all its fancy WWII weaponry (even a
detonated atom bomb) is unable to make a dent in the Martian
attack. And the worst thing is, these skinny bad guys don't have
an ounce of sympathy or remorse.
For a good part of the movie, ruthless world destruction - the
likes of which only a Martian can properly inflict - is the order
of the day.
 There
is a little something, thank goodness - a very little something -
that can stave off the extraterrestrials, but everyone knows it's
poor form to reveal those kinds of Martian secrets. We don't want
them coming back around.
The War of the Worlds was the anti-The Day the Earth
Stood Still.
The aliens had no message for humanity, no noble
purpose. They just wanted the world, and they wanted it now.
Making the creepy invaders even more ominous was the fact that
the movie never showed too much of them (a technique later used to
great effect in 1975's Jaws).
What audiences did see were the aliens' hovering war machines,
the scariest on the silver screen yet - definitely not the bobbing
saucers of old-school sci-fi.
Special effects maestro Gordon Jennings won a posthumous
Academy Award for his artistry, and the film went on to influence
countless "alien invasion" films of the ensuing years,
from 1956's Earth vs. the Flying Saucers to 1996's Independence
Day.
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