The War of the Worlds (1953 film)
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For other uses, see The War of the Worlds (film).
| The War of the Worlds | |
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 Film poster |
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| Directed by | Byron Haskin |
| Produced by | George Pál |
| Written by | H. G. Wells (novel) Barré Lyndon |
| Starring | Gene Barry Ann Robinson Less Tremayne |
| Music by | Leith Stephens |
| Cinematography | George Barnes, ASC |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 26 August 1953 |
| Running time | 85 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $2,000,000 US (est.) |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The War of the Worlds (also sometimes known as H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds) is a 1953 science fiction film starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. It was the first on screen depiction of the H. G. Wells classic novel of the same name. Produced by George Pál and directed by Byron Haskin from a script by Barré Lyndon, it was the first of several adaptations of Wells' work to be filmed by Pál, and is considered to be one of the great science fiction films of the 1950s. It won an Oscar for its special effects.
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[edit] Plot
The story is updated to the 1950s for this film, and the setting is moved from the environs of London to southern California. Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry), a world renowned physicist, is on a fishing vacation in the small town of Pine Summit when a giant meteorite lands in the hills above the town. Along with the townsfolk, he goes to investigate, but finds the meteorite too hot to examine immediately. While at the landing site, he meets Sylvia van Buren (Ann Robinson) and her uncle, Pastor Dr. Matthew Collins (Lewis Martin). He decides to wait in town for the meteorite to cool down.
Later, after most people have gone home, the meteorite unscrews and opens, disgorging a Heat-Ray device from Mars. When the three men who remained behind approach in friendly greeting, it kills them without warning. When Forrester and the sheriff return, they are attacked as well, but survive. After the military are dispatched, the meteorite deploys three floating war machines. Pastor Collins approaches the Martians in peace, but they kill him with their Heat-Ray without attempting to communicate.
The full force of the United States armed forces, up to and including an A-bomb dropped by a "Flying Wing", is unleashed against the invaders, but, even more so than in Wells' book, human weapons prove to be totally ineffective; the Martians are protected by an impenetrable force-field. Meanwhile, there are reports of other landings all over the world.
Forrester and Sylvia flee, along with the rest of the civilians. Their plane crashes and they take shelter in a nearby abandoned farmhouse. They are trapped in the basement when another meteorite crashes into the house. The couple come in contact with an actual Martian, when the creature leaves its war-machine to investigate. They manage to fight it off and escape, eventually linking up with Forrester's co-workers, who are trying to find a way to defeat the aliens. However, widespread panic among the general populace scatters the research group and their equipment is wrecked. In the confusion, Forrester and Sylvia become separated.
All seems lost, with humanity helpless before the onslaught. Forrester frantically searches for Sylvia in the burning ruins of a Los Angeles under attack. He finally finds her among other survivors awaiting the end in a church. Then, suddenly, they see an approaching Martian war machine crash. Upon investigating, Forrester realizes that the seemingly all-powerful invaders are dying – they have no defenses against the "smallest and humblest of Earth's living creatures": viruses and bacteria.
[edit] Cast
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* Not credited on-screen.
[edit] Production
The film opens with a prologue in black and white and switches to Technicolor at the opening title sequence.
George Pál originally planned for the final third of the film to be in 3-D to correlate with the final attack by the Martians. The plan was dropped prior to actual production of the film, presumably being deemed too expensive.[1]
World War II stock footage was used to produce a montage of destruction to show the worldwide invasion, with armies of all nations joining together to fight the invaders.
Wells had used the second half of his novel to make a satirical commentary on civilization and the class struggle. Lyndon did not write the satire into the movie, though he did add a religious theme, to the point that the Martians begin dying shortly after blasting a church.
[edit] Special effects
A conscious effort was made to avoid the "flying saucer" look of stereotypical UFOs; the Martian war machines were instead sleek, sinister-looking constructs shaped like manta rays floating over the ground. Three Martian war machines were made for the film, out of copper. One was modified for use in the film Robinson Crusoe on Mars (which Byron Haskin also directed) and was supposedly later melted down for a copper drive. Forrest Ackerman owned one. It is believed that the third was destroyed in a fire.
Each machine was topped with a towering mobile eye, pulsing, peering around and firing beams of red sparks, all accompanied by thrumming and a high-pitched clattering shriek ([1]) when the Heat-Ray was fired from the eye. The distinctive sound effect of the weapon was created by the orchestra performing the musical score, mainly through the use of violins and cellos. For many years, it was utilized as a standard "ray-gun" sound on children's television shows and the sci-fi anthology series The Outer Limits particularly the episode The Children of Spider County.
The machines also fired a green ray (referred to by Forrester as a "skeleton ray") from their wingtips, generating a distinctive sound ([2]) and exposing the interior of its target (in the case of humans, their skeletons became briefly visible) before disintegrating it. This latter weapon seems to have been substituted for the chemical weapon black smoke described in the novel. The sound effect was reused in Star Trek: The Original Series, accompanying the launch of photon torpedos.
Much effort was put forth to recreate the tripods of the novel, but they proved problematic for various reasons and it was eventually decided to make the machines float on three invisible electronic legs instead. To show their existence, sparks were to be shown directly under the hovering Martian war machines as they move along – however, in the final film, these only appear when the military and Dr Forrester first see one of the machines. It proved too difficult to mark out the invisible legs when smoke and other effects also had to be seen beneath the machines.
The Martians, rather than being octopus-like, were instead presented as small brown hulkish bipeds, with two hands, each with three fingers. They had no heads mounted on their shoulders; instead a single large eye, with three distinct lenses (blue, red and green), peered out from the top of the torso.
[edit] Response
The War of the Worlds had its official premiere in Hollywood on February 20, 1953, although it did not go into general theatrical release until the fall of that year.[2] The film was both a critical and box office success. It accrued US$ 2,000,000 in distributors' domestic (U.S. and Canada) rentals, making it the year's biggest science fiction film hit.[3]
The New York Times review noted the film was "an imaginatively conceived, professionally turned adventure, which makes excellent use of Technicolor, special effects by a crew of experts and impressively drawn backgrounds...Director Byron Haskin, working from a tight script by Barre Lyndon, has made this excursion suspenseful, fast and, on occasion, properly chilling."[4] "Brog" in Variety felt it was "a socko science-fiction feature, as fearsome as a film as was the Orson Welles 1938 radio interpretation...what starring honors there are go strictly to the special effects, which create an atmosphere of soul-chilling apprehension so effectively audiences will actually take alarm at the danger posed in the picture. It can't be recommended for the weak-hearted, but to the many who delight in an occasional good scare, it's sock entertainment of hackle-raising quality."[5]
[edit] Fictional influences
- The 1988 War of the Worlds TV series is essentially a sequel to this film, and employs several elements from the film, including having Ann Robinson reprise her role as Sylvia Van Buren in three episodes. Robinson also quasi-reprised her role in two later films, first as Dr. Van Buren in 1988's Midnight Movie Massacre and as Dr. Sylvia Van Buren in 2005's The Naked Monster.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 named one of its lead characters Dr. Clayton Forrester in an homage to the film. Ironically (and perhaps intentionally so for humour), the series' Forrester is a mad scientist.
- Independence Day (1996), directed by Roland Emmerich. The aliens (not from Mars) are defeated in part by installing a computer virus onto the mothership. There are also several other references to the 1953 film, such as the failed attempt to use an atomic bomb, and a downed streetlight twisted into the shape of the gooseneck of the original war machines. In a homage to War of the Worlds, director Emmerich added a scene in which three helicopters are destroyed while attempting to communicate with a city destroyer.
- Mars Attacks! (1996), directed by Tim Burton, a more humorous treatment, and very loosely based upon the original story, but more directly adapted from Topps' famous 1962 trading card series. The film primarily spoofs 1950s alien invasion films, including The War of the Worlds. In this version, the Martians are repelled not by the natural germs on Earth, but by Slim Whitman's yodeling, which causes their heads to explode, an obvious parody of the film's (and novel's) ending.
- Steven Spielberg's 2005 updated adaptation, though not a remake, does feature several references to the original film. Gene Barry and Ann Robinson had cameo appearances, and the aliens kept their three-fingered hands, though they became reptilian-like tripods.
[edit] References
- ^ Warren, Bill. Keep Watching The Skies Vol I: 1950 - 1957, pgs. 151 - 163, McFarland, 1982. ISBN 0-89950-032-3.
- ^ Rubin, Steve. Cinefantastique magazine, Vol 5 No. 4 (1977), "The War of the Worlds", pgs. 4 - 16; 34 - 47
- ^ Gebert, Michael. The Encyclopedia of Movie Awards (listing of 'Box Office (Domestic Rentals)' for 1953, taken from Variety magazine), St. Martin's Paperbacks, 1996. ISBN 0-668-05308-9. "Rentals" refers to the distributor/studio's share of the box office gross, which, according to Gebert, is normally roughly half of the money generated by ticket sales.
- ^ The Screen in Review: New Martian Invasion Is Seen in War of the Worlds, Which Bows at Mayfair. New York Times, August 14, 1953. Retrieved on 2007-12-29.
- ^ "Brog". Review from Variety dated April 6, 1953, taken from Variety's Complete Science Fiction Reviews, edited by Don Willis, Garland Publishing, Inc., 1985. ISBN 0-8240-6263-9
[edit] External links
- War of the Worlds Movies.info
- The War of the Worlds at the Internet Movie Database
- The War of the Worlds Movie Site
- Making of the movie at site dedicated to all things War Of The Worlds
- Lux Radio Theatre's Adaptation of 1953 Movie, 02-08-1955
- http://geocities.com/mustavapint/aliens.htm For some thoughts on Hollywoods interpretation of Wells' novel.
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