When I was a lad I got to see this one on television fairly early, about five years after it was in theaters. I was pretty taken with the film, I was still in grade school. Seeing it again though I managed to note a lot of the scientific flaws in the film.
I cannot imagine that Arthur Franz who is identified as Helena Carter's favorite astronomer was able to deduce so much about life on Mars from telescope observation. We haven't got that far with the Mars probes we've sent in more recent times. The Martians know plenty about us though, they know exactly where on Earth man is learning about them and they want to do something about it.
This all starts when young Jimmy Hunt sees a flying saucer actually land in a field near his house and bury itself beneath the soil. When his astronomer father Leif Erickson goes out to investigate, he gets caught in some artificial quicksand and when he comes back in the house he's not your typical Leave It To Beaver Hugh Beaumont like dad any more. He's got a little crystal knob sticking out the nape of his neck and pretty soon these start sprouting up on people, like Jimmy's mother Hillary Brooke, the police chief Bert Freed, etc.
Fortunately for the world's sake, young Master Hunt convinces people before Kevin McCarthy did in Invasion Of the Body Snatchers that something ain't kosher out in that field. The armed might of the US Military is brought to bear.
William Cameron Menzies put together some real nice sets and special effects in a film that is before those computer graphic things we're now so jaded with. He also got some convincing performances out of a good cast of character actors, mostly from Jimmy Hunt. The young man got his career role in this film, we see this invasion through his eyes.
Of course there's perfectly logical reason why it is with his eyes which I cannot reveal.
The conception of the Martians when we do meet the invaders could possibly be where the inheritors of Gene Roddenberry got their idea for the Founders and the Jem Hadar. If you see Invaders From Mars, see if you don't agree.
Though the film is dated, positively saturated with Fifties attitudes, Invaders From Mars is still a good source of entertainment and speculation.
I cannot imagine that Arthur Franz who is identified as Helena Carter's favorite astronomer was able to deduce so much about life on Mars from telescope observation. We haven't got that far with the Mars probes we've sent in more recent times. The Martians know plenty about us though, they know exactly where on Earth man is learning about them and they want to do something about it.
This all starts when young Jimmy Hunt sees a flying saucer actually land in a field near his house and bury itself beneath the soil. When his astronomer father Leif Erickson goes out to investigate, he gets caught in some artificial quicksand and when he comes back in the house he's not your typical Leave It To Beaver Hugh Beaumont like dad any more. He's got a little crystal knob sticking out the nape of his neck and pretty soon these start sprouting up on people, like Jimmy's mother Hillary Brooke, the police chief Bert Freed, etc.
Fortunately for the world's sake, young Master Hunt convinces people before Kevin McCarthy did in Invasion Of the Body Snatchers that something ain't kosher out in that field. The armed might of the US Military is brought to bear.
William Cameron Menzies put together some real nice sets and special effects in a film that is before those computer graphic things we're now so jaded with. He also got some convincing performances out of a good cast of character actors, mostly from Jimmy Hunt. The young man got his career role in this film, we see this invasion through his eyes.
Of course there's perfectly logical reason why it is with his eyes which I cannot reveal.
The conception of the Martians when we do meet the invaders could possibly be where the inheritors of Gene Roddenberry got their idea for the Founders and the Jem Hadar. If you see Invaders From Mars, see if you don't agree.
Though the film is dated, positively saturated with Fifties attitudes, Invaders From Mars is still a good source of entertainment and speculation.