The War of the Worlds (1953)

I have decided to take a break from K-dramas and the Green Bay Packers to revisit one of my favorite movies – George Pal’s 1953 adaptation of The War of the Worlds. This was a movie that made a huge impression on my seven-year self. As a kid, one of my jobs was to record programs for my dad on the VCR – he spent most of my childhood working third shift and always slept during day - which meantt, because of his sleep schedule, he would end up missing a lot of programs. When we bought our first VCR, it turned out to be a godsend for my dad– he would have me record the program and then watch it later.  One of these programs was The War of the Worlds.  My seven-year-old self was initially skeptical, “Did my dad expect me to sit through this boring old movie?”  My sister echoed my sentiments. I popped in the blank VHS tape (that my dad bought specifically for this purpose), pressed the record button on the VCR, and sat on the couch, fearing the absolute worst.  Now, you might ask, “Why couldn’t you just press record and walk away?” Well, my dad hated commercials, so we always cut them out of our recording. Our VCR had a slight defect, the remote control didn’t work, which meant that whenever a commercial break came up, I had to walk to the VCR and press the pause button (and then would have to hit the pause button again to continue recording).  Any ways, the movie started and within seconds I was hooked.  It begins with the voice of God (Cedric Hardwicke) narrating the plight of the Martians, as they decide on which planet to invade, and we are shown different alien landscapes. It is a visually striking montage and an effective way to open the movie.

One of the details that will be lost on modern audiences, but would have been mind-blowing to 1953 movie goers, is the use of the color.  In the 1950s, most studios viewed science fiction as B-movie fodder – they were made with a small budget and shot in black and white.  The studios were more interested in making a quick buck – they didn’t care about the overall quality of the film. The fact that many science fiction movies from this decade have become classics is due to the talent behind and front of the camera; the studios would have released them whether they were good or not. However, The War of the Worlds was different – Paramount studios didn’t think of it as merely a B movie and went all out to make the best film imaginable, including filming it in Three Strip Technicolor (this was reserved solely for their A pictures). However, since the studio would be pouring a lot of money into the more technical aspects of the movie, they had to settle for lesser-known actors in the lead roles. Gene Barry (as Dr. Clayton Forrester) would go on to find great success on television, but in 1953 but he was a relative unknown.  As for leading actress, Ann Robinson, The War of the World was the high point of her career – her filmography consists mostly of guest roles in various television shows (both Barry and her also have cameos in Steven Spielberg’s 2005 adaptation).

I rather like Gene Barry’s performance as Dr. Clayton Forrester – he is not the humorless stiff that often populated 1950s science fiction movies.  When the Martian invasion first begins, he is both terrified and excited about it – when he first sets eyes on the Martian Warships, he is unable to contain his excitement and exclaims, “THIS IS AMAZING!!!” This scientific half of his brain takes over and he cannot help but marvel at how more technologically advanced the Martians are.  Dr. Forrester has been alone his entire life – his parents died when he was a kid and there is no mention of siblings. He is a self-made man – he was able to get ahead in life due to his intellectual superiority and curiosity. When the farmhouse Sylvia and he have taken shelter in is surrounded by the Martian Warships, his curious nature takes over and he must get a good look at them. However, as the Martian threat becomes more serious, and all the military/scientific attempts to stop them prove to be futile, he can only take shelter in a church and pray for the best.  It is a humbling experience for Dr. Forrester – he begins the movie convinced of his intellectual superiority but by the movie’s end can only join the masses in praying for divine intervention.  

Ann Robinson is adequate as Forrester’s love interest, Sylvia Van Buren. I remember watching this movie in the 8^th grade (we read the novel and brought in my VHS copy of the film at the behest of our English teacher) and many of my classmates got annoyed at her hysterics.  Oddly enough there are only two brief scenes where Sylvia loses it, otherwise she is calm and collected – she even looks after an unconscious Forrester after a cylinder crash lands into the farmhouse. Not to mention, Sylvia has every right to be hysterical – not only is the Earth being invaded by Martians, but she also witnessed her beloved uncle, Pastor Collins, get vaporized by a Martian Warship. Most people would be a bit unhinged after witnessing that.  It is pays to remember that this movie was released in 1953, which means that good number of men would have served in World War Two, and therefore would have experienced war firsthand. Sylvia, on the other hand, would have been a teenage girl during WWII, living a sheltered life in a small town, and wouldn’t be as equipped to handle this situation. Sylvia comes from a big family and this is really the first time she has been alone. 

In H.G. Wells’ novel, the narrator gets separated from his wife and he spends most of the narrative trying to find her. It is episodic in nature - with our beleaguered narrator encountering various people and dangers on the way. In the movie, Dr. Forrester and Sylvia first meet at the crash site and have a pleasant exchange.  In a span of a few days, the two of them have gone through a lot, and it is perfectly believable that Dr. Forrester would risk his life at the end of the movie to find her.  In fact, Dr. Forrester has embraced his fate – he is convinced that this is the end times and wants to spend his final moments with the woman he loves. The romance in The War of the Worlds is hinted at – there is no declaration of love from Dr. Forrester or a long kissing scene – we immediately know their feelings just by the way they look at each other.   

The movie follows the basic outline of the H.G. Wells novel; in many ways, it is more indebted to Orson Welles 1938 radio adaptation than Wells’ novel. The novel was written in 1898 and set in the Victorian Era, which means that, in the novel, the world militaries were handcuffed by the artillery at time (their cannons and armed forces are no match for the Martian invasion). The movie raises the stakes of the novel – the walking tripods in the H.G. Wells novel are technical marvels, but they are vulnerable – the military manages to down a tripod. In the 1953 adaptation, the flying warships are indestructible – even the H-bomb proves to be useless against them (the warships protect themselves with a force field).  The most unnerving aspect of the 1953 version is that the Earth’s best efforts are just not good enough against the Martians.  Dr. Forrester rightly guesses that the only way to beat the Martians is by waging biological warfare against them, but their hopes are dashed after a violent mob hijacks Forrester’s truck that contains all the materials necessary to combat the Martians.  

There is fun reference to the Orson Welles’ 1938 radio adaptation – there is a scene where a reporter is interviewing scientists at the crash site and then we are shown a montage of random people listening to his broadcast on the radio.  The movie went into production in 1952 and while television was beginning to catch on with the masses, there was still a good chunk of the population that still listened to, and got their news from, the radio. I also think that, in 1952, the studios might have been hesitant to show television sets in their movies, out of fear that it might encourage moviegoers to go out and buy one. “Why am I sitting in this stuffy movie theater when I can be at home watching I Love Lucy?”

A recurring theme of many science fiction movies of the 1950s was science vs. the military. The good intentioned scientists often wanted to contact the extra-terrestrials, believing that such contact might be beneficial to mankind, while the military usually wanted to destroy the damn things.  In The Thing from Another World, Dr. Carrington wants to make contact the Thing, while ignoring its every growing body count, and Captain Hendry wants to destroy it. Captain Hendry is the movie's hero, and his intuitions prove to be correct. In The Day the Earth Stood Still, Klaatu wants to deliver an important message to the world, but it is the military that stands in his way. His main allies are prominent scientists, who eagerly want to hear what he has to say. This conflict doesn’t exist in The War of the Worlds, instead the scientists are working with the military to stop the Martian invasion. Dr. Forrester is even good friends with Major General Mann – the implication is that the two served together in World War II.

The two attempts to contact the Martians don’t come from the scientific community, but by a few misguided civilians.  The first attempt is by three rubes who have been assigned to watch the cylinder (at this point the town believes it is a meteor) and when a hatch on the cylinder unscrews and a cobra-shaped periscope emerges, the three men unanimously decide to offer it their hand in friendship. When asked what they should say to the Martians, one of them quips, “Welcome to California.”  They walk towards the periscope brandishing a white flag and shout, “WE’RE FRIENDS!”  Unfortunately, the Martians reject their generous gift of friendship, and they are blasted into oblivion by the Martian's Death Ray.  A similar scene happens in the novel, but it doesn’t have the same impact – in the novel, everything is told in matter-of-fact manner (it’s told from a first-person perspective) and when the three men get vaporized, you don’t feel anything because they were so ill defined. In the novel, the narrator witnesses this violent act from a far, while in the movie we are in the middle of the horror. When the three rubes get blasted, the camera is stationed directly behind them. You learn just enough about these three men that when they meet their end it has an actual impact.  They are well-meaning morons who come to undeserved ends. They are also a progressive bunch (for 1953) – one of them is a Mexican who is a BFF to the two white dudes.  It’s really an inspirational moment – until they get turned to dust by those diabolical Martians.

The second attempt comes from Sylvia’s uncle, Pastor Collins, who walks towards the War Machines quoting Psalm 23:4 while hold out his bible. He is hoping to reach these invaders from the red planet but is also willing to give up his life. He ends up dying a martyr. A more modern take would be to turn Pastor Collins into an unhinged religious fanatic who believes the Martian invasion is God’s judgement on mankind. He would be doing everything he could to aid the Martians, like sabotaging all scientific and military attempts at ending the invasion. I like the fact that Pastor Collins is a genuinely decent man whose good intentions cost him his life. He also immediately takes a liking to Dr. Forrester, even though they inhabit two different worlds – again, a modern movie would strawman him into being anti-science and labelling Dr. Forrester as a “servant of Satan.” 

The movie does an excellent job of building suspense – the first fifteen minutes (after the brief prologue) are lighthearted in tone– after the “meteor” crashes the meadow, the towns people talk about turning it into a tourist attraction – one of them suggests they should put up concession stands around it.  When Pastor Collins suggests they put up picnic tables, one of the ill-fated rubes interjects, “No! Then they will bring their own food.”  However, their dream of monetizing the meteor is dashed they learn it is radioactive.  Still, none of this really phases the townspeople and they go about their daily business – they even have a square dance (which is an accurate description, because these are some of the biggest squares you will ever see dancing). Dr. Forrester, however, enjoys himself and even cracks a few dad jokes.  It becomes deadly serious when the hatch on the cylinder unscrews, and the Death Ray emerges to lay waste to area. It isn’t until about twenty-five minutes in that we are given a good look at the Martian Warships.  In the novel, the Martian Warships were tripods that stomped across the countryside, in the movie, they are swan-shaped vehicles that eerily glide over the landscape, casually destroying anyone/anything that is in their path. There are a few prints out there where the wires suspending the Warships are noticeable – Joe Dante, in the commentary track, explains that the film was originally shot in Three Strip Technicolor, which gave the film a softer look and, as a result, the wires were invisible. In the lates 1960s, the film was reprinted in Eastman Color and the quality of the effects suffered as a result. The print that is currently available on Amazon Prime is of higher quality and the wires are only noticeable in a couple of shots.

In the novel the Martians look like octopuses and the Earth’s gravity affects their movements – they are reduced to a crawl. The movie opts for a more unusual design – the Martians are shaped like a T, have a wormy texture, and their eye is in the middle of the shoulder area.  Their eye also has three lenses (red, blue, and green) and stereoscopic vision.  They also have long arms and suctions on their fingertips. The movie, wisely, only gives us a brief glimpse at the Martians – we see one of them briefly in the farmhouse after it grabs Sylvia by the shoulder (one of the most iconic moments in 1950s science fiction). A lady scientist aptly describes the Martians, they are mental giants, but physically still very primitive – they look like something that has just crawled out of the primordial ooze. It is interesting to note that Ray Harryhausen did test footage for his own adaptation of The War of the Worlds, and his Martian design was faithful to the novel.  The movie was scrapped but the test footage is readily available.  Three years later, Harryhausen got to make his own alien invasion movie with Earth vs. the Flying Saucers. 

One of the lost arts of movie making is the lighting – in The War of the Worlds, the filmmakers use a colorful palette to paint their canvas. The most efficient effect shot in the entire movie is a Martian’s death scene - after the Warship crashes into a building, the hatch on the bottom opens and we see a Martian’s arm reaching out for one last gasp.  The use of lighting in this moment is extraordinary – the Martian’s arm is initially bathed in red light and then the light turns green, signifying the Martian’s death. It’s a simple, and economical, shot but it is very effective. It is also quite a poignant moment – the Martian has mastered technology far beyond our understanding, and has traveled over 140 million miles, only to be killed by Earth’s bacteria. This is a huge oversight on their part – you would think that an advanced species would have included potential germs/viruses in their calculations and worn hazmat suits while walking on the surface. It’s like how in Independence Day the aliens are technologically advanced but never created anti-virus software. 

The movie implies that it is not the bacteria that killed the Martians but, rather, divine intervention. It is no coincidence that Martian Warship crashes seconds after destroying a stained-glass church window. The movie even ends on an “AMEN!” Modern audiences might roll their eyes at this moment, but in 1953 the country was overwhelming Christian, so the spiritual aspect is not too surprising. Not to mention that Cecil B. DeMille was an uncredited producer on the film and his movies were often long-winded sermons. It never really bugged me because, to be honest, the divine intervention ending is no worse than “killed by bacteria.”  They both are cop outs.

It should be noted that, in 1988, there was a War of the Worlds television series that was a follow up to the 1953 movie. The TV series owes more to Invasion of the Body Snatchers than H.G. Wells; the aliens take over the bodies of human beings to further their agenda unnoticed.  The aliens were no longer from Mars but Mor-Tax. They also were given a catchphrase – whenever they greeted each other they would utter, “To life immortal.”  The show was gory for the time – there is one episode where an alien rips off a hockey player’s arm and then skates around the ice ring clutching the man’s arm. It was also a very bleak show – half of the cast’s members were killed off by the end of season one.  I was such a huge fan of the movie that when I learned they were making a spin-off TV series, I was elated.
“THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME,” I shouted seconds before the premiere. Then I watched the actual show and was disappointed. The design of the aliens was slightly modified – they now had one, demonic looking, red eye and there were no longer suctions on their fingertips. The Martian Warships only make an appearance at the end of the pilot episode – the main characters commodore one that is in storage and use it repel the invaders.  I haven’t seen it in over thirty years, so it could be one of the shows that improves with age. It could be, but I doubt it.

Cast: Gene Barry (Dr. Clayton Forrester), Ann Robinson (Sylvia Van Buren), Les Tremayne (Maj. Gen. Mann), Robert Cornthwaite (Dr. Pryor), Sandro Giglio (Dr. Bilderback), Lewis Martin (Pastor Dr. Matthew Collins), William Phipps (Wash Perry), Houseley Stevenson, Jr. (Gen. Mann’s Aide), Vernon Rich (Col. Ralph Heffner), Jack Kruschen (Salvatore), Paul Birch (Alonzo Hogue), Vernon Rich (Col. Ralph Heffner), Paul Frees (Second Radio Operator/Opening Announcer), Henry Brandon (Cop at Crash Site), Cedric Hardwicke (commentary  - voice). 

Director: Byron Haskin
Writers: Barre^’ Lyndon. Based off the novel by H.G. Wells
Running Time:  85 minutes.