Well, this is a blast in more ways than one and if there’s one thing I should stay from the get-go, please do not be mislead by the 73-year-old cover art, this is a sci-fi film with more than a twist or two and it is also a masterful mix of direction and design from William Cameron Menzies. Those of us with the silent film bug – it’s just a film bug really – know his work from early epic sets for blockbusters like Robin Hood (1922) as well as The Thief of Bagdad (1924), which allowed Douglas Fairbanks, to run, jump and climb over almost the entire screen. Menzies helped establish the very language as well as the look of film and was the man with his mind inside the movie camera, meeting the demands of briefs that wee unimaginable to most.
Menzies was the man for whom the phrase "Production designer" was coined specifically for by David O. Selznick when he was working on Gone with the Wind (1939) although this might be apocryphal. Menzies certainly contributed more than mere design and was the director of the burning of Atlanta sequence in that film. Ironically Menzies did not win the Oscar for GWTW – that was Lyle Wheeler, Art Director, although had grabbed the first Academy Awards for Best Art Direction in 1928 (and for two films, The Dove with Norma Talmadge plus The Tempest with John Barrymore).
Menzies had put HG Wells’ Things to Come (1936) on screen as director and the Yale/Edinburgh alumnus, returned to the genre with Invaders from Mars although this film is more science fantasy than the more scientific projections of Wells and those like Arthur C Clarke and Isaac Asimov who were to follow. The chances of anyone coming from Mars being a million to one, or so they say, it’s not hard to see the film as another expression of American paranoia in the line of so many others. That said, there’s a sense of wonder and childish thrills about the production that makes for a tense and gripping ride.
The film begins with a dark and stormy night and the feverish imagination of young amateur astronomer David MacLean (Jimmy Hunt) who witnesses a flying saucer emerging from the storm to land just over a hill in a nearby film. His father George (Leif Erickson) goes to investigate climbing this hill – a studio set that will feature in so much of the film it feels like a throwback to Weimar cinema. George sees nothing but suddenly the sand beneath his feet swirls and swallows him as he drops down to who knows what.
When he doesn’t return David’s mother Mary calls the police who send two officers to investigate, both of whom suffer the same fate. In the morning George returns home but he is a changed man, cold and distant and, as his son observes, carrying a strange wound on his neck. More and more fall through the sand and re-emerge strangely changed - Janine Perreau is especially weird as Kathy Wilson, David’s young neighbour who goes from being a carefree pre-teen to burning her family’s house down.
David goes to the police station for help and Menzies’ depth of field as the youngster looks up at the front desk with an oppressive long corridor behind him, perfectly encapsulates his emerging nightmare. How can he convince people that someone or something is taking over their friends and neighbours. It rings so many bells with the McCarthy era, The Red Menace right up to the woke mind virus that those lost to deranged Trumpism project… and all this three years before Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
But there are good people, something about the boy’s clear minded description persuades the desk officer to call in a child psychiatrist Doctor Pat Blake (Helena Carter) to believe him and, when his father and mother – now also “changed” arrive to collect him she refuses saying that she will have to investigate his “condition” further. Thus begins a race against time to confirm his story in time to help save his parents and everyone else. The army mobilises just as fast as many are taken over and Menzies’ limited budget sees various stock footage inserted to add to the set pieces. He certainly doesn’t disappoint when we finally get to go underground and meet the aliens…
By the end you can exactly see just why the likes of Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese along with so many other directors value Menzies’ film. Given the budget and the time at his disposal he manages to create a fully convincing fantasy from the point of view of the child at the heart of the story. There’s probably an argument for the director being an auteur with this film as so much was under his control in terms of the visuals, that he was able to get the necessary performances from his players – especially the children – marks him as a skilled people player too!
For this first pressing only there is an excellent illustrated booklet featuring new writing on the film by Dr Deborah Allison and Barry Forshaw, a short piece from Monthly Film Bulletin, November 1954, notes on the special features and film credits
The film has been restored in 4K from the original camera negative and master positives and looks so crisp and clear and this is the case for both the UHD and Blu-ray presentations.
There are also many exciting special science fiction features!!
The interview with the grown-up lead in Jimmy Hunt Saves the Planet (2022, 11 mins) is especially interesting as he recalls how being in the fantasy of the film itself was such a formative experience for a 13-year-old.
- Newly recorded audio commentary by Kim Newman (of course!) and Barry Forshaw
- European ending (1953, 3 mins) and European observatory sequence (1953, 9 mins) – clearly the Europeans could handle the hard stuff better than American audiences… This is the ending I prefer!
- Not Just a Dream: Designing Hope in Invaders from Mars (2026, 16 mins): filmmaker Nic Wassell explores how legendary production designer and director William Cameron Menzies infuses the paranoia of atomic age science fiction with hope for the future
- William Cameron Menzies: Architect of Dreams (2022, 16 mins): Menzies’ biographer James Curtis interviews the director’s granddaughter Pamela Lauesen
- Terror From Above (2022, 22 mins): filmmakers John Landis and Joe Dante, editor Mark Goldblatt, visual effects artist Robert Skotak and preservationist Scott MacQueen discuss the film
- Restoring the Invasion (2022, 7 mins): before and after clips of the restoration
- TCM Festival Introduction (2022, 7 mins): by John Sayles
- Ernest Dickerson on Invaders from Mars (2022, 5 mins): the award-winning cinematographer introduces a new trailer
- Original 1953 trailer plus 2022 trailer
- Extensive image gallery including posters, press book pages and publicity materials, plus previously unseen images from the BFI National Archive
Invaders from Mars is out on 11th May and you can – and must – pre-order from the BFI and other reputable retailers.
It’s a highly influential film and it has not looked this good in over 70 years!
