Tonight’s movie is a classic B-Movie Science Fiction Horror from the fifties. “Invaders from Mars” hit the theaters in 1953 and was the first movie to hit the big screen about alien body snatchers. This is far more Sci-Fi than Horror but it’s close enough to make my October viewing. It was also remade in the 1980’s by Tobe Hooper, so it was enough of a Horror to attract one of the genre’s masters to the remake. This version was written by Richard Blake and directed by William Cameron Menzies. It was an independent production based on an original script.
Body Snatchers!
Viewing Invaders From Mars for the first time seventy years after it came out requires us to have a little perspective on things. Obviously it has a lot of similarities to the Body Snatchers story, which is much more famous and manages a remake about once every couple of decades. However it’s worth noting that the first Body Snatchers movie came out three years after this one and even the novel on which it is based came out a year after this. However, while there may have been some influence it’s worth noting that Robert Heinlein’s story “The Puppet Masters” pre-dates both of these as it was released in 1951.
So why was this trope so common in the 50’s? Well, the Red Menace of course. I’m sure you already knew that since you can’t read anything about 50’s science fiction and horror without pages of someone talking about communism. So I’m not going to waste much of your time on that. That said, an insidious presence trying to take over a community from the inside for nefarious reasons is just as valid today as it was then (Perhaps more so), so it’s a great example of how timeless a movie can be when it’s message is kept as subtext and metaphor and isn’t too on the nose.
The Insidious Presence
This is very much a movie of two halves. The first part is Body Snatchers light. As mentioned above, not a knock off due to the timing of releases, but it doesn’t drive the concept anywhere near as hard as “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. The other key difference is this movie has a child protagonist (“David”) who we follow from start to finish. David is played by Jimmy Hunt, who largely retired from acting not long after this movie but did return to take on the small role of the police chief in the 80’s remake. For what it’s worth he does a pretty good job here. Not the best performance I’ve seen from a child actor but perfectly serviceable.
The first half of the movie kicks off when David spots what appears to be a UFO landing in a Sandpit area near his house. After his father goes to check it out, he comes back changed. David starts to notice several other people have been changed including his mother, a girl neighbor of his and the Chief of Police. He eventually is listened to by a friendly police office and a Doctor that meet up with a local Astronomer that knows the boy and his father who confirms the boy isn’t prone to making stuff up. This is where the story shifts and the Martians deception becomes a lot less of an issue.
Turning The Tables
The second half of the movie is instead about the army trying to find a way to defeat these martians. At this point it becomes a fairly standard Sci-Fi affair but with a slight twist at the end of the story maybe being a dream (Or not, it’s unclear form the ending). This second half is pretty reasonable for a B-Movie Sci-Fi of the 1950’s, but doesn’t feature much of note outside of a pretty cool design for the Martian “Intelligence”, who was basically the Meekon with tentacles. Considering the effects limitations and budget this is surprisingly well executed. That said, there is a great deal of repeat footage in this section (Both of military convoys
The first half though is where most of the horror aspects lay and it’s done pretty well. Victims being sucked down into the sand by martians, the changed people’s cold aggressive attitude (Including a hard slap to David from his “Father” fairly early on) and the mystery of what they are up to all play out rather well. The only issue with once we reach that halfway point most of this impact is lost and honestly by that point the kid largely just gets in the way of the narrative.
Conclusion
All told though this is a pretty solid B-Movie. It shows a great deal of imagination and it’s a shame this film is mostly forgotten due to the large shadow cast by Don Siegel’s 1956 masterpiece “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”. Next year I will try and fit Hooper’s remake into my October viewing. That said, the second half is notably weaker than the first, the ending is an anti-climax and frankly the movie hasn’t aged that well. This is worth viewing if you are into 1950’s B-Movies or are a movie buff in general, but otherwise probably not worth the effort tracking down. I’m scoring this (In the context of the modern day) at a high 5.5/10.
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