Spoiler alert; Holy Cow, They win! but more of that in a moment. we are talking about "The Day Mars Invaded Earth" (1963) Directed by Maury Dexter, and written by Harry Spalding. A Black and White film. The version I watched was uploaded on You Tube, and who ever did the upload used image Stabilization. This caused much distortion to the otherwise sharp image. The film was well lit and shot, in the old school studio style, There was a minimum of special effects. The California location shooting was impressive, The Rich mansion that served as the background for the story was in fact the Greystone Park and Mansion in Beverly Hills. The acting was minimal and efficient, as was the basic editing.
All things considered, this film had some intelligent thought behind it. For example, it begins with a Mars robotic rover, dropped on mars. It functions for six minutes before it is destroyed. Dr Fielding who designed the robot, and his assistant Dr Spencer are played by Kent Tayler and William Mims. Dr Spencer has taken a weekend off, to visit his wife Clair, played by Marie Windsor, and his daughter Judi played by Betty Beal, and his son Rocky played by Gregg Shank. All is not well at the home-front. It is not just the Doctors neglect of his wife and kids, He is trying to make amends, What is spooky, is that all of the members of the family experience seeing doubles of themselves. These doubles turn out to be quite real, they are energy manifestations of the intelligent life forms that survive on Mars. Even back in the sixties, we realized how hostile an environment Mars could be. The Martians are on earth, to stop the invasion of their world. Although they seem reasonable, their solution to our messing around on their planet, is to kill us off. The doctor learns of this first hand from his doppelganger. All the members of his family have been replicated, and much like the pod creatures in the Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) their ultimate intent is to take over Earth. This movie has much in common with the Body Snatchers, a much superior film. We only learn of the Martians desire to do away with us, in the somewhat shocking last few minutes.
The film is effective because of how it is underplayed. The Musical score by Richard LaSalle is also old school, and very effective in creating the feeling of unease that this film achieves on such a limited budget. I liked this film, the Scientists acted with intelligence to understand the threat to their planet, but never truly understood the brutality of the invaders. The ending leads us to believe there is not much hope for the people of Earth. Well done, Slow moving by today's standard, it never the less builds to a satisfyingly disturbing conclusion. Eight out of Ten "Obscure but Good" Stars.
All things considered, this film had some intelligent thought behind it. For example, it begins with a Mars robotic rover, dropped on mars. It functions for six minutes before it is destroyed. Dr Fielding who designed the robot, and his assistant Dr Spencer are played by Kent Tayler and William Mims. Dr Spencer has taken a weekend off, to visit his wife Clair, played by Marie Windsor, and his daughter Judi played by Betty Beal, and his son Rocky played by Gregg Shank. All is not well at the home-front. It is not just the Doctors neglect of his wife and kids, He is trying to make amends, What is spooky, is that all of the members of the family experience seeing doubles of themselves. These doubles turn out to be quite real, they are energy manifestations of the intelligent life forms that survive on Mars. Even back in the sixties, we realized how hostile an environment Mars could be. The Martians are on earth, to stop the invasion of their world. Although they seem reasonable, their solution to our messing around on their planet, is to kill us off. The doctor learns of this first hand from his doppelganger. All the members of his family have been replicated, and much like the pod creatures in the Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) their ultimate intent is to take over Earth. This movie has much in common with the Body Snatchers, a much superior film. We only learn of the Martians desire to do away with us, in the somewhat shocking last few minutes.
The film is effective because of how it is underplayed. The Musical score by Richard LaSalle is also old school, and very effective in creating the feeling of unease that this film achieves on such a limited budget. I liked this film, the Scientists acted with intelligence to understand the threat to their planet, but never truly understood the brutality of the invaders. The ending leads us to believe there is not much hope for the people of Earth. Well done, Slow moving by today's standard, it never the less builds to a satisfyingly disturbing conclusion. Eight out of Ten "Obscure but Good" Stars.