I saw this movie only once, on a TV Late Show in 1962, and had to leave in the middle for some other business. I never knew how it ended. I never saw it broadcast since. And, as a B-movie, it was generally unavailable, but now I see that it has been transferred to DVD. I could not recall who starred in it either. Imagine my surprise (and delight) that TCM chose to program it around noon on Sept. 19, 2016. This was 54 YEARS since I first saw it. Talk about closure. I enjoyed the somewhat hard-to-believe premise of the story, and the dealings with the (fake) camel jockey Arabs, who probably would have killed the Americans on first sight—knowing today how they feel about unbelievers. Still, the movie is compelling on a small scale, and well worth watching.
Reviews
3 Reviews
The Day Mars Invaded Earth
(1962)
A Soporific Exercise.
18 August 2005
Both Kent Johnson and Marie Windsor must have concluded that their careers were now on the skids and that they had household bills to pay before signing on to this turkey. With no real production value to speak of, this B-movie cheapie was a lame excuse to develop a single borrowed idea: that hostile Martians exist as pure energy (whatever that means) and have come to earth to replicate humans and destroy the prototypes (the concept cribbed from the exciting 1956 hit, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers").
As earlier commentators have noticed, their is no action at all in this execrable script, unless you give credit to people walking aimlessly -- sometimes running, even -- around the grounds of a mansion, or lighting up and puffing on cigarettes, or engaging each other in trivial conversation. Nothing much to engage the audience's emotions or attention.
Consequently, it was impossible not to doze off for about 20 minutes during the middle of this stinker, awaking only to witness the unsatisfactory, arthritic ending. When the words, "The End," finally appeared, I discovered that I was 70 minutes closer to death.
As earlier commentators have noticed, their is no action at all in this execrable script, unless you give credit to people walking aimlessly -- sometimes running, even -- around the grounds of a mansion, or lighting up and puffing on cigarettes, or engaging each other in trivial conversation. Nothing much to engage the audience's emotions or attention.
Consequently, it was impossible not to doze off for about 20 minutes during the middle of this stinker, awaking only to witness the unsatisfactory, arthritic ending. When the words, "The End," finally appeared, I discovered that I was 70 minutes closer to death.
Them!
(1954)
A Nagging Question
9 May 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I've always loved this movie, ever since I saw it in the theater in 1954-55 at the tender age of 10. One spot raises a question mark, however.(I don't think this is a spoiler, but a question of logic.) When Ben and Ed Blackburn discover the wreckage of the general store, and the storekeeper's body, they come across a rifle that had been "fired four times." The rifle barrel has been bent back upon itself. I've always wondered how a giant ant, armed with huge clumsy mandibles, could manage to pick up a rifle and bend the barrel with only one set of mandibles. It would take at least two ants, I think, and why would they try to do this? It's sort of like a "Beat the Clock" stunt!
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