A young boy learns that space aliens are taking over the minds of earthlings.A young boy learns that space aliens are taking over the minds of earthlings.A young boy learns that space aliens are taking over the minds of earthlings.
- Awards
- 2 wins & 1 nomination
- Sgt. Baker
- (as Bill Phipps)
- Mrs. Wilson
- (uncredited)
- Kelston's Secretary
- (uncredited)
- Brainard - Wilson's Aide
- (uncredited)
- Old Cop Blaine Who Vanishes
- (uncredited)
- Mutant
- (uncredited)
- MP
- (uncredited)
- Mr. Turner
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaLuce Potter, one of the Munchkins in The Wizard of Oz (1939), played the Martian "head" enclosed in glass in the film. For years she received letters from fans of the movie telling her how much she had scared them as kids.
- GoofsThe same shot of a soldier manning a searchlight on a tower beside the side of a building is used in both the scene at the rocket base of the attempt to blow up the rocket, and (three times) in scenes in the field where the Martians landed: this latter use is particularly ridiculous because there is no such building as is seen behind the light tower in that location.
- Quotes
Mary MacLean: [waking up] What is it?
George MacLean: Well, ah, David says something landed in the field out back. It doesn't make sense, but he seems so convinced.
Mary MacLean: What do you mean "land"?
George MacLean: Well, he says he saw a bright light or something. He's not the type of boy that given to imagining things. After all the work at the plant is secret. And we have orders to report anything unusual. And there have been rumors.
Mary MacLean: Rumors?
George MacLean: Oh, Dear, you know I can't talk about it.
- Alternate versionsThe material added to the planetarium sequence for the British version includes a serious discussion of several American UFO incidents such as the Mantell case. Several UFO models, based on American UFO sightings, are also displayed and discussed.
- ConnectionsEdited into Batman: The Joker's Flying Saucer (1968)
It is because of this point-of-view that lends a nightmarish quality to a struggle this boy encounters when he tries to convince the authorities that a spaceship landed in a sandpit behind his house.
The sense of "something's not right" with Mom and Dad starts as the boy's parents are sucked below the sandpit into the evil arms of the Martians, made into zombie-spies, and returned to the surface. The boy's fear mounts when local police and even high-ranking military fall prey to the Martians' mind control.
Through the assistance of a well trusted astrophysicist and a school psychologist the boy convinces the local Army base to make a beach head in the boy's back yard... and the battle to return the boy's parents and the villagers to normalcy begins. Eventually, the boy and the psychologist confront the Martian intelligence (midget Luce Potter as a convincing body-less head with tentacle-like arms in a glass sphere). In a poor "race against time" sequence in which the little boy and psychologist are rescued from the spaceship before it blows up, the film reaches its climax to the cacophonous din of artillery explosions, and Raoul Kraushaar's eerie, disharmonious a capella choir.
Many criticize the poor production values, the over use of stock footage, the idiotic costumes, and the fact that the film had TWO endings (one popularized in Great Britain, one here in U.S.A.).
Yes, I agree that production and set values were cheap (green condoms to represent molten rock "bubbles" in the tunnels and obvious zippers in the velour-like jump suits of the Martian slaves, to name a few.)
Nevertheless, Menzies applies forced perspective to his sets, and the skillful use of background mattes to lend an unearthly tone to the scene Remember folks, this is 1953... a time when Communism infiltration and subordination of Mr. and Mrs. Joe America was the chief "fear of the day". There are few other films of that period that deftly portrayed this paranoia so aptly as "Invaders From Mars"
If one overlooks the "rough" edges of its obviously low budget, one can still appreciate the helplessness, fear and mistrust the little boy develops as his parents and others are turned into "tools of the Martians". Is it truly a nightmare, or did it actually happen? The viewer is left to make that choice.
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Invasores de Marte
- Filming locations
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $290,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 18 minutes
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1