Invaders from Mars. 1953. USA. Directed by William Cameron Menzies. Screenplay by Richard Blake. With Helena Carter, Arthur Franz, Jimmy Hunt, Leif Erickson, Hillary Brooke. 4K digital restoration by Ignite Films under the supervision of Scott MacQueen at Roundabout Entertainment laboratory, from the original camera negative and three SuperCINEColor prints preserved at UCLA Film & Television Archive, George Eastman Museum and National Film & Sound Archive of Australia; courtesy of Ignite Films. New York premiere. 78 min.
A true accidental masterpiece, Invaders from Mars is a movie that lives on in the subconscious of everyone who saw it as a child, and which still commands adult interest for its stunning visuals and powerful political/sexual subtext. Little David (Jimmy Hunt) wakes up in his perfect suburban home to find that a flying saucer has landed in his backyard and some mysterious force is turning all the adults in the area—including his parents, Leif Erickson and Hillary Brooke—into soulless monsters. Directed by the great production designer William Cameron Menzies (Gone with the Wind) and photographed by studio legend John F. Seitz (Double Indemnity), the film offers one amazing image after another, with minimal dramatic motivation provided by the sketchy screenplay. Even an extended chase sequence, clearly inserted as padding when the running time came up short, becomes a vivid image of sisyphean impotence.