Invaders from Mars Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Invaders from Mars Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 29, 2023

Invaders from Mars and the Byron Haskin / George Pal 1953 version of The War of the Worlds premiered within just a couple of days of each other, albeit on different continents, and perhaps due to the fact that this film was reportedly rushed into production to beat the Haskin - Pal effort to theaters, there are some curious stylistic parallels between them, despite the film currently under review being rather famously designed and directed by William Cameron Menzies. Compare, for example, the "hills" on which the climactic battles in both films are fought, and there's a noticeable but arguably coincidental similarity between the two set designs and even some elements of the cinematography and framing. As much as their almost simultaneous releases and obviously tethered plot mechanics may make Invaders from Mars and The War of the Worlds kind of likely bedfellows, I'd argue that a much more interesting comparison of productions might be between this film and one which came out around three years later, Don Seigel's unforgettable 1956 version of Jack Finney's Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Consider the fact that both Invaders from Mars and Invasion of the Body Snatchers involve some kind of interloping presence (admittedly, much as with The War of the Worlds), but perhaps more importantly, that the alien siege is uncovered by a hapless individual who then spends much of the rest of the film trying to get people to believe he's not crazy, all the while as various characters are "transformed" due to either being replaced by a "pod person" (a la the Siegel film) or having a "crystal" implanted into their brain (a la this particular enterprise). What's so viscerally emotional about Invaders from Mars, though, is that the "witness" to the incursion of (in this case) giant green men is a little boy whose own parents have been "claimed" by the extraterrestrials.

David Maclean (Jimmy Hunt) is a sweet little boy who wants to follow in the footsteps of his scientist father George (Leif Erickson), to the point that David sets his alarm for four in the morning in order to witness some rare astronomical event through his telescope. What he ends up seeing instead is a flying saucer crash landing into a nearby sand pit, an event which then sends the rest of the plot cartwheeling into motion. When David tells George what he's seen, George, obviously concerned, heads out to investigate and promptly disappears (at least for a little while). David's fraught mother Mary (Hillary Brooke) calls the police, but soon enough George comes back, though he's acting significantly differently than he did before and he has a weird little wound on his neck that David notices. Suffice it to say that George is not the only town resident to begin acting differently, and that burgeoning population soon includes Mary. What's a little boy to do?

Despite neighbors and even some authority figures now in the quasi-pod people camp, David finally finds a sympathetic ear belonging to Dr. Patricia Blake (Helena Carter, the actress who probably forced that other actress to use "Bonham" to differentiate herself), who in turn involves Dr. Stuart Kelston (Arthur Franz). Both of these characters become surrogate parents for David and in fact in one memorable scene actually keep David from being reclaimed by George and Mary. In the meantime, the military jumps into the fray, leading to a calamitous conclusion that is only partially undercut by some patently goofy representations of the Martians.

For such a relatively smaller budgeted affair, Invaders from Mars is almost relentlessly stylish, utilizing Menzies' decades of experience not just in set design but color theory and other "architectural" elements. Hunt is a really appealing presence, and if he and the adult actors aren't always helped by some clunky writing, the overall competence both on screen and perhaps especially behind the camera is really remarkable. The War of the Worlds probably understandably got the lion's share of the attention in 1953 when both films were screening, but Invaders from Mars has its own inimitable style and a really unsettling feeling of emotional instability.

Invaders from Mars Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Invaders from Mars is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Ignite Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.37:1. Ignite and Scott MacQueen managed a 4K restoration sourced from both the original camera negative and some master positive elements (the reason for this is addressed in some of the supplements and in the insert booklet). Let's just cut to the chase and borrow a phrase from an advertising staple that was probably at least in print media when this film was first released and say this transfer is mmm, mmm, good, especially when considering some of the obstacles the restoration team was confronted with. Typically I try to include comments about restorations and/or transfers from insert booklets included with releases, but in this case, there are literally pages of information about the exhaustive efforts undertaken by Scott MacQueen and his cohort to get this film into largely pristine shape. Suffice it to say that while, yes, there are still some variances in densities, palette, grain and clarity, considering the glut of optical effects this feature has, the results are amazingly homogeneous looking, and some viewers may actually prefer this 1080 version to Ignite's 4K UHD version since the diminished resolution and lack of HDR may make some of these changes less overtly obvious. Anyone who had to suffer through at times relatively appalling DVD releases of this film will be immediately struck by the healthiness of the palette in particular, which is now gorgeously suffused almost all of the time, with only some very minor downturns during things like dissolves and/or the utilization of non-negative elements. Scott MacQueen addresses some of the picayune color timing adjustments that were made in the featurette on the restoration included on the disc, and there's even more information in the insert booklet, but the bottom line is anyone who generally thinks of either Eastmancolor and/or CineColor as inherently "second rate" (at least when compared to Technicolor) may frankly be blown away by the lustrous quality of the palette. Detail levels are also nicely improved throughout, again with an understanding that some composited effects can lead to less clarity and a bit chunkier grain. In the grain department, it's kind of refreshing to hear MacQueen admit up front that some "minor smoothing" was done when the team was confronted with dupes of dupes and were trying to cobble things together so that the grain field was more or less consistent. I'd argue they did a masterful job, even if variances can be spotted. Any major signs of age related wear and tear have been eliminated, and while there is still some very minor lateral wobble during the opening credits, otherwise any signs of instability have likewise been removed.

Invaders from Mars Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Invaders from Mars features DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono tracks in either English or Spanish. I frankly didn't spend a lot of time on the Spanish, but both it and the English track certainly show inherent signs of the recording technologies of the day, with a somewhat boxy sound that's probably most noticeable in either scoring or effects. That said, the overall track boasts a rather healthy midrange and low end, and all dialogue is delivered cleanly and clearly. Optional subtitles in several languages are available.

Invaders from Mars Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• William Cameron Menzies: Architect of Dreams (HD; 16:26) is an interesting piece mostly with James Curtis, author of William Cameron Menzies: The Shape of Films to Come. Menzies' granddaughter Pamela Lauesen joins Curtis relatively late for just a minute or two in a somewhat awkwardly staged but sweet reminiscence of her famous relative.


• Jimmy Hunt Saves the Planet (HD; 10:30) is a really fun interview with the now fully grown but still ebullient star of the film.


• Terror from Above (HD; 22:24) offers a compendium of notables who were influenced by the film rather early in their lives, including Joe Dante and John Landis. Preservationist Scott MacQueen, who's also on hand for the restoration featurette, offers comments as well.


• Restoring the Invasion (HD; 6:50) offers Scott MacQueen discussing the rather formidable hurdles that had to be overcome to offer this film in such generally superb shape.


• TCM Festival Introduction (HD; 7:02) features John Sayles, and may be a bit ironic considering some of the recent TCM news which may make screenings like this obsolete.


• European Observatory Sequence (HD; 8:51) is the additional and patently unnecessary sequence filmed (somewhat hilariously quite a bit after the initial shoot and in fact well after the film had debuted in the United States) in order to please foreign distributors with a longer running time. This comes with some initial explanatory text.


• European Ending (HD; 2:52) was another concession made to those pesky Europeans, who didn't like the "dreamy" aspect of the original ending.


• Theatrical Trailer (HD; 2:19)


• Re-release Trailer (HD; 2:17) is a really trip new piece done by Ignite, which made me wonder if someone from this Dutch company may have visited a "coffee shop" (or several) before producing this.


• Image Gallery (HD)

Additionally, Ignite provides a fantastically informative insert booklet.

Note: Vis a vis nothing other than a tangential relationship to what is described in the featurette about Menzies and his control of the "entire look" of a film, some may feel that whoever designed this disc's menu was a fan of Arrow (see screenshot 20).

Invaders from Mars Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I was lucky to actually be able to see Invaders from Mars on the "big screen" at a Portland "art house" many years ago, and that print was in surprisingly good shape, but this new restored version is simply revelatory in any number of areas. Ignite Films is off to a very impressive start with this release, and I can't wait for what they offer next. Technical merits are solid and the supplements very enjoyable. Highly recommended.