“Invaders from Mars” (1953) starring Helena Carter, Arthur Franz and Jimmy Hunt / Z-View

Invaders from Mars (1953)

Director: William Cameron Menzies

Screenplay: Richard Blake; story by John Tucker Battle

Stars: Helena Carter, Arthur Franz, Jimmy Hunt, Leif Erickson, Hillary Brooke, Morris Ankrum, William Phipps, Milburn Stone, Fay Baker, Barbara Billingsley, Peter Brocco, Charles Cane, John Eldredge, Luce Potter and Richard Deacon.

Tagline: Murderous Martian creatures from out of space!

The Plot…

Late one night a thunderstorm wakes young David MacLean (Hunt).  Looking out his bedroom window David sees a flying saucer land just beyond a hill out back.  David runs to wake his parents, but they brush it off thinking David had a bad dream.

The next morning in order to appease his son, David’s dad agrees to go check things out.  When dad returns, he is cold and emotionless towards David.  Before too long David sees his mother and neighbors behaving the same way.  So he goes to the police.  They don’t believe him either… but a county health care physician, Dr. Pat Blake (Carter) does.

Dr. Carter takes Jimmy and contacts the military.  Will they be too late to stop an alien invasion… even if they do believe her?

Thoughts (beware of spoilers)…

Richard Deacon appears uncredited as an Military Police officer.  It was his feature film debut.  Deacon would become most famous for his role as Mel Cooley on The Dick Van Dyke Show.

Invaders from Mars is famous for it’s ending… was it just a dream?

The film starts off pretty good.  It has a nightmare quality and rightly so, but is hurt by too much stock footage and cheap looking “invaders”.

Invaders from Mars (1953) rates 2 of 5 stars.