Retro Pop - War of The Worlds
September 12th 2011 05:25
H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds had been on the Paramount Pictures for years - since the golden silent era in fact it wasn't until the 1938 radio adaptation that our screen classic finally gets to develop some traction in the form of support in Hollywood.
Finally after more than a decade (and admittedly a war in between) movie moguls enlisted George Pal to bring this classic H.G. Wells story of a Martian invasion to the big screen.
Winner of the 1953 Academy Award for Best Special Effects, its a work of frightening imagination, with its manta-ray spaceships armed with cobra-like probes.
As formations of alien ships continue to wreak destruction around the globe, the military is helpless to stop this enemy while scientists race to find an effective weapon.
Gene Barry and Ann Robinson play the hero and heroine roles that were de rigueur for movies like this in the '50s, and their encounter with one of the Martians is as creepy today as it was in '53.
Providing a dazzling display of impressive special effects for its time
along with spectacular visions of destruction, this is a movie for the ages and no doubt one which could very well have inspired a young Steven Spielberg or Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, whose Independence Day takes vast chunks liberally from the plot.
Starring: Gene Berry, Ann Robinson, Les Tremayne, Robert Cornthwaite and directed by Byron Haskin - it still rates in my books as one of retro pop's greats.
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