“Invaders from Mars” (1953) depicts paranoia from the perspective of a youngster during the Red Scare. The funny thing about paranoia is that sometimes you’re right. There are indeed Communists teeing up at the golf course – or Martians burrowed in the sand traps.
Can a boy get the authority figures to heed his warning?
When invading Martians land in this William Cameron Menzies classic, they select a local sand pit so they can burrow down and wait for unsuspecting humans to step across the area. Sensing footsteps overhead, they snatch American citizens, replace their brains with Martian allegiance, and send them back into the community as perfectly disguised operatives. There are Reds among us.
Sure, it’s outlandish, but the fact that the actors can sell it and thereby allow the special effects team to rely on collapsing sand to carry the plot is impressive.
“Invaders from Mars” (1953)
Director: William Cameron Menzies
Writers: Richard Blake, John Tucker Battle
Stars: Helena Carter, Arthur Franz, Jimmy Hunt
While this isn’t exactly a kids’ film, the primary perspective is that of young David (Jimmy Hunt). This lends everything a certain charm; e.g., “Wizard of Oz” (1939), “Let the Right One In” (2008) and “Phantasm” (1979). The viewer is re-centered in a nostalgic and simultaneously vulnerable seat. Magic has a greater pull, gore a greater punch, and imperialistic Martians an enhanced potency. Everything is scarier as a kid.
Red Scare from space
The best part of “Invaders from Mars” is the surrealistic shot it repeatedly utilizes to frame a character marching off to the local sand pit where David saw a spaceship land while stargazing past his bedtime. It’s German expressionism right out of Doctor Caligari’s cabinet. It’s cheap, but surreal. One by one, off they go, and when they return, they’re never quite the same.
The rest of the film is 1950s linoleum and suburban conformity. But when a soul trots off to the sand pit, everything gets skewed and dreamlike. It inverts with a jolt. It slams anxiety smack dab into the suburban set. We step off the porch of stick-built ordinariness and climb a hill of weirdness. Everyone who climbs that snaky trail through skeletal trees comes back vacant and Soviet.
They’re indoctrinated in as much time as it takes to build a modest sandcastle. You can’t even trust your parents if they walk that walk; behind their eyes might hide a Commie plot.
“Invaders from Mars” is, without reservation, worth the viewer’s investment. This is the one film from the 1950s that everyone should see.