Cast:
Gene Barry (Doctor Clayton Forrester), Ann Robinson (Sylvia van Buren), Les Tremayne (Major General Mann), Bob Cornthwaite (Doctor Pryor), Sandro Giglio (Doctor Bilderbeck), Lewis Martin (The Reverend Doctor Matthew Collins), Housely Stevenson Jr (General Mann's aide), Bill Phipps (Wash Perry), Vernon Rich (Colonel Ralph Heffner), Henry Brandon (Cop at crash), Jack Kruschen (Salvatore), with Paul Frees (Radio reporter/pre-titles narrator) and Cedric Hardwicke (post-titles narrator) Directed by Byron Haskin.
Review:
Oh hell, this one was on my mind for quite some time. It is one of those films you either were in the right age as a youth watching alien invasion movies as a kid or one that missed your outlook because the 2005 version of The War of the Worlds was fresher in your mind (in my memory, my parents took 8-year-old me to the theater to watch it and I fell asleep after about 20 minutes). People even older or perhaps a fan of greater history involving a certain director/performer know the 1938 radio play of the book just as well. Luckily, with a month dedicated to "New Directors", this was the perfect time to highlight Byron Haskin. Born in Portland but raised in San Francisco, he was a director and an effects man in his time after service in the Naval Reserve Force in World War I. He served as a cinematographer and effects man in the silent age (with a few directing jobs for 1927 before a decade-long break), which saw him eventually rise to special effects head of Warner Bros. by 1937. His department were given an Academy Award for Technical Achievement with the rear-projection system they came up with for photographing effects. He returned to directing with uncredited work for the morale booster Action in the North Atlantic (1943) before a proper return with the thriller I Walk Alone (1947), the first film to pair Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas together. It was Haskin who was hired to direct the first complete live-action Disney production with Treasure Island (made in 1950 as also the first adaptation of the book in color). Haskin worked with producer George Pal on three further films after this one: The Naked Jungle (1954), Conquest of Space (1955), and The Power (1968), with the latter being Haskin's last as a director prior to his death in 1984 at the age of 84. As for Pal, the Hungarian emigrant had been known in the 1940s for his work on animated short subjects ("Puppetoons", as they were) that saw him nominated for Academy Awards seven straight years). His first feature production was The Great Rupert (1950), which involved stop-motion animation for a squirrel. This was done in tandem with Destination Moon (1950), one of the first big movies about space travel in the Space Age. Other sci-fi productions of his included When Worlds Collide (1951) and films such as this, which cost $2 million.
The screenplay was done by Barré Lyndon, as done through conversations had with Haskin, Pal, and Frank Freeman Jr (associate producer); it was Pal and Haskin who tasked themselves to not show a scene from the POV of the Martians, no matter what the studio asked. The film is based on 1898 novel of the same name as written by H. G. Wells, which, well, was obviously going to be a distinct story that the film makes modifications to, considering its setting in London (in the Victorian age) with fast moving tripods that were 10 stories tall. Paramount Pictures had the rights to the book since the 1920s (as suggested by Cecil B. DeMille, once tapped for an adaptation), which is how this is the first adaptation of the book Albert Nozaki helped design the war machines of the Martians (as shaped from manta rays), which is made even better with all the matte paintings used to get the disintegration effects (in total for effects, it took over half a year to finish). Haskin worked in "close collaboration" with the sketches that came for the effects that had been done by Nozaki with supervision by art director Hal Pereia. So good was the effects that it was awarded a Special Achievement Award by the Academy Awards (the third time that a Pal production had been awarded in that regard). Of course, for a long time one could only see the film with color stock that made the wires holding the alien creatures visible. It is a captivating film worth the 85 minutes, as I expected. Hardwicke delivers a resounding narration for what leads to the idea of Martians choosing Earth to invade over other planets. It is efficient in establishing suspense with worthwhile adventure due to the quality of the action presented within its effects and suitable characterization to deliver its endpoint (of all the modifications made, the climax of book and film are not too different, go figure). Barry (in his second film role after years on Broadway and television, where he is best known) is at the head of the acting to deal with said effects (remember that one is acting here to effects that won't be there at the time of filming), which he does as the most curious of the bunch to worthy patience that carries his weight to drive the film forward. The terror in seeing Los Angeles run amok in terror is carried by effects for a good chunk of well-executed suspense, but Barry and his desperation to maintain some sort of order is key to that as well. Robinson does reasonably well in the attempts to wind and unwind at the hands of terror, which gets handled with that last couple of sequences involving sanctuary (strangely enough, she was the one returning actor in the syndication series in 1988, which had been planned by Pal prior to his death). I like Martin and the buildup before that last sequence he is to accentuate just how much terror is presented with the creatures (well, aside from the scene before it that cuts right at the ideal time). Tremayne and others deliver the lean and ready exposition required where there are no false notes or bland bluster for what an effects-driven capsule of entertainment it is in the long run. The probe effect is wonderful to look upon, particularly since the film doesn't show much of the overall alien anyway. There was a sea of sci-fi movies with either a big effect involving ships or suits, but one thing that cannot be denied is that The War of the Worlds was near the top of its game at the time of release and even still now for those interested in neatly executed spectacle.
Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.
Next up: Hiroshi Inagaki's Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto.
