The War of the Worlds
Film poster
Directed by	Byron Haskin
Produced by	George Pál
Written by	H. G. Wells (novel) Barré Lyndon
Starring	Gene Barry Ann Robinson Less Tremayne
Music by	Leith Stephens
Cinematography	George Barnes
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	July 29 1953 (USA premiere)
Running time	85 min.
Language	English
Budget	$2,000,000 US (est.)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The War of the Worlds (also sometimes known as H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds) is a 1953 science fiction film produced by George Pál and directed by Byron Haskin from a script by Barré Lyndon based on the H. G. Wells novel of the same name. Haskin later became a veteran of television who directed episodes of a number of series, including several episodes of The Outer Limits. It stars Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. The voice-over commentary was by Sir Cedric Hardwicke. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Byron Conrad Haskin (April 22, 1899 – April 16, 1984) was an American film and television director. ... George Pál in 1979 George Pal (February 1, 1908 – May 2, 1980) (birth name: Györgi Pál Marczincsák) was a Hungarian-born animator and film producer, principally associated with the science fiction genre. ... Herbert George Wells (September 21, 1866 – August 13, 1946), better known as H. G. Wells, was an English writer best known for such science fiction novels as The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, The First Men in the Moon and The Island of Doctor Moreau. ... Barré Lyndon (October 12, 1896-October 23, 1972) was a British playwright and screenwriter. ... Gene Barry (born June 14, 1919) is an American actor. ... Ann Robinson (b. ... George S. Barnes (October 16, 1892 - May 30, 1953) was an American cinematographer from the era of silent films to the early 1950s. ... Information in this article or section has not been verified against sources and may not be reliable. ... is the 210th day of the year (211th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The year 1953 in film involved some significant events. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... The year 1953 in film involved some significant events. ... This article needs additional references or sources for verification. ... George Pál in 1979 George Pal (February 1, 1908 – May 2, 1980) (birth name: Györgi Pál Marczincsák) was a Hungarian-born animator and film producer, principally associated with the science fiction genre. ... Byron Conrad Haskin (April 22, 1899 – April 16, 1984) was an American film and television director. ... Barré Lyndon (October 12, 1896-October 23, 1972) was a British playwright and screenwriter. ... Herbert George Wells (September 21, 1866 – August 13, 1946), better known as H. G. Wells, was an English writer best known for such science fiction novels as The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, The First Men in the Moon and The Island of Doctor Moreau. ... The War of the Worlds (1898), by H.G. Wells, is an early science fiction novella which describes an invasion of England by aliens from Mars. ... The Outer Limits is an American television series. ... Gene Barry (born June 14, 1919) is an American actor. ... Ann Robinson (b. ... Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke (February 19, 1893 - August 6, 1964) was a British actor. ...

This was the first of several adaptations of Wells' work to be filmed by Pál, and is considered to be one of the great science fiction films of the 1950s. It won an Oscar for its special effects. The decade of the 1950s in film involved many significant films. ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ... Groundbreaking special effects were used in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith Special effects (abbreviated SPFX or SFX) are used in the film, television, and entertainment industry to realize scenes that cannot be achieved by live action or normal means. ...

Plot

The story is updated to the 1950s for this film, and the setting is moved from the environs of London to southern California. Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry), a world renowned physicist, is on a fishing vacation in the small town of Pine Summit when a giant meteorite lands in the hills above the town. Along with the townsfolk, he goes to investigate, but finds the meteorite too hot to examine immediately. While at the landing site, he meets Sylvia van Buren (Ann Robinson) and her uncle, Pastor Dr. Matthew Collins (Lewis Martin). He decides to wait in town for the meteorite to cool down. This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Largest metro area Greater Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... In 1953, H. G. Wellss science fiction novel The War of the Worlds was made into a film, with its location and characters moved to an American setting, much as in the infamous 1938 Orson Welles radio broadcast version. ... Willamette Meteorite A meteorite is a natural object originating in outer space that survives an impact with the Earths surface without being destroyed. ...

Later, after most people have gone home, the meteorite unscrews and opens, disgorging a Heat-Ray device from Mars. It immediately kills three men who remained behind. When Forrester and the sheriff return, they are attacked as well, but survive. After the military are dispatched, the meteorite deploys three floating war machines. Pastor Collins approaches the Martians in peace, but they kill him with their Heat-Ray without attempting to communicate. Adjectives: Martian Atmosphere Surface pressure: 0. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

The full force of the United States armed forces, up to and including an A-bomb dropped by a "Flying Wing", is unleashed against the invaders, but, even more so than in Wells' book, human weapons prove to be totally ineffective; the Martians are protected by an impenetrable force-field. Meanwhile, there are reports of other landings all over the world. The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 kilometers (11 mi) above the hypocenter A nuclear weapon derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions of fusion or fission. ... The Northrop YB-49 was a prototype jet-powered flying wing medium bomber aircraft developed by Northrop for the United States Air Force shortly after World War II. It was a development of the piston-engined YB-35, and the two YB-49s actually built were both converted YB-35... Force field may refer to: Force field (science fiction) Force field (physics), a vector field indicating the forces exerted by one object on another Force field (chemistry), a set of parameter and equations for use in molecular mechanics simulations Force field analysis, a concept in the social sciences Force field...

Forrester and Sylvia flee, along with the rest of the civilians. Their plane crashes and they take shelter in a nearby abandoned farmhouse. They are trapped in the basement when another meteorite crashes into the house. The couple come in contact with an actual Martian, when the creature leaves its war-machine to investigate. [Note: This is the first and only time in the film where the Martians' true form is shown.] They manage to fight it off and escape, eventually linking up with Forrester's co-workers, who are trying to find a way to defeat the aliens. However, widespread panic among the general populace scatters the research group and their equipment is wrecked. In the confusion, Forrester and Sylvia become separated.

All seems lost, with humanity helpless before the onslaught. Forrester frantically searches for Sylvia in the burning ruins of a Los Angeles under attack. He finally finds her among other survivors awaiting the end in a church. Then, suddenly, they see an approaching Martian war machine crash. Upon investigating, Forrester realizes that the seemingly all-powerful invaders are dying – simply because they have no defenses against the "smallest and humblest of Earth's living creatures": viruses and bacteria. Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ... Groups I: dsDNA viruses II: ssDNA viruses III: dsRNA viruses IV: (+)ssRNA viruses V: (-)ssRNA viruses VI: ssRNA-RT viruses VII: dsDNA-RT viruses A virus (from the Latin noun virus, meaning toxin or poison) is a microscopic particle (ranging in size from 20 - 300 nm) that can infect the... Phyla Actinobacteria Aquificae Chlamydiae Bacteroidetes/Chlorobi Chloroflexi Chrysiogenetes Cyanobacteria Deferribacteres Deinococcus-Thermus Dictyoglomi Fibrobacteres/Acidobacteria Firmicutes Fusobacteria Gemmatimonadetes Lentisphaerae Nitrospirae Planctomycetes Proteobacteria Spirochaetes Thermodesulfobacteria Thermomicrobia Thermotogae Verrucomicrobia Bacteria (singular: bacterium) are unicellular microorganisms. ...

Cast

* Not credited on-screen. Gene Barry (born June 14, 1919) is an American actor. ... Ann Robinson (b. ... Paul Frees (June 22, 1920 - November 2, 1986) was a voice actor born in Chicago. ... The Very Rev. ... Henry Brandon can refer to several people, including: Henry Brandon, 1st Earl of Lincoln (1516–1534) Henry Brandon (actor) (1912–1990), American character actor Oscar Henry Brandon (1916–1993), journalist Henry Brandon, Baron Brandon of Oakbrook (1920–1999), British life peer Category: ... Jack Kruschen (March 20, 1922 – April 2, 2002) was a Canadian born character actor who worked primarily in American film, television, and radio. ... Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke (February 19, 1893 - August 6, 1964) was a British actor. ...

Production

The film opens with a prologue in black and white and switches to Technicolor at the opening title sequence. The two-colour combination black and white is used in symbols of various groups: Flags Flag of Brittany Saint Pirans Flag (Cornwall) Canton of Fribourg, Switzerland Jolly Roger (pirate flag) Categories: | ... Logo celebrating Technicolors 90th Anniversary Technicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation (a subsidiary of Technicolor, Inc. ...

George Pál originally planned for the final third of the film to be in 3-D to correlate with the final attack by the Martians. The plan was dropped prior to actual production of the film, presumably being deemed too expensive.^{[citation needed]}World War II stock footage was used to produce a montage^{[citation needed]} of destruction to show the worldwide invasion, with armies of all nations joining together to fight the invaders. Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... In the context of film, montage can refer to: the act of editing film, or a sequence of shots, typically cut to music without words, and often intended by a director to convey a lyrical sense of time passing or to invoke a mood without necessarily showing a linear narrative. ...

Wells had used the second half of his novel to make a satirical commentary on civilization and the class struggle. Lyndon did not write the satire into the movie, though he did add a religious theme, to the point that the Martians begin dying shortly after blasting a church. 1867 edition of the satirical magazine Punch, a British satirical magazine, ground-breaking on popular literature satire. ...

Special effects

The Martian war machines prepare to attack.

A conscious effort was made to avoid the "flying saucer" look of stereotypical UFOs; the Martian war machines were instead sleek, sinister-looking constructs shaped like manta rays floating over the ground. Three Martian war machines were made for the film, out of copper. One was modified for use in the film Robinson Crusoe on Mars (which Byron Haskin also directed) and was supposedly later melted down for a copper drive. Forrest Ackerman owned one. It is believed that the third was destroyed in a fire. Image File history File links 1953_machines. ... Image File history File links 1953_machines. ... An unidentified flying object, or UFO, is any real or apparent flying object which cannot be identified by the observer and which remains unidentified after investigation. ... Binomial name Dondorff, 1798 The manta ray, or giant manta (Manta birostris), is the largest of the rays, with the largest known specimen having been nearly 7. ... Robinson Crusoe on Mars is a 1964 science fiction film retelling of the classic novel by Daniel Defoe. ... Forrest J Ackerman (born November 24, 1916 in Los Angeles, California) is a legendary science fiction fan and collector of science fiction-related memorabilia. ...

Each machine was topped with a towering mobile eye, pulsing, peering around and firing beams of red sparks, all accompanied by thrumming and a high-pitched clattering shriek ([1]) when the Heat-Ray was fired from the eye. The distinctive sound effect of the weapon was created by the orchestra performing the musical score, mainly through the use of violins and cellos. For many years, it was utilized as a standard "ray-gun" sound on children's television shows. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of movies, video games, music, or other media. ...

The machines also fired a green ray from their wingtips, generating a distinctive sound ([2]) and exposing the interior of its target (in the case of humans, their skeletons became briefly visible) before disintegrating it. This latter weapon seems to have been substituted for the chemical weapon black smoke described in the novel. The sound effect was reused in Star Trek: The Original Series, accompanying the launch of photon torpedos. Chemical warfare is warfare (and associated military operations) using the toxic properties of chemical substances to kill, injure or incapacitate an enemy. ... The term Black Smoke is also sometimes used to refer to The Monster from the television series Lost. ... The starship Enterprise as it appeared on Star Trek Star Trek is a culturally significant science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Much effort was put forth to recreate the tripods of the novel, but they proved problematic for various reasons and it was eventually decided to make the machines float on three invisible electronic legs instead. To show their existence, sparks were to be shown directly under the hovering Martian war machines as they move along – however, in the final film, these only appear when the military and Dr Forrester first see one of the machines. It proved too difficult to mark out the invisible legs when smoke and other effects also had to be seen beneath the machines. Martian tripods drawn by Warwick Goble. ...

A Martian from the film.

The Martians, rather than being octopus-like, were instead presented as small brown hulkish bipeds, with two hands, each with three fingers. They had no heads mounted on their shoulders; instead a single large eye, with three distinct lenses (blue, red and green), peered out from the middle of the chest. Image File history File links Alien01. ... Image File history File links Alien01. ...

Fictional influences

• The 1988 War of the Worlds TV series is essentially a sequel to this film, and employs several elements from the film, including having Ann Robinson reprise her role as Sylvia Van Buren in three episodes.

• Mystery Science Theater 3000 named one of its lead characters Dr. Clayton Forrester in an homage to the film. Ironically (and perhaps intentionally so for humour), the series' Forrester is a mad scientist.

• Independence Day (1996), directed by Roland Emmerich. The aliens (not from Mars) are defeated in part by installing a computer virus onto the motherships. There are also several other references to the 1953 film, such as the failed attempt to use an atomic bomb, and a downed streetlight twisted into the shape of the gooseneck of the original war machines. In a homage to War of the Worlds, director Emmerich added a scene in which three helicopters are destroyed while attempting to communicate with a city destroyer.

• Mars Attacks! (1996), directed by Tim Burton, a more humorous treatment, and very loosely based upon the original story, but more directly adapted from Topps' famous 1962 trading card series. The film primarily spoofs 1950s alien invasion films, including The War of the Worlds. In this version, the Martians are repelled not by the natural germs on Earth, but by Slim Whitman's yodeling, which causes their heads to explode, an obvious parody of the film's (and novel's) ending.

• Steven Spielberg's 2005 updated adaptation, though not a remake, does feature several references to the original film. Gene Barry and Ann Robinson have a cameo appearance, and the aliens kept their three-fingered hands, though they became reptilian-like tripods.
• Ann Robinson did a quasi-reprisal of her role in two later films: first as Dr. van Buren in 1988's Midnight Movie Massacre and in 2005's The Naked Monster as Dr. Sylvia van Buren.

Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... War of the Worlds is a television program that ran for two seasons, from 1988 to 1990. ... Mystery Science Theater 3000, often abbreviated MST3K, is an American cult television comedy series created by Joel Hodgson and produced by Best Brains, Inc. ... Trace Beaulieu as Dr. Clayton Forrester (left) and Frank Conniff as TVs Frank). ... Caucasian, male, aging, crooked teeth, messy hair, lab coat, spectacles/goggles, dramatic posing, beaker with strange colored liquid — one popular stereotype of a mad scientist. ... Independence Day (also known as its promotional abbreviation ID4) is an Academy Award winning science fiction film directed by Roland Emmerich. ... Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ... Roland Emmerich on the set of Independence Day Roland Emmerich (born November 10, 1955) is a German film director, writer, and producer. ... A streetlight in front of a red sky at night A street light, also known as a light standard, is a raised light on the edge of a road, turned on or lit at a certain time every night. ... Categories: Move to Wiktionary | Stub ... Mars Attacks! is a comedy and science fiction film by Tim Burton based on the popular card series Mars Attacks. ... Year 1996 (MCMXCVI) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar). ... Timothy Tim William Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an Academy Award-nominated American film director, writer and designer. ... The Topps Company, Inc. ... Year 1962 (MCMLXII) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Various trading cards A trading card (or collectible card) is a small card which is intended for trading and collecting. ... Slim Whitman (born January 20, 1924 in Tampa, Florida) is an American country music singer and songwriter. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Steven Allan Spielberg KBE (born December 18, 1946)[1] is an American film director and producer. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... War of the Worlds is a 2005 science fiction disaster film based on H. G. Wells original novel, and was directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Josh Friedman and David Koepp. ... Gene Barry (born June 14, 1919) is an American actor. ... Ann Robinson (b. ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

• War of the Worlds Movies.info
• The War of the Worlds at the Internet Movie Database
• The War of the Worlds Movie Site
• Making of the movie at site dedicated to all things War Of The Worlds
• http://geocities.com/mustavapint/aliens.htm For some thoughts on Hollywoods interpretation of Wells' novel.