For other uses, see The War of the Worlds (film). There have been at least four film adaptations of H G Wells ' novel The War of the Worlds: ''The War of the Worlds'' (1953 film, a 1953

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, ASC
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	26 August 1953
Running time	85 min. Byron Conrad Haskin ( April 22, 1899 &ndash April 16, 1984) was an American film and television director George Pal ( February 1, 1908 &ndash May 2, 1980) born György Pál Marczincsák, Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 &ndash 13 August 1946 He was an outspoken socialist and a pacifist, his later works becoming increasingly political Barré Lyndon (pseudonym of Alfred Edgar) ( August 12, 1896 – October 23, 1972) was a British playwright and screenwriter Gene Barry (born Eugene Klass; June 14, 1919) is an American Actor. Ann Robinson (born May 25, 1935) is an American actress Robinson was born in Hollywood California to a Bank employee father George S Barnes, ASC ( October 16, 1892 &ndash May 30, 1953) was an American Cinematographer from the era of Silent Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American motion picture production and Distribution company, based in Hollywood California. Events 1071 - Battle of Manzikert: The Seljuk Turks defeat the Byzantine Army at Manzikert. The year 1953 in film involved some significant events Events September 16 — The Robe debuts as
Language	English
Budget	$2,000,000 US (est. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States )
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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 starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. The year 1953 in film involved some significant events Events September 16 — The Robe debuts as Science fiction Film is a Film genre that uses speculative, Science -based depictions of imaginary phenomena such as extra-terrestrial Gene Barry (born Eugene Klass; June 14, 1919) is an American Actor. Ann Robinson (born May 25, 1935) is an American actress Robinson was born in Hollywood California to a Bank employee father It was the first on screen depiction of the H. G. Wells classic novel of the same name. Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 &ndash 13 August 1946 He was an outspoken socialist and a pacifist, his later works becoming increasingly political The War of the Worlds (1898 by H G Wells, is an early Science fiction Novel which describes an invasion of England by Produced by George Pál and directed by Byron Haskin from a script by Barré Lyndon, it 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. George Pal ( February 1, 1908 &ndash May 2, 1980) born György Pál Marczincsák, Byron Conrad Haskin ( April 22, 1899 &ndash April 16, 1984) was an American film and television director Barré Lyndon (pseudonym of Alfred Edgar) ( August 12, 1896 – October 23, 1972) was a British playwright and screenwriter Events Films of the 1950s were of a wide variety As a result of Television, the studios and companies sought to put audiences back in theaters It won an Oscar for its special effects. "The Oscar" redirects here for the film see The Oscar (film. The illusions used in the Film, Television, Theater, or Entertainment industries to simulate the imagined events in a story are traditionally called

Plot

The story is updated to the 1950s for this film, and the setting is moved from the environs of London to southern California. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. California ( is a US state on the West Coast of the United States, along the Pacific Ocean. 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. Doctor Clayton Forrester is a fictional character in the 1953 science fiction film The War of the Worlds, the first film adaptation of the H A meteorite is a natural object originating in Outer space that survives an impact with the Earth 's surface 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.

Later, after most people have gone home, the meteorite unscrews and opens, disgorging a Heat-Ray device from Mars. When the three men who remained behind approach in friendly greeting, it kills them without warning. 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. The Heat-Ray is the primary offensive weapon used by the Martians in the H

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. A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from Nuclear reactions either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout Meanwhile, there are reports of other landings all over the world.

Forrester and Sylvia flee, along with the rest of the civilians. Their plane crashes and they take shelter in a nearby abandoned farmhouse. Farmhouse is a general term for the main house of a Farm. It is a type of Building or House which serves a Residential purpose in a 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. 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. Los Angeles (lɑˈsændʒələs los ˈaŋxeles in Spanish) is the largest City in the state of California and the American West 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 – they have no defenses against the "smallest and humblest of Earth's living creatures": viruses and bacteria. A virus (from the Latin virus meaning Toxin or Poison) is a sub-microscopic infectious agent that is unable The Bacteria ( singular: bacterium) are a large group of unicellular Microorganisms Typically a few Micrometres in length bacteria have

Cast

* Not credited on-screen.

Production

The film opens with a prologue in black and white and switches to Technicolor at the opening title sequence. Technicolor is the trademark for a series of color film processes pioneered by Technicolor Motion Picture Corporation

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. ^[1]

World War II stock footage was used to produce a montage of destruction to show the worldwide invasion, with armies of all nations joining together to fight the invaders. World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including A montage sequence is a technique in Film editing in which a series of short shots is edited into a sequence to condense narrative

Wells had used the second half of his novel to make a satirical commentary on civilization and the class struggle. Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and Performing arts In satire human 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.

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. The manta ray ( Manta birostris) is the largest of the rays, with the largest known specimen having been more than 7 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. Robinson Crusoe on Mars is a 1964 Techniscope Science fiction film retelling of the classic novel by Daniel Defoe. Forrest Ackerman owned one. Forrest J Ackerman (born November 24, 1916) is an American collector of Science fiction books and movie memorabilia and a science fiction It is believed that the third was destroyed in a fire.

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 Heat-Ray is the primary offensive weapon used by the Martians in the H 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 the album by The Jam see Sound Affects. Sound effects or audio effects are artificially created or enhanced Sounds For many years, it was utilized as a standard "ray-gun" sound on children's television shows and the sci-fi anthology series The Outer Limits particularly the episode The Children of Spider County. For the album by Progressive Metal band Voivod see The Outer Limits (album. " The Children of Spider County " is an episode of the original The Outer Limits television show

The machines also fired a green ray (referred to by Forrester as a "skeleton 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. Chemical warfare involves using the toxic properties of Chemical substances to kill injure or incapacitate an enemy. Black smoke is a fictional weapon from the H G Wells novel The War of the Worlds. The sound effect was reused in Star Trek: The Original Series, accompanying the launch of photon torpedos. Star Trek is a Science fiction Television series created by Gene Roddenberry that aired from September 8, 1966 through The Star Trek Fictional universe contains a very large number of weapons.

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. Tripods or fighting-machines are a type of fictional three-legged walker from the H 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.

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 top of the torso.

Response

The War of the Worlds had its official premiere in Hollywood on February 20, 1953, although it did not go into general theatrical release until the fall of that year. The word premiere (or première, from the French première, "first" generally means "a first performance" ^[2] The film was both a critical and box office success. A box office is a place where tickets are sold to the public for Admission to a venue It accrued US$ 2,000,000 in distributors' domestic (U. The United States dollar ( sign: $; code: USD) is the unit of Currency of the United States; it has also been A film distributor is an independent company a Subsidiary company or occasionally an individual which acts as the final agent between a film production company S. and Canada) rentals, making it the year's biggest science fiction film hit. ^[3]

The New York Times review noted the film was "an imaginatively conceived, professionally turned adventure, which makes excellent use of Technicolor, special effects by a crew of experts and impressively drawn backgrounds. . . Director Byron Haskin, working from a tight script by Barre Lyndon, has made this excursion suspenseful, fast and, on occasion, properly chilling. "^[4] "Brog" in Variety felt it was "a socko science-fiction feature, as fearsome as a film as was the Orson Welles 1938 radio interpretation. Variety is a weekly entertainment trade newspaper founded in New York in 1905 by Sime Silverman George Orson Welles (May 6 1915 – October 10 1985 was an Academy Award -winning director, writer actor and producer for film stage radio and television . . what starring honors there are go strictly to the special effects, which create an atmosphere of soul-chilling apprehension so effectively audiences will actually take alarm at the danger posed in the picture. It can't be recommended for the weak-hearted, but to the many who delight in an occasional good scare, it's sock entertainment of hackle-raising quality. "^[5]

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. 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 Robinson also quasi-reprised her role in two later films, first as Dr. Van Buren in 1988's Midnight Movie Massacre and as Dr. Sylvia Van Buren in 2005's The Naked Monster.

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

• Independence Day (1996), directed by Roland Emmerich. Independence Day (also known by its promotional abbreviation ID4) is a 1996 Science fiction film about a hostile Alien invasion Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) Roland Emmerich (born November 10 1955 is a German Film director, Screenwriter, and producer. The aliens (not from Mars) are defeated in part by installing a computer virus onto the mothership. 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. A street light, lamppost, street lamp, light standard or lamp standard, is a raised source of Light on the edge of a Road The gooseneck is the Swivel connection on a Sailboat by which the boom attaches to the mast. 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. Mars Attacks! is a 1996 Black comedy and Science fiction Movie by Tim Burton based on the popular card series Mars 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 American Film director, Screenwriter and Set designer, notable for the quirky For the meat company see Topps Meat Company. 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. A trading card (or collectible card) is a small Card, usually made out of Cardboard or thick Paper, which usually contains an image of a 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. Slim Whitman (born January 20, 1924 in Tampa Florida) is an American Country music singer and songwriter Yodeling (or yodelling, jodeling) is a form of Singing that involves singing an extended note which rapidly and repeatedly changes in pitch from the

• Steven Spielberg's 2005 updated adaptation, though not a remake, does feature several references to the original film. Steven Allan Spielberg, KBE (Hon (born December 18 1946 is an American Film director, Screenwriter 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 Gene Barry and Ann Robinson had cameo appearances, and the aliens kept their three-fingered hands, though they became reptilian-like tripods.

References

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
• Lux Radio Theatre's Adaptation of 1953 Movie, 02-08-1955
• http://geocities.com/mustavapint/aliens.htm For some thoughts on Hollywoods interpretation of Wells' novel.