Some movie images have become iconic, even if you don’t know the movie. Since I was a kid, the tentacled head of the Martian leader from Invaders from Mars brings back the feeling of staying up too late to watch a horror movie that my parents didn’t want me to watch anyway. (Someone can correct me, but I think it was in the opening credits of KTVU’s Creature Features.)
Maybe it was in a neighbor’s book on classic science fiction films that I’d pore over whenever there was a neighborhood dinner party. Whatever planted that image in my head, it’s to my shame that I’ve never seen this 1953 classic. I have seen Tobe Hooper’s 1986 remake, which was entertaining enough. But 80s blockbuster razzle dazzle doesn’t hold a candle to packaging 50s paranoia into a quasi-kids’ movie.
Like a lot of fun movies from that time period, Invaders from Mars had faded. Literally. Though of course time will take its toll, it’s a particular blow to a film whose director William Cameron Menzies was known as an exemplary art director first. In addition to creating iconic images from silent film to classics in the 1930s and 1940s, Menzies also co-wrote the screenplay for the accurate but sometimes disturbing 1933 Alice in Wonderland.
It took years of effort by UCLA Film Archivist Scott MacQueen to piece together the best of several prints, then painstakingly restore the colors to something close to their original luster. Thanks to Ignite Films, a company dedicated to restoration and preservation of classic films, Invaders from Mars will be coming to blu-ray on September 25th. They’ve interviewed the retired child actor Jimmy Hunt, who at 85 recently received the Cinecon Legacy Award for his work in the film (and many others).
Hunt starred as David MacLean, a young boy who wakes up to strange lights outside his bedroom. In the field behind his house, there’s now a glowing pit, and anyone who goes out to investigate comes back… changed. Once the aliens make themselves known, David teams with a scientist in town — every small town has one — to save his family and friends.
If you’re in Burbank, or planning to be in Burbank, Hunt will be signing copies of the blu-ray at Dark Delicacies on Sunday, October 9 at 3 p.m. Order now, because this will likely be a packed event. The horror-themed bookstore and gift shop is located at 822 N. Hollywood Way
in Burbank.
Enjoy this quick preview of Menzies’ work (and MacQueen’s restoration of it for 2022).
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Fanboy Planet is not affiliated with Ignite Films nor Dark Delicacies. I just hang out there sometimes.
