The War of the Worlds (1953) DVD9 and Blu-Ray Criterion Collection, Blu-Ray Via Vision Entertainment – Imprint No 1
on March 28th, 2022 at 17:58
Producer George Pal presents the H.G. Wells story, the one used in Orson Welles’ infamous radio play of 1938 that scared the country. The star of this film is Pal’s special effects, orchestrated by Gordon Jennings, which won an Oscar. This updated version from the Victorian-era London of 1890 is now set in contemporary Southern California of 1953.
One would have to have been raised on Mars to have never heard of The War of the Worlds. Vacationing Pacific Tech scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry) is summoned when a meteor lands intact in a California forest. He meets attractive library specialist Sylvia Van Buren (Ann Robinson) at the impact site, and hangs around for it to cool off and permit further examination. The oddly shaped projectile is not a meteor, but the first of hundreds of alien landing craft, from which emerge gigantic hovering fighting machines. Armed with heat rays and disintegrator beams, the evil-looking machines are protected from attack by invisible force fields. They begin an all-out assault on human civilization. In a matter of days the entire world is overrun by the Martian invasion. Clayton and Sylvia rush to organize a scientific defense at Pacific Tech even as the battle front reaches downtown Los Angeles.
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