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THE WAR OF THE WORLDS
What a dramatic beginning, with Cedric Hardwicke's booming narration! Three men go looking for a meteor that's just landed, but part of it reveals a lid which starts to unscrew, and an unearthly sight and sound. "We welcome you! We're friends!" is greeted with a deadly heat ray, which incinerates the hapless trio. Soon the electricity is cut, the phone lines are down, and even watches don't work. They're all over the world, and as the taciturn scientist Dr. Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry) and his hysterical girlfriend Sylvia (Ann Robinson) seek sanctuary in the country, a Martian meteor cum ship crashes into it! Sylvia had already seen her uncle, a priest, make the foolish mistake of thinking the aliens would dig religion. Even nuclear bombs can't stop 'em! So they march on to Los Angeles, entering the city theys hoot it up. Forrester finds rioting mobs abound, and he's beaten up by a mob, and dragged out of his truck. Looking for his girl, he finds her in a church, amidst a congregation singing 'Abide With Me' as death rays are zapping everything, including a stained glass window in the church, but for the ending there's a sudden, dramatic and unexpected twist, with sympathetic music. One of the best of all sci-fi films. A not very accurate representation of the classic H.G. Wells novel, but absolutely stunning special effects, and imaginative aliens. The scenes of the aliens dying is stunning and dramatic cinema. This movie still seems fresh, and must have stunned audiences in the '50s. - Paul Rance/booksmusicfilmstv.com. |
The Angry Silence Babe Bambi The Birds The Blue Max Casablanca Coming Home Cry Freedom The Defiant Ones Double Indemnity The Elephant Man Escape From Alcatraz Falling Down Gladiator Goldfinger Hell Drivers The Italian Job King Kong Legally Blonde 2 The Mark Of Zorro The Matrix Midnight Cowboy Moulin Rouge On The Waterfront Paths Of Glory Planet Of The Apes Psycho The Rebel Shark Tale Silent Running Sleeper Spartacus Spider-Man 2 Stuart Little Theatre Of Blood The Third Man The Vikings The War Of The Worlds Watership Down West Side Story When The Wind Blows Where Eagles Dare The Wicker Man Yellow Submarine You've Got Mail Zulu Directed by Byron Haskin Adapted from a H.G. Wells novel |
