DVD Of The Week: The War Of The Worlds (1952)

Moving the setting of HG Wells' classic late Victorian science-fiction classic The War Of The Worlds to '50s America was a stroke of genius because the story lends itself so well to the fears and paranoia of a time when the so-called civilized world was wrapped up in a love/hate relationship with the all-powerful Atomic Bomb.

It's a story we all know - the martians arrive on Earth in meteor-like spaceships and then rise out of their craters and start killing everyone with their powerful 'death rays'.

Everything mankind throws against them proves futile until they are finally felled by the very germs in our air.

The movie focuses on physicist Dr Clayton Forrester (Gene Barry) and hapless librarian Sylvia van Buren (Ann Robinson) who, in the glorious tradition of sexist 50s cinema, is there to make drinks, cook breakfast, mop fevered brows, scream a lot and add a bit of eye-candy to an otherwise quite macho movie.

Clayton and Sylvia escape one of the first attacks by the martians - but only after her uncle, a pastor, has been vapourised for trying to talk peace with the aliens - and end up first trapped in a collapsed farm house (where they encounter one of the martians in the flesh) and then separated in the war-torn ruins of Los Angeles.

Although the floating "swan"-shaped martian craft have become as iconic as the original tripods of Wells' book, it is this later segment of the film, set in the ruined city, that really hammers home the story's subtext.

Clayton and his fellow scientists have correctly deduced that mankind's weapons - even, eventually, the almighty A-bomb - are useless against the martian craft, and so they need to attack the weaker martians themselves. However, during their attempts to flee L.A. they are all set upon by the panicking mob, their equipment smashed and their vehicles stolen.

Our hero then begins a search, from church to church in the city, looking for Sylvia (as she had earlier told him it was the only place she felt safe) and just when he finds her - after several scenes of huddled masses praying for a miracle - the germs kick in and the martian war machines come crashing to the ground.

The way this salvation of mankind is delivered in Barré Lyndon's script has strong religious overtones that I'm pretty sure weren't in the original text; it seems to imply that no matter how badly mankind screws things up, God will be there to look after him and keep him safe (except for all the people who'd already been killed, obviously... including Sylvia's uncle).

Rather unfortunately, the crisp quality of the image, and all its beautiful colours, on this DVD does mean you can pretty much see all the strings holding up the martian vehicles, but that aside, the film looks amazing and the '50s setting, with its great cars and striking fashions, is a perfect fit for Wells' story.

It's also quite noticeable that during all the commentary moments that America's Cold War enemy Russia never gets a mention as one of heroic countries fighting back against the superior forces of the invaders!

While the uncomfortable religious spin on the denouement of The War Of The Worlds is totally unnecessary, this film still stands head and shoulders above the ludicrous reworking by Steven Spielberg in 2005, which pretty much missed the target on every plot point of the tale.