Dir: William Cameron Menzies | Sci-fi drama | 83′ 1953
Reviewed by Richard Chatten
Invaders from Mars was the first of two startlingly original colour productions displaying an ambivalent attitude to authority, as seen from the perspective of a vulnerable young child, to hit screens in 1953, the second being The 5000 Fingers of Dr T.
While William Cameron Menzies was a giant in the field of production design, as a director he’d already made a substantial contribution to the history of science fiction cinema when he came to Britain in the 1930s to join forces with Alexander Korda and H G Wells to make Things to Come.
Menzies’ late contribution to the genre drew from the late David Shipman the rather obtuse criticism that ‘the decor is particularly disappointing given Cameron Menzies achievement in art direction’, which rather misses the point, since the sets were supposed to be stylised.
In addition to the Cinecolor photography by veteran cameraman John Seitz, Raoul Kraushaar’s score also rates a mention, using ‘Venus’ from Holst’s ‘The Planets’ to eerie effect to accompany an ambiguous closeup of Janine Perreau and, every time the sandpit devours one its victims, employing a choir of sixteen electronically manipulated voices to create in the words of Bill Warren ‘an unworldly sound unlike that of any other SF film’.
ON BFI UHD AND BLU-RAY, Apple TV and Amazon Prime | 11 May 2026