A different way of telling a story

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

If you're expecting something on the order of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", forget it. There are no glowing alien pods or menacing outer space monsters in this flick; they've been replaced by a 'manifestation of intelligence' that takes shape as an energy form. That was actually a pretty good bit of pseudo-scientific gobbledygook to make sense of the invasion force replicating the Fielding Family and eventually getting them out of the way.You know what was really creepy though? Before Judi's (Betty Beale) boyfriend Frank (Lowell Brown) had that unfortunate accident, the couple was going to spend a lively evening at a seminar dealing with enzyme induction in e. coli! I can't think of a more exciting date night, can you? Too bad about the car crash though, he probably should have taken a defensive driving course.So this whole thing started when a Martian space probe robot inadvertently beamed down the essence of a Martian intelligence that was determined to put a stop to America's tinkering in outer space. Unlike the warning that came at the finale of "The Day the Earth Stood Still", these Martians weren't about to take any chances, and simply turned the Fieldings and family friend Web Spencer (William Mims) into crispy critters. The one that took Dr. Fielding's (Kent Taylor) form made no bones about it, they were taking America out of the space race first and dealing with any other countries that came along after.The whole time I'm watching the picture, I couldn't get over Taylor's resemblance to Vincent Price, making me wonder whether Price might have been considered for the picture. He would have been a natural, having played a handful of mad scientists in his day. The only other thing I was left wondering about after that wonderful tour of the Wainwright estate was - how the heck deep was that swimming pool?

Spoiler alert; Holy Cow, They win! but more of that in a moment. we are talking about "The Day Mars Invaded Earth" (1963) Directed by Maury Dexter, and written by Harry Spalding. A Black and White film. The version I watched was uploaded on You Tube, and who ever did the upload used image Stabilization. This caused much distortion to the otherwise sharp image. The film was well lit and shot, in the old school studio style, There was a minimum of special effects. The California location shooting was impressive, The Rich mansion that served as the background for the story was in fact the Greystone Park and Mansion in Beverly Hills. The acting was minimal and efficient, as was the basic editing. All things considered, this film had some intelligent thought behind it. For example, it begins with a Mars robotic rover, dropped on mars. It functions for six minutes before it is destroyed. Dr Fielding who designed the robot, and his assistant Dr Spencer are played by Kent Tayler and William Mims. Dr Spencer has taken a weekend off, to visit his wife Clair, played by Marie Windsor, and his daughter Judi played by Betty Beal, and his son Rocky played by Gregg Shank. All is not well at the home-front. It is not just the Doctors neglect of his wife and kids, He is trying to make amends, What is spooky, is that all of the members of the family experience seeing doubles of themselves. These doubles turn out to be quite real, they are energy manifestations of the intelligent life forms that survive on Mars. Even back in the sixties, we realized how hostile an environment Mars could be. The Martians are on earth, to stop the invasion of their world. Although they seem reasonable, their solution to our messing around on their planet, is to kill us off. The doctor learns of this first hand from his doppelganger. All the members of his family have been replicated, and much like the pod creatures in the Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) their ultimate intent is to take over Earth. This movie has much in common with the Body Snatchers, a much superior film. We only learn of the Martians desire to do away with us, in the somewhat shocking last few minutes. The film is effective because of how it is underplayed. The Musical score by Richard LaSalle is also old school, and very effective in creating the feeling of unease that this film achieves on such a limited budget. I liked this film, the Scientists acted with intelligence to understand the threat to their planet, but never truly understood the brutality of the invaders. The ending leads us to believe there is not much hope for the people of Earth. Well done, Slow moving by today's standard, it never the less builds to a satisfyingly disturbing conclusion. Eight out of Ten "Obscure but Good" Stars.

A scientist, the brains behind a Martian probe, returns to his wife and family because things are starting to fall apart in the marriage. They are currently living in a part of a mansion. Once there, strange events occur. He is walking around when he sees his wife, but she doesn't respond to him. When he sees her later, she says she has been in the house all along. Soon there is an opposite event with her seeing him as a threat. The children are affected too. We are finally let in on things. Doppelgangers of these people have formed from a kind of energy scan. At one point, the handsome young boyfriend of the teenage girl is killed when he crashes his car trying to avoid her on the road. This copy later appears in the girl's bedroom. What can they do? This has some tight suspense. The down side would be that it gives its principle characters little or no power to counteract what is going on. By the way, if I had seen this as a young child, I would have not slept for a week.

This was a 60's sci-fi movie that had somehow escaped my radar until today. I'm a particular fan of the genre. I almost did not watch it due to the low 4.8 rating on IMDb. This is one of the rare instances where I'm glad to say I disagree with the general consensus. I can see where the under 40 crowd, used to CGI and faced paced action/thriller type sci-fi movies would be bored with this film. Actually I would consider it a combination paranormal/sci-fi flick. The estate on which the film was made is stunningly beautiful, even in black and white. Not your average backdrop for a science fiction film. The premise is terrifying. There are the obvious flaws of "why in the world would they stay once they've seen what they did?" and other arm-chair quarterbacking thoughts that I'd have done a lot differently in their situation. I think it's difficult for 21st century viewers sometimes to put themselves in a 50's or 60's setting. How could they if they did not live during those times? I found the film to be suspenseful and entertaining. Doubt it will make to anyone's "top 10 film" list, but it was a very pleasant surprise and great way to spend a rainy afternoon. There is something primeval about the plot of the film that is very unnerving and thus makes it so scary. There are no cheesy costumed Martians or monsters to spoil this one. It's all intellectual type fear. Give this one a shot - especially if you are age 50+, you won't be disappointed.