The Day Mars Invaded Earth (1963)

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The first must-see film of the year.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

We endured this turkey in its entirety last night after watching "Destination Moon" (1950), so we were certainly in the right frame of mind for a good dose of hokey 1950's "B" sci-fi. This is a disappointingly dull and uninteresting pot-boiler, obviously intended for no other purpose than being run as a second feature. I am baffled by the reviews here claiming that this is "ahead of its time" and comparing it with old "Outer Limits" or "Twilight Zone". I have to wonder if I was really watching the same movie. The acting could have been done as well by wooden cigar-store Indians. The dialog (for the most part) is insipid. The only "special effects" are a shaky and out-of-focus camera on a few shots. While the director had a great location to work on - a massive old mansion - he failed miserably in using it to his best advantage. He could have used the setting to really ramp up the tension (as was done with "Saltair" in "Carnival of Souls") but instead about half of the movie is shots of the two main characters wandering around and back and forth, seemingly lost on a large estate. When the best things about a movie are the cars (a 1954 MG TF, a 1962 Plymouth Fury Wagon, and a 1960 Plymouth Taxi Special), and it's NOT a movie about cars, you know it's a loser.

A Cape Canaveral space probe to Mars causes an unexpected response for the lead scientist and his family.The cheezy title along with the hokey first shot of a robot on Mars had me prepared for the worst. However, the storyline quickly turns around and makes the most out of a limited cast, a single location, and a neat Bodysnatchers premise. Hiring movie vets like Taylor and the great Marie Windsor was a shrewd move, since their experienced acting provides needed credibility. Then too, that grand mansion and elaborate grounds makes the storyline's walking both suspenseful (what's around the corner) and slyly scenic. And thankfully, the production avoids padding budget runtime with a lot of static dialog. Instead, there're atmospheric tracking shots down woodsy corridors that provide a few sudden jolts. This sort of technique makes the comparison with the great Val Lewton features of the 40's an apt one, though this film doesn't reach that quality level. Nonetheless, the results, including the surprise ending, are certainly better than the ratings (TMC and IMDb) indicate. No, the movie's no sci-fi classic, but it is a shrewdly done, often subtle, little film that doesn't settle for rubber monsters or the obvious.

I kind of liked this movie. It's not only got the classic look and feel, it really is classy. I especially liked the doctor and his family.In this movie less than 10 people appears. The story's premise is that after the earth sends a rover probe to Mars, martians comes to observe the earth in the form of the professor who invented the probe.The invasion is of small scale, and is not sure what the Martian's plan of attacks are, but they copy the body of the professor's family and friend.The reason I liked this movie was that all the characters are kind of beautiful, and classy. Professor lives in this big mansion that makes Bruce Wayne look poor. The good old days seem really good old days when I watch this movie. The movie is low budget, but is well crafted, and I liked it for what it is.

It was a very interesting coincidence that I watched this film when I did--right after seeing "Ramona" (1936). That's because Kent Taylor was one of the stars in both films. However, here in "The Day Mars Invaded the Earth", he was late in his career--and in a lot less prestigious film! Now this isn't to say that sci-fi films of the period are all bad--they can be great fun. But they don't have the huge star power of this earlier film--when Taylor was on his way to being a major Hollywood star (though, it never exactly came to be--though he did appear in a huge number of films--mostly Bs). In addition to Taylor, Marie Windsor (who played a great film noir 'dame' in the 50s) co-stars as his loving wife--but she looks quite different with her blonde hair and 60s hairstyle.The plot of this sci-fi/horror film is very familiar and reminded me of many sci-fi and horror films of the day. A man (Taylor) is working on a project that has sent a probe to Mars. Soon, weird things start happening to him and his family--as Martians come to Earth disguised as him or family members. It seems they do NOT want humans bothering them.This is all very, very familiar territory but with one twist. The ending was NOT at all predictable and was pretty off the wall. Otherwise, a decent film for those who love the genre. Not a great film--but worth your time and it makes do quite well with a small budget.