Invaders from Mars (1953)

So I mentioned those two police officers who were like under control, the Martians, and then they blow up a building and then they're both killed by the Martians because they've done their duty or whatever. And then another police officer is like radioing to his superior officer and he's like, yeah, they were blown to bits. And I just think that's like a hilarious way to talk about the death of like two officers that you probably knew pretty well and worked with for

a long time. And this guy just emotionlessly is like, they're blown to bits. I burst out laughing at that. I love that. Hello, everybody, and welcome to Camp Kaiju Monster Movie Podcast. We are your hosts, Vincent Hannum and Matt Levine, and we're talking about all of our favorite monster movies, the good, the bad, and the downright campy, and asking if they stand the test of time. Traditional kaiju, creature features, space invaders, the supernatural, and everything in between. All

strange beasts welcome here. Amp Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Linder and The Zach Pack, powered by Coldwell Banker Realty, your source for real estate, home rehab, fixing and flipping for investor clients and residential buyers. Reach out to The Zach Pack today for real estate services. Follow The Zach Pack on social media and contact The Zach Pack for investment opportunities. Link in the show notes. Invaders from Mars. He saw them land from outer space. He saw them capture

innocent people only to destroy. Father turned against son. People changed into strange, weird animals. A general of the army becomes a saboteur. Trusted police turned into arsonists. The boy's parents changed into killers. But nobody's getting anywhere out there. Nobody can locate anything. Anybody. The Martians. We've got to stop them. Invaders from Mars. Capturing humans at will for their own sinister purposes. turning them

into diabolical instruments of destruction. Invaders from Mars, weird, fantastic beings of a super intelligence, ruling a race of synthetic humans and pitting them against mankind's dream to conquer the universe. We've got to find Rinaldi and the kid. When the colonel gives a signal, get back here on the double. Matt, we have some space invaders on the show this week. We do indeed. Like the prototypical space invaders we're going

to be talking about tonight. Little green men, except they're kind of tall and wearing onesies, like pajama footings. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. It's a bold look for sure. Footie pajamas. Footie pajamas, yeah. Maybe more adorable than menacing, but still pretty cool looking. They're definitely, they may not be little, but they're definitely green men. They're bright green. And I can't wait to talk about the colors in this movie because it's pretty eye -popping. It looks

amazing. Yeah. I can't wait to talk about, there's all the technical stuff. I can't wait to talk about how we both watch this movie respectively, I on Pluto and you on Amazon. And what's the ideal condition to watch a movie? And that's always a great conversation. Yeah. And to talk about the legacy of this film, the reputation, I think this is a movie that a lot of people have not seen. And I think it's one people should see more often. And I can't wait to dig into

all that. Totally agree. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but I hadn't really heard that much about this movie before watching it for this episode. And it deserves to be part of the cult canon for sure. Love that. Cult canon. Oh, a t -shirt just popped up in my head. Ooh, nice. A t -shirt shot out of a cannon, like a t -shirt gun, you know? A Camp Kaiju t -shirt gun. The Camp Kaiju cult canon. T -shirt gun. Whoa, what

acronym would that be? T -K -C -C -T -S -G. In any case, we got to get working on that swag. That's a great idea. Ba -boom. All right. How the hell are you? I'm doing pretty well. We're pretty much in spring here in Minnesota. It's a beautiful day. NBA playoffs are going on. Watched a lot of movies this weekend. Went for a bike ride. It was a good weekend. How are you doing? Right on. Pretty good. Getting over a little cold. Me too. Also watching some good movies

lately. We talked about Brian De Palma over email because I just watched Phantom of the Paradise. Yeah. It's my new obsession. Talk about cult canon. That movie is phenomenally bonkers. It is. I really love that movie. Like on the surface, it's kind of like, you know. sold your soul to the devil for rock and roll kind of movie. But I think there's a lot more to it than just that.

I think it's kind of about like how precarious the world of entertainment is, the risks of kind of like duplicating yourself and your voice and like your identity, you know, through like mechanical means or whatever. There's a lot of, you know, I think De Palma is really great at making movies that are like really fun and stylish on the surface, but have some like pretty dense ideas underneath them. And that movie is a great example of that. Yeah. There's just so much to chew on with that

film. So listeners, get on it. Phantom of the Paradise. You will not regret that decision. Indeed. Great soundtrack, too. Oh, yeah. Well, folks, thank you for hanging out. Please rate and review wherever you listen. Spotify, Apple, that's another podcasting app. So I've heard. You can also send us listener comments at campkaiju at gmail .com. or our Instagram page at camp underscore kaiju underscore podcast. Or if you'd like to be a featured voice on the show, go ahead

and do it. Leave a voicemail at 612 -470 -2612. And tell us about your favorite monster movies and memories. Go ahead and check out our website, campkaijupodcast .com. Subscribe to that, and you will get more reviews and special content. You can check out our merch store. No t -shirt cannons yet, but we have a guy working on it. And that is campkaiju .threadless .com. Of course, the best place to go is patreon .com slash campkaiju. Become a patron for as little as $5 a month.

You're going to get discounts on that merchandise. Folks, I'm not kidding when I tell you, I send our patrons merchandise whenever I can because fortunately, and we're very thankful, we have money in the bank. because of our patrons. So that money goes towards production value and merchandise. Patrons, if you're listening, be on the lookout for a little treat that I'm sending you all in the mail in May. It will relate to

our trivia event on May 5th with Naomi. Matt, do you want to talk about that a little bit? Yeah, for sure. So Naomi, who has appeared on the podcast several times, she does trivia every month at Indeed Brewing in Minneapolis, the first Monday of each month. She very kindly invited me and Vincent to join her on May 5th. So that's at 8 p .m., I believe. Is that right? On Monday, May 5th? Or 7. Yeah, maybe. I'm not sure. Yeah, it's one of those two. Yeah, we'll verify that.

But, you know, there will be some great monster movie questions, some non -monster movie questions, image rounds, video rounds. It's going to be a lot of fun. Yes, and if you are a patron and you happen to be in Minneapolis, if you stop by, you get a free drink on us, alcoholic or non. If you're not a patron, you have until 7 or 8 o 'clock that night to become a patron, and we'll give you a free drink voucher. So even if you show up, you're like, oh, I don't know

if I should be a patron. Go ahead and do it. Do it. Yeah, just do it. Just listen to the peer pressure. Yeah. We're the angel and devil on your shoulders telling you to do it, Vincent and I. All right. So that's going to be a lot of fun. Here's something fun. So for all of you who would like to send us a voicemail, but maybe you want a little more guidance on what to talk about, totally hear you. Well, Matt, guess what movie is celebrating its 50th anniversary this

year? Monster movie. Three tons on him. 25 feet. Oh, it's got to be Bruce the Shark from Jaws. Yeah, Jaws. So, I don't know. I just had this idea of if we get enough listener voicemails just talking to us about Jaws, like, why do you love this movie? What's your favorite thing about this movie? I could string those together into like a whole episode. Yeah, because that is your favorite monster movie, right? It's my favorite movie. Oh, wow. I don't think I knew that. That's

cool. Oh, yeah. That's a good choice for favorite Steven Spielberg monster movie. It's between that and Jurassic Park for me. Close battle. Yeah, yeah. Jurassic Park for sure. But I don't know. Jaws has always had my heart. Classic. Yeah. A very formative experience for, especially for people our age, like I'm a little bit older than you are, but you know, older millennials, like Jaws is a very formative text for sure.

For sure. So listeners, please, please leave a voicemail telling us about Jaws in your life, how Jaws has impacted you for the better. We'd love to hear from you. Indeed. All right. Well, this month in monster movie history, of course, this being May, there's some fun movies. From the annals of May. From the annals of May. What do we have here? Well, if we're talking about the annals or the annals of May, I think those are going to be two very different things. I'm

just kidding. That was a bad joke. Sorry, that's very juvenile, very immature. Anyway, Shadi, you can go first. Sorry, I didn't mean to jump over you there. No, that's okay. I think, so I have like a real pick and then a fun pick. My fun pick is some movie called Attack of the Flesh -Devouring Space Worms from Outer Space from 1998. I think there's like nothing on this movie on the internet except that it has a title. So I'm very curious if it was just like a student

film, but either way, wonderful title. I'm going to shout out Gamera Super Monster from 1980. This is like the fifth, maybe? And last film in the Showa era Gamera series. It's 90 minutes of spliced footage from the previous installments, loosely wrapped around some child nonsense. And it's so bad. But like, because it's made up from other movies, it's just like a greatest hits. And you're like, oh, well, this isn't. It's just extremely cheap and lazy. It sounds kind of charming

in a way. It is. I like the first Gamera movie from the Showa era. I think that might be the only Gamera movie that I've seen. We watched Gauss. Oh, and Gamera versus Gauss. That one is great. Yeah. Well, I like those two. So I feel like I would like at least parts of Gamera Super Monster. Yeah. I'll mention a couple as well. The first one I'll mention is Horror of Dracula from 1958, a Hammer Horror picture. To be honest, I don't love all of the Hammer Horror

movies. Some of them, on the subject of being kind of cheap and quick and lazy, I think some of the Hammer Horror movies fit that bill. Some of them seem a little bit like rushed into production, but Horror of Dracula is a classic of that studio. Christopher Lee is fantastic as Dracula. Really like artificial sets, great colorful cinematography. So that movie's a lot of fun, very campy. The other one that I'll mention is Dog Soldiers from

2002, a really great werewolf movie. I feel like I've maybe talked about that in the podcast before because I love that movie very much. I think Neil Marshall directed it. who also made The Descent right around the same time. I think that might have been his follow -up movie. But Dog Soldiers is funny. It's really stylish. It's very scary and gory. Yeah, just a great, great

werewolf movie. That's terrific. I admittedly haven't seen it yet, but you have talked about it before, and you've definitely piqued my interest. Highly recommended. And, you know, it's kind of set among soldiers in the Scottish army. Maybe it's not Scotland. I can't quite remember. But it is definitely in like a military environment. And I feel like that allows for a good satire of just like alpha dogs in the army and then alpha werewolf dogs, you know. So it's very smart

and very fun. Very cool. Yeah. New and upcoming releases. So this was actually last month in April. We had Screamboat released. which is from the folks who did the Winnie the Pooh Blood and Honey movie. But Screamboat is a riff on Steamboat Willie, the Disney animated short, which is now in the public domain. So they scooped up that and made it into a horror movie about a giant killer mouse. Cool. I heard that Winnie the Pooh movie was pretty bad, which is unfortunate because

it's kind of a fun idea. Yeah. I haven't seen it myself yet, though. I did read one review on Screamboat that was positive. Like there's a lot of love for the Disney Studio catalog. Like there's a lot of inside jokes and Easter eggs. So I don't know. I'm actually surprisingly interested in watching Screamboat. Yeah, I'm intrigued. I would watch that. I didn't even know that came out until just now. There you

go. I'm pretty excited to see Sinners. I've heard really good things about that movie, which apparently is a monster movie. Unfortunately, I've kind of read some spoilers, which, you know, I would just advise anybody that doesn't know what that movie is about to not really read too much about it. Because it sounds fun, but I haven't seen it myself yet. Yeah, it's the talk of the town. Everyone is going on about it. Yeah, and like seems to be like single -handedly keeping...

Hollywood box office alive right now. Like it's been a terrible year for Hollywood, but with maybe a couple exceptions. But yeah, Sinners is doing really well. Cool. Yeah, that and Wolfman. As soon as I get the time to find them on streaming, Sinners is in theaters, of course, and everyone should see it in the theater. But if you're like me and you just don't have the time, you know, streaming is the next best thing. Yeah, for sure.

Sometimes, for whatever reason, you know, schedules or whatever, it's impossible to see it in the theaters, which I try to as much as I can. That one I'm really dying to see in the theater. It seems like it's, you know, you should see it on that kind of big screen experience. But there are a couple others that came out earlier this year, like Companion I haven't seen yet, and I might try to stream that sometime soon. Wolfman, like you mentioned. So I'm trying to catch up

on those soon as well. Yeah. It's also the communal aspect, like a horror movie. It's so much fun when you watch it with a group of people. Yeah, absolutely. If it's a good audience and they're screaming and laughing at all the right times, it's an incomparable experience. Yeah. You're reminded that, oh, movies can do this because we watch so many movies by ourselves that you forget that audibly reacting to the film can be a valid experience. Let me ask you, do you...

Do you make noises when you watch a movie, a comedy or a horror film? Absolutely, yeah. And within moderation, I love it when other people do as well. I love a good scream. Even a brief comment, like a brief snarky comment is cool. I definitely don't like people talking all that much during movies, but yeah, it's good to engage, good to laugh and scream and all that stuff. It's wonderful when movies cause that visceral reaction, to use a word that I probably overuse

on this podcast. It's your catchphrase. Yeah.

yeah i also laugh i'm a big laugher at movies even like when i'm just by myself but i can't help it you gotta get into it yeah and you know like i obviously i watch a lot of horror movies and i usually don't really mind gore all that much so when i watch very gory horror movies usually there are some like oh that's nasty oh shit like stuff like that you know like i can't help myself so yeah it's fun yeah uh speaking of alien invaders we have a another one coming

up matt it's your pick Yeah. On Camp Kaiju, sorry. No, that's okay. Species is my next pick from 1995 starring Natasha Henstridge, I believe. I'm pretty sure Ben Kingsley is in that movie as well. Roger Donaldson is the director who made some pretty good like pop entertainment movies back in the day. Of course, I can't think of any other ones right now. But yeah, I've heard Species is like really trashy, kind of erotic, campy, alien, you know, monster movie. So I'm

excited to talk about it. Yeah. Have you never seen it? I never have. No. Oh, I watched a couple of years ago. It's perfect for this podcast. Cool. All those words you used are apt descriptors. Nice. I can't wait. In some ways, I feel like it's going to be like the tawdry version of the movie that we're talking about tonight. Yeah. Tawdry 90s movie. Yeah. I love the word tawdry.

Following species. We are going to visit the Gamera franchise with the first one from 1965, Gamera the Giant Monster, or Gamera the Invincible, depending on which, the American or the Japanese release. But we have yet to feature the OG Gamera film, so I'm excited to rectify that and, yeah, have some good fun talking about Gamera. Me too. I just watched it, actually, maybe like two years ago, and I liked it a lot. Yeah, it's got a lot

of things going for it. Yeah. Well, thank you, Jason, Chris, Sean, Peggy, and our anonymous patron. You are strong, loyal patrons. Keep the lights on here at Camp Kaiju. So we appreciate it. And thank you. This could be the beginning of the end for the human race. For what men first thought were meteors or the often ridiculed flying saucers are in reality the flaming vanguard of the invasion from Mars. Looks like they're going

to come out of that gully pretty soon. We'll have to rush our defenses to be ready when they do. We're going to need plenty of reinforcements. We'll get them. Lieutenant, look! They slashed across country like scythes. wiping out everything that's trying to get away from them. That explains why communication is cut the moment their machines begin moving. Montreal's blacked out. Nothing more has come through. Same thing that happened on the Pacific coast. Anything from them yet?

No, Mr. Secretary. We've had nothing from San Francisco for over five hours. The nations of the world mobilize their armed might, rushing to defend the Earth against the unknown weapons of the super race from the Red Planet. Is there nothing that can stop the Martian death machines? Guns, tanks, bombs. They're like toys against them. We know now that we can't beat their machine. We've got to beat them. All over the world, human beings cower before the onslaught of these unearthly

enemies whom no one has ever seen. Look out! Panic that sweeps around the globe as the great masses of mankind flee blindly in a headlong stampede of hysteria. Yes, it came from outer space to fill the world with terror, to bring you unforgettable suspense. What was it? Where did it come from? Who were the all -powerful creatures it brought from outer space? And what did they want on Earth? You can learn the amazing answer only when you see the most thrilling picture

in years. It came from outer space. In the astonishing realism of three dimensions. with objects coming right out of the screen, so real they almost touch. Listen to me. Please listen. If you don't, if you won't, if you fail to understand, then the same incredible terror that's menacing me

will strike at you! come from another world spawned in the light years of space unleashed to take over the bodies and souls of the people of our planet bringing a new dimension in terror to the giant super scope screen whatever intelligence or instinct it is that can govern the forming of human flesh and blood out of thin air is fantastically powerful beyond any comprehension a cursed dreadful malevolent thing was happening to those he loved This isn't just an ordinary body, is it? I never

saw one like it. It looks... unused. The sensational star discovery of the view from Poppy's head. And now an undreamed -of horror makes her life and love a vortex of fear. Suddenly, while you're asleep, they'll absorb your minds, your memories. I don't want any part of it. You're forgetting something, Miles. What's that? You have no choice. From city to city, an incredible hysterical panic spreads. As the unimaginable becomes real, the

impossible becomes true. Now, let's turn our attention to Invaders from Mars from 1953, directed by William Cameron Menzies. Matt, what's your personal history with this film? Up until I watched it last night, I had zero personal history with this film. I think I had maybe heard the title a couple times, didn't really hear if it was good or bad. I definitely didn't really get the sense that it was like a classic of 50s sci -fi

movies. But yeah, I was kind of blown away by it, as we'll talk about in a little bit here. But up until yesterday, I knew next to nothing about this movie. Had you never come across the 86 remake? No, I mean, I've never seen it. Again, I feel like maybe I knew of that title, like I knew of the movie's existence, but I didn't really know anything else about it. It's by Toby Hooper, right? Yeah. Yeah, I first saw this film just a few years ago. I fell in love with it.

When I started Camp Kaiju, I knew this was something I wanted to talk about, but it's taken years to do that, which is so wild. But yeah, I thought this was the year to do it and talk about it, and I'm excited to. Oh, oh, I'll tell you this. So I was so actually I was first turned on to this movie. There's a TCM documentary called Watch the Skies. And it's all about 50s sci fi. And it features folks like Spielberg, Ridley

Scott, James Cameron, George Lucas. And they're talking to like, they're the people on the documentary, and they're talking about all their influences. from the 50s when they were kid baby boomers watching these movies. And there's a whole segment on Invaders from Mars. And that's when I first learned about this movie and thought, whoa, I definitely want to see this because I'm a huge

Spielberg fan, for example. And when you watch Invaders from Mars with its child protagonist, you're instantly reminded of a Spielberg film, I think, and how he focuses on children. in almost every one of his science fiction monster movies. Yeah, absolutely. And I wasn't surprised to find out that Joe Dante is a big fan of this movie as well. I feel like maybe in Small Soldiers, especially, there are a lot of similarities. That's a movie that I like a lot. And that has

mostly child protagonists. And, you know, it's kind of a fun thriller about... militaristic toys that come to life. But it's also like, you know, there's some satire about war and American militarism and stuff like that. So yeah, I'm generally not surprised to read that Spielberg or Joe Dante are huge fans of this movie. And as we'll talk about, John Sayles is a big champion of this film. Martin Scorsese, which is so funny.

Whenever I hear Scorsese talk about genre movies, it's because he has never attempted to make... A science fiction movie? I don't think. That's interesting. Yeah, I mean, I feel like he has some horror movies kind of like Shutter Island and Cape Fear. But yeah, I can't think of any straight up sci -fi movies. Yeah. Interesting. But I still love it because he's a student of film. He loves cinema and he can appreciate that

stuff. Yeah, and I think a lot of that is because of the visual style of this movie, which we'll definitely talk about in a little bit here. Definitely. You know, it's weird because, oh, sorry, I was just going to mention one more thing. I read this book a while ago called Army of Phantoms by Jay Hoberman. It's a really great book of film history and social analysis. Jay Hoberman is one of my favorite film critics of all time.

And Army of Phantoms is all about American sci -fi movies from the 1950s and how their allegories for McCarthy witch hunts, the communist era witch hunts, themes of conformism and post -war prosperity and things like that. I don't really remember too many explicit references to Invaders from Mars from that book, but it's been a long time since I've read it, so I might have to take another look at that. Maybe at some point during this episode, I might take a quick peek at the index,

if you don't mind. Yeah, I love that. And if you're willing to share that book with me at any point, please do. Yes, absolutely. I'm surprised it hasn't come up yet. I just thought of it right now. I feel like we don't often talk about 50s sci -fi as much as I think we should on this podcast. Yeah, you're right. I think Them is

one of the few exceptions. Yeah, like for American sci -fi at least, because of course we've talked about a number of Godzilla movies and whatnot, but yeah, not too many American sci -fi movies from the 50s up until right now, I guess. I guess not, but I just love so many of these movies. The Thing from Another World, Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Yeah. It Came from Outer Space. The Day the Earth Stood Still. The Day the Earth Stood Still. Yeah. Which I revisited. Have you

seen that one recently? It's been maybe like three years, but I do love that movie. Like I'd seen it as a kid and I was like, yeah, okay, I get it. But I watched it like two years ago. I was, I think I was gobsmacked by the end. I was like, what? That's like a near perfect film. I, I just. Yeah, I can't say enough about that movie. Totally agree. Yeah, very well directed by Robert Wise. We did talk about The Beast from 20 ,000 Fathoms recently, which I like a lot.

Yeah, yeah, that's true. The Amazing Colossal Man. Yeah. Throwback. Yep. We've talked about a couple like shrinking or expanding people movies. I know that's one of your favorite subgenres. Yeah. Well, we got to talk more about 50s sci -fi. For sure. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Drew Pearson. We bring you this special radio television broadcast in order to give you the very latest information on an amazing phenomenon.

The arrival of a spaceship in Washington. The Army has taken every precaution to meet any emergency which may develop. Just a minute. Ladies and gentlemen, I think something is happening. I came here to give you these facts. But if you threaten to extend your violence, this earth of yours will be reduced to a burned -out cinder. But he's a robot. Without you, what could he do? There's no limit to what he could do. He could destroy the earth. All vehicles, close

in. Let's go. She's a girl who loved a man. A man who, in a flash, became a living threat to humanity. A danger so awe -inspiring that they tried to hide his existence from the world. What happened? What made him grow? Glenn Manning is growing from 8 to 10 feet a day. The moment he's 18 feet tall, tomorrow he'll be 26 feet. The next day, 35, maybe 40. And the next day... But you've got to stop it! I don't want to grow anymore!

Day and night, scientists search, trying every experiment their brilliant minds can conceive. Finding the expected, the unexpected, and the shocking. For the immeasurable power of this ever -growing mammoth portends a fate that terrifies the universe. Drive it in hard. We have to penetrate the bone in the first ejection. Ready? Look out! It's reaching down! We want to help you to get well. Penning's disappeared, Eric. We can't find

him anywhere on the grounds. Police Chief Benson has asked me to tell you to stay in your homes. Stay in your homes. A man once loved by a woman, now feared by the whole world. A 60 -foot giant in the streets of Las Vegas. But Invaders from Mars is directed by William Cameron Menzies. Little did I know, he's one of the most celebrated figures in Hollywood history. Yeah. Did you know

anything about him beforehand? Yeah. I maybe didn't realize the full extent of how influential he was, but I knew that he was a great production designer. He was the production designer on Gone with the Wind, for example. On a lot of other silent movies, he started in the silent era. You actually wrote in the Google Doc for tonight that he won, I think, the first Oscar for Best Art Direction for two different movies, The Dove and The Tempest, or just Tempest without the.

So that's pretty impressive. He directed the movie Things to Come from the 1930s, which honestly is a movie I don't love all that much, but there's a lot to like about it for sure. Visually, it's amazing. Yeah, I don't want to steal all the thunder. What are your thoughts about William Cameron Menzies? Oh, I mean, I just was like, what? This guy, he won an honorary Oscar for his work on Gone with the Wind. The really famous Burning of Atlanta sequence is singled out as

like his crown jewel. Totally, yeah. Well, and Gone with the Wind is a fascinating example because that's like... Even though Victor Fleming is credited as the only director of that movie, that's not really true. In assembly line Hollywood studio fashion, there were numerous directors of that movie. Victor Fleming, but also George Cukor. And then even aside from the burning of Atlanta scene, I think William Cameron Menzies played a pretty major role in the storyboarding

and the overall look of that film. So maybe one of the unofficial directors of Gone with the Wind was William Cameron Menzies. It's so funny you mentioned storyboarding, because there's a really great five -minute clip I'll include in the show notes of director -writer John Sayles. And he's introducing this film, Invaders from Mars, to an audience before a screening through TCM. And one of the things he highlights is that...

He's not sure if William Cameron Menzies invented storyboarding, but he certainly popularized it, as Sales says in the feature. So I hadn't thought about that. Storyboarding had to come from somewhere. And I guess William Cameron Menzies kind of honed that craft, which is a pretty significant contribution. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, pretty much all of my favorite directors very carefully storyboard all their movies. So yeah, it's huge. And I read that David O. Selznick, the executive producer

of Gone with the Wind. kind of told the crew, whatever questions you have, Menzies is the authority. Ask him. He knows everything about Technicolor, the colors of the film. Menzies will know anything about the set design. I think even the costumes. David O. Selznick, who was a notorious tyrant, was not really very forthcoming in his support of other artists. Basically said, just ask William

Cameron Menzies. He's the authority. Wow. And Menzies... did have a real affinity for color film yeah with the wind obviously i didn't even think about that but there's a reason he he shot invaders from mars in color there's a lot of technical jargon around that that we'll unpack later in the production but we can come back to menzies if we want but we could talk about some other select members of the crew and cast i mean honestly Well, okay, I'll just say it.

Screenplay by Richard Blake. Producers Edward L. Alperson Jr. The film was released through 20th Century Fox. And the music is by Raoul Krausschar with contributions by Mort Glickman. Yes. And what I was going to say before was that no disrespect to many of these cast and crew, but I hadn't

heard of most of these people. And I think they're just all like... contract workmen who are doing a job playing around in maybe the the smaller studios so i don't know i don't think they're necessarily like quote -unquote famous people but they know how to do their work yeah absolutely i do want to shout out the cinematographer though john sites yes thank you Yeah, does incredible work on this movie. And he was actually a fairly

well -known cinematographer. If you can bear him with me for one second, I'm just looking up some of his most well -known movies. Because he did a lot of really great films. He did wonderful cinematography for a lot of movies. Which I'm trying to find right now, sorry. Sunset Boulevard, for example, from 1950. The Big Clock, a very great film noir movie. The Lost Weekend, also by Billy Wilder, double indemnity. Several Preston Sturgis movies like Hail the Conquering Hero

and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek. So John Seitz, I think overall you're right, but I think John Seitz was a very well -known cinematographer and he did great work on this movie, certainly in collaboration with William Cameron Menzies. Absolutely. And Menzies himself, obviously, is a legend. But I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. Maybe Richard Blake, the screenwriter,

in some circles is a god. I don't know. You know, one thing about the screenwriters, too, that I wanted to mention real quick, if you don't mind, even though Richard Blake is credited as the writer, the guy who's credited with the story is John Tucker Battle, who wrote the original treatment for Invaders from Mars. And I read it. Again, I'm getting ahead of myself a little

bit. John Tucker Battle did the original treatment, and then he hated the ending of the finished movie so much that he wanted his name taken off the credits. So that's like the main reason that he's not credited as a screenwriter as well. At least the early draft. What's his name again? John Tucker Battle was partially responsible for that. Camp Kaiju, where we do our research on the fly. What was his name again? John Tucker Battle. Yeah, yeah. Kind of proving your point.

I had never heard of him before, and I don't think he really did anything else. But, you know, I mean, I think most of the crew did pretty great work on this. And again, credit to Menzies for pulling it all together. Yeah. Do you want to talk about the cast a little bit? Yeah, sure. I mean, to be honest, I don't know a lot about most of the cast in this movie kind of going along with that theme. But the movie stars Jimmy Hunt as David McLean. He's the child actor in

the movie. He didn't really do like I think maybe he started a couple other movies as a child, but nothing really all that well known. He did have an extended cameo. And do you know if it's Tobe Hooper or Toby Hooper? I've always wondered that. I think it's Toby Hooper. Okay, I thought so. So Jimmy Hunt, as an adult, has a cameo in Toby Hooper's 1986 remake of Invaders from Mars, but he has a major role as the main boy in this

movie. Arthur Franz stars as Dr. Stuart Kelston, who I'll have a lot to say about in the campy section of this episode. Helena Carter stars as Dr. Patricia Blake. She's really good in this movie, I thought. She has a wonderful look. Well, I'm sure we'll talk about her a little bit more, too. This was the first time that she didn't play a romantic interest, so I would presume maybe she enjoyed having a little bit more range

in this movie. She did retire from acting after this role, though, so I don't know what that says about her career or her experience. It means she went out on top. Yeah, right. I feel like that might be true just because I didn't really recognize any of the other films that she had starred in. Yeah, she's really good in this. Leif Erikson also stars as George McLean, who's the father of the main boy character in this movie. Hilary Brooke stars as Mary McLean, the

boy's mother. And Todd Carnes has a very brief role as Jim, a gas station attendant, whom you might recognize as Harry from It's a Wonderful Life. Did you recognize him? I mean, I could place his face, or I should say I recognized his face, but I couldn't figure out who it was until after I saw the movie. Yeah, it took me a second. I was like, is that Harry Bailey? Decorated Medal of Honor? Harry Bailey? Barbara Billingsley, too, is in this movie, who later played the mom

on Leave It to Beaver, I believe. Oh, okay. And she's an airplane. She's the woman who speaks jive in that movie. I didn't know that. That's great. I have to shout that out. There are so many actors in this movie like supporting like actors who would who just had long careers as supporting and character players. I only named like kind of the main cast, but that doesn't surprise me that one of these actors showed up

in Airplane. Yeah. 20 years later. Right. Yeah, it's always fun when you can like spot faces that you recognize from other movies and TV shows and whatnot. Yeah. What did you, we'll probably talk about this more. What did you think of Jimmy Hunt as the boy David McLean in this movie? I think he's pitch perfect. Okay. As just like a gee whiz kind of boy. Jimmy Hunt, he's 86 years old now. I don't know if he's still active on like the convention circuit, but he certainly

was for a long time. I'm debating on sending

him like an 8x10. still from this movie because i think i think you can send him fan mail and he would autograph something oh cool i think you definitely should do that should i i mean i think so that sounds fun that would be fun doesn't cost me anything but the postage and the the print yeah i'm sure he would like to see that you know i did that years ago with actor Rico Browning who plays, he's one of two actors who plays the creature from The Creature from

the Black Lagoon. So I have Rico Browning's autograph. He was like 92 at the time and he died three weeks later. Wow. Like after I got the autograph. I'm glad you did. That's amazing. Yeah, but like what if I get Jimmy Hunt's autograph and then he dies three weeks later? I mean, if that happens, I feel like maybe you would have. You could legitimately wonder if you're like a bad omen, but until then, like, I don't think you have to worry about that

too much. Okay. 92 is a ripe old age. Mr. Hunt, if you're out there, you don't have to accept my letter. You've been warned. Yeah. It's got dark all of a sudden. But I'm glad you said he's the great gee whiz kind of character, because I was going to bring up how often he says, in pure 50s fashion, gee whiz, oh gosh, stuff like that. It's funny. I feel like that's such a stereotype of the time, when people think of the 50s. But then you watch these movies from the 50s, and

that's how the children talk. Yeah. It's not an exaggeration. Right. It's very charming, and there are a lot of other lines of dialogue that are, like, adorably kind of quaint and antiquated. And I'm not trying to, like, make fun of the error or whatever. It's just, you know, it's fun. It, like, encapsulates that time. Yeah, absolutely. All right, production history of this film, or at least, like, the production backstory. Honestly, I didn't find too much on

this film, which I find interesting. Because of its legacy, I'm interested in getting, like there's a 4K release of this film. You know, I love bonus features. Maybe like the audio commentaries will reveal more about it. But at least in my snooping on the internet, I couldn't find much. Now, with that said, this film was shot over

three weeks in 1953 on a very small budget. It is, I think, interesting to note that that year, We also saw the release of two other alien invasion classics, Jack Arnold's It Came From Outer Space and George Powell's War of the Worlds, which is also in color, but Invaders from Mars did it first. Yeah, and I think they really rushed production so that they could release the film before War of the Worlds came out for that exact reason. Yeah, I think I read that too. It's pretty

cool. Yeah, good year for sci -fi. Yeah, absolutely. Because The Beast from 20 ,000 Fathoms was that year too, right? Yes, it was. Yeah. Yeah. Good year indeed. Yeah. And then the next year, 54, you had Creature from the Black Lagoon, Them, and Godzilla. Man, must have been an amazing time to be alive. Aside from concerns over like nuclear war and stuff like that, but in terms of monster movies. Yeah, yeah. And you know, like segregation. Right. Cold War, McCarthyism.

Yeah, maybe only to watch the movies was like that was the only way it was a great time to be alive. But, you know, people needed the escape. So that's why they got these fantasy pictures. Yeah, that's why it's such a rich period of monster movies for sure. Yeah. 1953, so it came from outer space. That was a 3D film because around this time, 3D became a fad for the first time. There's some disputes as to whether or not Invaders from Mars was shot for 3D. I don't think it was.

It never was. But it was shot in Eastman color. Yeah, I mean, like the technical specifics of this movie are very convoluted. So I'm a little bit confused by it as well. But I know it was shot on Eastman color, which was a kind of film. A single strip color processing technique introduced in 1950. Around that time, Technicolor was kind of being phased out a little bit. Technicolor

probably is like... The most beautiful color processing technique of all time, like Gone with the Wind we already talked about, but then like Powell and Pressburger movies from the 40s are mostly shot on Technicolor. Lever to Heaven, some Douglas Sirk movies are also other examples. So Technicolor was kind of like the big gold standard, like just top of the line. That was being phased out around 1950. It was just very expensive. Like you needed a lot of like chemicals

for that process. It was like a three strip process. So Eastman color was quite a bit. simpler. But then the fascinating thing about invaders from Mars is that it was shot on Eastman color, but then it was struck onto prints using a different technique called super cine color. And those are the prints that were distributed to movie theaters. I'm just going to read straight off the Google doc, if you don't mind. Please do. If anybody out there is an expert in this process,

please educate us. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I, you know, went to film school for a couple of years and that's all I know about it. So like, this is all way over my head, but apparently Super Cinecolor used black and white separations produced from monopack color negatives made with Ansco slash Agfa, DuPont, Kodachrome, or Eastman Color Film for principal photography. After the negative was edited, it was copied through color filters

into three black and white negatives. An oddity of the system was that rather than using cyan, magenta, and yellow primary subtractive colors, Super Cinecolor printed its films with red, blue, and yellow matrices to create a system that was compatible with the previous printers. The result of the combination of the color spectra was an oddly striking look to the final print. And all I can say is that last sentence is absolutely correct. This is like a gorgeous, colorful, rich,

deep movie. which is why I included it despite not really understanding that process. But this, the color of this film to me doesn't actually look like the color of any other film I've seen. There's something, I don't know. It's not bad in any way, but it seems off to me. It seems raw. It seems, I don't know. What do you think about the color in this film? I love it. Like

it's beautiful, stunningly beautiful. And I think like the non -reality of it, the surrealism of it totally goes with the visual style that Menzies is trying to create. It's basically like a nightmare as seen by a young boy, you know? And it is totally distinct, but I think it's absolutely gorgeous. And one of the only other examples that kind of came to mind for me was Dr. X, which I think

is from 1932. It was shot on like a very early color, version of color film that was like... I think two strip Technicolor as opposed to three strip Technicolor. It just has like a very bizarre look where it seems almost faded, but at the same time, like really bright and saturated color. And that was in the early 30s. And I feel like maybe a lot of people don't, aren't familiar with like early color experiments like that,

you know? So that was one of the only other examples I could think of where the color is just so unique and visually astounding. But yeah, Invaders from Mars, really gorgeous. I think Martin Scorsese loves this movie because he put it on like a list of the 10 best movies to ever use light and color, which is crazy. Like this is like a sci -fi movie that's kind of silly at times, but it is, in my opinion, and apparently Martin Scorsese is just like an insanely beautiful.

Well, I can't argue with you or Martin Scorsese. No, I think you watch this on Amazon, right? Yeah. Yeah. Do you know if it was like an HD? kind of transfer? Yeah, it was an HD transfer. And I think it was the same version that was released on Blu -ray just a couple years ago. 2021, I think it was. 2022, Ignite Films put out a new Blu -ray with a gorgeous 4K restoration. I'm reading off of a review right now. And I think that's the version that's also on Amazon

Prime. And it looked really great. Wow. Okay. I need to see. I do think I need to see it. And like a really beautiful, like restored type of version. Cause I watched it years ago on Tubi and I watched it recently on Pluto. And I just, I don't think it was HD. I don't think it was cleaned up in any way. So for me, like the colors, they seem more muted. Like they didn't seem vibrant. Yeah. Yeah. I just feel like I need to see it in all its proper glory, I guess. I would recommend

re -watching it. I thought the Amazon version looked really good, and I have my issues with Amazon. I don't necessarily like to give them more money, but the versions of movies they have streaming on Amazon Prime usually are very high quality, and that was true in this case as well. Okay. Awesome. Well, I feel like I kind of nerded out about the visual style of this movie a little bit too much. I got ahead of myself. No, that's

great. I think so much of this movie, again, of its appeal, I think lies in Menzies and the cinematography. And his art direction. Yeah. He gives the movie a very surrealist aspect in multiple scenes. The police station is one that's cited all the time for its use of bare walls. And the walls and the doors are taller than they need to be. And really long hallways where you see actors walking from the background all the

way to the foreground. That's, I mean, even like years ago, that's what I loved about this movie. I was like, wow, it just doesn't look like anything else that I've seen from an alien movie. Totally agree. Yeah, I mean, that police station hallway is probably the best example. And when that shot came up when I was watching the movie, I out loud was like, oh my God, it just looks so bizarre

and so striking. And then the interior of the spaceship and some of the subterranean tunnels towards the end as well look just very surreal. And it's interesting, like you said before, it had a very minuscule budget. It was a very low budget movie. And you can tell that some of the sets are reused for various locations. But I feel like Menzies kind of like uses that to the film's advantage because it actually is a weird sense of like deja vu and it's kind of uncanny.

And that just adds to like the dreamlike aspect, you know? Yeah, and there's like the camera is angled at certain points leading to that sense of dreamscape. Yeah, it's kind of an off -kilter visual style that I love. Yeah, I just, that's what keeps me coming back to this film, I think. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, but just focusing on the production of this film, that's what Menzies and his cinematographer brought to this film.

According to John Sayles, again, in this clip I keep referencing, he says that the producers came in after the film was finished, and they added all this stock footage of army tanks to extend the run. So did you notice all that army stuff? Yeah, for sure. Those are the parts of the movie that I don't like so much. Like this movie is like maybe an hour and a half, 95 minutes, somewhere around there. It could have been probably

like 85 minutes. Like I feel like 10 minutes of the running time is stock footage of like tanks and soldiers and explosions. And like, it's like, there's at times like weirdly like patriotic marches in the background of some of that footage. And it's like, why are we getting this like gung -ho American military stuff right now? It's weird. I don't like it. Yeah, I don't think it's well implemented into Menzies' version of this film. I don't think it's... Yeah, it

seems like more of a question mark. Why is this in here? Yeah. I think maybe if they had used it sparingly in that one scene where the army does actually attack where they think the spaceship is located, that would have made sense. Yeah. But it's in a lot more scenes than just that.

Yeah. The use of bare walls. Like in the police station, there's... shots of actors with just a bare wall behind them and there's something so stark about that so cold that i really dig as an artistic choice totally agree yeah and i think you know sorry we're kind of jumping around a little bit but i think like you know if the if if this story is told from the boy's perspective and like he has to deal with all these older authority figures and he's like very

he's made very uncomfortable by them. He doesn't really trust them. And like, I just feel like that lack of anything in the background, like you just have these stark walls and then these adult figures looming over you. It like perfectly conveys that theme, I think, you know? Totally. Yeah. Release and legacy of this film. It was released in April of 1953. There was a 1954 British release that had several scenes extended with new footage featuring new actors even. Again,

distributors found the runtime too short. So that's a running theme with this movie, actually. Producers saying, okay, let's pad the runtime. Initial reviews were strong, but it's sometimes this film gets... quote, lost in the shuffle with other 1950s sci -fi movies, as we've talked about. But its reputation is strong. Filmmakers like Spielberg, Scorsese, John Landis, Joe Dante cite it as a childhood favorite. And it's become a real cult classic. Deservedly so. Yeah. Well,

here's a good time for our sponsor break. Camp Kaiju is sponsored by Zack Linder and the Zack Pack. powered by Coldwell Banker Realty, your source for real estate, home rehab, fixing and flipping for investor clients and residential buyers. Reach out to the Zach Pack today for real estate services. Follow the Zach Pack on social media and contact the Zach Pack for investment opportunities. Links in the show notes. Now, we have a good email from an anonymous supporter

of ours. Our friend comments on our episode about Invasion of Astro Monster. Now, I'm not going to read it verbatim, and I'm not going to read it all, but our friend does gently critique, I would say, that our own critique of E .G. Tsuburaya's special effects in that movie. If you recall in Invasion of Astro Monster, there's like a lot of unrealistic effects of astronauts on the moon and of spaceships and other things. I liken them to like toys, you know, being played with

on the moon. Our friend, and I think rightly so, pushes back a little bit and says, wants us to remember. That Tsuburaya felt it was more about selling an idea, these are his words, than being any way realistic. That Tsuburaya is making an intentional choice to make these models more fantastical than, quote, realistic. Yeah, I think that's totally fair. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I think like overall, I like the suitmation effects. I love the model effects in a lot of

the kaiju films. Yeah, we might have been a little unnecessarily harsh about Invasion of Astro Monster. I feel like I just thought there were like too few special effects overall. Like we barely even see Godzilla and Rodan in that movie. But yeah, no, that's a very valid criticism for sure. Yeah. You remember in Frankenstein Conquers the World, the Baragon monster like eats a horse. There's a horse in a little corral. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. I know I certainly had the same critique of Tsuburaya

there. I was like, what? This isn't realistic. But again, maybe that's not the point. That's a good example. That's like such a memorably like, I mean, obviously it's not real. It almost makes it like more disturbing that like, you know, he's supposed to be eating this horse and it's clearly just like a toy horse that's being ripped in half or whatever. That's a very bizarre moment. I forgot about that. So you just brought it up. Yeah. But I think we can all agree that

that's better than CGI, infinitely better. I will give you that, yeah. I would say so anyway. Well, thank you, our anonymous friend, for writing in. Others out there, please send us an email at campkaiju at gmail .com, letting us know your thoughts about Invasion of Astro Monster, Invaders from Mars, or Jaws. Leave us a voicemail, please, telling us about Jaws. We've got a couple months to do that. I'll try to get that episode, if

I get voicemails, sometime in the summer. Matt, did you know Peter Lorre has a growing lilac in his room, which I think is across the hall from your room? Ah, I did not know that. I thought I could detect a faint whiff of floral bouquet coming from his tiny little dungeon there, but I did not know that, no. Yeah. I mean, next time he's out of the house, don't tell him I said this, but check on it. He says it's starting to emanate like a glow, like a radioactive glow.

It might be getting bigger for all the wrong reasons. I don't know. Just check in on him. All right. I'm a little scared. It might be like a little shop of horror scenario, I think. I think so, but he's never seen that movie, so I don't know if he knows what he's getting into. Yeah. Oh, man, poor Peter. All right, I'll check on his safety as well as the lilac as soon as I can. Okay, thank you. We look out for each

other here, listeners, at Camp Kaiju. But Peter Lorre's going to talk about the 1944 movie called Bluebeard from PRC, or Monogram Pictures, don't remember which, but it stars John Carradine. He's a serial killer slash puppeteer. And this movie actually has quite a reputation. Have you heard of Edgar G. Ulmer? Yeah. Yeah, he directed this movie. That sounds great. I'm very excited to hear Peter's thoughts about that. Edgar G. Ulmer also directed Detour, which is a great

film noir. Yeah, so I'll let Mr. Laurie dish on all that. But yeah, interesting stuff coming up. Cool. Thank you, Peter, as always. Danke, Shane. Welcome to Poverty Row Studios on the other side of Hollywood, where the stars were dimmer and the red carpets dripped with blood. Together we will watch the best of the worst. Movies known for their limited budgets, outlandish concepts, and questionable performances. But with enough haunted houses, zombies, ape men,

and devil bats to keep you up at night. This is the Poverty Row Picture Show. I dare you to sleep through these nightmares. I am your host, Peter Lorre. You may remember me and my... My sultry voice from such pictures as The Maltese Falcon with Humphrey Bogart and The Invisible Agent, where I played a Japanese agent for Universal. Well, I'm going to move on from that one. This week on the Poverty World Pictures Show, we review a film called Bluebeard from PRC, starring John

Carradine as a traveling puppet master. who abducts and murders unsuspecting women in the streets of Victorian Paris. Oh yes, this is some sundry escapades this week, my friends. In the same vein as Hitchcock's The Lodger, which of course was based on the Jack the Ripper murders in the 1880s in London. But I digress. Bluebeard. is a film directed by Edgar G. Ulmer, a fellow Austrian and a film director with a now -renowned legacy for shooting dark mysteries on unlimited budgets.

He directed 1934's The Black Cat for Universal and allegedly worked on the classics The Golem, Metropolis, and M. Now, I starred in the latter picture These rumors are unconfirmed. Sorry to disappoint, but this Frank Capra of PRC turns in a slick historical noir in Bluebeard with John Carradine in the lead. Now Carradine at this time was known for his powerfully intimidating screen presence in horror films. and in this one he looms over his co -stars with a steely

glare. And when he laughs, you are deeply unsettled, for you know his character is merely playing a part, and that the young ladies do not stand a chance. Bluebeard was actually a film ten years in development, originally a script to follow up with Ulmer's The Black Cat. Eventually, Universal passed on the project. and with it, the chance for Ulmer to work again with Karloff. But now with PRC, this film is as much of an A -picture as the studio would ever release. And its reviews

were good, and it did prove a moneymaker. Today it is often considered Ulmer's second best outing, next to Detour, the 1944 film noir classic, which established the director's reputation as an auteur. Now, the most amazing aspect of Bluebeard, and which speaks to Ulmer's talents, is that Ulmer shot the picture in a mere six days. Now that is the mark of a master. Next time on the Poverty Row Picture Show, we review a film entitled Black Dragons. Starring Bela Lugosi in a sinister movie

about Japanese and Nazi mad scientists. No, I do not play one of either of those types of people. I have learned my lesson looking back on some of the roles I have played in my filmography. I'll let you look into those titles at your own risk. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must trim the leaves of my glowing lilacs. They have grown to the size of palm fronds, and I am doing my best to keep these monster plants hidden from Matthew. I fear he would prefer to get rid of

them, these plants from Pierre. They, oh, how they baffle me so. just woke up to a nightmare in his own backyard. But no one will listen. Right back there, right behind the hill. No one will believe. I told you, he needs psychiatric help. And soon, no one will be left. Dad? Are you okay, Dad? because something strange is happening to the people of willow creek everything's fine now and david gardner is about to find out why All right, back to Invaders from Mars. I think

there's a lot of themes in this movie. I think it wears its themes on its sleeve, on its big green footie pajama sleeves, which is really nice. I appreciate that, actually. Me too. We can rely on 50s American sci -fi movies for that. Oh, ain't it the truth. I think the big one, like for me anyways, I was getting a real sense of like societal paranoia. Like you can't trust your neighbors. You can't trust the little girl

on the street. You can't trust the cops because let's be honest, maybe they're Cold War spies. Maybe they're Soviets. I don't know. But this movie came out at the height of the Red Scare, McCarthyism. Like a lot of 50s sci -fi, I think it really evokes that theme of paranoia. Yeah,

absolutely. I think, you know, at first I was like, like the social commentary maybe doesn't seem as deep in this movie as it is in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, which came out three years later, or in The Day the Earth Stood Still, which came out two years earlier, I think, if I remember

right. But then as the movie went on... I think it's filtering that theme through a different perspective, and that's the perspective of the little boy who, again, just has to deal with all these authority figures, not only his parents, who suddenly turn from these loving, benevolent figures to just very harsh, violent even. His father slaps him pretty early in the movie. And then, like you said, the girl next door, the police chief. Yeah, I actually grew to really

love how it's a very... Kind of familiar theme, but it's really filtered through the boy's perspective. And that was kind of unique to me. Yeah. Do you want to talk about anything else? Yeah. You know, I think there's even, you know, also like the threat of nuclear war is like such a common theme from monster movies around this time. And we even get that a little bit in this movie, too, because the astronomer, Dr. Kelston, I think

is his name. You know, he's positing a possible reason why the Martians would invade Earth and why they would be pretty antagonistic right from the start. And Dr. Kelston says pretty reasonably like, well, we're... launching atomic rockets into space and these Martians probably don't like that. They're probably, they feel threatened. Like we could endanger their way of life at any

moment. And that's, you know, the, the, that doctor character, the male doctor, the astronomer or whatever he is actually like, doesn't really seem to criticize the Martians too much. He's like, well, it makes sense. Like we're kind of endangering them. So I just thought it was interesting that like the threat of nuclear war even makes its way into this movie, even though that doesn't

seem to be the primary theme. Yeah. And what I also appreciate about this movie is that there's a lot of, like it takes its themes of science in a rather mature way, despite being through the lens of a child. Like the scientists treat the science and the atomic research very maturely. It's not like a lot of other science fiction films where it's got this mumbo jumbo, they say something about something and then... it kind

of explains it away. I feel like this movie does take its time to take the audience seriously and say, here's what's going on. Here's X, Y, and Z. Yeah, yeah, I agree. And I think especially with the little controlling devices that are implanted into the bases of people's necks, it actually seems kind of plausible that like, and that's a weird thing to say about this movie, but you know, maybe the Martians would control

people that way. And then like once the human characters do what they're, forced to do than like the Martians kill them. They like make the little like transmitters erupt in their brain basically, which is very violent. And honestly, like, you know, I read like some of the reviews when the movie came out were like, oh, this is going to be really scary for kids. And at first I thought that was kind of ridiculous because nowadays it doesn't really seem all that scary.

But there is some like kind of violent, brutal stuff like that in the movie. I know. I would like to show this to my kid one day. Because I do think it's for children as much as it's for adults. But you're right, there are some violent things in this film. Yeah, and to your point, they do seem kind of scientifically plausible.

Yeah. I think there's a comment on the family unit in this film, which again, we see in a lot of 50s sci -fi films, like the nuclear family may not be all hunky -dory on the surface, that underneath there are cracks. But but to see the boy just lose his parents and he can't trust them anymore. His dad hits him right at the top, which I found very effective and like tragic because his dad is when you first meet him, his dad is like the best dad in the world. Yeah.

So nice. So supportive. So just like a nice dad. And then he smacks the crap out of his son. That was real. That was that was very good. Yeah. And they become like him, his dad and his mom become, become traitors. They become spies. They start conducting espionage and that's very real. But then the doctor, Dr. Kelston and the female doctor, Dr. Blake, they kind of become surrogate parents. And then the army, like the generals and the colonels, they also seem to take. a familial

liking to the boy. And I feel like he's found like a surrogate family with all these other adults, which I found oddly heartwarming. So I don't know what that says, but just like, okay, families can be destroyed, which is really sad, but you can still find family in other people. I don't know. Yeah, it's, you know, I feel like it is a little bit like muddled maybe at times because I thought like the distrust of the police

was very powerful. And at that time, like you mentioned before, probably speaks to like a sense of social unease. But then, and that's, you know, again, that's really powerful. Like there are two police officers that like blow up a building and it's like pretty shocking to see. Like they're, you know, it's an unexpected turn of events for

sure. But then for the boy to become very good friends with the general and the colonel, and like you said, they're very paternalistic towards him, or just paternal, I guess is a better way to put it. It's like, oh, is there a distrust of authority in this movie or isn't there? I guess it kind of has it both ways, but maybe that's all right. Yeah, I think it does have it both ways. This is a very pro -military film,

which again, most 50s sci -fi is. Yeah. But the critique of the police is also very interesting. And this is a very white film, too. And I just feel like the image we're presented of the 50s is that if you were white, you trusted authority figures. Obviously, if you were black, for example, you did not. But here we have a white protagonist being jailed. Like, there's a point where the 10 -year -old boy is thrown behind bars, ostensibly for his own safety or whatever. But I was like,

that's... Pretty extreme. So I think it's I think it's a really powerful critique of police officers. I agree. Yeah. And then, you know, the kindly female doctor, Dr. Blake, she even like she talks to David in the jail cell and then she locks him back in and she's like, sorry, I have to follow the rules. And you understand why she would have to do that, I guess. But it's still a very surprising moment. And I think there are maybe some other Hollywood movies from around

this time where like. even though the characters are predominantly white or even exclusively white, like I think you can like read certain interpretations into them. Like for example, Fritz Long's movie Fury from 1936 is all about a lynch mob and Fritz Long wanted the main character to be black, but the studio wouldn't allow that. The production code wouldn't allow that. So that character is

ultimately played by Spencer Tracy. But, you know, I think like in movies about... you know, abuse of authority and distrust of authority figures. Like, I think you can read in some of those racial issues, even if for a lot of reasons, the characters themselves were kind of forced to be almost unanimously white, you know? Yeah. Oh, that adds such an interesting layer to this

film. Yeah. Yeah. Because yeah, like you said, I mean, it is very, I can't think of too many other movies from this time where the police characters are so untrustworthy. violent, negative, and of course they are under control by Martians, so that's the explanation of it, but it's still a pretty striking representation to see. There was one other thing I was going to add, but I think I can work it into my breakdowns later. Great. We'll talk about the good, the bad, and

the campy as we respectively saw it. What did you find good about this movie? Well, I know I kind of overindulged my love of the movie's visual style before, but it is just stunningly

beautiful. And like, I don't know, sometimes in the past I've wondered like, what would it be like if like a genre movie like horror or sci -fi had like the kind of just stunningly gorgeous technicolor that you see in some of those Powell and Pressburger movies, like the Red Shoes and Black Narcissus and A Matter of Life and Death and stuff like that. And this is not technicolor, but I think this is basically

that. Like, it's sort of a... silly but fun genre movie that is just stunningly beautiful and there were a number of compositions where I like audibly gasped or said like wow or like oh my god like it's and like again credit to Menzies and also John Seitz and you know the set designers and everybody else involved but the compositions the sets the colors just a feast for the eyes it looks amazing I love that I love the score the music in this film It is so eerie and unsettling.

It's like a sting every time we, like somebody disappears into the sand pit. Big, like cosmic horror type vibes. Like color out of space. Like I could see this living in that world too. And I just found that really captivating. The little girl, when she's mind controlled, very creepy. Very effective. Yeah. The other things I've mentioned, the stark minimalism of the set, but yeah, I love the music. I love the, it's this brand of horror that it digs into. Yeah. It's like formally,

it's just really amazing movie. And I'm always especially impressed if like a very low budget movie is able to achieve that because, you know, they didn't have the best resources to work with, but still they put so much care and like precision into the style of the movie. I'm honestly surprised it was shot in color at all. Yeah. Considering

the budget. And maybe that's why we don't really recognize a lot of the cast and crew because all the budget went to like the film basically, like the literal like celluloid, like color film strip or whatever, you know? Because yeah, I feel like that's where most of the budget went. And then maybe the cast was mostly unknowns, but money well spent, I would say. Yeah. Cool, man. What doesn't work for you in this movie?

Well, we already talked about the military stock footage a little bit, so I won't focus on that right now. But I really don't like the ending of this movie. And I, you know, there will be a couple of spoilers here, so I'm sorry about that, but it gets pretty close to like the, was it all a dream ending? And it's like a little bit more complex in this case, because you think it was all a dream, but then like the boy looks out the window and he sees another spaceship

crash land. So it's seemingly starting all over again. And I was kind of just like, why, what is the point of that? I feel like they just didn't know how to end it. But this is, so I do want to shout out a really great review of this movie that I read online. I didn't really find too many reviews online, unfortunately. Maybe that speaks to just how undervalued this movie is. But there is a really good review from SciFist, SciFiST. I don't know how you pronounce the website.

I hope it's SciFist because that's kind of a funny name. But this review is by somebody named... Jan Voss, J -A -N -N -E -W -A -S -S. I apologize if I'm pronouncing that incorrectly. But anyway, this critic says this is a very Freudian movie. It is the boy's dream, basically. And his dream of like... His terror that his parents will betray him, will turn on him. And even like his sexual awakening with the Dr. Blake character, who's very pretty and is the first adult figure to

actually trust him and take his side. And some other Freudian stuff that comes up, like the review goes into some depth about that. And it's a really fascinating reading. And I read that review and I was like, all right, well, I guess I kind of understand the, it was all a dream scenario, but it still feels like kind of a cop -out ending to me. Yeah, that's interesting. I could see that take or that lens of the film. I think that just speaks to the type of movie

it is. You can read this movie any way you want. Yeah. Sexual awakening or not. And I think the surreal sets that look very unrealistic kind of add to that a little bit too, you know? Yeah. I don't mind the ending. I just don't think about it. So here's kind of like what I don't. It just doesn't work for me with this film. In addition to, well, it's all the like the tank montages. It's like the last half hour of this movie. Dude, Pluto TV has a commercial break like every five

minutes. And it just totally killed like the viewing experience of this film. Yeah. So that last half hour was a long half hour. Tank montages and then like running through tunnels. And I just, it was such a struggle for me. That's so understandable. How do you feel about the design of the Martians themselves? I'm not, I think they look too cheap. Yeah. I love like the tentacled

head in the orb. Yeah. But like the humanoid Martians, I mean, I am making fun of their costumes because I'm kind of like, that's the best you could do. Like I'm all for like going simple. You don't have to give me like six arms and, you know, a one eye type thing. Yeah. But like, I don't know. It looks like you just. A better choice could have been could have been made with their costuming. Yes, for sure. Yeah. I mean,

you're right. It looks like they're wearing green footie pajamas and they're supposed to like, you know, they're supposed to be really tall. But then they like lumber through these tunnels and they look honestly just kind of like klutzy and awkward. Yeah. Not very scary. And like. You know, we really only see them in the last 20 minutes, half hour of the movie. And like, that should be the most intense, scary part of

the movie. But even aside from the commercial breaks, I feel like that is when it kind of starts to slow down a little bit. And you know what it is? It's the, I think it's the casting of those actors in the Martian costumes because they look like uncles who just like left the bar and then went into this movie. Like they have beer bellies. Like you say, lumbering. You're right. They lumber. And I'm like, you should give me someone who looks physically superior.

Maybe they've got a lot of muscles. Maybe they look like they could kick my butt. Yeah. And not just like they're going to fall asleep on me. Very well said. Yeah. They are not menacing at all. That's why it's kind of interesting to read just about all the kids that were frightened by this movie and like the critics who were like, oh, this is a really scary movie. Like parts of it are, like I mentioned before, but like those Martians are not. They're not the scary

part of this movie. Yeah. But I guess I just want to say there are some amazing shots in the last 20 minutes of the movie, especially when that doctor, Dr. Blake, she's about to have one of those transmitters implanted in her neck. And there's this incredible low angle shot where we see a close up of her and she's passed out. And this transmitter is coming slowly closer and closer to her neck. It's an incredible shot. So there are still some moments towards the end

that I did still enjoy. Well, thank you for shouting those out. I really need to watch this again, and I will one day, because I do like this movie a lot, despite my inability to watch it in its full glory this week. Yeah. It might be due for a rewatch sometime soon. An immediate rewatch. Yeah. It would be worth it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Some campy stuff before we give it our final ratings. so much. There's a lot of campy stuff

in this, in the best possible way. One example that I really loved is, so I mentioned those two police officers who were like under control, the Martians, and then they blow up a building and then they're both killed by the Martians because they've done their duty or whatever. And then another police officer is like radioing to his superior officer and he's like, yeah,

they were blown to bits. And I just think that's like a hilarious way to talk about the death of like two officers that you probably knew pretty well and worked with for a long time. And this guy just emotionlessly is like, they're blown to bits. I burst out laughing at that. I love that. Oh, that's very funny. I loved, it was right in the beginning. The boy, he wakes up his parents because he's seen this UFO. They jump up out of bed and mom is in full makeup.

Lipstick, her hair done up. She's beautiful. And Ellen said to me, why is she in full makeup? That is a good question. Yeah. Just a classic movie thing where even in sleep, women cannot take off. They can't look not beautiful, right?

Yeah. So unrealistic. Yeah. that's a really good point I think honestly I was just like so blown away by how red the lipstick was and like how bright her like blonde hair was and just the colors in general that I didn't really think about that but yeah that's a little ridiculous yep There's another shot that I really love. It's going to be hard to explain, but like the boy is crying. He's very distraught because he

thinks that his parents are going to die. Like they have the transmitter and he knows that like everybody else that has the transmitter has died so far. So the boy is like. He's crying. He's very distraught. And Dr. Blake, the female doctor, is like hugging him and trying to console him. And the man, Dr. Kelston, is just like smoking a pipe right behind them and like eyeing them very coldly. And just the look on his face, he's just puffing away on this pipe as this boy is

crying right in front of him. It's very, very funny to me. Remember the mom of the little girl, the creepy little girl? Her house is set on fire. Like the girl sets her own house on fire. There's

like a petroleum tank. in the basement and mom is like we keep that in the shed and the guy was like well that's what's happening i that's what's burning yeah don't argue with me the house is on fire who cares yeah i laughed at that part too yeah just the way he says that like well there's a petroleum tank there i don't know what to sell you you're right it's It's strange that it's not in the garage. What should we do now?

It must not be the one from your shed because, yeah, like clearly that's where you keep your petroleum, in the shed at all times. Yeah. Yeah, that was a really funny moment. There are also a lot of good catchphrases, like we mentioned gee whiz before, but there's another part where another police officer, I can't even really remember exactly what happened, but he's responding to something crazy that happened. And he's like, suffering cats. And I thought that was a cool

catchphrase. I remember that, yeah. Yeah, there's a lot in this movie, but it still manages to take itself seriously, too, which I appreciate. Totally. It can't be in the best way. This is why we love movies like this. I want to mention one more shot before we move on. Mom and Dad, when they, or Dad has just tried to assassinate the scientist with a rifle, and he misses. And you see him. This is one of those great shots.

He's like in the background of the picture. And he runs for like 30 seconds all the way back to his getaway car, which is right in the foreground. There's no cutting. There's no camera angle other than this one master shot. And you just watch him run for like 30 seconds. Get in the car and speed away. I was like, I love this shot. This is amazing. Totally. Yeah, that's an amazing scene. Like even the lead up to that when we see the scientist working in his laboratory,

but we see him from the outside. So like we're looking through this window and we see like mostly this like big white wall with nothing else. There's just this one human figure kind of like small on screen. That shot is amazing too. Like every part of that scene is great. Yeah. All right. Let us give our final ratings of this film. Let's do it. Take us away. As usual, should I run down our different rankings? Please do. All right. Our highest ranking here on Camp Kaiju, it's

a timeless classic. It definitely stands the test of time. Second rating, there may be some antiquated moments, but overall it's great. It stands the test of time. Number three, it may be historically significant or just fun, but it does not stand the test of time. And our lowest ranking, it is not worth revisiting and definitely does not stand the test of time. Okay. Well,

I'll let you go first. Okay. So I'm tempted to give this our highest rating, but I think I'm going to have to say there may be some antiquated moments, but overall, it's great. It stands the test of time. I mean, again, just visually, it's astonishing. There are some really compelling themes. It's very entertaining. So much to love about this movie. I think the pro -military stuff and that, was it all a dream ending? prevent me from giving it the highest score here on Camp

Kaiju. But this movie absolutely stands the best of the test of time. It should be better known. And it's just a gorgeous, gorgeous movie. That's so cool, man. I'm so happy you liked it. I never know, like, you know, you bring a favorite movie, you show your friends, you hope they like it as much as you. And in fact, I think you'd like it more than me. Which is really great. That makes me feel good. Cool. I think this movie has antiquated moments, but it does stand the

test of time. I think what prevents me from giving this the highest level is the last third of the film. It does seem like it's just full of extra footage to like, you know, extend that runtime, which is strange to me when a movie like is, honestly, this movie should just be 60 minutes. Yeah. But then is that, you know, I don't know. Would I prefer just a tight 60 minutes of this movie? Maybe. But at the same time, what we do get that's strong in this movie is like really

strong. Menzi's direction, Seitz's cinematography, the themes of the family and distrust in your parents. It's so heartbreaking. I can't wait to show this to my kid. I hope she's not super scared, but maybe she will be. And in that case, this will get a classic rating because I think this movie... I think we've seen too many things, right? I want to watch this movie as a 10 -year -old, like Spielberg and all those others. And yeah, I bet we would love it more than we can

say. Yeah, totally. I'm not really very familiar with some of the old sci -fi magazines, like Weird Tales and Astounding Stories and stuff like that, like retro magazines that were very popular in the 50s. But I feel like this movie

maybe is the best. cinematic version of stories like that you know where like you can imagine a 10 year old boy just like can't wait to like open up that magazine and read the next alien invasion story oh i love that you brought that up because there's a line i think mom talks about how how her son's reading all those trash sci -fi magazines like they directly allude to what you're talking about yeah and i think yeah i think in that way this film absolutely taps into

what was popular with children at the time comic books horror stuff absolutely yeah yeah and we we kind of talked about this before but like very cool to imagine spielberg and joe dante and john landis and john sales like as boys loving this movie and going to see it numerous times in the theater that's great yeah yeah Well, on that note, that's a great note to end it all on. Thank you all for listening. Thank you for hanging out. Please rate and review wherever

you listen. You can also share this podcast with a friend. Subscribe to our website. Send us listener comments at campkaiju at gmail .com on Instagram. Links all in the show notes. If you'd like to be a featured voice on the show, leave a voicemail at 612 -470 -2612 telling us about your favorite monster movies and memories, what you think about Jaws. and think about invaders from Mars. Please check out our website, CampKaijuPodcast .com,

for more information. Camp Kaiju is recorded in Minneapolis, St. Paul, with me in the mailbox music by Ben Cook -Felts. Thank you again, friends, and until next time, stay campy. Camp Kaiju is sponsored by Zach Linder and the Zach Pack, powered by Coldwell Banker Realty, your source for real estate, home rehab, fixing and flipping for investor clients and residential buyers. Reach out to the Zach Pack today for real estate services. Follow the Zach Pack on social media and contact

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