17. The War of the Worlds: HG Wells' Martians in 1953

As always there are spoilers ahead!

 

Description

After the classic film The Day the Earth Stood Still we move forward to 1953 and yet another Alien invasion. This time the aliens are definitely not looking to be friends. The War of the Worlds was written by HG Wells and published in 1897 in Pearson’s magazine. There have been many adaptations of the text including the famous radio play from Orson Welles in 1938 and the film adaptation by Steven Spielberg in 2005. I mention the drawings of the Martian tripod machines early in the episode. You can take a look at these wonderful images on this Instagram post.

 

To help us with their brilliant insights I have two wonderful guests.

 

The Experts

Keith Williams is a Reader in English Literature at the University of Dundee where he runs the science fiction programme. He is the author of the book H.G. Wells, Modernity and the Movies.

 

Ian Scott is a Professor of American Film and History at The University of Manchester. He has written extensively about politics and film in Hollywood.

 

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to the show and guests

02:26 HG Wells original text and his place in science fiction history

09:00 The 1938 Orson Welles CBS radio play

12:46 1953 USA: paranoia and morality

15:04 The differences from the novel: jingoism, religion and diversity

21:32 California: Manifest Destiny and small town attitudes

24:52 Race and racial segregation

28:55 Science, religion and salvation

36:04 The spectacle of the film

38:31 The 2005 Spielberg rendition

43:35 The legacy of the film

47:22 Related recommendations

 

Shownotes

• IMDB pages for Byron Haskin and George Pal.

• IMDB pages for Conquest of Space (1955), The Power (1968) and The Time Machine (1960).

• The podcast episode on The Invisible Man (1933) may be of interest to those who want to know more about HG Wells and Orson Welles’ radio play.

• You can learn more about Scarecrow Video on their website. This is not a paid advert! I just think it may be a handy resource for those who might need it. (Although if anyone wants to pay me do let me know! Haha.)

• “Scientific romance” was one of the phrases used to describe what we now call science fiction back before we took on the newer term.

• You can learn a bit about The War of the Worlds book here.

• The Curate is a character from the original HG Wells story that is a religious man who seems to be of weak character and delves deeper into hysteria as time progresses.

• The Artilleryman is a character from the original story that is left isolated and ends up believing the Martians intend to take the human race on as domesticated animals (similar to cattle). His plan to avoid this is to rebuild London underground where they can remain unseen.

• You can find an Instagram post about the beautiful drawings of the Martian tripods here.

• You can hear the 1940 radio broadcast of HG Wells and Orson Welles meeting and having a discussion here. I found it really quite wonderful. They speak about The War of the Worlds radio play and Citizen Kane.

• You can learn more about the House of Un-American Activities Committee here.

• You can learn a bit about the Korean War here.

• There is a timeline of Communism here.

• The native/Mexican character I mentioned is Salvatore and was played by the actor Jack Kruschen.

• A bit more about the idea of Manifest Destiny can be found here.

• The IMDB page for the 1956 version of The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

• You can learn more about HG Wells love life in this old article.

• You can learn a bit about the post World War II eugenics movement here.

• You can learn more about the Roswell incident here, which led to the flying saucer craze. You can learn more here and here and a Wikipedia page of reports from 1947 is here.

• You can find The War in the Air by HG Wells here.

• Although Ian has mentioned the restored 4K version a listener has contacted me to say it is the Blu-ray version that gives the greatest rendition of the look and effects of the film. 

• The IMDB page for the 2005 Steven Spielberg can be found here.

• IMDB pages for Close Encounters of the Third Kind and ET the Extra-Terrestrial.

• IMDB page for The Manchurian Candidate.

• You can learn more about Kurd Lasswitz’s Two Planets novel here.

• The IMDB page for It Came from Outer Space.  

 

 

NEXT EPISODE!

Next episode we will be taking a closer look at It Came from Outer Space (1953). You can check Just Watch to see where it can be found in your region and the film is available to buy or rent at many outlets including Apple TV.