The War of the Worlds (1953)

Commentary: Mars is more than 140 million miles from the sun, and for centuries has been in the last status of exhaustion. At night, temperatures drop far below zero even at its equator. Inhabitants of this dying planet looked across space with instruments and intelligences that which we have scarcely dreamed, searching for another world to which they could migrate. They could not go to Pluto, outermost of all planets. So cold, that even it's atmosphere lies frozen on it's surface. They couldn't go to Neptune, or Uranus. Twin worlds in eternal night and perpetual cold. Both surrounded by an unbreathable atmosphere of methane gas, and ammonia vapor. The Martians considered Saturn, and attractive world with it's many moons and beautiful rings of cosmic dust. But, it's temperature is close to 270 degrees below zero. And ice lies 15,000 miles deep on it's surface. Their nearest world was giant Jupiter, where there are titanic cliffs of lava and ice with hydrogen flaming at the tops, where the atmospheric pressure is terrible. Thousands of pounds to the square inch. Nor could they go to Mercury, nearest planet to the sun. It has no air, and the temperature at it's equator is that of molten lead.

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Commentary: The Martians had calculated their descent with amazing perfection and subtlety. As more of their cylinders came from the mysterious depths of space, their war machines, awesome in their power and complexity, created a wave of fear throughout the world.

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Commentary: No one would have believed in the middle of the 20th Century that human affairs were being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than Man's. Yet, across the gulf of space on the planet Mars, intellects vast and cool and unsypathetic regarded our Earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely joined their plans against us. Mars is more than 140 million miles from the sun, and for centuries has been in the last status of exhaustion. At night, temperatures drop far below zero even at its equator. Inhabitants of this dying planet looked across space with instruments and intelligences that which we have scarcely dreamed, searching for another world to which they could migrate.

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Ann Robinson hated the wig that she was required to wear for her role as Sylvia. When she finally saw the completed film at a theater, however, she claimed that no one recognized her without the wig.
Filming was halted briefly, two days into filming, when Paramount discovered their filming rights to the novel were only for a silent version. It was quickly resolved through the kind permission of H.G. Wells's estate.
In the theatrical trailer, when the first Martian meteor hits the Earth, there is a large explosion and a cloud of smoke. In the film itself, the same shot contains only a flash when the meteor hits.
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