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The War of the Worlds (also known promotionally as H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds) is a 1953 science fiction film starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. It was the first on-screen adaptation of the H. G. Wells classic novel of the same name. Produced by George Pal and directed by Byron Haskin from a script by Barré Lyndon, it was the first of several adaptations of Wells's work to be filmed by Pal, and is considered to be one of the great science fiction films of the 1950s. It won an Oscar for its special effects and was later selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry of the... MORE

The War of the Worlds (also known promotionally as H. G. Wells' The War of the Worlds) is a 1953 science fiction film starring Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. It was the first on-screen adaptation of the H. G. Wells classic novel of the same name. Produced by George Pal and directed by Byron Haskin from a script by Barré Lyndon, it was the first of several adaptations of Wells's work to be filmed by Pal, and is considered to be one of the great science fiction films of the 1950s. It won an Oscar for its special effects and was later selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress. Following the opening credits, the film begins with a preamble of illustrations by space artist Chesley Bonestell showing the planets of our Solar System, over which the film's narrator explains why the Martians find Earth the only world worthy of invasion (not much was known at the time about the habitability of Venus, due to its dense cloud cover, so the planet was omitted from the choices considered by the Martians). Wells' novel is updated to the early 1950s and the setting moved from the environs of London to southern California. Dr. Clayton Forrester, a scientist and LESS