THE WAR OF THE WORLDS: 1953 H.G. Wells' most famous novel, which many consider to be the patriarch of modern science fiction, was written in 1894 and published 3 years later. This tale's war using super- sciences has the prophetic quality of Jules Verne, but fantasy elements are replaced by an introspective look at the nature of man. It has been published worldwide, and retold through radio, music, and film. In 1938 the story was used to demonstrate the powers of broadcast media. NBC studios received bomb threats from some of the thousands of listeners it panicked.
	In 1953, yet another landmark film came from George Pal with his movie The War Of The Worlds. Gorgeous Bonestell works tour the solar system and close on Earth. Pal's version is set in (then) present day Southern California. Vacationing scientists are handy when the first Martian cylinder arrives to demonstrate the awesome heat-ray. The military is called in.
When the Martians strike from their pit, a radio announcer's transmission is cut, much like a scene from the Halloween broadcast of 1938. Reinforcements surround the pit. From the green glow comes the first war machine, walking on 3 invisible legs. The curate from the novel is characterized here.
	He is the local Parson, and "Uncle Matthew" to the film's heroine. She and leading man Dr. Clayton Forrester watch from the bunker as the Parson tries to negotiate, Bible high in hand. His incineration triggers the battle. Mankind is helpless before the Martian's technology. Forrester and friend escape in a small plane, survive a crash, and sleep, hiding in a culvert.
The novel's coal cellar scene becomes breakfast at an abandoned farm- house. A falling cylinder smashes the farmhouse and the couple crouch in the ruins as tentacles probe with cameras. They flee as the rays pulse into life. Forrester and Sylvia rejoin his colleagues.
	They are present when Northrop's XB-50 flying wing drops an atomic bomb on the Martian stronghold outside Los Angeles. The invaders' forcefield domes shrug off the blast. Man's technology is useless. It is the route of civilization. As L.A. is evacuated, mobs separate Forrester from Sylvia and his team from the university. He searches madly for her as Martians raze the city.
Through blazing, deserted streets he runs, calling for her, as the novel's "Dead London" is cast as L.A. being murdered. As the war machines thin out the Thomas Guide, he finds Sylvia in a crowded church. The building shakes as the blasting heat- rays close upon them!
	"Dead London" became very loud for the jounalist in the novel. "Ulla, ulla..." repeated the screaming Martians. A sudden silence is an element for the film as well. Outside, all the war machines have crashed to the ground.
After the failure of the atomic blast, Forrester's group had intended to seek a biological defense. Riots had prevented this, but bacteria and natural viruses were already at work. For this the Martians had brought no defense. Nearly in unison, they died from infection.
	The Martians had been slain "...by the humblest thing that God, in his wisdom, had put upon this earth." The screenplay by Barre Lyndon changes every aspect of H.G. Wells' story, yet brilliantly retains the message in its elements. Man's ultimate weapon of the 19th century was the battleship.
To update the story, the Thunderchild becomes an atomic bomb, but the results are identical. Like the ocean occasionally reminding the sailor who is boss, mankind is humbled by forces big and small which are beyond its control.
	Pre-production sketch by C. Bonestell
	A book as thick as Wells' novel could be written about George Pal's film and its creation. For instance, Paramount had held the film rights on Wells' story for over 25 years before assigning it to Pal, who makes a Hitchcockian cameo.
The novel was set in contemporary times, as was the Orson Welles radio version, as was the 1953 film. In 1978, the most faithful rendition yet was released by composer Jeff Wayne. His musical version is in Victorian London!

Richard Burton and Justin Hayward (The Moody Blues) share the role of Wells' journalist in this "rock opera" featuring thudding bass as walking tripod war machines, and fuzzbox guitar as their screaming heat-rays. Phil Lynott (Thin Lizzy) shined as the pathetic Parson Nathaniel. Burton's voice and a symphonic accompaniment blend into an extremely competent production. The story is directly from the novel. No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that... some British guy would come up with a story about invading alien space travellers, attacking with mustard gas and laser beams, if you will, who can only be stopped through biological warfare. Thinking about it, it's pretty damned cool.

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Below are selections from the suite of paintings created for Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War Of The Worlds.