Ignite Media Distribution Services, with sales and
distribution support provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has selected July 11
as the street date for a three-SKU helping of director William Cameron Menzies’
1953 sci-fi classic, Invaders from Mars.
Genre fans, film buffs, collectors and the curious will
be able to choose between DVD, Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD editions of this new 4K
film restoration, which is something of a 70th Anniversary Edition.
Jimmy Hunt (Pitfall,
Sorry, Wrong Number, She Couldn’t Say No) stars
as grade school kid David MacLean, an astronomy buff and scientist in the
making (following in dear old’s footsteps), who awakes one night to see a
flying saucer land and suddenly disappear into the nearby sand dunes. Did he imagine it? Was it a dream?
Upset, he wakes up his parents, George (Leif
Erickson — Night Monster, Johnny Stool Pigeon, The Cimarron Kid … as
Big John Cannon in The High Chaparral
television series) and Mary (Hillary Brooke — The Woman
in Green, The Fuller Brush Man, Lost Continent, The Maze, The Man Who Knew Too
Much), who find his behavior quite out of
character.
We will soon discover that David was not dreaming. His father goes to investigate and doesn’t
return. David’s mom calls the cops and
soon officers Jackson (Douglas Kennedy) and Blaine (Charles Cane) show up and
go off to investigate.
Whew! David’s father suddenly returns, but there is something
that is very wrong. Come on, his little
brat son woke him up in the middle of the night to rant and cry about flying
saucers, so naturally he’s a tad put off.
Smack that kid (oops, he
does).
Jackson and Blaine return … are they zombies? What’s going on? Did David just see his neighbor Kathy Wilson
(Janine Perreau — The Shanghai Story) get
swallowed-up in the sand dunes? Get
help!
The more David tells people that something is
terribly wrong, the more his family and neighbors think he is demented … Kathy
returns, nothing wrong, pay no attention to her zombie-like state!!
We all know — as the audience to this classic sci-fi
tale — where this is going. David is
doomed, the Martians will take over … unless he can find someone, anyone, to
believe his crazy story!!
Check it out on July 11 with the 70th
Anniversary celebration of director William Cameron Menzies’ Invaders
from Mars.
Bonus features include video sessions with Jimmy
Hunt (be sure to check out the Cereal at Midnight podcast interview with Hunt —
linked here: https://www.cerealatmidnight.com/2023/03/jimmy-hunt-former-child-actor-on.html),
William Cameron Menzies’ biographer James Curtis and Menzies’ eldest
granddaughter Pamela Lauesen, a featurette featuring John Landis, Joe Dante, Mark
Goldblatt, Robert Skotak and Scott MacQueen and before and after restoration
clips.
Additionally, there is a 2K restoration of the “alternate
international cut” of the film, an alternate ending and an extended Planetarium
scene.
