Let's be realistic.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Blistering performances.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It's very dull, nothing happens, a bit of cig smoking, some talk, but no "Invasion of Earth". It has from The Narrow Margin (1952), Hellfire (1949), and The Killing (1956), Marie Windsor, who was age 45 here, but looks 52. She was still cute, but doesn't have the acting chops to pull this snoozer through. No one does here.Still, get it to complete your 50's list of science fiction films.Also recommended: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) I Married a Monster from Outer Space (1958) The Angry Red Planet (1959) 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957) The Day of the Triffids (1963)

A scientist, the brains behind a Martian probe, returns to his wife and family because things are starting to fall apart in the marriage. They are currently living in a part of a mansion. Once there, strange events occur. He is walking around when he sees his wife, but she doesn't respond to him. When he sees her later, she says she has been in the house all along. Soon there is an opposite event with her seeing him as a threat. The children are affected too. We are finally let in on things. Doppelgangers of these people have formed from a kind of energy scan. At one point, the handsome young boyfriend of the teenage girl is killed when he crashes his car trying to avoid her on the road. This copy later appears in the girl's bedroom. What can they do? This has some tight suspense. The down side would be that it gives its principle characters little or no power to counteract what is going on. By the way, if I had seen this as a young child, I would have not slept for a week.

A Cape Canaveral space probe to Mars causes an unexpected response for the lead scientist and his family.The cheezy title along with the hokey first shot of a robot on Mars had me prepared for the worst. However, the storyline quickly turns around and makes the most out of a limited cast, a single location, and a neat Bodysnatchers premise. Hiring movie vets like Taylor and the great Marie Windsor was a shrewd move, since their experienced acting provides needed credibility. Then too, that grand mansion and elaborate grounds makes the storyline's walking both suspenseful (what's around the corner) and slyly scenic. And thankfully, the production avoids padding budget runtime with a lot of static dialog. Instead, there're atmospheric tracking shots down woodsy corridors that provide a few sudden jolts. This sort of technique makes the comparison with the great Val Lewton features of the 40's an apt one, though this film doesn't reach that quality level. Nonetheless, the results, including the surprise ending, are certainly better than the ratings (TMC and IMDb) indicate. No, the movie's no sci-fi classic, but it is a shrewdly done, often subtle, little film that doesn't settle for rubber monsters or the obvious.

The Day Mars Invaded Earth (1963) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Dr. David Fielding (Kent Taylor) sends a probe to Mars to see if there's life there but it seems nothing was returned. Soon afterwards the doctor begins to realize that something did happen and that the aliens have copied his body (as well as his families) and are planning on an invasion. THE DAY MARS INVADED EARTH really isn't all that original but I thought the film managed to be quite entertaining even with its incredibly low-budget. I thought the film managed to be quite interesting in regards to the story because instead of just giving us cheap looking aliens who look fate, the story decided to do something different and work with the budget. Here we never see any little green men or men with big heads but instead we just get doubles of the cast. I thought this made for some pretty effective scenes including one involving the daughter who wakes up in the middle of the night with the double in the room with her. I won't spoil the ending for those who haven't seen the film but it's quite unusual and very good. The performances are a major plus here as Taylor manages to do a good and believable job with his role. Noir regular Marie Windsor plays the wife and William Mims is good as a fellow scientist. The CinemaScope ratio really didn't add anything to the picture and I think more than anything it just exposed how low the budget actually was. Still, fans of the genre will want to check this one out. Even though it's not a classic it's at least entertaining.