“Invaders From Mars”, 1953 Science Fiction Movie, Screenplay by William Cameron Menzies and Richard Blake: Curious adolescent boy David MacLean (Jimmy Hunt) confronts aliens who have set up base in his backyard. The extraterrestrials intend to use mind control on the local townsfolk. Determined to stop the invaders, who have already co-opted his father (Leif Erickson), he attempts to warn others. But when local law officers also succumb, David teams up with astronomer Stuart Kelston (Arthur Franz) and Dr. Pat Blake (Helena Carter), and the trio must fight together to repel the insidious intruders.
It was the Liberty Theater, located in the East Liberty neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The Liberty Theater was once a magnificent entertainment venue, dressed in fine gothic dark black brick with just enough peering three headed flying monsters on the facade to either scare the living shit out of you or intrigue you most adventurous imagination. Inside, this two balconied edifice were lots of corners, shadowy spaces in which anyone in their right mind would understand some kind of creature was lurking. It wasn’t until around 1957 when my father took me and my little sister to the Liberty for a double bill of thrill and horror, and by that time the Liberty Theater’s better boisterous days had been ebbing, so all the glitz and glamour turned rusty and the words to describe this once proud palace were like moldy, murky and mysterious; quite the venue to witness and invasion by Martians. “Invaders From Mars”, to this day, is still one of THOSE films I still find a faint shudder and a slight hesitation to watch. The plot scared me, not necessarily the Martians per se, but the idea that your parents, your friends, your protectors, your government, ALL of the things I held near and dear as a kid, could suddenly be transformed into alien creatures; ALL at the ready to try and make you (ME in this case) into some kind of non human THING. Little Jimmy Hunt, knew exactly what was going on, and knew he had to stop this madness from spreading. But anytime he tried to reason with an individual he thought should, could would understand, it seemed they too became unwilling to believe. How frustrating, how terrifying, how maddening!
I love hate “Invaders From Mars”, and honestly since the inception of Anything Trump, my mind has wandered back to sitting in the spooky Liberty Theater looking into the vacant two balconies, knowing that something with red sinister eyes was looking back at me almost mocking me, whispering, nothing you can do about this, we are coming to get you. With no assistance from Anyone Republican, with no assistance from the supposedly good Christian people, with the Talking Heads still acting shocked at the most current stupid Un-American act, intimated by Trump, and with the Dems still thinking they will take over the House and or Congress, while NOTHING at all has been set in place to stop another Russian hacking of our polling places, all I can do is fret as I did when I was young! The damn truth is out there, clear as day, right in front of our faces and yet, it seems no one really is paying attention. It took little Jimmy Hunt and one mad scientist to fight, fight, fight watching as everyone around them was turning into Martians. I could see the truth, but it seemed no one else really cared. I am, to this day still afraid to watch “Invaders From Mars”, by myself. HELP!
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