53 Film - Made differantly if HG been alive

[jeffwaynefan]

Regarded as a classic, but not what HG had wrote, the 53 version of The War Of The Worlds has always been that icon of 1950s sci-fi. . . . But if HG had been alive at the time of the film, would it have appeared differantly or even been made at all.

[mctoddridesagain]

If he'd had control of the film it probably would have ended up with the ultra-technocratic Martians being the heroes of the piece. A Martian World State on Earth! Music swells as, having put down an attempted revolt by the backward humans, a Martian Overlord stares wistfully into space and says portentously to his assistant, "All the Universe or Nothing! Which shall it be, Zogblog, which shall it be...?"

[EvilNerfherder]

Hmmm..
Not sure HG would have liked the updating aspect.
But then he did bury the hatchet with Orson Welles over his radio version.
I don't think he would have approved of the religious overtones of the film though. That was missing the point a bit.
Maybe if HG had worked on the script it would have worked out differently anyway.
It would have been interesting to find out.

[mctoddridesagain]

Seriously, you're probably right there, especially about the religious aspects. And I doubt he'd have had the soppy romantic subplot.

I don't know about the updating. I'm trying to remember whether James Whales The Invisible Man was updated, and whether or not Wells liked that version. As you say, once he'd met Orson he was fine about the radio play, but then Orson was a genius.

At a tangent, I had a look at Wikipedia which had a useful entry about the radio broadcast, and this intriguing (non-WotW) link:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_3

[EvilNerfherder]

Yep, the Invisible Man was updated (a bit). And a liberal dash of black humour was injected. I liked it alot, the characters initial pranks made the part when his homicidal nature surfaced all the more effective. James Whale was a genius anyway, IMO.
I don't know what Wells thought of the film either though. Charles is the man to answer that one.
I know HG initially didn't like Orson's production (not sure why, possibly any author's understandable indignation that his creation had been messed with) but he came round and anyone who has heard the radio interview they made together later will know they hit it off rather well.
I've heard of Alternative 3 but it has yet to be put on DVD, as far as I know.. It's one I will be getting hold of when it does.
I'm a fan of things like that, I have 'Ghost watch' on DVD and am always looking for more things of that ilk.

[mctoddridesagain]

Ah, I suspected The Invisible Man was updated, although in a rather idiosyncratic way as I recall (it's some years since I've seen it, which is odd as I loved it).

According to Christopher Frayling, in his BFI book about Things to Come, Wells '...had a lot of time for James Whale's Invisible Man.' I thought so...

So yes, maybe he wouldn't have objected in principle to an update. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said of Orson Welles' radio play that it was '...possibly any author's understandable indignation that his creation had been messed with.'

And Wells was very interested in the cinema. I remember reading years ago that he and one of the early British movie pioneers Robert Paul toyed with the idea of making a 'time machine' fairground ride by filming scenes set in different periods and having punters sit in a mock 'time machine' where they would then watch those scenes; it was a sort of embryonic simulator in concept, and all this at the turn of the 20th century. Wells was very enthusiastic about film in the 1920s (his dismissal of Lang's Metropolis is famous) and 1930s, and I think it was only his experience with Things to Come that put him off.

[EvilNerfherder]

I haven't seen the Invisible Man for a fair while either but I remember the cast being mostly in 30's outfits.. although the surroundings were those quaint Victorian style villages. I'll have to dig it out.
I found a reference to the film here..
www.moviegoods.com/afi/afi100_invisibleman_33.asp
It states that.. 'Even H.G. Wells loved the film, and wrote director James Whale to tell him so'.
That's interesting stuff about the fairground ride.