Kevin Brianton
Strategic Communication Senior Lecturer, Melbourne: Australia.
Intermingled with the fear of Russian invasion was the dread of communist subversion. It Came from Outer Space (1953) was one of the first films to focus on it – but in a curious manner. Patricia Bosworth would later writer in the New York Times on 27 September 1992 that sometime “the anti-Communist message was disguised as science fiction, with aliens from outer space serving as metaphors for the Soviet menace. There were movies like the ponderously mediocre “It Came From Outer Space…” An alien craft crashed in the desert witnessed by an astronomer John Putnam, played by Richard Carlson. He told people, but was not believed. The alien simply needed time and workers to get their spacecraft operating again and were not a threat. The aliens replaced local people with alien doubles to avoid detection while they moved around. The doubles behaved almost identically to the humans but were expressionless. Although the intentions of the aliens in this films were essentially benign – or rather indifferent – the film did touch on the fear that was to be raised frequently that the community could be subverted from within by alien forces. Just as, supposedly, the American community could be subverted by communism.
The community reacted with McCarthyite paranoia when the truth about the aliens emerged. A lynch mob was formed because people fear what they ‘do not understand’.[1] The lynchers tried to destroy the aliens, however, Putnam intervened and the aliens departed before any real fighting began. It Came From Outer Space was the last major science fiction to depict a liberal scientist with solutions and the authorities as dangerous. It also began a minor cycle of films where aliens take over or replace people’s bodies.
Invaders from Mars (1953) had a similar theme but featured malign aliens. Directed by a respected designer William Cameron Menzies, the film began in a home which was happy and secure with an adventurous and intelligent son David, played by Jimmy Hart, and doting parents. The boy witnessed a Martian landing on the outskirts of town. No one believed what he had seen and his mother dismissed it as a nightmare, although his father George McLean said he should report it to the rocket base where he worked as ‘There have been rumours’.[2] George McLean was later captured by the Martians and emerged from their craft as an impersonal man with a cold stare.
His son sensed the changes and saw that the town was slowly being taken over and he tried to warn the authorities. In distress, David had run to a police station for help as more and more people were being controlled by the aliens. A friendly desk sergeant listened amused to his story while the child demanded to see the chief. The chief appeared and it was clear that he was also under the control of the Martians. The chief ordered him to a jail cell while he waited for his parents. The fundamental values of American society were breaking down. The American child could no longer rely on his family or traditional authority figures. The tension only increased when it was obvious that both David’s parents were controlled by the Martians when they came to pick him up. The law was corrupt and even the family has been corrupted by the aliens. One of the strongest scenes in the film was when a young girl returned home, after being captured by the Martians, and then burned the house down. The Martians had dehumanized the community.
The picture was one of the earliest examples of the alien invasion cycle where a small town was terrorized and subverted by an external force. This force could take over any loyal citizen and put them under its control. The parallel between the Martians and communists were quite clear. The communists could destroy a healthy community by subversion by taking control of certain sections. They aimed at controlling people in high places such as police chiefs, rocket scientists and generals. The people who were overtaken quickly become compliant to the will of their masters and followed any order. The Martians also intended to rip apart the family as children would burn down houses and parents would destroy their children. The key idea was that individuals had lost their free will to a greater and malign power.
[1] It Came From Outer Space (d) Jack Arnold, 
Harry Essex.
[2] Invaders From Mars Edward L. Alperson, (d) William Cameron Menzies, Richard Blake.
Cinema history 