WAR OF THE WORLDS

Treated myself today after work to a viewing of my old VHS copy of George Pal's movie vision of HG Wells' WAR OF THE WORLDS. Like The Day The Earth Stood Still and This Island Earth, there are loads of sci-fi icons in the film - the wonderful saddle-shaped alien craft with roving 'rediffusion' eyes, the wierd purring sound that the alien ships make, the desperate music and the amazing jet-wing (above) that drops A-bomb on the visitors. Like the DYNA SOAR, I love the shape of the jet-wing ( was it ever made as a toy?).

The excellent CED Magic has this to say ' War of the Worlds makes effective use of archive footage of the Northrop YB-49 Flying Wing when it is shown dropping an atomic bomb on the Martians. The above image appears 24:36 into Side 2 of the disc. There were only two jet-powered YB-49 aircraft built and both ceased to exist over three years before this movie was made. One plane crashed on June 5, 1948, killing all crew members including Captain Glen Edwards. The other plane broke into two following a landing gear failure on March 5, 1950 and was scraped. Edwards AFB in California, the site of many space shuttle landings, is named in honor of Capt. Edwards'. CED have a great page on WAR OF THE WORLDS too.

The film also features beautiful martian artwork by the space artist Chesley Bonestell, who actually appears in the credits.