Haskin, Byron

The War of the Worlds (Special Collector's Edition)

Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 08/22/2006

After the success of 1950's Destination Moon and 1951's When Worlds Collide, visionary producer George Pal brought the classic H.G. Wells story of a Martian invasion to the big screen, and it instantly became a science fiction classic and winner of the 1953 Academy Award for Best Special Effects. It's a work of frightening imagination, with its manta-ray spaceships armed with cobra-like probes that shoot a white-hot disintegration ray. As formations of alien ships continue to wreak destruction around the globe, the military is helpless to stop this enemy while scientists race to find an effective weapon. Gene Barry and Ann Robinson play the hero and heroine roles that were de rigueur for movies like this in the '50s, and their encounter with one of the Martians is as creepy today as it was in '53. It finally takes an unseen threat--simple Earth bacteria--to conquer the alien invaders, but not before War of the Worlds has provided a dazzling display of impressive special effects. As memorable for its sound effects as for its spectacular visions of destruction, this is a movie for the ages--the kind of spectacular that inspired little kids such as Steven Spielberg (not to mention Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, whose Independence Day cribs liberally from the plot) and still packs a punch. --Jeff Shannon

Treasure Island

Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 01/12/2007 Run time: 96 minutes Rating: Pg

Strap on your pantaloons and prepare to travel with Jim Hawkins and Blind Pew to one of the most famous fictional islands in history. Walt Disney's 1950 adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's swashbuckling masterpiece has held up extremely well, with action and characterizations that feel freshly minted (although it's unlikely that the Mouse of today would sanction the high level of booze flowing throughout the picture). Great fun, with nary a wasted frame and, in the character of Robert Newton's much-imitated Long John, one of cinema's most boisterously crowd-pleasing villains ever. (Proving that you can't keep a good--er, bad man down, Newton would return with director Byron Haskins for the enjoyable sequel, Long John Silver.) Watching this classic is like having a flashback to some perfect Technicolor childhood. --Andrew Wright

Robinson Crusoe on Mars - Criterion Collection

Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 09/18/2007 Run time: 110 minutes

Although it is a thoughtful and surprisingly nonexploitative movie, the title Robinson Crusoe on Mars might conjure up unholy echoes of cross-pollinated genre movies such as Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter or Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Well, don't worry. This 1964 space epic is in fact an adaptation of the classic Daniel Defoe novel, and it plays fair by logic and science. After his spaceship crash-lands on Mars, astronaut Paul Mantee must figure out how to survive on the hostile planet (shot mostly in Death Valley), aided only by a monkey from his ship. Director Byron (The War of the Worlds) Haskin's sober approach brings a refreshing emphasis to issues of survival--how many space travel movies have you seen where the traveler tests the air of a distant planet and discovers that, by George, he can breathe just fine? Not this one. Mantee's desperate methods of tracking his air flow and experimenting with methods of breathing are painstakingly explored, and seem like exactly the kind of problems a real planetary voyager would encounter. The second half of the picture cleverly blends Defoe's plot with sci-fi conventions, and the movie never does "dumb down."

The Criterion Collection's DVD of Robinson Crusoe on Mars is a handsome treatment of a minor classic. A commentary track stitches together comments from a variety of participants, including Mantee, Haskin (in a 1979 interview), and original screenwriter Ib Melchior (disagreements between Haskin and Melchoir are included). A featurette, Destination--Mars gives some of the "science fact" behind the movie, and excerpts from Melchoir's original treatment show suggest changes made. And a "music video" puts movie clips alongside a song written and performed by co-star Victor Lundin, a number he developed for his appearances at sci-fi conventions. --Robert Horton

The Naked Jungle

A cocoa grower his mail-order bride and their brazilian plantation are beset by miles of man-eating ants. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 01/17/2006 Starring: Eleanor Parker William Conrad Run time: 95 minutes Rating: Nr Director: Byron Haskin

The War Of the Worlds (1953) / When Worlds Collide (1951) (Double Feature)

Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 08/07/2007 Run time: 167 minutes Rating: G

Conquest of Space

CONQUEST OF SPACE introduces a group of men brought together to construct an innovative robot to explore the depths of Mars. Located on a space wheel 500 miles above the Earth, commander Samuel Merritt (Walter Brooke) and his men (including Eric Fleming and Benson Fong) struggle to complete the mission when aggression within the group begins to surface.

Return to Treasure Island

The War of the Worlds

After the success of 1950's Destination Moon and 1951's When Worlds Collide, visionary producer George Pal brought the classic H.G. Wells story of a Martian invasion to the big screen, and it instantly became a science fiction classic and winner of the 1953 Academy Award for Best Special Effects. It's a work of frightening imagination, with its manta-ray spaceships armed with cobra-like probes that shoot a white-hot disintegration ray. As formations of alien ships continue to wreak destruction around the globe, the military is helpless to stop this enemy while scientists race to find an effective weapon. Gene Barry and Ann Robinson play the hero and heroine roles that were de rigueur for movies like this in the '50s, and their encounter with one of the Martians is as creepy today as it was in '53. It finally takes an unseen threat--simple Earth bacteria--to conquer the alien invaders, but not before War of the Worlds has provided a dazzling display of impressive special effects. As memorable for its sound effects as for its spectacular visions of destruction, this is a movie for the ages--the kind of spectacular that inspired little kids such as Steven Spielberg (not to mention Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin, whose Independence Day cribs liberally from the plot) and still packs a punch. --Jeff Shannon

His Majesty O'Keefe

Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 10/23/2007 Run time: 90 minutes Rating: Nr

Burt Lancaster spends a great deal of His Majesty O'Keefe without a shirt on, which might suggest the appeal of this 1954 South Seas yarn. Between the chest-barings, you can also detect the presence of a political parable about the innocent islanders of Yap and the overbearing colonialists looking to make a killing off them. The prize is coconut meat: rascally Lancaster wants to corner the market before the Germans can get their paws on it. There are grown-up elements to this story, including the somewhat worldly approach to Lancaster's island-based affairs with native women, and perhaps if you peer long enough into it you can see the remnants of the real story of the actual O'Keefe peeking out. But truth be told, this is a fairly pokey affair, enlivened by the splashy color photography and some Micronesian exoticism. You'd better love Lancaster's megawatt grin--and yes, the other stuff on display--because his bounding movie-star energy is the only thing keeping this one afloat. --Robert Horton

The Adventures of Long John Silver, Vol. 1&2