There were countless people responsible for the success of The War of the Worlds (1953), though three men stand out amongst the rest: Byron Haskin, George Pal, and Barré Lyndon. Without them, the film would have undoubtedly never seen the light of day. Haskin served as the film’s director, with a screenplay written by Lyndon. The movie was then produced by Pal. Despite the differing roles, Pal explained that the three of them were working under a common goal: To make the film as believable as possible.

While an alien invasion film seems fairly far-fetched, stranger things have certainly been dreamt of in cinema.

“The three of us [Pal, Haskin, and Lyndon] decided that we should do as much as we could to make the audience feel that they’re actually witnessing an attack and that the Martians are really here,” said Pal during an interview with Cinefantastique Magazine. “Of course, they are going to see a movie - they know it’s only make-believe, but nevertheless, we did capture in a small way the realism of an actual attack.”

The 1953 film is widely regarded as one of the greatest sci-fi films of all time, a title to which Pal attributed a series of technical choices on each level of the filmmaking process.

“The success of the film on this level was partly due to two reasons. First, Byron and I decided that we would never show the point-of-view of the Martians despite the pleas of the front office, which kept demanding that we shoot something of how they see us. Throughout the film, we held to that concept. Secondly, to add realism, ease the logistics, and simplify the effects, we had Los Angeles always in the west and the Martians always in the east. All of the movement between the Army and the invaders was east to west. This made a complicated story easier to understand visually.”