The Plaza Classic Film Festival presents the El Paso premiere of this 70th anniversary restoration by preservationist Scott MacQueen. In the best B-movie tradition, director-production designer William Cameron Menzies (Gone with The Wind) fast-tracked production to beat the upcoming adaptation of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds by four months, delivering the screen’s first look at evil aliens in glorious color. Invaders’ modest budget forced Menzies into a kind of storybook expressionism. David, the young son of a rocket scientist, sees a glowing green saucer land near his house. Soon his parents and other adult authority figures act strangely. He surmises Martians have taken them over, but no one believes him. Invaders kicked off the plot device of people being “taken over” by hostile aliens (see Invasion of the Body Snatchers). Its memorably eerie music score by Mort Glickman and Raoul Kraushaar also influenced films that followed. — Jay Duncan

Rated: G