When Claude Rains It Pours

Over at Movie Mis-Treatments, Claude Rains is shocked, shocked, to discover a rogue planet menacing Earth in Battle of the Worlds.

1961’s Italian production Battle of the Worlds was filmed in Confuse-O-Vision®. The Confuse-O-Vision™ process involves randomly cutting shots of spaceships, pilots, Mars bases, and, inexplicably, the Moon in such a way as to make completely incomprehensible what is actually happening on screen.

Battle of the Worlds stars Claude Rains, and one gets the sense that he wishes he were the invisible man at various points. The Italian title, Il pianeta degli uomini spenti, I believe translates as “scenery served with diced tomatoes and fresh basil in a pesto sauce” which is apt, since Claude Rains spends most of the movie chewing the scenery rather voraciously.