The restoration of Invaders from Mars has been much hoped for and a long time coming -- but the process was not an easy one. Leading the effort was longtime enthusiast and preservationist of classic cinema Scott MacQueen. Scott was head of preservation at UCLA Film & Television Archive for more than a decade, before retiring last summer.

The biggest challenge for MacQueen was that the color negative confirmed for printing in SUPERcineCOLOR lacked many shots and needed to be sourced from 70-year-old prints.

Here are a few samples of the restoration, excerpts from his essay Invaders From Mars: A Nightmare of Restoration by Scott MacQueen, featured in the upcoming Blu-ray and 4K UHD release.

Bad Mother

Original Cinecolor print. Mommy’s looking jaundiced and the wall is turning violet.

Restored version.

Surrogate Mother.

Purple People Easters from Australia. GEM print with poor contrast, contaminated colors. 

Eastmancolor camera negative.

Martian Intelligence

Cinecolor from NFSA. This Martian’s too hot.

Cinecolor from GEM. This Martian’s too cold.

4K scan of Original Eastmancolor Camera Negative. This Martian is just right!

Excerpt from Invaders From Mars: A Nightmare of Restoration by Scott MacQueen.