The War of the Worlds (1953)

The big-screen spectacle of the decade. Producer George Pal and director Byron Haskin move H. G. Wells from Victorian England to 1950s Southern California and shoot the destruction in saturated Technicolor that still looks gorgeous. Its effects won an Oscar, and the Martian attacks hold up far better than the romance. Pick it when the room wants an old-fashioned invasion epic with color to match, rather than the bleaker 2005 version.