Beats anything created by CGI any day of the year in my book.
Among the more memorable props from 1950s sci-fi movies were the Martian war machines, designed by Albert Nozaki, for The War of the Worlds (1953). These weren’t stereotypical flying saucers but sinister manta ray-shaped craft with articulated cobra-like heat-ray projectors. Three of the craft were made for the film out of copper. The distinctive sound effect of the heat-ray weapon was created by an orchestra performing a written score, mainly with violins and cellos. For many years, it was used as a standard ray-gun sound on children's TV and in the original Outer Limits series. The machines also fire a pulsing green ray from their wingtips, generating a distinctive sound while disintegrating their targets. This sound effect – created by striking a high tension cable with a hammer – was reused in the original series of Star Trek to accompany the launch of photon torpedoes. The sound when the Martian ships begin to move was also reused by Star Trek as the sound of an overloading hand phaser.
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