Battle of the Worlds (Italian: Il Pianeta degli uomini spenti) is a 1961 Italian science fiction film directed by Antonio Margheriti, starring Claude Rains, Bill Carter and Maya Brent. The Italian title translates as The Planet of Extinct Men
Dr. Fred Steele (Umberto Orsini) and Eve Barnett (Maya Brent) work together at an astronomical station on a bucolic island. Steele has just had his request for a transfer approved, and he and Eve look forward to leaving the island and getting married. However, their budding romance is quickly put on hold as the station’s scientists learn they must deal with a rogue planet—”The Outsider”—that has entered the solar system, and which is on a collision course with Earth. The brilliant but cantankerous Professor Benson (Claude Rains), living in an adjacent greenhouse with his dog Gideon, predicts that the Outsider will not strike the Earth but will simply make a close pass—a prediction that no other scientist will endorse. Meanwhile, a military base on Mars encounters the stray planet on its approach to Earth, and Commander Robert Cole and his wife Cathy quickly travel to the island outpost from Mars to help with the effort.