Flight to Mars

Lippert Pictures struck paydirt with 1950's Rocketship XM, and was hoping for a similar result with this feature. As early sci-fi, the movie's okay, but lacks the grit of its predecessor. The premise is a real stretch with an underground Martian civilization that speaks flawless English, while the women parade around like Las Vegas show girls. (Not that I'm complaining.) Then too, the rocketship crew treats their pioneering flight like a trip to the mall.

But if you can get past some of this nonsense, parts of the movie are eye-catching. I really like the standing rocket in the dome with the people beneath. It's a well-done effect, especially in color. Also, the script deals fairly thoughtfully with the predicament the Martians find themselves in. In short, that aspect is not settled in a typical Hollywood wrap-up. Then there's the great Morris Ankrum as Ikrom, the sneaky plotter. Would any sci-fi of the period be complete without his lordly presence. Anyway, despite the pacing that sometimes drags, the movie ends up somewhere in the middle of all those goofy 50's space operas.

Surprisingly few of the reviews mention that - like George Pal's 'Destination Moon' (1950) - this was shot in colour; the brick red of Cinecolor well-suited to rendering the Red Planet.

Set fifty years in the future, it was plainly a prestigious production for Monogram, boasting an atmospheric score by Marlin Skiles, vivid photography by Harry Neumann, good model work and elegant production design by Ted Haworth making attractive use of the limited colour palate and anticipating 'Star Trek' (as do the women's costumes and the matter of fact depiction of Martian society as multi-racial; although the silly emblems on the men's costumes look more like something devised for 'Batman').

Taking it's lead from Pal's film Arthur Strawn's script (the usual tedious romantic complications notwithstanding) is fairly sober and plausible until we arrive on Mars, when Flash Gordon unfortunately takes over as its template as an early example of what Bruce Rux later described as "the mini-skirted space-maiden movie trend".

An exploratory expedition to Mars crashlands on the planet and receive aid from an underground Martian civilization(which no the expedition are not at all surprised to discover living on the planet) but can these Martians be trusted?

Despite its flaws and low budget, I can't help loving the 1950s sci-fi style utilized in the film from the model rocketships to the leggy costumes worn by the Martian women to the predictable film climax. Any fan of films from the era should at least see this film. There are times this film tries to reach above its limitations and it succeeds in doing so just a little.

Cheesy, shlocky and campy as it is, I suppose that 1951's "Flight to Mars" still has a claim to historical relevance. According to one of my film Bibles, "The Psychotronic Encyclopedia," it was "the first space-flight movie in color." But hey, wait a minute...what about "Destination Moon," made the year before? Better make that "one of the first..." Anyway, in this one, newsman Cameron Mitchell tags along with four scientists (one of them the obligatory hotty female scientist) on the first, uh, flight to Mars. The group's members wear bomber jackets and wide-brimmed hats, more suitable for a fishing expedition, and, during liftoff, strap themselves into blanketed cots. After toughing it out through a meteor storm (that looks like a bunch of orange dots), our Earth band finds the remnants of an underground Martian civilization, whose remaining members attempt to steal the Earth ship so as to evacuate their dying planet. Luckily, for the male Terran viewer, some of these Martians are leggy, miniskirted and babelicious; one of them is even named Aelita, in a not-so-subtle homage to the 1924 Russian sci-fi classic "Aelita, Queen of Mars." The sets and FX on display here, it must be said, range from imaginative and impressive to slapdash and laughable. (It's hard to believe that "Forbidden Planet," one of the real sci-fi champs, with its superb FX, was made a scant five years later!) The film's Cinecolor looks just fine on the DVD that I just watched, but the source print itself has been badly damaged, with many words missing. A somewhat tense finale, unfortunately, is also marred by a too abrupt ending. All in all, a mixed bag that should still be of interest to fans of '50s sci-fi. Oh, by the way: Cameron Mitchell reveals, in one of the DVD's extras, that this movie was filmed in just five days! Maybe they should have taken six.

Four men and a lady blast off for the red planet Mars in this lean-budgeted but likable little yarn. The explorers find a thriving civilization of completely humanoid Matians. The leaders of the Martian government act friendly, but they secretly plot to kill the Earthlings and steal the secret of their rocket propulsion system.

Scientist Arthur Franz (`Invaders from Mars') is the leader of the expedition, Cameron Mitchell is the wisecracking newspaper man, and Virginia Houston is Franz's jilted fiancé'. Mitchell fall in love with Miss Houston, and Franz falls in love with a gorgeous Martian lady in a minidress, played by Marguerite Chapman, the heroine of `Spy Smasher' -- one of the Republic serials which Lucas and Speilberg patterned `Raiders of the Lost Ark' after.

Director Lesley Selander shot the picture in just 11 days, and admirable accomplishment in view of the results. After all, it was made in 1951 (the same year as `The Thing' and `The Day the Earth Stood Still') in glorious Cinecolor, and the set designs are remarkably similar to those used in `This Island Earth'. I read somewhere (`Starlog' magazine, I think') that the sets and special effects were by the same people.

The costumes are excellent, especially those worn by the attractive female stars (extremely short, `futuristic' dresses). Also noteworthy is the fact that we get to see Morris Ankrum in his second sci-fi role (the first was `Rocketship X-M'). He portrays a general, as he did in so many 1950s sci-fi films -- but this time he's a MARTIAN general who urges his people to invade the Earth!

A lovely irony for 1950s sci-fi fans.

The highly appealing rocket in `Flight to Mars' was reused in at least three other 1950s movies -- `Queen of Outer Space', `World Without End', and `It ! The Terror from Outer Space'. And that makes this rocket the most well-traveled interplanetary vehicle in film history, second only to the Millennium Falcon!

If you've got a soft spot for 1950s films, this one will warm the your heart if you can find it. Lemme' know if you do.