From the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, It's Retro Nerd Girl with a film review for you.
Today I'll be reviewing the movie The Angry Red Planet released in 1959.
Starring:
Gerald Mohr, Naura Hayden, and Les Tremayne
Directed by:
Ib Melchior
Genre:
Adventure, Sci-Fi
Rating:
N/A
Budget:
$190,000 (estimated)
IMDb Rating:
5.2
My Rating:
6.9
The Synopsis is:
A team of scientists and technicians make the first mission to Mars, however, they receive a very hostile welcome.
Enjoyment:
I really like this film. It had mixed reviews and was considered a bad effects movie even for its time. But among the cult b movie classics it is one of those perfect so bad it’s good movies, with a mix of childlike imagination and terrible missteps.
Pacing:
At and 1h 23min it begins as one giant flashback and drags before you realise what’s happening. It straightens out a bit and the story gets more interesting toward the end.
*WARNING: FROM THIS POINT FORWARD THERE MAY BE SPOILERS!*
Story:
People who watch this film, get hung up on how terribly wrong the science is, but the science we know now, is not what people knew in 1959. NASA had only been established in 1958. Then, the world didn’t know much about space and our neighboring planets. Space travel was a fantasy… so very close to becoming reality.
Before we learned that Mars was desolated and unsuitable for humans, interplanetary habitation was a dream, strictly left to the imagination.
It’s movies like these inspired our predecessors to discover the truth and so now we know.
Sidney W. Pink wrote the screenplay at home on his kitchen table, recruiting his children to act as critics and it shows because this movie would make sense to little children. It would terrify them, but it would make sense. They are willing to suspend their disbelief for an interesting adventure in a make believe world.
Sidney’s initial draft was called "The Planet Mars" and included all sorts of strange creatures and an entire Martian city. The budget would not allow this, so it had to be tamed to a shadow of his vision.
The imagination is good, but then the script fails to make this all believable with a lack of research and filler dialogue.
The film is told entirely in flashbacks, which both creates a sense of mystery but also gives away the ending in the beginning removing the tension.
Challenge:
The challenge in this film is Mars.
The humans land on Mars and the first thing they do is freeze a plant creature, which the film acknowledges that are alive. So essentially, the earthlings attack a martian as soon as they land… just traipsing around without consideration.
And although the earthlings think that they have come peacefully, they have no idea that they are committing offenses to their environment and invading it.
In the case of the challengers Mars and the martians are actually the good guys.
Empathy:
There is some empathy for the team of explorers.
Dr. Iris Ryan is a brilliant authority in biology and zoology. She is not the average woman of her time, but still suffers some sexism she herself seems not to be aware of. And it barely sets up the fact that she got where she is on her own or whether or not she got there because of her parents… mainly her famous father.
Unfortunately, she is undermined by screaming and passing out quite often. She’s no Ellen Ripley, but the best precursor 1959 had to offer.
Colonel Tom O’Bannon is the pilot navigator.
There is a budding romance between Iris and tom, who doesn't respect her enough to call her by name, but calls her Irish. There are lots of corny Casablanca style lines between them… in fact, tom kinda looks and acts like Humphrey Bogart.
Professor Theodore Gattel, the authority on space and rocketry , who designed the ship. He is equally frail and in distress as Iris. What kind of scientist lights up a pipe in the cabin of a spaceship.
Chief officer sam jacobs and electronics and radar expert is the most likeable of the bunch. He’s the audience for this film, a childlike, fun kinda guy who likes comic books and guns. He is adorable.
Technical:
Director Ib Melchior was given just 9 days to shoot the film with a budget of less than $200,000.
If you don’t like the color red, you may not want to watch this film because there is a lot of red in it and I’ll tell you why. The process used for all scenes on the surface of Mars, was the result of an attempt by producer Norman Maurer to blend live-action footage and hand-drawn backgrounds together.
It sounds pretty fantastic. He called this process, Cinemagic. Unfortunately, it didn’t work how it was intended and the footage was over exposed during the process. The director liked the effect and proceeded to use about $50,000 - or just over a quarter of the film's budget turning the footage into this Cinemagic film.
I am not really crazy about the visual effect, but I don’t exactly hate it either as some people say they do. I think it’s interesting because it does look otherworldly.
I can totally imagine that the chemicals on another world could affect my vision, especially if I’m not wearing a visor.
Yes, When leaving the ship, the crew's space helmets lack protective glass. Visually, from a film making standpoint I understand why. The glare of a shield would prevent the audience from clearly seeing the faces of the crew. I thought that, that was an interesting choice to sacrifice realism for aesthetics.
A Lot of the spaceship technology was of the time with lots of flips and switches… which looked very rudimentary. Again straight out of a child’s imagination or a comic book.
The most iconic monster in the film is the 40-foot Rat Spider which was actually a marionette about 15 inches high and a combination of a rat, bat, spider, and crab.
This monster was crude, but this creature was one of the scariest aliens, before the xenomorphs from alien in 1979.
Among the assets of the movie was a bounty of government stock footage. They tried to match it up, but unfortunately it’s comically obvious.
The end credit visuals were really awesome featuring a window with colorful bubbling swirling goo. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
Influences include:
Invisible Invaders released in 1959 reused most of the musical score.
There is a scene where Sam is using his gun, but it’s not working and he says, “I’m giving it all she’s got.” - StarTrek? Released in 1966.
The alien monster is the same one featured on the cover of the album "Walk Among Us" (1982) by The Misfits.
Performances:
The acting is good, but it is a time capsule of what was expected as good acting in 1959.
Best:
The best part is the spider bat monster. I bet that really scared a lot of little kids back in 1959. Wow, he’s hideous.
And I like the visuals of the city and the landscapes of Mars.
Wish List:
I wish that the cinemagic effect would have worked. I’m not sure what difference it would have made. It would have been nice to see the vision that the filmmakers were imagining.
I also wish that the hand drawn plant life were real props. They had the budget for it and it would have given the visuals some much needed dimension. I liked the drawn ideas, but for a film, it wasn’t tangible enough to work.
The Ending:
The ending was a little rushed, but definitely really good. It has an ominous message to earth from mars warning mankind to stay away. It definitely pays a little homage to the Day the Earth Stood Still.
Summary:
I love this corny movie done in the classic 50’s b-movie style. The science makes no sense. Everything about this is dated, but I don’t care. It’s a simple adventure with a childlike imagination and I always have so much fun watching that.
That sums up my review. I hope you liked it. This is Retro Nerd Girl signing off!
Take care movie lovers! I'm off to the next review!
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