Moviecut—Flight to Mars

source: Flight to Mars

Flight to Mars

Early 1950s Sci-Fi directed by Lesley Selander. Special effects of course are very primitive, but pretty good in comparison to what else was out there then. Drive-in Movie double feature fare; still interesting enough to watch. Two leading men, Arthur Franz the brilliant young scientist Dr. Jim Barker and straight talking and earthy newspaper reporter Steve Abbot(Cameron Mitchell)are joined on a manned flight to Mars by Carol Stafford(Virgina Huston)another scientist and two other space experts(Richard Gaines and John Litel). Upon landing on the Red Planet, the space travelers encounter inhabitants that appear friendly and mentally advanced. In actuality, the Martians are led by Ikron(Morris Ankrum), who has the idea of conquering Earth to vitalize their civilization. There is a beautiful Martian(Maruerite Chapman)that Dr. Barker intends to take back on the return trip. She is the movie's redeemable element.

FLIGHT TO MARS is another extraordinarily dated science fiction flick from the early 1950s, when cinema was awash with astronauts heading off to local planets in our solar system only to find them already occupied by humanoid races usually up to one nefarious plan or another. This time around it's the turn of Cameron Mitchell in a two-tone colour adventure as he heads off to the red planet only to discover it already occupied by a seemingly friendly race. The adventure and sensation aspects of the story are quite subdued here, but the colour adds a nice touch and the racy miniskirt attire worn by the female Martians must have gone down well with audiences of the era.

Flight to Mars was made in the hey-day of the Cold War, so perhaps it is not unreasonable that Monogram films chose not to advertise that the original story was "Aelita," by the Russian novelist Alexei Tolstoy. Of course, the main character's name, Alita, does sort of give that away. The basic story line and character line up were retained, with the exception of the professional revolutionary who got dropped. In the book the reporter appears at the beginning and end of the narrative, and does not accompany the characters to Mars. In the book the engineer was married, not afianced. Of course, the Russians also filmed Aelita as a silent. What is interesting is that the American version is more faithful to the original plot.

First saw this film when I rented it on VHS in 1985. Many years later, I purchased it and enjoy watching this film from time to time. It is typical of its era, although this was a honest attempt at a sensible depiction of what 1950 realities would have envisioned such a venture. Its a more positive vision than "Rocketship X-M", although the martian surface scenes are quite limited - and no where near as effective as the Death Valley shots in X-M. I recommend it, if you appreciate these films for their time capsule value to 50+ years ago.

I agree with the all the POSITIVE comments on this unique little blast-from-the-past. "Flight to Mars" is a very enjoyable movie, despite it's limitations. Beware, however, of the new DVD of "Flight to Mars". It is NOT derived from the same print as the prerecorded videotape that came out several years ago. The DVD print is riddled with scratches, and several scenes are ruined by numerous missing pieces of film! We can only hope that a new DVD -- transferred from a BETTER print -- is released in the next few years. Meanwhile, please take my advice and watch the videotape. You'll thank me later.

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.