The Angry Red Planet (1959)

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Returning from a trip to Mars, survivor, Dr. Iris Ryan (Nora Hayden) tells a harrowing tale of her ill-fated crew's ordeal. After a rather dull flight, the group, consisting of Ryan, Col. Thomas O'Bannion (Gerald Mohr- MY WORLD DIES SCREAMING), Prof. Gettell (Les Tremayne- THE WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE MONOLITH MONSTERS), and CWO Sam Jacobs (Jack Kruschen- SATAN'S CHEERLEADERS) touches down. It seems that Mars is a busy place, filled w/ monsters and a sinister martian intelligence. It's also bright pink in color, like a planet made of Pepto Bismal! Within minutes of landing, the visitors encounter man-eating foliage! In addition, there's a titanic cheeeze puppet, known lovingly as the BAT-RAT-SPIDER-CRAB. A gargantuan amoeba / glob rounds out the roster! HIGHLIGHTS: O'Bannion's open-shirted, hairy-chested, laid-back, uber-macho approach to space travel! Sam's ultrasonic weapon, known as Cleopatra! Les Tremayne's pipe! The extremely memorable BAT-RAT-SPIDER-CRAB! The big amoeba's spinning eyeball! EXTRA CREDIT: For the amazing, jazzy music during the end credits! Oh yeah!...

I originally saw this at the local theater a year or so after it came out. Naturally I had no criticisms whatsoever as it contained all of the elements that an 8 year old proto-nerd could want: science, space and monsters. When I came across it some 30 years late on a late night movie I was quite excited. I will admit that the puppet-beast was really bad and Sam's love affair with his cryo-gun was just a bit too weird. The background sets appeared to literally be cardboard and were poorly painted. The acting was campy though they tried hard and by-and-large made a decent ensemble. There were, however, far worse low-budget sci-fi efforts of the era and when this came out on DVD I bought it without hesitation and still dust it off from time-to-time when I'm suffering from insomnia at 3 AM.

----SPOILER IN REVIEW---- I have no desire to offend my fellow film-addicts but seriously, if I actually paid to see this film in a theater, I'd be miffed and ask for my money back. If I attended a Funtementalist church and they showed this feature, I would feel more comfortable. This is a mixture of The Bible with a little Sci-Fi tossed in. It doesn't take long to discover a very simplistic script with actors who are one sided and predictable. You have the science guy, the loving wife who has a religious God-loving core, and an evil, Satan-loving Nazi, with Ruskies from the USSR built in and a Bible quoting, Billy Graham clone as the US President. The basic premise is that God lives on Mars and he has begun replying to our science couple living in San Diego, who are trying to contact Mars, only WHOOPS it was the evil Nazi tricking all of us instead, including the Reds who toss out the Commies and replace them with the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, but then WHOOPS AGAIN, it really was God in the first place. The worse and most farcical part is Peter Graves telling the Prez that we shouldn't release the first religious message cause it ain't science, while his wife says otherwise along with the Prez later making speeches in King James language. I want my 90 minutes back.

The crew of an exploratory expedition to Mars must fight for their lives after they encounter various lethal alien lifeforms on the angry red planet. Director Ib Melchior, who also co-wrote the engrossing and imaginative script with Sid Pink, relates the entertaining story at a steady pace and treats the neat premise with admirable restraint and seriousness. The cast play their roles commendably straight, with nice work by Gerald Mohr as the amiable Col. Thomas O'Bannon, ravishing redhead Naura Hayden as the strong, smart, and resourceful Dr. Iris 'Irish' Ryan (this film scores extra points for not presenting Ryan as your usual demeaning shrieking helpless damsel in distress), Les Tremayne as the sage Prof. Theodore Gettell, and Jack Kruschen as the hearty and easygoing CWO Sam Jacobs. This movie further benefits from a nifty array of gnarly creatures: a deadly Venus Flytrap-type carnivorous plant, a briefly glimpsed three-eyed behemoth, a giant amoeba, and, best of all, the famous enormous bat-rat spider beast. Moreover, there's a real sincerity to the whole picture that's impossible to either dislike or resist. Both Stanley Cortez's vibrant color cinematography and Paul Dunlap's rousing score are up to par. A fun little film.