Red Planet Mars (1952)

A Brilliant Conflict

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

A sci fi 50's gem. Love this movie and the ending is shocking but extremely well done. This is a classic of epic proportions. Peter Graves and a great supporting cast played this out with heart and passion. Herbert Berghof also played a great part of the Russian scientist. Also, Walter Sande a staple in the golden age of TV did an admirable job. The cold war era was played out well as the Soviets were always making threats of burying the US. The pictures of Stalin in the background of the Russian scenes is a stark reminder of the evil we faced at that time. Extremely well done and worth watching.

Radio transmissions believed to be from Mars turn out to have quite different origins in this intriguing Cold War-era sci-fi film that seems to be polarizing today, if IMDb is anything to go by (and I wonder). Peter Graves does a good job but Herbert Berghof steals the show as a former Nazi now working for the Russians. Andrea King is pretty annoying as the hysterical wife of Graves' character. The rest of the cast is solid. I like this movie because it's interesting with a unique plot. It's talky, yes, but that's not inherently a bad thing. It's a thought-provoking movie with some historical interest, not just a special effects spectacle. Because it has political and religious elements, it will trigger Certain Types. If you are one of those, gird your loins before watching.

I'm a fan of cheesy old 50's scifi and this was what I was expecting from this film. Sadly its not scifi at all. It's really more pro Christian and anti-communist propaganda and not much else.It's a film that is hard to just watch without either laughing or simply questioning the competence of the director and production team.However I do suggest people watch it interested in how movies have evolved. It's whole premise is quite strange and could never be made in recent times its just too ridiculous.It probably ranks up there with 'Glen or Glenda' in suspect movies that don't actually work and just come across as a bit embarrassing and amateur.There is some very competent actors delivering some amazingly un- inspired lines that often extremely cringe worthy.The film is available on youtube for free to watch and even at that price I feel slightly scammed.It feels like a film that should be watched by a film history class at college and then discussed at length because it throws up so many questions especially who signed the cheque and why.

This movie is a lot less than what it was presented as.The notion was that a couple of scientists have discovered a way to communicate with Mars using the invention of an ex-Nazi scientist. Other scientists discovered that the Martians had the ability to obliterate their ice-caps in a week, so they must have some pretty impressive technology.The female lead in this film chewed the scenery at every opportunity, and the film is full of COld War propaganda. Even Peter Graves seems a bit hammy in the role.The Martians send messages saying how awesome their technology is, and the results is the world economy collapses, which is kind of silly. Then they send a religious message, as in "Why didn't you listen to Jesus when he stopped by." Which causes the fall of the Soviet Bloc.No, seriously, I think this was the plot or something.But the messages really came from the disgraced Nazi scientists, who apparently foresaw how rumors could ruin everything.