Flight To Mars (1951)

Excellent adaptation.

For having a relatively low budget, the film's style and overall art direction are immensely impressive.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

OK. As far as sci-fi flicks go, this is a mildly competent low-budget space movie. But it launches into eye-popping glory when barely- clad Martian women suddenly appear (and thoughtfully lend some clothing to the previously fabric-laden Earth woman). A mini-skirt suggests something that would cover posteriors. These take it one step beyond tennis dress short and into swimsuit country when we are treated to views of matching underwear, which the skirts don't cover. Other than that, the film is pretty awful, including an ending that seems as if filming was halted by the studio precisely at 3:00 pm or whatever so they could start shooting the next film. This film does mark a high point for Monogram studio--the set design rises far and above what they usually do. If you grew up during the Cold War, you will have affection for this film, despite its faults. The haminess of the dialog and acting, along with the matte drawings of the futuristic city will bring anyone back to the charms and fears of fifties America. So despite it's cheesiness, Flight to Mars is a small gem.

I like this 1950's movie. I enjoy most of the pictures from this era and have several of its contemporaries. I won't go into the storyline, as many other reviewers have already done that, but suffice it to say that this is one more of those 50's space movies that so many of us love. They just can't make gems like this today.I have seen some reviews here which bag the available DVD print. I must say that I picked this DVD up a few days ago, and it seems fine; there are no scratches etc on it, and it plays perfectly well. It is a 'Bounty' DVD from Australia, and a 'Monogram' production, so whether or not it has been taken from the same master as the 'Image' print mentioned by other reviewers I do not know. My only query about it is that for the first 15 min's or so, and in some subsequent scenes, everything appears quite greenish, (ie: there is a distinct greenish tinge to the whole thing, almost as though a green filter was used in the making of the film, which I would doubt very much). I have been told that that is because it has been taken from a print which has not been re-mastered. However, it's not something that will ruin the movie for me, nor should it for you.This movie has lots of the quaint things which are distinctive about the pictures from that era, such as fantastic rocket ships, great imagination, quaint outfits, (leather flying jackets and leather flying caps as spacesuits, alien women with padded shoulders and mini-skirts), and a martian surface with no change of gravity! - and breathable air !!! All in all it's great!I have given this movie a 9 out of 10 because it doesn't quite come up to the level of other movies of the period such as Forbidden Planet, (one of the best), When worlds collide, or The day the Earth stood still, (even though it's a black and white movie). Even Destination Moon was a more polished production and it was made the year before. However, it's still a great movie for any fan's collection and I'm glad to finally have it in mine!

It is said that there are some people out there who actually ADMIRE Monogram's movies. Well -- and why not? Monogram Studios lived on a kind of Cost Plus basis; cost, plus enough to pay the rent and buy a pizza and a bottle of robust muscatel every once in a while. Sure, they're cheap. But let's face it: they're coarse, fast, Philistine, vulgar, but exhilarating. They have no pretensions at all. They're designed to divert the audience for an hour or so at the bottom of a double bill. So what if John Wayne gallops through the Wild West along a road lined with telephone poles? This isn't art, it's entertainment.Take this movie, "Flight to Mars." At the beginning, when we're first meeting the characters, a man might introduce his female companion abruptly, avoiding any tedious subtlety: "Professor, this is my fiancée and assistant, who is a rocket scientist and a beautiful woman. She loves me but is growing impatient with me because I'm always wrapped up in my scientific work. Perhaps you could steal her from me, marry her, give her the babies and the picket-fenced home she yearns for. If necessary I will die on this journey to see her dreams realized. Also, she likes it a little rough." It saves a lot of writing and shooting time, doesn't it? That's what people mean when they say a narrative is "fast". (This one was shot in five days.) Why should we have to hint about these things? I mean, what the hell is this, a cheap sci fi movie or Henry James? Actually this is a particularly well-funded example of a Monogram movie. It's in color, for one thing. "Cinecolor" to be exact. (You can tell it's not any other "color" you'd recognize.) And look at the cast. The female lead is dismissible, as is usual with Monogram, but the male leads are definitely up there on the B List. Cameron Mitchell as the reporter, yet to hit his stride as a male lead, which, come to think of it, he never really did. And Arthur Franz as the pipe-smoking head scientist, the pride of Perth Amboy, New Jersey. And -- for science fiction fans -- how about THIS pair of aces: both Morris Ankrum AND John Litel! There's not really much point in describing the plot in detail. The five crew members crash land on Mars where they find an underground civilization inhabited by organisms whose evolution was isomorphic with ours, right down to their having five digits and willowy babes in short skirts. And they picked up English from listening to our broadcasts. American broadcasts, that is, judging from their speech. They're led by a sinister cabal who try to hijack the space ship, build many imitations of it, and colonize earth. They do not succeed.The special effects aren't very special. The men walk around a couple of spare sets, wearing black costumes with stylized lightning bolts emblazoned on their chests and scarlet capes billowing behind them. Their names consist exclusively of English phonemes -- Alzar, Terris, Ikron. The lissome Martian who falls for Arthur Franz is named Alita, with an Indo-European diminutive appendage, and she already knows what kissing is.Overall, I found it as snappy as it was intended to be, but dull too. The story is that of any Buck Rogers 1930s serial. Once the earthlings and the Martians meet and it's established that they have a common language, and that the Martians have a sinister agenda, that's it. In two hours, even an indifferent screenwriter could turn this into a story of Nazi spies in World War II. The plot is done by the numbers, the dialog has no sparkle, the acting is pedestrian.However, dedicated aficionados of Monogram productions should enjoy it. After all, Jean-Luc Goddard, the contrarian French egghead, dedicated "A Bout de Soufflé" to Monogram, so they can't have been all that bad.

Sorry, folks, but I don't share the love for this inconsequential, poorly made B-movie. The production year of 1951 doesn't excuse its laughable images and performances. The lameness of this flick can be attributed to one thing only - a very low budget, and a shooting schedule of 5 - 11 days (depending on whom you believe). The spectacular "Metropolis" in 1927, and "Things to Come" in 1936, reveal that wonderful special effects were possible in the early decades of the film industry.Mongram Pictures had a history of churning out low-end westerns, so I imagine this experience was a bit of a stretch for the studio.I will give them kudos for using Eames chairs on Mars - furniture considered futuristic by the general public in the 50s. Indeed, Mid-Century designs are once again hip "fifty years in the future" from 1951.Colors are nice, even on the horrible print currently available on DVD.