THE ANGRY RED PLANET (1959)

THE ANGRY RED PLANET (1959)

Tagline: Hell Has Just Frozen Over.

(Sci-Fi, Adventure, Giant RatCrabSpiderBat) [G]

Spectacular Adventure Beyond Time and Space ...

Oh-ho. Women don't have any monopoly on fear. Men are more afraid of being called cowards. Cowardice is one thing I guess we can never forgive ourselves.

In this one, a crew of 4 is sent to Mars to check it out and report back. Only 2 survive and one is so traumatized she can’t remember what happened. An effort is made to have her retell the story of what happened in order to try to gain clues that might save the other crew member who is dying of an infection he caught on Mars. 

First off the rocket in this movie is pretty plane. It was shot in color and this doesn’t help with a lot of the effects. Once we get to Mars the red filter they put on this thing is just nutty and makes everything look really weird. For me, this was a big problem with this movie. I know they were going for this effect on purpose, but I couldn’t stand it. Apparently, it was done due to budget constraints.

Acting wise we get Nora Hayden who is really good in this as Dr. Iris Ryan. One of the other characters flirtingly calls her “Irish” the entire movie. She hasn’t been in anything else that I have seen, but her performance stands out. Sci-fi stalwart Les Tremayne is pretty good as Prof. Theodore Gettell. Les was known for sci-fi flicks like WAR OF THE WORLDS, THE MONOLITH MONSTERS, and more. The male lead is basically Gerald Mohr who plays Col. Thomas O’Bannion and is also pretty solid. He didn’t do a ton of sci-fi but did narrate THE NIGHT THE WORLD EXPLODED and was in INVASION U.S.A. I also liked Jack Kruschen in this. He plays CWO Sam Jacobs and provides some of the less serious lines in the movie. So overall, I don’t have any real complaints about the cast or the acting. 

What goes really well in this movie is some of the crazier alien designs. We get a giant ratcrabbatspider creature and a giant amoeba and some other cool three-eyed aliens. So in that respect, this movie is pretty fun. I didn’t mind the sets on Mars and the artwork was pretty cool, but as I mentioned earlier, the red filter they used did bug me. I did like the resolution to the storyline and having some consequences for the entire trip to mars as well.

If I have any real complaints about this one it’s the first half being pretty slow. We had a decent last half hour or so and as I mentioned the creatures we do get are worth the wait. When we start stacking this one up against other “let’s go to Mars” flicks, THE ANGRY RED PLANET holds up pretty well even when you take the entire gambit of all movies involving Mars, not just the 50s. By today’s standards, yes, the effects and science in the movie are dated, but at least when we get to Mars we are not given a bunch of cave people or regular human-looking aliens. This thing is pretty nuts in the creativity department. 

Overall I have to give this one a 4 out of 7. There are a few things missing and the love story is very lackluster. If it wasn’t for the annoying visuals this could have been a 5 out of 7 or higher.
 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF SINO PRODUCTIONS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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