Red Planet Mars

published March 19th, 2009 | article by Kevin Pyrtle | posted in Film Review
Tags: Atheism, Christianity, Communism, Morris Ankrum, Peter Graves, Science Fiction

Melaby Pictures Corp. [1952] 87′
country: United States
directors: HARRY HORNER
cast: PETER GRAVES, ANDREA KING,
cast: HERBERT BERGHOF, WALTER SANDE

The planet Mars was no stranger to cinema screens in the beginning of the fifties. Flash Gordon had fought Ming the Merciless on the red planet as early as 1938, but it wasn’t until 1950′s DESTINATION MOON cash-inn ROCKETSHIP X-M made an unscheduled stop there en route to the moon that Mars began making appearances in the more serious science fiction efforts of the day. While the George Pal epic THE WAR OF THE WORLDS remains the most oft remembered of these, there were a host of others – one of the most obscure of these is the one covered here today, which seems to have slipped under the radar of most B-movie aficionados in spite of its being relatively available.

RED PLANET MARS begins with a startling astronomical discovery – Mars’ polar ice caps have, over the course of a week, all but disappeared, with the planet’s canals [an absurd idea popular for a brief time at the dawn of the 20th century that had been losing steam since around 1910] filling with the resulting melt water. The discovery gives much-needed inspiration to scientist Chris Cronyn [Graves], who is running the ultimate ham radio experiment – using his advanced transmitter, built from a design by genius ex-Nazi scientist Franz Calder [Berghof], to broadcast radio messages to Mars. Up until now he’s only received his own messages back in return – that all changes when Chris’ son give him the idea of sending the first few numbers of Pi without rounding the last digit. Once their original message – 3.1415 – is replied to with 3.1415926, everything changes.

Soon, messages from Mars are pouring in and the news is alive with explosive revelations – that Martian life expectancy is 300, and that they have mastered the peaceful use of cosmic energy. For whatever reason, this throws the world’s economy into turmoil. The stock market crashes, coal factories close their doors, there is a run on the banks, and millions of people find themselves without work. With Earth on the brink of collapse and the United States just moments from starting a war with the Soviet Union, another message is received – one that quotes the sermon on the mount [as evidenced in the King James version of the Bible, of course!]. Soon the world, even the Soviet Union, is caught up in a religious [and by religious, this film means Christian] revival and everyone and their mother is rushing to church services. When the Soviets opt for genocide in dealing with the new threat to their evil atheistic way of life, it’s nothing short of an act of God that debilitates the Kremlin and allows the millions of Soviet Christians to take the empire for themselves. The new Soviet theocracy is met with rejoicing from the rest of the world [the United States is, of course, allowed to keep their form of government - apparently the idea of a capitalist federal republic jives just fine with the almighty].

But things may not be as hopeful as they seem – the now alcoholic Calder, disgruntled with just about everything one could imagine, has made his way to Chris’ laboratory with some explosive revelations of his own. He’s been running the same kind of radio transmitter from his hiding place in the Andes and claims to be responsible for most, if not all, of the so-called messages from Mars. Even as he holds Chris and his wife Linda [King] hostage in their laboratory, waiting for members of the press to arrive so that he might make public his involvement in recent events, another message comes through on the transmitter from a decidedly un-Earthly source . . .

Religious subtext was nothing new to either film or the science fiction genre at the time of RED PLANET MARS’ release – science fiction had merged with faith as early as 1918, when the silent Danish flight-to-Mars epic HIMMELSKIBET postulated Christian Martians while demonizing its sole atheist character, a professor struck dead by a bolt of lightning at the film’s conclusion. Nor was propaganda against the Soviet Union any sort of rare commodity, with the ludicrous INVASION U.S.A. seeing release in December of 1952, just a few short months after this film. But RED PLANET MARS may well be the only film to combine these two elements into such a seamlessly absurd whole. Four years before ‘In God we trust’ was made the national motto of the United States in answer to the presumed threat of ‘imperialistic and materialistic Communism’ this fascinatingly bizarre bit of Cold War insanity was positing Jesus as the cure-all for the problem.

So fervent a supporter of RED PLANET MARS’ thesis was writer John Hoare [responsible, along with Universal horror regular John Balderston, for the play on which the film is based] that he has its antagonist, the evil and drunken genius ex-Nazi scientist Calder, announcing himself as nothing short of a Satanist in the closing act! The Soviets themselves are comic book baddies just baby steps from the outright parody of those in INVASION U.S.A., and are seen joking about a statue of Christ early on and gleefully gunning down their population once the religious revolution has begun. The President of the United States is, by comparison, a virtuous and noble man of faith, refusing to start a war when his advisers recommend it and seemingly more than happy to be the patriarch of the new American theocracy. One thing left unclear is where science fits in the mess of things, with it being likened to God’s work one moment and as a path towards certain destruction the next – a few throwaway lines about free will do little to clarify the issue.

Its odd amalgamation of preachiness and anti-Communist propaganda aside, RED PLANET MARS is a pretty drab effort that frequently belies its origins as a stage play. Characters are woefully constructed, particularly the wishy-washy housewife Linda who switches from supporter to detractor in the blink of an eye and often multiple times in a single scene, and the Soviets, who are given terrible lines ["Talk English - anything is preferable to that accent!"] to explain away their aversion to speaking Russian. Others are little more than one-sided caricatures. Performances are relatively good, considering the frequently over-the-top dialogue – I find myself lamenting that Peter Graves will be forever remembered for things like this, BEGINNING OF THE END, and KILLERS FROM SPACE. Direction from Harry Horner is pretty flat, though the low-budget production design coupled with the fine lighting and reasonable cinematography help to keep the picture from looking as bad as it probably should. Horner and his crew do manage at least one impressive moment – there is palpable exhiliration to be had when the music swellls and the first reply message from Mars is received.

Also of note is RED PLANET MARS’ highly recognizable cast – other than Peter Graves and Andrea King, Lewis Martin [Pastor Matthew in THE WAR OF THE WORLDS '53] appears in a bit part as an astronomer, while Morris Ankrum and Walter Sande [the kindly desk sergeant in INVADERS FROM MARS] both have smaller roles as advisers to the president. Wade Crosby, better known as Congressman Harroway from INVASION U.S.A., even crops up briefly in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him role as a Senator.

RED PLANET MARS may be of some interest to those keen on the more bizarre propaganda efforts of the fifties but will provide little of value to anyone else. That it came off as being better than I’d expected is still little in the way of a recommendation, as my perspective in such matters is more than a little askew of what most viewers’ will be. Those who still wish to see it can currently do so via Google Video, on which it is presently available in full, or through its out of print but still easy to find VHS and laserdisc releases from United Artists / MGM – there is also an unlicensed gray market DVD release kicking about online on the Cheezy Flicks Entertainment label. RED PLANET MARS fits quite prominently in the ‘they don’t make them like this anymore’ category, something that’s just fine with this reviewer – not recommended.