The Angry Red Planet

Impossible monstrous fun! The art direction is bold and insane at the same time. To our jaded eyes the camera trickery might seem obvious. The script and some of the performances boarder on painfully inadequate. But there is a childish dream like quality to this film that makes it irresistible to the Sci Fi fan or film historian. With Star Wars and Alien roughly a decade away, Angry Red Planet was a singular adventure of child like simplicity and ambition perhaps beyond its means. None the less, there has never been anything like it attempted in quite the same surreal way. You either love or hate this one. I would give it at least two more stars if they would let me.

As a kid, I was enthralled when I saw this movie during it's initial theatrical release in 1960. Seeing it now, It's still enjoyable as a piece of nostalgia from my youth. The special effects, pretty good for the time, are not as effective now, based on today's standards. There are several flaws that initially went unnoticed, which cause a few unintentional chuckles now. Examples: Whether the spaceship is flying through space horizontally or is landed in a vertical position, the interior is always seen as level with the crew walking around upright, and with apparently no effect by zero or reduced gravitational pull. Also the uniform jumpsuit on the lone female crew member (Nora Hayden) is designed to be form-fitting with a turned-up collar and her hair is worn up always freshly coiffed. The lead male crew member (Gerald Mohr) wears his jumpsuit opened half way down to show off his hairy chest. But enough fun criticism. The movie is a good Saturday afternoon popcorn movie. The exterior planet scenes are filmed in "Cinemagic" giving them an eerie sense of unknown fear as the crew gets attacked by carnivorous plants, a giant bat/spider creature,and a devouring blob. It's definitely not "2001" or "The Martian", but if you allow your suspension of disbelief to take over, it's a fun and enjoyable trip.

Took a chance and bought the Blu Ray transfer made by Shout Factory. Glad I did, the quality is great and the audio a lot better than the original dvd transfer. Shout Factory does a better transfer than the Hollywood companies. Yes, the movie has a very simple story and is cheesy but that it what the "B" movies were. They were low budget and intended for you to just enjoy and have fun. This movie was done in 10 days and the film was bleached with a new experimental technique to give it the red tint and glow you see in the film. I've seen worst modern movies with worst stories but with bigger budgets and better special effects that were not available back in the day. There was so much creativity with "B" movies in the 1950's. Simple, cheesy but fun to watch. Wish they still made them that way. All in all, fun to watch and enjoyable.

First, this rating is meant to measure it’s worth as a film. If I were rating this for my admittedly base purpose for watching it - the sheer fun of consuming popcorn, wine, and heckling the actors while “sheltering in place” on a cold Sunday afternoon - then it’s a five. According to the details, it took nine days to make and $200,000. My kind of heckle-fest. These actors barely convince you that your TV is on. Two of them were very successful radio actors, Gerald Mohr, and Jack Krushin. The other two are unknown to me. Believing that these four could have landed jobs in maintenance at any kind of Space agency is a stretch. Scientists? Right. Each one has been given a standard character type left over from WWII era B movies and radio and each of them heroically underperforms. Chin whiskers and a pipe equals a “professor” sublimely unaware of anything remotely scientific. Krushin’s tiresome comic relief, honed in radio and useless on the screen, including a troubling relationship with a ray gun of some sort that he’s personalized as a woman, mercifully ends when he’s consumed by a giant amoeba. For reasons entirely understandable, this demise draws less emotional reactions from his fellow crew members than any of the silly blinking lights on the fake control board. Mohr moves about on exploration visits with an apparently loaded 45, finger on trigger, waving it in the direction of his fellow crew members like maybe it’s a flashlight or something non-lethal. (Was that actually in the script?). Dr. “Irish” Ryan demonstrates her bona fides as a scientist by playing, quite literally, with beakers and test tubes. The “rocket” interior is an office with a few faux tech pieces of nonsense. Gravity rules, if not in the script and performances, then in the office. You can stroll around, shave with an electric razor, and, most memorably, smoke a pipe right next to the high-tech sensor indicating oxygen consumption at just two levels - normal and excessive. Like the idiot military authorities on Earth, everyone believes that the best possible way of confronting danger or the unknown is to charge right out into it and see what happens. Accordingly, they learn absolutely nothing from their failures, an endearing quality in a scientist. Finally, there is the booming, echoing Martian voice bidding us to stay away. He’s better understood as a viewer warning you not to waste your time and money. Since it’s free on Prime, and since you need some diversion while sheltering in place, I’d ignore him.

An excellent film. Early sci-fi, in colour (sometimes too much colour!), with suitably antiquated looking technology and equally antiquated attitudes to labour division and capabilities. But the story has a moral to it - albeit one dropped with all the subtlety of a big hydrogen bomb - that makes for a satisfying ending.The SFX are quite good for their day (although the big monster is more funny than scary) and the use of the camera lens filters to simulate the different world works well enough for the year the film was made, and gives the film a 'uniquely austere' look compared to other, similar films of the time.Great fun for the price and a nice addition to my collection.

Oh the joy, the sexual harassment cloaked as flirtation, the ‘it’s a jolly holiday with Mary’ joviality, the lady scientist dusting the microscope and organising lunch and constantly dropping test tubes and getting attacked, the slip on shoes in Space - soooooo funny, so bad BUT the CineMagic was actually real interesting and worked well especially with the carnivorous plants and monsters. One to treasure.

Really good to see an early sci-fi movie made in colour, and when the ship lands on Mars the colour takes over in a most inventive way.The Cinemagic which comes to life on Mars is wonderful, never seen anything like it before, and it's a real novelty. GREAT FUN! KAN

Bit slow, the red bits of the film sent my eyes a bit off, but okay

Good old fashion space romp