The Wizard of Mars (1965)

Like other reviewers here, I saw this as a youngster on a Sunday afternoon in the 1970s. Being a sci-fi fan, I just had to tune in after seeing the title in TV Guide. Even at that tender age, I thought it was bad, but still had just a spark of intrigue. Decades later, I saw it again, and my reaction was much different. Oh, my god.Watching it as an adult, I see that it's much worse than I thought. The script didn't make much sense, but as bad as the writing was, it could have been barely salvaged had the actors been at all competent. Alas, the four "astronauts" weren't. Go to your community playhouse and you could probably find a more capable cast. They make Jonathan Harris, Bill Mumy and the others on Lost in Space seem positively Emmy-worthy by comparison. And then there's John Carradine. He has more acting skills than all of the other four put together (and then some) but maybe overcompensates for their shortcomings. Whereas they can't act, he overacts, spending his time on screen being portentously Shakespearean, like some Martian King Lear. The film feels like B-movies made ten years earlier, an impression not helped by the fact that they swiped sound effects and musical cues from Forbidden Planet.I'll always have a fond memory of that first viewing just out of sheer nostalgia, but if you've never seen it and have something better to do with your time, I recommend sparing yourself.

"The Wizard of Mars" is a rather boring low budgeted film. I watched it mostly hoping it was at least interesting when it came to the parallels to "The Wizard of Oz" but sadly this didn't pan out at all.The film begins with a space ship crashing onto the surface of Mars. There are several men and, surprise, a lady. Their biggest problem is that they only have a very limited supply of air and so they leave their vessel in search of some way to survive. This search makes up the bilk of the movie and, sadly, it never gets interesting or the least bit like "The Martian"...it's just a cheaply made film with dull characters (despite the supposed Oz parallels). Even for bad movie buffs, this film has little to offer...it's not even enjoyable on a camp level.

You may be wondering just what horrors await you in the movie, "Horrors of the Red Planet. Let me break it down for you:Story...Horrendous. Acting...Horrific. Script...Horrible.I collect classic sci-fi movies, and in order for the collection to be complete, it was necessary to include this flick. There are lots of really sad sci-fi specimens from the 50//60s, and a few that are true gems. But this has to rate as the worst of the worst. It makes "Plan 9 From Outer Space" look like "Citizen Kane."An appearance by respected actor John Carradine only serves to illustrate, by contrast, how horrible the other actors are, and indeed, how far his own career had slumped by 1965.Prospect of sitting through it a second time...horror personified.

This low-budget film from 1965 is set in the distant future of 1975. It tells the story of an American spacecraft with four people on-board that crash lands on Mars. There's a kind of twist at the end that renders this synopsis somewhat incorrect. The story actually has a theme to it, which relates to the passage of time. And there are a couple of references to "The Wizard Of Oz".But overall, it's a slow moving boring affair that tests the viewer's patience. The character named Charlie, second in command, looks like a high school dropout who joined a circus. Much of the dialogue has each crew member informing another crew member of technical information that all four should have known about long before they ever left Earth. All this talky exposition is for the benefit of the viewer, of course. The woman, named Dorothy, whimpers: "Steve, what are we going to do now?" Responds Steve: "We'll have to run for it" ... a crew of real knowledgeable astronauts there.On Mars, lots of screen time is spent just wandering around their surroundings, making stupid comments and asking dumb questions. In these sequences, the dialogue occurs while the camera is quite some distance from the characters, giving the impression that the visuals were shot first, with the dialogue superimposed in post edit.Later, they encounter live beings, sort of. And the wizard finally makes an appearance well into the second half. When he does, he speaks in English, conveniently, and his voice has an echo chamber quality to it. He launches into a laughable, loquacious monologue that goes on for a tortuous four minutes. It's one of the more humorous parts of the film.Special effects look cheap, though I did find the reddish, pink colors marginally convincing, given this is the red planet. Casting and acting are poor. Dialogue is awful. Scientific credibility is nonexistent. At least the script made an effort to create some thematic heft. And for me that's what saved "The Wizard Of Mars" from being a total cinematic disaster.