Red Planet Mars (1952)

Director: HARRY HORNER. Screenwriter: Anthony Veiller, John L. Balderston, based on the play Red Planet by John L. Balderston, John E. Hoare. Film editor: Francis D. Lyon. Cinematographer: Joseph Biroc. Music composed by Mahlon Merrick, David Chudnow. Production designer: Charles D. Hall. Set decorator: Murray Waite. Assistant director: Emmett Emerson. Production manager: Joseph Paul. Producer: Anthony Veiller. Executive producer: Donald Hyde.Copyright 15 May 1952 by Melaby Pictures Corp. Released through United Artists Pictures. New York opening at the Criterion: 14 June 1952. U.S. release: 15 May 1952. U.K. release on the lower half of a double bill: floating from January 1953. Australian release: 23 October 1952. 7,762 feet. 86 minutes. Cut by United Artists to 74 minutes in Australia.Alternative title: MIRACLE FROM MARS.NOTES: The stage play, "Red Planet" opened on Broadway at the Cort on 17 December 1932, running a dismal total of seven performances under the direction of Burk Symon and Chester Erskine. The leading players were Bramwell Fletcher, Valerie Taylor, Eugene Powers, Richard Whorf, Wilfrid Seagram, Louis Hector and Henry Herbert. The elaborate production was designed by Lee Simonson and produced by Rowland Stebbins.COMMENT: Despite its preposterous naivety, this morality play is still somewhat moving — a tribute to the sincerity of its makers. The film is a genuine curio, of interest only to the connoisseur. Action and science fiction fans are warned to give it a wide berth. The version at present circulating has been improved by excising the scenes of the Russian revolution, criticized by overseas critics for the poverty of their budget.The script is adapted from a stage play by John L. Balderston and John Hoare and, as might be expected, it's a rather talky affair. Director Horner keeps it moving however, and the acting is surprisingly straight-faced.OTHER VIEWS: Incredibly, fascinatingly bad in its messagey (in more ways than one) and up-lifting way. Raises hysterically irresponsible plotting to the level of art (or something). — Donald C. Willis.

I saw this movie in 2013 and I think it has some good ideas. After 61 years we see that some things are naive and anyone who likes action movies will not like this movie. But who likes intellectual movies might like this one. 100 years more and many ideas of this movie will make a lot of sense: the collapse of the political and economic institutions and people turning to religion. Unfortunately the movie seems much like a play with a very passive action. Peter Graves also does not help the action. This is not very appealing to today viewers. I think it would be a good idea to do a remake. Taking out the bad things, it is a good movie!

An interesting sci-fi flick that attempts to be intellectual instead of thrilling, but in reality it's too stupid. Peter Graves stars as a scientist who contacts Mars. After a series of communications, it turns out that God Himself is from the Red Planet and is disappointed with the Earthlings and their Cold War. As silly as that sounds, I don't think that premise itself is what ruins the film. It's just that the film isn't at all interested in the implications of that revelation, but far more interested in demonizing the Soviets, who gleefully machine-gun down people gathered in prayer, and patting the Americans on the back for being so God fearing (Andrea King, who plays Graves' wife, is so obnoxiously self-righteous you just want to murder her). There's an interesting twist late in the picture, but they immediately undercut it. This is a virtual remake of a much better film from a couple of years previous, William A. Wellman's The Next Voice You Hear. That one was a far more intellectually curious story about God speaking up about the Cold War (and the following year's much more famous The Day the Earth Stood Still strikes me as a virtual remake of that film).

Pretty interesting idea, but poorly developed.RPM is a rather well-made movie, acting is good. But, it is rather slow, too talky at times, and there are no Martian monsters in it (too bad!). It is not what one would expect from a movie with a title like that. I really don't care about the propaganda and the portrayal of the soviets as the bad guys (they also were bad, after all!). But what bothers me is the heavily religious bias in this film... It gets to the point of being extremely annoying, it destroyed what could have been a good sci-fi film and transformed RPM in an exercise in evangelism. Three stars for the effort and for what it could have been.