Robinson Crusoe on Mars
Directed by Byron Haskin
Written by Ib Melchior and John C. Higgins from a novel by Daniel Defoe
1964/USA
Aubrey Schenck Productions
First viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Draper: Friday, you’re gonna learn English if I have to sit on your chest for two months.[/box]
Just what you’d expect from the title and pretty fun to boot.
Two astronauts and a woolly monkey are orbiting Mars when a meteor forces them to eject from the spacecraft in pods and land. One of the Astronauts dies but Kit Draper and the monkey survive. Things look bleak at first but gradually the two find ways of surviving. Later man Friday in the form of an escaped space slave shows up.
This is good-looking Saturday matinee fare. The poster and trailer stress scientific accuracy but fantasy prevails throughout. The monkey was my favorite part.
