Red Planet Mars (1952)

Red Planet Mars
Directed by Harry Horner
Written by John R. Balderston and Anthony Veiller from a play by Balderston and John Hoare
1952/USA
Melaby Pictures Corp.
First viewing/YouTube

[box] Russian Commissar: That will silence their hymns. What do these superstitious peasants think? They cannot compete against our guns![/box]

I generally don’t review B-movies on my blog but will make an exception for this bizarrely fascinating tale.

American astronomers have observed recent drastic changes on the planet Mars including the rapid melting of a polar ice-cap to fill the numerous canals that cover the planet.  This encourages hot shot radio expert Chris Cronyn (Peter Graves) to intensify his efforts to make contact with the Martians.  After seeing the astronomer’s findings, Chris’s wife Linda (Andrea King), who had formerly been his enthusiastic assistant, is dead set against this.  She now believes that contact will only increase the possibility of the nuclear holocaust that has preoccupied her since the end of the war.

However, Peter prevails and soon starts picking up signals.  These remain meaningless however until the Cronyn’s son Stewart suggests opening communications by transmitting the first few decimal places of pi and waiting for a response with the remaining figures. This works splendidly and soon the government sends out a cryptography expert to de-code the messages.

The first answers from Mars reveal that the Martians live 300 years and have solved all their power and food problems.  For some reason, this information causes the global economy to collapse.  Now we find out that the Russians have hired Franz Calder, the Nazi inventor of the same transmitter used by Cronyn on the same project.  From his hideout in the Andes, the evil Calder is unable to contact Mars itself but can track the American’s communications with the planet.  The Russians are gleefully waiting to take over in the chaos following the financial meltdown.

Cronyn, formerly a press darling, is now demonized.  Washington asks him to shut his transmitter down.  Then something amazing happens.  When the Martians are asked how they have avoided nuclear disaster, they respond by saying they follow the teachings of their supreme being about good and evil.  The Martians’ messages grow increasingly Bible based.  I will not reveal the bizarre last act of this drama, which I think should be seen.

Wow, this has everything except actual Martians – drunken Nazis, brutal Russians, Cold War paranoia and God.  The script by Dracula writer Balderston and Vellier, who was a writer on The Killers, is pretty tight and effective considering the subject matter.  What this movie lacks in special effects it makes up for in a vivid portrayal of 1952 anxieties.  I went in looking for a good bad movie but really think it is more of a pretty good movie that has somehow not gotten the following it deserves.  Mind you its all very, very overblown – but in a good way.  Currently available on YouTube.

Clip – opening