Flight to Mars (1951)

A Focus On The Highlights

Flight To Mars, released in 1951, while clearly a small budget production and now considerably dated, still manages to offer some entertaining moments. At least it did for this reviewer. And for those who have not had an opportunity to visit the film, please allow me to point in the general direction of some of them.

Marguerite Chapman and Cameron Mitchell are cast as the star actors in this film, yet I found Virginia Huston to be the most exciting personality present. She plays the part of the solitary female on the rocket propelled flight to Mars and becomes very attractive to the newspaper writer played by Cameron Mitchell. She, however, is amorously attracted to one of the top scientists on the journey, Dr. Jim Barker, played by Arthur Franz. Cameron Mitchell, though, quickly deciphers the clues dropped along the way and draws his own conclusions. Aboard the rocket in flight and with the close proximity imposed upon all, he begins to lay his cards on the table. He has a penchant for Solitaire, but before resigning himself to the waiting game finds himself alone for a few moments with Virginia Huston in a secluded chamber of the ship. The first stolen kiss, and especially the second, must have fallen upon the eyes of many a 1951 viewer with robust reward and lascivious delight. It is here that Virginia Huston demonstrates to me of what material she is made and I was not disappointed. Trim, very pretty, and decidedly feminine, she looked Cameron Mitchell in the eye and hid little from him. When she closed her eyes at the moment of the second kiss, we were vouchsafed a glimpse of her special nature. Lovely.

The crash landing on Mars, a scene in which the rocket ship hits the side of a mountain at an alarming velocity, should have been the last of our cast of intrepid travelers. Remarkably, the craft did not explode, nor were its occupants splattered all over the inside shell of the control cabin. No, with oxygen masks and suits that looked as though they were ripped from a mothballed B-17 Flying Fortress, they departed the crippled ship no worse for wear and trooped out to explore a group of "chimneys" that suggested the presence of intelligent life. Things move pretty quickly from this point. Possibly the milk money was running out. Amazing what you can do with a few extremely short skirts and a little imagination, however. My eyes found much to maintain their participation as avid spectators even if the dialogue began to dribble and droop droningly.

If this movie were based on a true story, then it might be concluded Martian fashion did make a statement and found its way to Earth during the 1960's, a little over a decade later. Could it be that Ikron, President of the Ruling Council of Mars, made his way here too? It would certainly explain a number of things about the current political climate on our planet and suggest his place of employment and present occupation.

As others have mentioned, the transfer of the film to DVD reveals a few problems. While much of the DVD imagery is good, there are a few places where brief sequences get skipped. There is a stutter. Some small distortions also appear in some sequences. I noticed none of these things watching the version on VHS tape that is also in my possession.

October 2, 2008

If it looks like it was shot in 5 days, it's probably because it was shot in 5 days

Futuristic spaceflight was so much easier back in 1951. No clumsy spacesuits and none of that weightlessness rigmarole. You just pull up in front of the rocket and climb on board in whatever you happen to be wearing at the time, lay down and put your belt on, and before you know it, you're in space. Sure, there's a short period of weightlessness, but that wasn't in the budget, so you don't have to worry about it. Look out for meteor storms, but it's not like they're going to sneak up on you because they make so much darn noise in space. Crash landing? No problem - that's what those leather helmets are for. You don't even have to worry about the atmosphere, temperature, etc., of the planet you crash on - just run out the door and have at it. Best of all, you don't have to leave your pipe and tobacco at home, as it's perfectly safe to smoke onboard the spaceship.

Actually, the most difficult part of this Flight to Mars is putting up with Carol Stafford (Virginia Huston), the "indispensable" assistant to flight engineer Jim Barker (Arthur Franz), who shows her desperate love for Jim by being the witchiest (or something like that) woman in the Solar System. I wouldn't want to spend a few weeks stuck in a big can with journalist Steve Abbott (Cameron Mitchell), either, especially when he starts wooing the ice woman. Thank goodness for the two old male scientists who round out the crew of five; they are likable enough when they aren't waxing philosophical or talking about how they don't expect any of them to survive the mission. By the way, if you think the interior of the spaceship looks familiar, it's basically the same one used in Rocketship X-M a year earlier.

Well, they do make it to Mars, where they are greeted by friendly Martians (clad, unlike their visitors from Earth, in actual spacesuits, the same ones used in the film Destination Moon) who promise to help them in any way they can to repair their ship and return to Earth. If anything, the Martians are a little bit too supportive. Oddly enough, despite all of their technological advances, they can't generate a signal powerful enough to reach Earth - nor have they gotten anywhere with their own rocket program (maybe their scientists are too distracted by the skimpy dresses the young women walk around in). Will Earth's brave space crewmen (you can't call them astronauts) ever return to Earth? Will they sneak off and leave Carol on Mars (I certainly would)? Will Earthlings and Martians be friends or enemies? These are just some of the questions you might ask as this film works its way to the end. You probably won't care very much, but you might ask the questions, anyway.

I can't comment on the picture quality of the DVD, but I do know that the print I saw was pretty grainy - so much so that I couldn't read a word of an urgent teletype message posted onscreen early in the movie. I was impressed that the film was shot in color, though - this is a 1951 film we're talking about here (they were still making plenty of black and white science fiction films as late as the early 1960s). It's worth noting that the model spaceship shots created for this movie were good enough to be recycled in such later films as Queen of Outer Space, World Without End, and It! The Terror from Beyond Space. Story-wise, though, the film is OK at best. The first half of the film (including the space flight itself) is pretty boring, and the mini-soap opera subplots didn't do much for me, either. Things get more interesting on Mars, but not interesting enough for me to give this film more than three stars. Despite everything I've said, though, I did actually enjoy Flight to Mars - and so will you if you share my love for campy old science fiction classics. September 21, 2008

Flight to Mars

Fans of B&W SciFi will enjoy watching the film at least once in a while. A bit too talkie and character based for a film of this quality, it could use more action or special effects time. September 6, 2008

Took all of five days to make

"For centuries science has studied Mars, the only planet were life may exist. Now the screen creates for you the fascinating frightening spectacle of the first flight to mars."

Usually the Sci-Fi genre is just a vehicle to bring social and emotional conflicts out in a palatable format. However in the case of this film it is more fun to look at their technological advances than the conflicts. We see the need for a slide rule to be sure we are on course and they do not need space suits. The spacesuit thing comes full circle until we have the movie "GATTACA" (1997) in which once again we no longer need fancy space suits. There are lots of other great technologies and speculations as we travel to a 1951 Mars.

Five unlikely astronauts actually four astronauts and an astronautess (Virginia Huston, Jane in "Tarzan's Peril") travel to Mars; each has their own reason and agenda. Due to technical difficulties they crash. They are befriended by what looks very very humanoids including Alita (Marguerite Chapman). There they are offered help by the friendly natives. But are the natives really friendly or do the have ulterior motives of which only the Martians and we the audience are aware of?

Rocketship X-M
This Island Earth June 19, 2008

Better to Keep the Videotape Version

The U.S. Air Force, in its space exploration program, finally puts together a manned (and womaned) mission to Mars. After the space travelers land, some leaders of the Martian people see an opportunity to seize the spaceship as a prototype and build a fleet of ships to invade Earth.

"Flight to Mars" is a superior sci fi movie about an advanced civilization on resource-depleted Mars trying to save its dying race, but poorly prepared on DVD. Several strange dropouts of dialog. Color quality of the DVD provides deeper and better colors over the videotape version, but many scratches. The videotape version contains copy protection and won't allow transfer to DVD on home equipment. I was disappointed with the purchase. May 20, 2007

More reviews at Amazon.com ...