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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good Late Nite B movie Classic, July 12, 2007
Horrors of the Red Planet, AKA Wizard of Mars is a good "B" late night movie.
Typical old 60's Sci Fi movie with good plot, OK special effects "for the era", cheesey acting, bad actors no one ever heard of, etc, etc,
Astronauts in space flight near Mars are forced to make an emergency landing near the polar icecap of Mars after their ship is damaged by a Magnetic Storm.
They spend the next few days on a quest for the "Main Stage" apparently part of their ship jettisoned before the crash, to obtain supplies, oxygen etc. and stay alive till a rescue ship arrives.
They journey through a large series of caverns on their way south towards the Main Stage, actually this sequence was filmed in Carlsbad Caverns I believe.
They are threated by limited Oxygen, weird floating plant creatures, Hot Lava and lightning storms along the way.
As they finally reach what they think is their Main Stage that they have been tracking via it's radio beacon signal, they realize that it is just a wreck of an old space probe.
They discover it has some Oxygen left in the tanks, which saves the day, at least for the tme being.
You have to ask why would an unmanned probe be carring Oxygen anyway?
In the morning when the lightning storm clears they find the ruins of an ancient Martian city and set off to explore it.
They find the remains of Martians inside and end up conversing with an aparitian of the Martians collective spirit or whatever who explains the Martians history, the ruins of the city, etc, etc,
Our fearless band of astronauts end up helping the Martian spirit by starting up an ancient time machine of sorts, and are then transported back in time to before the Magnetic Storm that originally stranded them on Mars.
All in all a decent late night "B" movie.
My only complaint is the transfer to DVD is pretty bad.
I have this movie on VHS and the picture quality of the DVD is about the same.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Classic Science Fiction stuff, June 13, 2007
To those who loves Classic Science Fiction films from the 60's, you are in
for a treat. This cheapo production still delivers as we have situations
happening in a spaceship and then on to a uncharted planet. There are creatures and martians and some descent cave scenes...but because the production possibly had a small budget....it shows. They used to show this movie late at night and now its part of my collection. If you dont
expect too much, you should enjoy this little flick that is sold at a great price. I only gave it 2 stars cause the female astronauts voice dubbing is the worse ive seen...
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic B Film bust...but I'm biased~, December 30, 2008
How could I give this anything less than a 5 star rating? Yes, really.
Check IMDB if you don't believe it:) My mother, Eve Bernhardt, played "Dorothy" in this crazy cult film. I personally found it to be a great sleep aid for insomnia. Watching mom in her "gory daze" was rather fun just the same.
In the opening of this film, Mom's voice was dubbed over because of a 'spat' she and Roger Gentry got into over...well, let's just say Mom wouldn't agree to be Gentry's body pillow while they were on location.
Growing up, I was always witness to mom having shoulder and back pain. When I asked her why they hurt so often she replied,
"It's because of that damn astronaut suit they made me where in 'Mars'- the costume designer said I had no choice. They wanted an authentic astronaut costume, so that's what they made us wear. The thing weighed a ton. If I wanted to work with John Carradine- I didn't have a choice really ."
My mother wore the lug-nut suit for a month straight while she shot various scenes in all sorts of weather conditions and on various natural (beach coves) and in-studio sets.
In watching the film today, I find it remarkable that it took a month to shoot since it reminds me more of a film kids in high school might throw together one weekend and then stick on YouTube.
I give my mother props though. Listening to the strange experiences she had working on this film(remarkably they go beyond the nasty attitude of a very spoiled and virile Roger Gentry) is pretty cool.
Mom shared that John Carradine was particularly kind to her and she loved working with him- sadly, their 'big scene' which was the equivalent of 7 pages of script was edited out of the final cut. Mom's exact words were,
"John was dashing and thoroughly lovely- a true gentleman of the day and completely supportive in shooting a film that couldn't have been more odd."
Apparently Carradine's soliloquy as the "Wizard" took one hour to shoot and lasts (at least) 10 minutes in the film. The lines sounding pseudo Shakespearean are such that 'poor Yorick" might make infinite jest over.
Should you see it? Sure! It's a classic 'roll your eyes' B (or 'D' as some will prefer to grade it) film.
Fast forward to the bizarre "special effects" that make you wonder what strength count of fishing line was used to fly in the spaceship to Mars.
Originally titled THE WIZARD OF MARS; HORRORS OF THE RD PLANET is a classic of sorts... well, as far as seeing a classic example of what script not to choose if you're a working actor.
Pure & simply, I dig this film. It's cool because I get to see some of mom's work back when REAL cowboys still roamed the Warner lot and the union was just beginning to get it's act together to protect actors from lascivious co-stars and heavy astronaut suits all in one.
Cheers,
Elizabeth Reynolds
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