If you have observed the news in recent weeks, you will have noticed a lot of attention on the Mars Rover story. JPL gathered $2 billion and developed another robot with excavation tools and cameras for sampling rocks and soil on the Mars surface. The purpose of the mission is to try to determine whether Mars sediments and rocks contain fossilized bacteria or other evidence of life on Mars. The reason JPL was able to justify that kind of money on this mission is that we have an unquenchable thirst to know more about Mars. Did life exist there? Are there microbes present now? Was there, or is there presently, water underground? Because of all the focus on Mars recently, I decided to watch another movie centered around the Angry Red Planet.
Enter "Flight To Mars", released in 1951. This is a charming little movie that cashed in on the space movie craze of the early 1950's. This film follows a group of scientists and one reporter to Mars. Reportedly shot in five days, the movie does feature impressive special effects for the day, as well as some of the best set design in a genre film for the decade. The ship itself is sleek looking on the outside, as many 50's star ship depictions are. The interior looks pretty authentic, incorporating gyros to keep everyone upright and able to walk around. If you are a sci-fi film buff you may think you've seen this before when we get inside the ship, and you'd be right. The interior is the same interior from "Rocketship XM", shot the year before.
We also get plenty of character development while on the way to Mars. We meet Dr. Jim Baker (Arthur Franz) who is leading the mission. His assistant is along for the ride, in the form of the beautiful Carol Stafford, played by Virginia Huston. She has been at his side for three years, learning the trade and becoming indispensable. She also has been in love with Jim, who is more interested in tweaking his instruments than his love life. He is stringing her along, and obviously loves his job more. Enter the reporter, Steve Abbot (Cameron Mitchell). Steve is our everyman in this story, not invested in the science at all. He is more concerned about the human element of the story.
Being that Steve is a reporter and more observant than the average person, he quickly picks up on the fact that Carol loves Jim, Jim loves science, and Jim treats her rather coldly. Steve jumps on the opportunity to hit on Carol at every turn, which she rejects because she prefers to be mistreated by a guy who barely acknowledges her existence.
When the crew makes it to Mars, things go wrong as they often do in these movies. Fuel is used up because the ship has to re-route around an asteroid field. They lose some of their landing gear, forcing them to crash-land on the Martian surface. The crash scene, by the way, was pretty well done and reused multiple times in other movies. Our heroes put on their oxygen masks (but no suits!) and look around. The ship is too damaged to fly again, so they set about making a plan. They discover ruins, and surmise that the civilization may have been dead for millions of years.
Soon, they meet the inhabitants. Interestingly, the Martians have to wear space suits, while the humans only have to wear an oxygen mask. By the way, the space suits worn by the Martians were used previously in the movie "Destination Moon". This is where the movie falls into one of the conventions we see in a lot of older sci-fi films of the day: the Martians look exactly like us. This doesn't cheese me off nearly as much as it used to. The human-looking Martians also speak perfect English, having learned it from Earth broadcasts. Thankfully, they weren't watching Jersey Shore, so they don't speak like idiots.
We learn that the Mars population lives underground, drawing their power and building materials from the element Corium. Unfortunately, the Corium is running dangerously low, prompting the Martians to hatch an insidious plan to help the humans fix their ship, and then steal it, heading to Earth to plunder their resources. Not all Martians fall into this camp. Some want a peaceful resolution, including the Martian girl Alita. Alita is played by the stunning Marguerite Chapman, a tall brunette best known for co-starring in "Seven-year Itch" with Marylin Monroe. Alita is also something of a scientist herself, and quickly catches the eye of Dr. Jim Baker. Not surprisingly, he spends most of his time working to repair the ship with the leggy Alita, all but forgetting poor Carol.
This gives Steve the opportunity he needs to leap on Carol, once she gets over Dr. Baker. Once the movie gets over the soap-opera elements, it gets into gear. The scientists learn about the plan to steal the ship, and hatch a plan of their own. I won't tell the rest of the story, but I will say that once it gets into gear, things flow better.
"Flight To Mars" was written by Arthur Strawn, and incorporates elements of the Russian silent film "Aelita: Queen of Mars", most notable the title character, which became Alita in this movie. Overall, this is an enjoyable film. I'm taking a point away because of the human-looking Martian copout. I recommend it for fans of the genre. Three out of Four.
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