Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964)

Director: Byron Haskin

Starring: Paul Mantee, Victor Lundin, Adam West

More info: IMDb

Tagline: A Lone U.S. Astronaut Space-Ship Wrecked on Mars!

Plot: Stranded on Mars with only a monkey as a companion, an astronaut must figure out how to find oxygen, water, and food on the lifeless planet.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again? Yeah.

Adam "not the lead in this picture" West

#33 on SCI-FI TRAILERS VOLUME 9 & 10 (part of the TRAILER TRASH PROJECT)

I dig sci-fi flicks like this. Ones that try to do something different. I kept thinking the entire time after Draper crashed how he was going to breath since his oxygen supply is limited. The script writers found a way and I was OK with it. Then I tried to think of what he was going to do for food and water. Again, they solved that problem and I was OK with it. Then I wondered where his Man Friday would come from and that was taken care of but I was less OK with it but I rolled with it but I was getting dangerously close to wearing my suspension of disbelief down to nothing.



It's not a home run but I liked the look and feel of it and Van Cleave's score is very nice. Mantee was good in the role but I was REALLY hoping it was going to be Adam West that survived and became the titular character. That would have been really cool. The special effects could have been better but I understand. To have an entire film set on another planet and have essentially one character for most of the picture is a tall order and I think they did a fine job of it. I'm skeptical of the science but I appreciate how they made a worthy attempt at how one could survive on another planet. It killed nearly two hours and it didn't piss me off. I'm satisfied.