The Angry Red Planet (1959)

Director: Ib Melchior

Writers: Ib Melchior, Sidney W. Pink

Composer: Paul Dunlap

Starring: Gerald Mohr, Naura Hayden, Les Tremayne, Jack Kruschen, Paul Hahn, J. Edward McKinley, Tom Daly, Don Lamond

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Spectacular Adventure Beyond Time and Space ...

Plot: The first spaceship to Mars, presumed lost, is found in space and brought back to Earth by remote control. Only two from an initial crew of four are still alive, but one is unconscious due to an attached alien growth, while the other is traumatized, blocking out all memory of what happened. In hopes to save the unconscious crewman, the amnesiac is interrogated back into remembering. Those in charge thereby learn of the terrible dangers awaiting anyone venturing into the spooky, ruddy stillness of the very alien Martian ecosystem.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again? No.

This is a sometimes hilariously bad movie but it's kind of tough to get through because of the excessive talking and lack of angry red planet horror action.  The dialogue is funny as shit and all of the characters fit in nice little cubby holes of stereotypes.  All of that is part of the fun.  It's a half hour in that we get to Mars and it looks pretty cool.  The whole time our heroes have boots on the ground the camera is filtered metallic red and that goes a long way in selling it.   You can still tell the kids are standing in front of a painted backdrop but who cares.  I also dig the vibrant colors of the rest of the picture.  The green icky on that guy's arm near the end just pops right off the screen.  You're already on board for some craptastic fun.  That bat spider creature on the poster is fucking badass and that's how it is in the film which is a real shocker that the picture delivers what the poster promises. Sadly it's not in the film much.  It's not all that bad of a film and I rather liked a good deal of it but there's a lot of boring nonsense that bookends the picture.  That's Ted Cassidy providing the voice of the alien at the end.  There's enough of interest that fans of the genre are going to want to give this a shot but don't think it'll end up on your re-watch list because it probably won't.