Really Surprised!

Please don't spend money on this.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Lippert Pictures struck paydirt with 1950's Rocketship XM, and was hoping for a similar result with this feature. As early sci-fi, the movie's okay, but lacks the grit of its predecessor. The premise is a real stretch with an underground Martian civilization that speaks flawless English, while the women parade around like Las Vegas show girls. (Not that I'm complaining.) Then too, the rocketship crew treats their pioneering flight like a trip to the mall.But if you can get past some of this nonsense, parts of the movie are eye-catching. I really like the standing rocket in the dome with the people beneath. It's a well-done effect, especially in color. Also, the script deals fairly thoughtfully with the predicament the Martians find themselves in. In short, that aspect is not settled in a typical Hollywood wrap-up. Then there's the great Morris Ankrum as Ikrom, the sneaky plotter. Would any sci-fi of the period be complete without his lordly presence. Anyway, despite the pacing that sometimes drags, the movie ends up somewhere in the middle of all those goofy 50's space operas.

I like this 1950's movie. I enjoy most of the pictures from this era and have several of its contemporaries. I won't go into the storyline, as many other reviewers have already done that, but suffice it to say that this is one more of those 50's space movies that so many of us love. They just can't make gems like this today.I have seen some reviews here which bag the available DVD print. I must say that I picked this DVD up a few days ago, and it seems fine; there are no scratches etc on it, and it plays perfectly well. It is a 'Bounty' DVD from Australia, and a 'Monogram' production, so whether or not it has been taken from the same master as the 'Image' print mentioned by other reviewers I do not know. My only query about it is that for the first 15 min's or so, and in some subsequent scenes, everything appears quite greenish, (ie: there is a distinct greenish tinge to the whole thing, almost as though a green filter was used in the making of the film, which I would doubt very much). I have been told that that is because it has been taken from a print which has not been re-mastered. However, it's not something that will ruin the movie for me, nor should it for you.This movie has lots of the quaint things which are distinctive about the pictures from that era, such as fantastic rocket ships, great imagination, quaint outfits, (leather flying jackets and leather flying caps as spacesuits, alien women with padded shoulders and mini-skirts), and a martian surface with no change of gravity! - and breathable air !!! All in all it's great!I have given this movie a 9 out of 10 because it doesn't quite come up to the level of other movies of the period such as Forbidden Planet, (one of the best), When worlds collide, or The day the Earth stood still, (even though it's a black and white movie). Even Destination Moon was a more polished production and it was made the year before. However, it's still a great movie for any fan's collection and I'm glad to finally have it in mine!

Early 1950s Sci-Fi directed by Lesley Selander. Special effects of course are very primitive, but pretty good in comparison to what else was out there then. Drive-in Movie double feature fare; still interesting enough to watch. Two leading men, Arthur Franz the brilliant young scientist Dr. Jim Barker and straight talking and earthy newspaper reporter Steve Abbot(Cameron Mitchell)are joined on a manned flight to Mars by Carol Stafford(Virgina Huston)another scientist and two other space experts(Richard Gaines and John Litel). Upon landing on the Red Planet, the space travelers encounter inhabitants that appear friendly and mentally advanced. In actuality, the Martians are led by Ikron(Morris Ankrum), who has the idea of conquering Earth to vitalize their civilization. There is a beautiful Martian(Maruerite Chapman)that Dr. Barker intends to take back on the return trip. She is the movie's redeemable element.

Destination Moon may have made more sense but Flight To Mars is better, in a fun and colourful pre-Irwin Allen kind of way. The meteors crashing into the ship is a knockout moment.Flight To Mars (1951) and Angry Red Planet (1959) stand as fun Mars movies and regardless of how far visual effects in cinema improve over the years, there MIGHT never be a Mars movie that captures the magic of these two cornball gems. And I might add, I was born 15 years after Flight To Mars was released! You don't have to be old to like it.