Underplayed Gems

The Angry Red Planet (1959)

The Angry Red Planet poster
Directed by
Ib Melchior
Genre
action film, adventure film, science fiction film, monster film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 23m
Rated
NR
Rating
5.6 of 10 from 82 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

More films like thisWatch the trailer

or watch the trailer on YouTube

How it feels

A spaceship crew travels to Mars and encounters giant monsters and alien creatures. They must find a way to survive and return to Earth.

campydatedadventurousb-movielow-budgetvisually strangepulp-likeexciting

What happens

The Angry Red Planet (also called Invasion of Mars and Journey to Planet Four) is a 1960 American science-fiction film directed by Ib Melchior and starring Gerald Mohr and Les Tremayne. It was filmed in 1959, and was released on September 8, 1960 on a double bill with Beyond the Time Barrier. It also played in some areas with Circus of Horrors (1960). Filming for The Angry Red Planet began on September 9, 1959, at Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, California, only a month after Ib Melchior and Sid Pink completed their final draft of the screenplay. Melchior reportedly had an initial production budget of only $200,000 and was given just nine days to film it. Such financial and time constraints necessitated the use of "CineMagic", a film-processing technique that combined hand-drawn animations with live-action footage. The relatively inexpensive process was used for all scenes depicting the surface of Mars. While CineMagic proved unsatisfactory for creating visually believable special effects for The Angry Red Planet, producer Norman Maurer did reuse the process in 1962, although to a lesser extent, in the comedy film The Three Stooges in Orbit. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

This page is from Underplayed Gems. Not quite it? You can browse by genre, country and year, or take this one into the 3D catalogue and ask the Catbot for something closer.