Customer Ratings & Reviews

In this low-budget 1951 science-fantasy movie, four scientists and a newspaper corespondent crash-land on the Red Planet. They find that Mars is inhabited by people just like themselves who live in a highly advanced underground civilization. The Martians generously offer to help the Earthlings fix their disabled spaceship to return to their planet. What the spaceship crew does not know is that Mars is running out of "corium," the source of energy that powers their considerable civilization. Most of the Martian leadership intend to seize the spaceship, build many more and then invade earth. Other Martians, however, are shocked by this duplicity. They believe that through interplanetary trade, Mars could acquire uranium from Earth in return for some of the marvelous inventions of Martian ingenuity. They secretly help the earthlings fake an explosion so the Martian leadership will think the take-off is weeks away, then leave when the evil Martians least expect it. But the Martian leadership is beginning to suspect something... As I said, this is a fantasy. (Judging by the lovely young Martian women who wear ultrashort skirts and very high-heeled shoes, it is a male fantasy.). If one wishes a more scientific description of Mars in a movie of that era, I suggest George Pal''s Conquest of Space. This is a low budget film. (Cameron Mitchell, who played the newspaper man, once said the whole thing was shot in five days!) On the other hand, the movie was shot in color, unusual for a low-budget of the 1950s. The special effects were not up to the level of the movies of George Pal or Ray Harryhausen, although one can find some good effects from time to time. This is not a great movie, but I think it is fun to watch it occasionally as a fantasy. I would also would suggest that one should not listen to the commentary before watching the movie at least once. The commentator condemns everything about the movie. Okay, the movie is not 2001 or Star Wars, but it is not Plan 9 from Outer Space.

I enjoy Space Classic movies and glad that I got this to add to my collection. A low budget film but glad that they were able to do a restoration and put this on blu-ray. I hope that they restore more Sci-fi movies from the 50's, 60's, and 70's and put them on blu-ray. If you enjoy Classic Sci-fi movies, add this one to your collection. Thank you Bestbuy, keep them coming.

Awesome Space Thriller a must add for the SCI-FI Fan.