Flight to Mars
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Actor: Arthur Franz, Cameron Mitchell, John Litel, Marguerite Chapman, Virginia HustonBrand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 72 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2002-05-07
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Image Entertainment
DVD Reviews of Flight to Mars
DVD Review: Flawed print cant dampen fun of 1950s SF camp classic
Summary: 4 Stars
Fans of cheesy 1950s space operas will no doubt be pleased that this is out on DVD, although unfortunately the quality of the source print leaves a bit to be desired. Flight to Mars was rushed out by Monogram to capitalize on the success of Destination Moon, and really has no grounding in serious science fiction. Not yet famous and powerful, producer Walter Mirisch (Magnificent Seven, In the Heat of the Night) was still making Bomba the Jungle Boy movies, scripter Arthur Strawn had penned Karloff's The Black Room and a handful of potboilers, while director Lesley Selander (Vampire's Ghost, Catman of Paris) and associate producer/editor Richard Heermance cranked out mostly lotsa cheap westerns before and after Flight to Mars, everyone's sole SF credit. Genre fans will appreciate the presence of Cameron Mitchell (Gorilla at Large, Nightmare in Wax) as glib "newspaperman" Steve Abbott, Arthur Franz (Invaders from Mars, Monster on the Campus, Atomic Submarine) as bland, pipe-smoking Dr. Barker, and John Litel (perhaps most recognizable as Henry Aldrich's perpetually exasperated father) as Dr. Lane. Ubiquitous genre icon Morris Ankrum gets probably his meatiest SF role as Martian leader Ikron (he looks quite ludicrous in his `Captain Marvel' costume and cape), while Virginia Huston and Marguerite Chapman fill out the parts of brainy lady scientist (pining for the oblivious Dr. Barker) and brainy Martian babe Alita, respectively. Apparently they could only afford one set of space suits (for the Martians) so everyone just wears bomber jackets and aviator's caps on the takeoff and spaceflight. All the requisite elements of cheap 50s space epics are here: the threatening (animated) meteor shower; patronizing, sexist dialogue; technical inaccuracies (e.g. the Martian surface is covered with snow; no zero-G effect in-flight); quaintly obvious miniatures and model work; pseudophilosophical discussions that go nowhere; and of course the whirlwind love quadrangle of Mitchell, Huston, Franz, and Chapman. Somehow they survive a point-blank crash into a Martian mountain without injury (!), and of course [spoiler alert] the "friendly" Martians are really plotting against Earth and plan to use the repaired ship to attack us. Mitchell makes his play for Huston as Franz and Chapman get hot and heavy, the Earth people forge a secret plan (with Alita) to escape, and all is saved in a rather hasty and abrupt conclusion. While Flight to Mars gets a little talky at times (it's really not a hysterical knee-slapper on the order of Queen of Outer Space or Missile to the Moon) it will nonetheless appeal to any fan of campy low-budget space flicks such as Cat-Women of the Moon, Rocketship X-M, Project Moon Base (highly, highly recommended!!), Fire Maidens of Outer Space, etc. Serious SF aficionados beware.This is another in Image's Wade Williams Collection and while probably the best print to be had suffers in comparison to most of its peers. There is light to medium speckling, spotting, and sporadic lining throughout (noticeably heavier around a couple of reel changes), although some stretches of the film are reasonably clean. There is also a very small but noticeable flickering emulsion `ding' at the lower center of the frame that comes and goes through nearly the entire movie. More annoying are a half-dozen or so jump-cuts scattered throughout the film; a couple show up at reel changes, and several are clustered in a climactic dialogue scene. Ouch! Purists who whined about the quality of Image's Destination Moon DVD will be similarly distressed by this release. That said, the brightness, contrast, and detail are fine; resolution is not razor-sharp but quite acceptable; and the bargain-basement Cinecolor looks as good as it probably ever did: heavy on the blue-greens and oranges in the palette, but well saturated, with reasonably accurate fleshtones. Not a stellar print, but a crisp, clean transfer; no doubt an improvement over any VHS version, and probably the best we'll see for the forseeable future. (Apparently Warner Bros. owns the old Monogram and Allied Artists catalogs and is sitting tight on them. And who knows if they even have a better print at this point?) The disc also includes two approximately 25-minute episodes of an early-80s Santa Monica, CA cable TV show, hosted by Scarlet Street contributor David Del Valle, with guest Cameron Mitchell. The interview is light in tone but informative and wide-ranging, covering Flight to Mars, Gorilla at Large, Death of a Salesman, Nightmare in Wax, the six (!) films Mitchell made for Mario Bava, and numerous other topics. The only downside is that the video quality on these segments is poor, like a mid-grade videotape (apparently the hi-def masters were lost). Still a nice extra, especially for Cameron Mitchell fans. A very-good-to-excellent-quality, lightly speckled trailer (with the same fluttering emulsion ding!) for Flight to Mars and five `bonus' trailers for other Wade Williams titles are included. The photo gallery promised on the box was nowhere to be found on my copy. With the flaws in the feature source print, the unfortunately mediocre picture quality of the interview segments, and missing photo gallery, objectively would I have to give the disc three stars, but this is still an essential (four-star) buy for fans of low-budget 1950s SF or Cameron Mitchell.
Description of Flight to Mars
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