THE ANGRY RED PLANET 1959

 Hosted By Taking Up Room

"Cinemagic And You Take a Trip To The Angry Red Planet!"

"The hell with radiation... Let's go!"

Made at the tail end of the 50's sci-fi boom and released by A.I.P., THE ANGRY RED PLANET was shot in 10 days on a budget of about $200,000.  Although released in 1959 it has the look and feel of something from earlier in the decade and it is mind-bogglingly to think that MGM (who currently own the rights to it) would release 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY in a scant 9 years.  It was directed by Irb Melichor (THE TIME TRAVELERS 1964) who also co-wrote it with the film's producer Sidney Pink and that same duo would co-produce/direct the Danish monster-on-the rampage REPTILICUS in 1961.

The film is most known today among genre fans for the use of a process that was heralded as "CineMagic" whereupon solarization was applied to a B&W film negative (which reverses the negative making it a positive) and then slathering the image in a heavy red filter. The process allowed a part of the film to be shot on less expensive B&W film stock while also (hopefully) helping mask the film's budget-constrained special effects. Pink and Melchor also went with hand-drawn matt paintings for the sequences on Mars that were just drawn as outlines of the vegetation and landscape (worked on by comic artist Alex Toth) which was hoped would be covered up by the solarization & heavy filtering but instead appear exactly as they are - simple line drawings.

THE ANGRY RED PLANET has often been criticized for having some interesting ideas and concepts that because of the budget and script never come close to being explored (although you wonder what they could explore in an 83-min. low budget film shot in a week and a half). In addition, most space exploration films of this period do not have much in science plausibility (and to be fair even at the time of their release we were and still are today watching them for entertainment) but ANGRY RED PLANET appears to have been made by folks who did not have the slightest grasp in what was known about Mars at the time or science in general. However, it is wonderfully entertaining, and one cannot but help to revel in its unintentional humor (and dialogue) and the creatures for all their WTF craziness have a wonderful whacky charm to them and are not soon forgotten. Despite everything working against it, it succeeds on its own often-time silly merits. Along with MISSLE TO THE MOON from 1958, you could probably look at this as one of the main inspirations for the 50's sci-fi parody segment in AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON. 

Opening with a montage of frantic meetings between military and scientist-types along with screaming newspaper headlines (and a great deal of stock footage), it is learned that the long-missing Mars MR1 rocket has been found in space just outside of the earth's atmosphere. In a classic space mystery (and reminiscent of Hammer's THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT from 1955) it is discovered that only two of the four crew members are left alive and that the rocket can be brought back and landed by "robot control". In a short flashback via newsreel footage, the crew members are introduced which are the pilot (and space lounge lizard) Col. Tom O'Bannon (Gerald Mohr THE SNIPER 1952), "electronics expert", and comic-relief Sam Jacobs (Jack Kruschen SATAN'S CHEERLEADERS 1977 and Academy Award nominee for THE APARTMENT 1960), scientist Dr. Iris "Irish" Ryan (Nora Hayden PLUNDER ROAD 1957) and rocket designer Prof. Theodore Gettell (Les Tremayne THE WAR OF THE WORLDS 1953). 

Upon landing its discovered that the remaining crew members are Dr. Ryan and an initially kept secretive second member who is unconscious and has a strange green growth on their arm. Unable to recall anything Dr. Ryan is given sodium panthenol and recalls the events of the expedition in flashback which unfolds as the main plot of the film. 

The voyage to Mars is shown in one of those magnificently huge 1950's rocket interiors where folks stroll about, smoke cigarettes, and the canned rations ("Mars Ration No. 1") are kept on a shelf in a small kitchen-type wood cabinet. There is no mention of the gravity issue and we are quickly brought up to speed with the four main characters and their stock character hierarchy. Gerald Mohr with his unbuttoned jumpsuit exposing his hairy chest spends almost his entire time making passes at Irish ("When I call you by your name... you'll know it"). You keep expecting him to walk out in a velour bathrobe & slippers with a pipe and demanding a drink. Kruschen's Jacobs in the tradition of cinema love-lorn second bananas develops an unhealthy relationship to a piece of equipment. Here it is a futuristic-looking gun that for some strange reason crystalizes everything and which he lovingly names "Cleopatra" (or "Cleo" for short) and spends his time polishing it. 

To remind us he is a professor Tremayne smokes a pipe constantly and gestures with it while offering "scientific" observations on whatever is happening at the time. In a nice bit of enlightenment for the time women were often given roles of a scientist in 50's Sci-Fi (although they are often given male nicknames such as Mara Corday's "Steve" in TARANTULA 1955) and it is commendable that the writers here make Nora Hayden's character a biology scientist she is shown to be making the meals and screaming every 10 minutes. However, she is the one whose knowledge of science saves the day in the end.   

Upon landing on Mars (accompanied by what sounds like a whirring tape deck and everybody barking out landing instructions) they find the planet eerily quiet and unmoving with the Professor immediately jumping to the conclusion that everything is controlled by an unseen presence. While looking out on the landscape Iris sees a three-eyed bug-like creature gazing at her from the outside through a window. The group begins wandering aimlessly about in simple coveralls in a landscape that seems to change from jungle to desert to sea in a matter of steps with all the landscape rendered in the "CineMagic" process. 

The creatures they encounter are the highlights of the film and include a huge man-eating plant and best of all a towering thing described as a "rat bat spider" that seems to defy all laws of zoology & evolution (how and what does it eat??). Encountering a large sea, the group begins paddling across it in a rubber boat they conveniently have brought with them and spy a towering futuristic city on the horizon (described as "hundreds of feet high" and oddly invisible to telescopes on earth it seems) and encounter a huge amoeba-like sea monster (with a spinning eyeball on top!).

For all its mystery concerning the identity of the green-growth afflicted crew member, it is painfully obvious who it is and equally obvious which two crew members will be the equivalent of a red-shirted crew member on a STAR TREK landing party. For all its faults and unintentional humor, THE ANGRY RED PLANET is a lot of fun and as mentioned will definitely stick in your mind. Paul Dunlap (who is still working in the Hollywood music industry to this day) contributes a score that veers from finger-popping jazz-like interludes to more ominous queues. The martian glimpsed in the film was originally to be shown as gigantic and can be seen towering above the rocket in some promo material. 

Gerald Mohr had one of those "radio voices" and made a decent transition to movies with roles in the bizarre INVASION U.S.A. (from 1952, not the Chuck Norris one) and appeared in some great film noirs including THE SNIPER 1952 and GILDA 1946 along with bunches of westerns and tons of TV work. A busy character actor Jack Kruschen seemed poised for bigger things after his nomination for THE APARTMENT but continued with small roles in major pictures (often playing ethnic types) along with more prominent work in lower-budget movies. I will always remember him from George Pal's THE WAR OF THE WORLDS 1953 where he played one of the unfortunate trio who first encounter the invaders and in the John Wayne comedy western MCCLINTOCK! 1963. 

Nora Hayden was a model and appeared in the excellent PLUNDER ROAD 1957 and did extensive TV work in the '60s and '70s. Les Tremayne was another radio guy with an impressive 132 acting credits and was a familiar face (and voice) in 50's Sci-Fi usually playing gruff no-nonsense military and authority business types such as in the above mentioned THE WAR OF THE WORLDS 1953 and THE MONOLITH MONSTERS 1957.

THE ANGRY RED PLANET is available on Blu-ray from Shout Factory and had a couple previous DVD releases from Shout including a 4 pack with THE MAN FROM PLANET X, THE TIME TRAVELERS, and BEYOND THE TIME BARRIER. 

Cool to see when planning a trip to Mars they use the same map we had in my grade school classroom

High-tech navigation system

THE INDESTRUCTIBLE MAN 1956

"300,000 Volts Of Horror!!"

     After his leading "monster" roles in Universal's second horror wave of the 1940's Lon Chaney Jr. become a reliable and solid character actor in such films as HIGH NOON (1952) & BIG HOUSE USA (1955), but by the turn of the mid-fifties, Lon Chaney Jr. found himself increasingly cast in low budget horror/exploitation movies and TV. Released in 1956 this was produced by C.G. K productions and distributed by low budget specialist Allied Artist who put it on a double bill with WORLD WITHOUT END. Without an undeniable atmosphere of low rent seediness about it the film seems to take place entirely in burlesque houses & dingy police offices. A PD staple on those horror DVD bargain packs it seemed to run almost every other week on Sat. afternoon TV during the late 6o & the '70s.
     Centered around a lumbering silent performance by Chaney and low rent B&W cheesecake with most scenes having a bottle of rotgut liquor within easy reach almost like product placement. It was directed by Jack Pollenfax (who as writer cranked out bunches stuff like this during the '50s) it has elements of Chaney's horror debut in 1941's Universal "B" programmer MAN MADE MONSTER also invokes some film noir atmosphere, particularly with its onscreen narration. Filmed in and around the Bunker Hill section of Los Angeles it contains some fascinating glimpses of classic L.A. scenery including the Bradbury Building (later used in BLADE RUNNER) and the original Angels Flight railway.

      Charles "Butcher" Benton (Chaney) is scheduled for execution for his part in an armored car robbery that resulted in the death of two guards and the theft (and disappearance) of $600,000. Having been double-crossed by his accomplices he comes to realize that his crooked lawyer Paul Loew (Ross Elliott from TARANTULA and scads of Republic Serials) is also in on the scam. Led off to his execution he vows vengeance and via devious means, his body handily falls into the clutches of semi-mad scientist Prof. Bradshaw (Robert Shane THE GIANT CLAW) ably assisted by his unarmed henchman played by Joe Flynn (McHALE'S NAVY).
     The professor is doing cancer research in which massive voltage is sent throw a body destroying cancer cells. Experimenting on The Butcher he ends reviving him and makes his body impervious to harm which is shown by a hypodermic needle bending when stuck in him (and as we shall later see even bullets and a bazooka!). Throttling the professor and his assistant the silent Butcher (seems his vocal cords were burned in the experiment) Chaney lumbers off to exact his vengeance on his cohorts (who have wonderful names such as "Sqeamy").
      Police Lt. Dick Chasen (busy character actor Max Showalter THE MONSTER THAT CHALLENGED THE WORLD) has been on the case of the original armored car robbery begins to suspect something sinister is afoot after a string of murders on the "road leading to Los Angeles" are committed by a man "who appears to be dead"(!) and is impervious to bullets. Chasen begins to believe that a resurrected "Butcher" is to blame and begins tracking down his associates including his girlfriend/stripper Eva Martin (Marion Carr KISS ME DEADLY) and begins to romance her (including taking her to for drive-in hamburgers after her shift at the burlesque house). The Butcher proceeds through his list of backstabbers while the police try to figure out how to deal with an indestructible Chaney with frequent stops to Eva's place of employment.

    Filmed on what seems to be a couple of sets with the rest of the other action taking place outdoors the entire film has a seediness about it with the frequent close-ups of Chaney's bleary eyeballs adding to bourbon fumes atmosphere. With the script induced convenience of no speech for Chaney's character he silently lumbers about reminiscent of his portrayals of the Frankenstein monster. Max Showalter (who sometimes acted under the name Casey Adams) appeared in 100's of TV shows & movies always playing (whether intentional or not) characters that came across as slightly goofy but with an underlying creepy vibe. Check him out as Jean Peter's husband in Marilyn Monroe's NIAGARA.
    The film's climax includes some great model work (including a huge industrial crane) that probably impressed the producers so much that they use a shot of it under the opening credits. Showalter also provides on-screen narration that adds to the film noir feeling with screaming newspaper headlines inserted in emphasis the plot.
     The films PD status has long made it a bargain option in DVD horror packs with the Retromedia DVD being the best current option (although kind of hard to find these days), but with Warner now controlling the Allied Artist catalog perhaps we can see a nice legit DVD at some point.

THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE 1959

     Released at the tail end of the 1950's sci/horror nature rum amok cycle 1959's THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE was also one of those that fell into relative obscurity in the coming decades. Largely unseen as for some reason it was absent from the TV "monster kid" boom of the 60's and 70's with only the admittedly ludicrous looking still of heroine Beverly Garland struggling in the grasp of the title creature (a scene that never appears in the film) that popped up in magazines and books. It was finally given a DVD release by Fox in 2004 and more recently as nice Region B Blu (the UK version of which can be had for less than $10.00).
    Often unfairly lumped in with the hipster "so bad, it's great" crowd, that while having it's share of  unintentional laughs (i.e. the alligator man running about in dress slacks and skinny belt) it's a highly atmospheric little production thanks in part mostly to B&W CinemaScope photography by the great Karl Struss (F.W. Murnau's SUNRISE and the 1931 version of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE). It also has a highly capable cast including the above-mentioned genre favorite Beverly Garland (IT CONQUERED THE WORLD), George Macready (PATHS OF GLORY) and of course Lon Chaney Jr. doing one of his patented late-career drunken lout roles.

    Directed by Roy Del Ruth (this was his last feature in a career going back to 1920), it was produced by the independent company API (Associated Produces) as a co-feature for the company's THE RETURN OF THE FLY and was distributed (and probably partly financed) by 20th Century Fox. Most likely one those screen properties whose fruition worked backward from a title (and maybe even a poster) as you can picture a group of studio-types sitting around a table throwing out various animal names to attach to a project in conjunction with Fly's return. Access to the Fox production facilities also gave both films the use of the studio's CinemaScope process that for double feature play dates made it that projectionists didn't have to change lenses.
    At a large unnamed city clinic, nurse Jane Marvin (Beverly Garland) suffers from a lapse of memory as she is missing an entire year out of her life. Given sodium pentathlon by psychiatrists Bruce Bennett (MILDRED PIERCE) and Douglas Kennedy (THE LAND UNKNOWN) she recounts in flashback her marriage to Paul Webster (Richard Crane THE NEANDERTHAL MAN). On their honeymoon and traveling by train, we learn in casual conversation that Paul survived a horrific plane crash and in spite of suffering a severe bodily injury he bears no scars or lingering injuries. While stopped at a station he receives a telegram that causes him to suddenly bolt from the train and disappear as the train pulls away leaving Jane alone.

  

    Perplexed she spends the next year trying to track him down and finds a clue in the form of a Louisiana address on his college admission paperwork. Taking a train to the desolate town of Bayou Landing she arrives at the depot of the seemingly deserted town. Spying a wooden crate marked "CAUTION Radioactive Cobalt 60" she takes a seat on it (!!) and in a moment hook-handed Manon (Lon Chaney Jr.) shows up and offers her a ride to her destination which is the mysterious Cypresses plantation. After casually throwing the crate of radioactive material in the back of his truck he and Jane head off the remote plantation where Manon works as the handyman/lackey. While driving through the swamps Manon spies a couple of alligator "wranglers" trussing up a live alligator all the while waving his hook about and cursing the alligators who we learn had chomped it off earlier (he even gleefully runs over one as it crosses the road !).
     Arriving at the plantation the owner Mrs. Lavinia Hawthorne (Frieda Inescort THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE) coldly greets Jane and insists she's never heard of Paul Webster. Discovering that she's missed the last train that day Lavinia allows Jane to stay locking her in a bedroom. Later that night Manon drunkenly shots at alligators in the nearby swamp while a maid warns Jane that the house is "deeply troubled"imploring her to leave immediately.
     Discovering other mysterious goings-on including "swamp doctor" Dr. Mark Sinclair (George Macready) performing creepy skin revitalization via alligators experiments and patients swathed in bandages, Jane soon begins to realize what's up with her errant husband and the purpose of the experiments - deduction viewers will guess long beforehand.  Along the way, in a pretty shocking scene for 50's drive-in/matinee fare, she escapes a near-rape by Manon.
     Something that's different here is that there's no actual hero in the film with no leading man to save the heroine from the beasties clutches at the climax and it can be augured (in a 180-degree turnaround) that Beverly's "Jane" is the hero of the film. Sure she recoils at the sight her alligator skinned husband but then immediately runs into the swamp after him - with Garland gamely splashing about in mucky water and skipping over live alligators. Macready's Dr. is no evil scientist as he actually cares about his "patients" and deeply worries about the afflictions which his experiments have caused. Chaney's scenery-chewing Manon although viscous & mean isn't even a real villain - just a drunken oaf who inadvertently sets in motion the finale.

     When you pay to see a movie titled ALLIGATOR PEOPLE you better see an alligator person and in spite of its maligned main monster, the movie does deliver and is no better or worse then what should be expected, plus does add to the film's charm and place in the genre.  The makeup by Dick Smith (no, not that Dick Smith) probably would work best if kept in the shadows (think Val Lewton) with the scaly skin makeup effects on the partial gator men being pretty effective. The entire sequence at the beginning with Garland and the two psychiatrists feels kind of tacked on (the film would work fine without it) and was added to most likely beef up the running time as the film also gets bogged down a bit with lots of running about the swamp and creeping about the mansion.
     Although some sources site Louisiana as a filming location the swamp & plantation setting have a very dusty southern California look to them and were most likely filmed on standing sets (probably at the Fox Ranch in Malibu). With its lighting and B&W scope photography ALLIGATOR PEOPLE has a unique look among the 50's big bug/reptile features. Del Ruth doesn't use the scope screen for any real atmosphere (mostly just having two talking heads on either side of the screen) and it's the lighting which really helps elevate the look of the film.
    The professional cast elevates the sometimes talky script cast with Macready's line readings bringing a depth and seriousness to the proceedings while Beverly as usual jumps into her role with both feet. Garland always played strong resilient women and in her work for Roger Corman, he obviously saw this casting her in such roles as SWAMP WOMEN and GUNSLINGER while even in IT CONQUERED THE WORLD she shoulders a rifle and strides off to Bronson Cavern to hunt down the invader from Venus.