Film Masters' recent Blu-ray release of DESTINATION MOON contains a bonus disc featuring the 1951 science fiction movie FLIGHT TO MARS. A very low-budget follow up to DESTINATION MOON, FLIGHT TO MARS is as different from its inspiration as you can get....but it also establishes the template for many other sci-fi flicks for the rest of the Fifties.
FLIGHT TO MARS starts out in a DESTINATION MOON type of mode, as a crew of four scientists (Marguerite Chapman, Arthur Franz, John Litel, Richard Gaines) and a reporter (Cameron Mitchell) plan a rocket trip to the Red Planet. Once the crew crash lands on Mars, the story goes off on a very different course, as the party from Earth discover that the planet is inhabited by a race of humanoids that live in advanced underground cities. (Despite their "advanced" civilization, the Martians have not been able to develop space travel, nor can they directly contact Earth, even though they are able to listen to our radio and TV broadcasts.) The Martians agree to help the Earth crew repair their rocket ship, but the leaders of the Red Planet really want to steal the technology for their own nefarious purposes.
The technical accuracy of DESTINATION MOON gets pushed to the side fairly quickly in FLIGHT TO MARS. One reason for that is the latter film's low budget, which doesn't enable the story's ideas to fully develop. We don't get a proper idea of the scope or size of the Martian society, but the viewer is shown that all the Martian women appear to look and dress like Las Vegas showgirls, while the Martian men, mostly middle-aged and elderly, wear robes and come off as weak or duplicitous. The attributes of the Martian men and women in this film would appear again and again in depictions of futuristic or alien societies throughout the next decade of science fiction cinema. In some ways, FLIGHT TO MARS was more influential than DESTINATION MOON. (Actors Arthur Franz and Morris Ankrum, who plays the Martian leader, would show up in plenty of sci-fi movies for the rest of their careers.)
FLIGHT TO MARS also injects a very old-fashioned story element with a love triangle between Cameron Mitchell, Marguerite Chapman, and Arthur Franz. This element just bogs down the main plot (and it was also a major factor in Fritz Lang's WOMAN IN THE MOON). Overall, FLIGHT TO MARS is a diverting slice of sci-fi pulp, despite its being very quaint in a lot of areas.
Film Masters' restored scan of FLIGHT TO MARS looks great, even though the movie uses the Cinecolor process, which (fittingly for this film) is dominated by the color red. The movie looks so good on this Blu-ray that it's hard to believe it was produced by Monogram (and directed by Lesley Selander, who ironically helmed a film a wrote about last weekend, THE FATAL WITNESS).
The FLIGHT TO MARS Blu-ray also contains a number of extras, such as a restored original trailer for the film, and a fine new audio commentary by Justin Humphreys. Humphreys gives out all the info needed on the production, and while he points out the movie's various flaws, he also appreciates what it was able to do despite its lack of budget.
Also on the Blu-ray are two featurettes. One, by Ballyhoo Pictures, discusses the development of the "Trip to Space" movie genre, and how important WOMAN IN THE MOON was to it. The other program looks at the life and early career of producer Walter Mirisch, and the movies that he was involved in during the early 1950s, such as FLIGHT TO MARS.
I had never seen FLIGHT TO MARS, and while it certainly isn't on the same level as DESTINATION MOON, it can't help but bring a smile to the face of any classic horror/sci-fi fan. Film Masters has done its usual magnificent job in restoring FLIGHT TO MARS and giving it the deluxe home video treatment.
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