PlatinumRead Just so...so bad

Libramedi Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Motompa Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Tracy Winters With all the urgency of consuming a candy bar under a shade tree in August, the crew of this particular spaceflight heads towards the red planet after strolling up to the big rocket to strap themselves in like cosmic sardines.Things are cool until the rocket gets messed up causing the space travelers to have to consider remaining on Mars - if they can safely land there at all. Cameron Mitchell is a doubting writer, John Litel is the confident commander, and pretty Virginia Huston masquerades as the 'girl next door', all the way up to the moment when she gulps down a bourbon... and again when she starts whipping Cameron and Arthur Franz for womanizing.Quiet film with enough novelty value to keep one interested especially when we see the Martian babes strutting around in tiny red mini-skirts.

dougdoepke Lippert Pictures struck paydirt with 1950's Rocketship XM, and was hoping for a similar result with this feature. As early sci-fi, the movie's okay, but lacks the grit of its predecessor. The premise is a real stretch with an underground Martian civilization that speaks flawless English, while the women parade around like Las Vegas show girls. (Not that I'm complaining.) Then too, the rocketship crew treats their pioneering flight like a trip to the mall.But if you can get past some of this nonsense, parts of the movie are eye-catching. I really like the standing rocket in the dome with the people beneath. It's a well-done effect, especially in color. Also, the script deals fairly thoughtfully with the predicament the Martians find themselves in. In short, that aspect is not settled in a typical Hollywood wrap-up. Then there's the great Morris Ankrum as Ikrom, the sneaky plotter. Would any sci-fi of the period be complete without his lordly presence. Anyway, despite the pacing that sometimes drags, the movie ends up somewhere in the middle of all those goofy 50's space operas.

MartinHafer Note--While this is a color film, the DVD is very scratched and the colors are pretty faded.This is one of a bazillion films made during the 1950s about space flight to either the Moon or Mars. And, like so many of them, once they get there, they find people who look and talk much like us. And, like so many of these films there is a "hot babe" scientist among the crew (do they come any other way?!) and once there she is forced to wear REALLY hot babe-style clothes! And, like so many of these films, the natives turn out to be jerks who want to take over the Earth--just like in CAT-WOMEN OF THE MOON--though at least the aliens ACT nicely for a while. So already at the onset, this film isn't exactly new or different--there are a lot of similar films.Despite all these similarities, I still enjoyed the movie. Seeing the Martians running about in their silly costumes as well as the humans landing on Mars dressed only in WWII-style bomber crew outfits both made me laugh and gave the film a kitschy-sort of style. You certainly don't watch films like this for their realism!! Believe it or not, while this movie is pretty high on the cheese-factor, considering it was made by a poverty-row studio (Monogram) it actually is amazingly good. Plus, the studio was able to scrape up the money for a couple minor stars who were good actors (Cameron Mitchell and Robert Barrat--a man who was a very prolific actor in the 1930s).For lovers of this sort of film, this is a must-see. Others might just find it all too old fashioned and silly to watch.

ptb-8 Monogram Pictures fizz off into outer space using gym locker room sets as spaceship interiors, military disposal store props and 2 color color and then reveal Mars is populated with man hungry showgirls wearing miniskirts sporting hairdoos by the Bettie Page salon de crater. What's not to like? this theme was recycled into at least three films I embrace equally: Cat Women Of The Moon, The Queen Of Outer Space (yippee!) and Mesa Of Lost Women. Showgirls, hairy spiders with goggly eyes, fellers with tin ray guns and possibly the same sweat stained space suits in each film. Very good. This one skipped the spider though and is a remake of Rocketship XM. I love the idea we can get into a flying pencil-case with a cracker up the exhaust pipe, settle into a bunk yanked from a submarine, crash-land in a quarry and meet scantily clad ex-LasVegas assistant cashiers who each look like Aunty Lorraine and her gal-pal Lois. You know you are really living when this is exciting.