The Angry Red Planet 1959 ★★½ Sci-Fi (CC)

The Angry Red Planet (also called Invasion of Mars and Journey to Planet Four) is a 1960 American science-fiction film directed by Ib Melchior and starring Gerald Mohr and Les Tremayne.

Filming for The Angry Red Planet began on September 9, 1959, at Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, California, only a month after Ib Melchior and Sid Pink completed their final draft of the screenplay. Melchior reportedly had an initial production budget of only $200,000 and was given just nine days to film it. Such financial and time constraints necessitated the use of "CineMagic", a film-processing technique that combined hand-drawn animations with live-action footage. The relatively inexpensive process was used for all scenes depicting the surface of Mars. While CineMagic proved unsatisfactory for creating visually believable special effects for The Angry Red Planet, producer Norman Maurer did reuse the process in 1962, although to a lesser extent, in the comedy film The Three Stooges in Orbit.

Storyline: The first spaceship to Mars, presumed lost, is found in space and brought back to Earth by remote control. Only two from an initial crew of four are still alive, but one is unconscious due to an attached alien growth, while the other is traumatized, blocking out all memory of what happened. In hopes to save the unconscious crewman, the amnesiac is interrogated back into remembering. Those in charge thereby learn of the terrible dangers awaiting anyone venturing into the spooky, ruddy stillness of the very alien Martian ecosystem.

Credits:
Gerald Mohr as Colonel Thomas O'Bannion
Naura Hayden as Dr. Iris "Irish" Ryan
Les Tremayne as Professor Theodore Gettell
Jack Kruschen as Chief Warrant Officer Sam Jacobs
Paul Hahn as Major General George Treegar
J. Edward McKinley as Professor Paul Weiner
Tom Daly as Dr. Frank Gordon
Don Lamond as TV Newscaster/Martian Voice
Edward Innes as Brigadier General Alan Prescott
Gordon Barnes as Major Lyman Ross
Jack Haddock a Lt. Colonel Davis
Brandy Bryan as Nurse Hayes
Joan Fitzpatrick as Nurse Dixon
Arline Hunter as Joan (not in 83 minute version)
Alean Hamilton as Joan's Friend (not in 83 minute version)