Starring Marguerite Chapman, Cameron Mitchell, Arthur Franz, Virginia Huston, John Litel
Directed by Lesley Selander
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)
A reporter accompanies a team of scientists on a rocketship to Mars, and tries to woo the disgruntled female engineer, while the rest encounter Mars' advanced underground civilization.
This sci-fi effort was one of the later films of Poverty Row studio Monogram, but has an advanced pedigree compared to their usual output. It was produced by future Oscar-winner Walter Mirisch, and the matte paintings and special effects are more serviceable to the story than you would expect. Mitchell, Huston, and Franz figure in a love triangle when Mitchell sees how Franz is ignoring Huston, which becomes a square when Franz throws Huston over for attractive martian Marguerite Chapman. The men are costumed from neck to toe, while the women have peekaboo blouses and short skirts, in what would become something of a standard for 1950s sci-fi, as my friends Dan Day Jr. and Mark Holmes have both observed. Although I thought there were too many standard camera setups in the film, there are some fine visuals, the score by Marlin Skiles is very good, and this must have been a big step up towards respectability for Monogram.
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