Tag Archives: mars

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“The War of the Worlds” (1938) – A Very Fine Radio Drama

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This radio play, based on author H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds” novel, has stood the test of time. We are presented with a gripping tale of alien invasion by a seemingly unstoppable force that brings the Earth to its knees but not before a wholly unexpected ally assists us in eluding planetwide destruction.

Based loosely on Wells’ classic science fiction novel, upstart talent, Orson Welles and his Mercury Theater production cast of radio and ultimately theater and film performers, craft a masterful adaptation of the story. America is the spot of a succession of meteorite impacts across the country which house metallic vessels hiding Martians. Not only are the Martians intent on dominating our planet and its resources but they have a penchant for human flesh as well. Not a pleasant prospect for the average Earthling.

This is a well-paced and cleverly designed radio program that initially masquerades as being a typical evening in front of the radio (These were the days before television and computers and when the mind’s eye was actively utilized to visually interpret the words coming out of the radio’s speaker.): Dance band music is interrupted by increasingly intense news broadcasts and the interjected opinions and reporting from experts who are analyzing what the whole invasion thing means and if the Human Race stands a chance of survival.

Very vital and well structured, this is one of the best radio plays in my mind. Not only that, but this production caused quite a stir with late tuners-in of the broadcast back in 1938. An actual panic ensued in certain populations of listeners who actually believed the radio drama was truly happening! What better endorsement to the authenticity and melding of fantasy radio play, gritty news programming, and outrageous showmanship. Hollywood was soon to open its doors wide to welcome Orson Welles’ creative vision and bless him to bestow his magic on Tinseltown. He managed to pull off another legendary artistic masterwork with film “Citizen Kane” but after that, the door slammed shut on his theatrical nose.

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“Queen of Blood” (1966) – Hybrid Cosmic Horror

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A very strange film courtesy of director Curtis Harrington. This film is by turns ambitious, clumsy, inspired, dull, beautiful, ugly, and creepy in atmosphere. Harrington compiles, at times, an epic space adventure that involves our world and the inhabitants of another planet.

It seems that Earth has detected an interstellar message that aliens are headed toward our planet to establish a meeting of the races. It is soon discovered that the aliens were waylaid enroute and crashed on the planet Mars. Earth dispatches a rescue mission to assist the downed craft. Our astronauts recover one living specimen but soon regret the encounter as we find out that the creature subsists on blood like all good vampire creatures. One by one, the rescue crew start to turn up deceased. The Outer space settings and Alien Race element combined with the horror element of the vampire-like entity equates to a hybrid fusing of two genres and thus we arrive at the term: “Cosmic Horror”!

This is an ambitious picture and it has a number of memorable elements. Harrington had obtained some footage from some older Soviet film productions of rockets in space flight and incorporated the film bits into this production. A real-life example of “found footage” being utilized in a movie made back in the 1960’s! Here the film is used in an attempt to keep down costs for the special effects budget. There is a rousing scene taking place in a large courtyard with the speaker’s voice loudly resonating through the assembled astronauts and facility workers. There are shots of the aliens’ planet and their eventual departure from their homeland. We see some scenes of the difficult traversing of the Mars landscape in an attempt to escape the harsh surface winds. There are also some unsettling scenes of the vampire using some form of mind control in which to ensnare new sources of “nutrients” on the spaceship. Florence Marley is simply otherworldly in her appearance and performance as the space vampire lady. Wow! John Saxon and Dennis Hopper appear as two of the rescue mission astronauts.

“Queen of Blood” has many engaging elements and will provide you with a scary and enjoyable viewing experience.

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“The War of the Worlds” (1953) – Pretty, 1950’s End of the World Yarn

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H.G. Wells wrote the science fiction classic “The War of the Worlds” back in the 19th century and the setting was England. It seems that a civilization had evolved on the planet Mars and the inhabitants of that planet hatched a plot to conquer our planet. Falling stars land on Earth and reveal encased cylinders that house slimy Martian creatures and Martian war machines that proceed to decimate our world.

Along comes this picture to update the story to the United States in the 1950’s. The screen is filled with dazzling color film work and a different continent to disrupt and demolish. We are also subjected to some mighty wooden acting by our leading couple Gene Barry and Ann Robinson. The United States utilizes its latest military weapons on the aliens who are now operating evil looking flying craft equipped with a goose necked appendage that fires off a vaporizing ray.

There are plenty of histrionics in this science fiction actioner: two mighty military forces battling it out, explosions, heat rays, cities on fire, flying wings, atomic explosions, three eyed creepy creatures, shouting expressionless actors, pontificating egghead scientists, hardheaded career military minds ranting, blood thirsty mobs on the rampage, a war between two celestial bodies!!!!

Come to think of it, you’ll have a great time viewing this. Knock yourself out.

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“The Day Mars Invaded Earth” (1962) – Our Cinematic Visit to the Red Planet is much too short

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“The Day Mars Invaded Earth” starts out promisingly enough with footage of a rover device scooted across the surface of the Red Planet. The film is in black and white so we take it on faith that we are actually on Mars. Har-har. This segment of the film is my favorite part of the movie as too soon we see the probe destroyed and we come back to earthly maters for the remainder of the film. It seems that the scientist who is chiefly responsible for the project is psychically invaded by some form of life from Mars and his family is similarly taken over.

The majority of this movie is set within the scientist’s vast country estate and while it is picturesque and grand, the action plods as we maneuver about the estate and witness the absorption of the humans present. It all gets a bit boring for me but there is a nice effect at the end that metaphorically encapsulates what has taken place on the estate.

Some call it a classic science fiction film but I do not. Maybe a hint of what the Martians actually looked like would have helped or more suspenseful scenes. It is though not an unpleasant way to spend 90 minutes for the speculative film fan.

documentaries, FAntasy films, mysterious places, outer space, outer space sounds, science fiction, science fiction films

“A Dream Come True” – (1963)

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Twisted Russian fantasy film depicting a manned trip to Mars.  Propagandistic in tone in that Russian technology is capable of any space voyage/adventure in these films (see “Planeta Burg”) but the reality is that there was a long record of Russian space mission failures.  It seems that the plot formula in a lot of these films is that the homeland’s advanced technology delivers men to the Moon, Mars, and The Stars, but once there, things become unraveled and life or death situations materialize.  A drama is thus born.  There are no shortage of beautiful and eerie landscapes rendered in shockingly vivid color of the mysterious planet’s surface and a collection of weird, atmospheric synthesizer soundscapes of chirps and bleeps to accompany the strange sights.

The visuals, at times, remind me of Mario Bava’s “Planet of the Vampires”.  Not too shabby, in my book!

Break out the vodka and make it the main feature at your next movie night!

fantastic television, mysterious places, outer space, scary tv

ALIENS EXIST ON THE MOON – UFO DOCUMENTARY – 2015

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Some ideas never seem to go away.  Over 40 years ago, there was a book documenting strange anomalies seen in NASA photographs of the Moon’s surface.  Some of the images originated from orbital surveyors, others were taken during Apollo missions to the Moon’s surface.  I have to say that some of the things supposedly seen by acute observers of unusual structures and objects on the Moon stretch credibility and take a good bit of imagination to visualize.  And then there are other images, still and motion, which are hard to figure out what the heck they are.  Anyway, here is a documentary which pours over some of these ’60’s era artifacts along with more recent visuals delivered from the surface of Mars by our rovers, Google Moon images, more NASA footage of UFOs in Outer Space, etc.  Seeing is believing or at least wondering if there could be something to these claims of aliens in our midst all these years.