Flight to Mars (1951) by #LesleySelander
w/#MargueriteChapman #CameronMitchell #ArthurFranz #VirginiaHuston
Four scientists & a reporter crash-land on Mars, but the friendly Aliens who help them may have a sinister motive.
“Fifty Years Into The Future!”
“The Most Fantastic Expedition Ever Conceived by Man!”
#SciFi
#NotQuiteClassicCinema
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn
A Monogram B-movie, Flight to Mars (1951) felt right up my alley from the opening seconds. It seemed to be about – surprise, surprise – a flight to Mars. A young Cameron Mitchell stars as a reporter who has been assigned to tag along and write about this historic mission. He is the only one going who is not a scientist.
And, of course, there is a beautiful woman on this mission; Carol played by Virginia Huston. She is introduced to Cameron Mitchell – or rather, Steve – by the chief engineer, Jim Baker (played by Arthur Franz). She comments that she had a date with Jim, but he has kind of stood her up. He blames Steve, in a jocular manner, for holding him up. It’s all very fun and friendly. Hmmm… I wonder if a love triangle will develop?
So what happens on this Flight to Mars?
After getting caught in a meteor shower, the rocket ship is damaged and the landing gear is no good. They wind up crash landing on Mars, and discovering a civilization of people who call the red planet home. The Martians are very friendly and helpful. Hmmm…. I wonder if they have a more sinister motive?
Of course they do. They agreed to help rebuild the ship, because they want to use it to evacuate their dying planet.
But what about the love triangle?
Jim has a new Martian assistant assigned to him, and she she turns out to be a statuesque, beautiful woman named Alita (played by Marguerite Chapman). So the love triangle is now a quadrangle… or something…
Steve is very interested Carol, of course, but she only seems to be interested in Jim. And he seems to be developing eyes for Alita. The four of them wind up up playing a game of bridge together, during which we see all of the conflicting tensions play out.
Oddly enough, the beautiful Alita doesn’t seem to be involved in the plot to double cross the Earthlings, and in fact seems to be legitimately in love with Jim.
What kind of inter-planetary kinkiness is this?
It should be noted that the Martians in Flight to Mars look exactly like human beings, and they all speak perfect English. It seems that they’ve been intercepting our radio signals and studying our language for years. So, they pretty much just seem like Earthlings who live on Mars.
So what’s the final word on Flight to Mars?
Flight to Mars (1951) is #NotQuiteClassicCinema It’s a fun movie, kind of related to those movies about planets populated by beautiful women (Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953), anyone?). In this case, Mars may be populated by men and women, but there are some mighty fine looking women wearing some pretty crazy outfits on this planet.
I wonder if the fact that movies like this were science fiction allowed the filmmakers a little more leeway in portraying sexy outfits… “Hey, it’s another planet! It’s alien fashion, man. We’re not saying women on Earth dress like this…” It could well have been a way to bypass the Hays Office. But perhaps I digress…
I enjoyed Flight to Mars (1951) very much, and I could definitely imagine watching it again on some future #FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn.
#FridayNightAtTheHomeDriveIn
Flight to Mars (1951 by #LesleySelander
w/#MargueriteChapman #CameronMitchell #ArthurFranz #VirginiaHuston
Four scientists & a reporter crash-land on Mars, but the friendly Aliens who help them may have a sinister motive.#SciFi #NotQuiteClassicCinema pic.twitter.com/LHcIhJtp3I— Angus Kohm (@AngusKohm) July 20, 2024
