One of those supposedly little films that has found it's niche in the sci-fi genre before they became the computer-generated, traveling matte techno-terrors of this modern age, the human touch brought to an alien planet is what keeps this movie's title alive on so many people's lists, even if the director hated it.
Director Byron Haskin had to deal with a title he felt had crippled the film. His desire was to rename the film "Gravity Probe One:Mars". Some debate would be obvious in many circles on that one, given the already strong references to Daniel DeFoe's classic shipwreck novel.
Ib Melchior (no stranger to sci-fi, penning scripts for everything from the visually intense "Angry Red Planet" to "Journey To The Seventh Planet" to TV's "Lost In Space") and B-Movie adventure author John Higgens, wrote a story that would today be lambasted by the politically correct patrols, but found some interesting scientific theory for what little we truly knew about Mars before more recent survey probes.
The potential for gasses trapped in volcanic rock (lucky for Cdr. Kit Draper, it was oxygen) to using Mona, the wooly monkey, to help find water and indigenous plant protein sources (in a role where a monkey would get fourth billing, just after Adam West), are not as far fetched as the alien element.
The slavers, although saddled with flying ships made from whitewashed Martian War Machines from Haskin's earlier effort, "War Of The Worlds" and in space suits from "Destination Moon" (probably borrowed courtesy of his boss, George Pal, when he worked on "Conquest Of Space"), gave us an unfortunate relationship with the humanoid aliens of the "human" talent of enslaving other races for grunt work (illustrated so well much later in "Enemy Mine" as humans enslaved the Dracs).
The relationship between the imposing Friday (Vic Lundin, who would cross paths with Paul Mantee years later on the 20th Century Fox backlot while working on two separate episodes of "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea", Vic relegated to a giant lobster man suit), whose look inspired imagery of Native Americans or an Egyptian slave, makes for the strongest crux of the film. Trust supplanting the potential maddening loneliness of Draper's plight, along with friendship and survival, makes the true human element work between the two actors.
Placed against the stark realism of shooting in Death Valley to supplant for the Martian wilderness (as the Valley of Fire in Nevada would do for "Star Trek:Generations" and the volcanic wasteland of the Canary Islands for "Enemy Mine"), speeches of Martian history to the existence of God in both men's cultures as they would survive the elements and a pursuing aliens seeking to kill Friday( a quandary, considering that they hunted one escaped slave after they slaughtered all of Friday's companions. Perhaps slavery was illegal in their world too, so they had to rid themselves of all evidence), would help the film's overall feeling and emotions shine through, despite being saddled with a title that many believe hinders the film's place in the genre's history.
Director Byron Haskin had to deal with a title he felt had crippled the film. His desire was to rename the film "Gravity Probe One:Mars". Some debate would be obvious in many circles on that one, given the already strong references to Daniel DeFoe's classic shipwreck novel.
Ib Melchior (no stranger to sci-fi, penning scripts for everything from the visually intense "Angry Red Planet" to "Journey To The Seventh Planet" to TV's "Lost In Space") and B-Movie adventure author John Higgens, wrote a story that would today be lambasted by the politically correct patrols, but found some interesting scientific theory for what little we truly knew about Mars before more recent survey probes.
The potential for gasses trapped in volcanic rock (lucky for Cdr. Kit Draper, it was oxygen) to using Mona, the wooly monkey, to help find water and indigenous plant protein sources (in a role where a monkey would get fourth billing, just after Adam West), are not as far fetched as the alien element.
The slavers, although saddled with flying ships made from whitewashed Martian War Machines from Haskin's earlier effort, "War Of The Worlds" and in space suits from "Destination Moon" (probably borrowed courtesy of his boss, George Pal, when he worked on "Conquest Of Space"), gave us an unfortunate relationship with the humanoid aliens of the "human" talent of enslaving other races for grunt work (illustrated so well much later in "Enemy Mine" as humans enslaved the Dracs).
The relationship between the imposing Friday (Vic Lundin, who would cross paths with Paul Mantee years later on the 20th Century Fox backlot while working on two separate episodes of "Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea", Vic relegated to a giant lobster man suit), whose look inspired imagery of Native Americans or an Egyptian slave, makes for the strongest crux of the film. Trust supplanting the potential maddening loneliness of Draper's plight, along with friendship and survival, makes the true human element work between the two actors.
Placed against the stark realism of shooting in Death Valley to supplant for the Martian wilderness (as the Valley of Fire in Nevada would do for "Star Trek:Generations" and the volcanic wasteland of the Canary Islands for "Enemy Mine"), speeches of Martian history to the existence of God in both men's cultures as they would survive the elements and a pursuing aliens seeking to kill Friday( a quandary, considering that they hunted one escaped slave after they slaughtered all of Friday's companions. Perhaps slavery was illegal in their world too, so they had to rid themselves of all evidence), would help the film's overall feeling and emotions shine through, despite being saddled with a title that many believe hinders the film's place in the genre's history.