The Angry Red Planet
A low-budget 1959 sci-fi film using the CineMagic process.
The Angry Red Planet (also called Invasion of Mars and Journey to the Fourth Planet) is a 1959 American science-fiction film directed by Ib Melchior and starring Gerald Mohr and Les Tremayne. It was filmed in 1959 at Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, California, and generally listed as a 1959 release (copyrighted 1959), often cited as released in November 1959 or early 1960, and frequently shown as a double feature with Beyond the Time Barrier. The film is notable for its use of the low-budget CineMagic process to depict the Martian surface, a technique that combined live-action footage with painted backgrounds or rotoscoped animation.
- Release date
- 1959 (copyrighted 1959; generally listed as November 1959 or early 1960)
Quick Facts
- Director
- Ib Melchior
- Screenplay
- Sidney W. Pink / Ib Melchior
- Story
- Sidney W. Pink
- Producer
- Sidney W. Pink / Norman Maurer
- Starring
- Gerald Mohr / Naura Hayden / Jack Kruschen / Les Tremayne
- Cinematography
- Stanley Cortez
- Editing
- Ivan J. Hoffman
- Music
- Paul Dunlap
- Studio
- Sino Productions
- Distributor
- American International Pictures
- Released
- 1960 · 9 · 8 · ref1=
- Runtime
- 83-87 minutes
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
The film began as a treatment called The Planet Mars by Sidney Pink, written at his kitchen table with input from his children. Pink gave the treatment to Ib Melchior after meeting at a party; Melchior agreed to co-write the screenplay and direct. Producer Norman Maurer was developing CineMagic, a process intended to create a 3-D-like effect by combining live-action footage with painted backgrounds or rotoscoped animation, but the technique proved unsatisfactory for believable special effects. Filming began on September 9, 1959, only a month after the final draft of the screenplay was completed, with a reported budget of $200,000 and a nine-day shooting schedule. The budget may have been higher: a Hollywood Reporter item noted an increase from $250,000 to $500,000 just before production started.
Reader's Guide
The Angry Red Planet is significant as an example of early 1960s low-budget science fiction that relied on innovative but flawed techniques to create otherworldly visuals. The CineMagic process, which solarized black-and-white film and tinted it red, allowed the production to depict Mars cheaply but resulted in cartoonish, unconvincing effects. Despite mixed reviews—The New York Times criticized its cardboard-like Martian landscapes—the film found an audience through double-feature distribution. Its legacy includes the reuse of CineMagic in the 1962 comedy The Three Stooges in Orbit, and its plot, involving a warning from Martians about humanity's technological advancement outpacing cultural progress, reflects Cold War anxieties. The film's production history, including disputes between producer Sid Pink and distributor Samuel Z. Arkoff, illustrates the challenges of independent filmmaking in the era.
Did You Know?
- The film was shot in only nine days at Hal Roach Studios.
- The CineMagic process used a combination of live-action footage and painted backgrounds or rotoscoped animation, with solarized black-and-white film tinted red to simulate Mars.
- Producer Norman Maurer reused CineMagic in the 1962 film The Three Stooges in Orbit.
- The Martian creature that infects the colonel's arm is a giant amoeba-like being with a single spinning eye.
More in American science fiction films 1-24
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