The Wizard of Mars (1965)

Simply A Masterpiece

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This is the worst movie I have seen in a long time, which is saying a lot.Four astronauts are going to Mars and the trip is very boring.They spew mumbo jumbo and look through periscopes and it's so poorly acted and slow moving that you can't even laugh at it.They crash land on Mars and then they just make up a bunch of stuff and decide roaming the planet blindly is the best thing to do.Some decent special effects could have helped but they went for the worst effects ever.They just use a weird red and yellow filter for everything on Mars.It looks so stupid that doing nothing at all would have looked better.Of course Mars is mostly tight shots and it always looks like the south west United States.They literally spend a third of the movie floating in rafts on what looks like the lazy river at your local water park.Never see this.

I saw this one under the title "Horrors of the Red Planet." It's supposedly a sci-fi adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. It's a very loose adaptation but I guess it gives the movie something to brag about. God knows it needs it. Obviously the only value this junk has today is to give viewers something to make fun of. John Carradine appears as the Wizard, years removed from any decent movies he had made in the past and years away from any he would be a part of in the future. The rest of the cast is made up of a bunch of never-wases. The budget for this one was about equal to what you might find in between your sofa cushions. It's definitely a weird movie with some unintended camp value. There's an audience for that and, given the right amount of alcohol, I might be a part of it.

Four American astronauts are trying to orbit Mars so they can take pictures of the surface to make a map. Unfortunately, they get dragged down through the atmosphere by a "mysterious force".Director David L. Hewitt's red planet offering isn't bad once the space travelers stop bickering on the ship and step out onto the Martian soil. Armando Busick's art direction and Austin McKinney's cinematography give the film a big boost by depicting the planet's terrain as blue (instead of red), and the sky as orange (instead of blue).... very good. John Carradine participates as the planet's 'Wizard'.An interesting film with fine eerie 'space music' by Frank A. Coe; a fun movie to watch at 3:00 AM with all the lights out.

*Spoiler/plot- 1964 Wizard of Mars- Edgar Rice Bourroughsian idea for a film. Spaceship crew travels to Mars. They find an very ancient civilization. Phantoms and curses from the dead citizens plague the exploration of the city ruins. The supreme dead wizard tries to capture the crew and take control of their spaceship. *Special stars- John Carradine, Roger Gentry, Vic McGee, Jerry Rannow, Eve Bernhardt. Scientific technical adviser: Forest J. Ackermen. *Theme- Teamwork wins the day even against planetary wizards. *Based on- Some people have thought this film's plot was taken from 'Wizard of Oz' due to some minor similarities. *Trivia/location/goofs- One of the last films for eternal 80+ year old film actor, John Carradine. Film's technical adviser was SF expert and writer, Forrest Ackerman. This film borrows heavily it's special effects and miniature sets from other well know features. The wizards city ruins looks like something out of you kid's goldfish fish bowl. The female astronaut is named "Dorothy" and her role is clearly dubed. Look for a 3 minute wizaded 'rant' of John Carradine reprising his 'Preacher' role from "Grapes of Rath'. Listen to the erroneous plot references to martian canals and having 'Up' and 'Down' while traveling in outer non- gravity space. *Emotion- A fun film made even more laughable due to the many 'borrowed' expensive production elements from other SF films of the era. A terrible mash-up of borrowed scene elements, special effects, and electronic camera switcher gimmicks to tell this shallow paper-thin plot. Even the martian face has been 'borrowed' from another space travel film.