Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

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

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Man99204 I am a fan of the early 1950s Sci-Fi Movies. This film was substantially better than I thought it would be.If it seems like you have seen this movie before - perhaps you already have. Many of the props were recycled from other Sci Fi Movies. The Ship interior is from "Rocketship XM", The Martian suits are from "Destination Moon".What impacted me most about this movie were the Martian Fashions. The women of Mars were wearing miniskirts in 1951!This is obviously an extremely low budget movie which was shot very quickly. It does however have a certain charm which you never find in the modern gazillion dollar Sci Fi movies.

dbonk Actually, the leader of so-called 'poverty studios' was given the highest accolade by French New Wave director Jean Luc-Godard who sited Monogram Pictures as a significant influence in his seminal 1959 film BREATHLESS.FLIGHT TO MARS certainly has a Saturday afternoon matinée feel to it backed with a popcorn budget with butter. It is filmed in warmly lit Super Cinecolor. The movie was lensed in five days according to Cameron Mitchell who portrays the stalwart lead character. With his trusty Underwood typewriter he is chronicling an on board journal for his newspaper of this intrepid crew's voyage to the red planet. The crew members on board, including flight commander Arthur Franz, are dressed for a camping trip. The exception is Virginia Huston, introduced as 'the lady scientist', wearing a skirt and heels.When this movie was released in 1951, remember, there was no NASA, no satellites for that matter, and Flash Gordon was really the closest thing to reality regarding space travel. Given these parameters, it's relatively simple to suspend belief and be caught up in the moment to which this film takes us.After a white knuckle landing on Mars surface, one crew member suggests putting on oxygen masks before venturing outside. They have no pressurized space suits or helmets, you see. Oddly enough, the Martians do, hand me downs from the movie DESTINATION MOON.The Earthlings are given the tour of the Martian's underground city which resembles a paper mache version of H.G. Wells' THINGS TO COME. Upon seeing their living quarters, lady scientist Virginia Huston's first question is "Where's the kitchen?" Terris, the comely Martian hostess,(Lucille Barkley) informs the crew that there are no kitchens, but laboratories and meals are delivered by request. Yes, the Martians speak perfect English. They listen to radio shows. Evidently, that green-eyed monster,television, which has already subjugated Earth has not invaded Martian soil....yet. She then presses a button and a cart of food with drinks emerges from the wall. Terris reminds me of Betty Furness who would always look so comfortable showing off the features of the latest Westinghouse refrigerator on TV. Makes me wonder how many more fridges Betty could have sold if she was wearing the ensemble that Terris is sporting.Oh yes, the Earth crew's wardrobe have to comport with the typical Martian. That means the men appear in Prince Valiant garb with gray flannel underwear and boots. Virginia, the only female crew member is given what every Martian woman wears, a sleeveless mini-dress with go-go boots. Terris says, "they're very comfortable." One of the more prominent citizens is leggy Alita,played by Marguerite Chapman. Alita was originally Aelita the Queen of Mars in the classic 1924 Soviet film bearing her name. For FLIGHT TO MARS she appears to have been dethroned to a more subordinate role of administrative assistant to the Council of which her father is a member. Yet, Alita is obviously high up in the Martian fem corporate ladder as she doesn't wear boots, but customized jet black pumps with her mini outfit.One can imagine Dr. Werner Von Braun and his fellow scientists getting a kick out of this flick in their desert compound at Los Alamos, New Mexico, when they weren't developing their Redstone rocket.FLIGHT TO MARS is short enough at 72 minutes that there's no chance of boredom to set in. So bring along a B-17 flight jacket and prepare to board ship.

ferbs54 Cheesy, shlocky and campy as it is, I suppose that 1951's "Flight to Mars" still has a claim to historical relevance. According to one of my film Bibles, "The Psychotronic Encyclopedia," it was "the first space-flight movie in color." But hey, wait a minute...what about "Destination Moon," made the year before? Better make that "one of the first..." Anyway, in this one, newsman Cameron Mitchell tags along with four scientists (one of them the obligatory hotty female scientist) on the first, uh, flight to Mars. The group's members wear bomber jackets and wide-brimmed hats, more suitable for a fishing expedition, and, during liftoff, strap themselves into blanketed cots. After toughing it out through a meteor storm (that looks like a bunch of orange dots), our Earth band finds the remnants of an underground Martian civilization, whose remaining members attempt to steal the Earth ship so as to evacuate their dying planet. Luckily, for the male Terran viewer, some of these Martians are leggy, miniskirted and babelicious; one of them is even named Aelita, in a not-so-subtle homage to the 1924 Russian sci-fi classic "Aelita, Queen of Mars." The sets and FX on display here, it must be said, range from imaginative and impressive to slapdash and laughable. (It's hard to believe that "Forbidden Planet," one of the real sci-fi champs, with its superb FX, was made a scant five years later!) The film's Cinecolor looks just fine on the DVD that I just watched, but the source print itself has been badly damaged, with many words missing. A somewhat tense finale, unfortunately, is also marred by a too abrupt ending. All in all, a mixed bag that should still be of interest to fans of '50s sci-fi. Oh, by the way: Cameron Mitchell reveals, in one of the DVD's extras, that this movie was filmed in just five days! Maybe they should have taken six.

BijouBob8mm Before I start being critical, let me point out that Image has released some excellent transfers of 1950s sci-fi from the Wade Williams/Corinth Films library on DVD. Because of their past track record, I went in with high hopes for this film, only to find that while the color looked pretty good for a Cinecolor film from this time period, the print used for the DVD was full of scratches, dust specks and splices...splices that made sections of conversation inaudible. Adding to the disappointment is that Image is charging about $10 more for this than most of their other Wade Williams titles. Part of the price may stem from the extras, which include two 25 minute interviews with leading man Cameron Mitchell by David Del Valle, which are a welcome addition to the package. But the quality of the overall presentation makes the higher cost seem like a questionable pricing practice.