Red planet Mars

In one of the major American observatories, scientists get pictures of Mars, which clearly distinguish the geometrically regular channels crossing the planet’s surface in different directions, as well as ice caps at the poles. Judging by the images obtained a few days later, the ice on the surface completely melted, filling huge channels with water. According to scientists, the implementation of such climatic shifts is subject only to rational creatures with a high level of technological development. One of the scientists, Chris Cronin ( Peter Graves ), along with his wife Linda ( Andrea King ), built his own laboratory near the house, where he is trying to establish radio contact with Mars using a special transmitter that works with the help of a “hydrogen tube”. Soon, he notices that the signal sent by him to Mars returns not at the estimated time, but with a certain delay, which indicates that someone on the other end processes the signal for some time before sending it back. However, he is not able to decipher the signal returning to him. Chris’s research is beginning to cause concern for Linda, who claims that in our time all scientific discoveries lead to wars with increasing destruction and loss of life, and the establishment of contact with a higher alien race threatens earthlings with unpredictable consequences. Chris objects to her that scientific progress cannot be stopped, and in addition, the scientific discoveries of the last century have brought mankind a significant hang in people's living standards.

Meanwhile, in a small laboratory in a secret place in the Andes, a German scientist Franz Calder ( Herbert Berghof ) is developing a similar hydrogen transmitter. He is visited by a senior Soviet official Arzhenyan ( Marvin Miller ), from a conversation with which it becomes clear that Calder began to develop the transmitter, working for the Nazis during the Second World War. After the war, he was captured by the Americans, who took advantage of his developments to create their own transmitter. However, Soviet intelligence stole Caldera from an American prison, gave him a well-equipped laboratory and forced him to work for himself. Calder informs the Soviet official that he has not yet been able to establish contact with Mars, but he has developed a device capable of intercepting the messages that the Americans exchange with Mars, and capable of controlling these messages. Arjenyan is pleased with such results, drinking several bottles of champagne with Calder.

Chris’s lab is visited by Admiral Bill Carey ( Walter Sand ), offering official assistance. When they discuss how to get decrypted messaging, Chris Stewart's son suggests sending the first few digits of Pi to Mars in anticipation of the Martians continuing it. On the same day, they receive a response signal, which contains the continuation of the number of Pi by several characters. Soon the news of establishing contact with Mars spreads around the world, giving rise to real Mars mania. The media is filled with news about Mars, and business floods the market with thematic products. Chris becomes a star, his house becomes a tourist attraction, and the government gives him a team of assistants who will work to decrypt messages. From the received messages it becomes known that the Martians live in complete harmony with nature, putting in their arsenal solar energy to control the climate and the environment. The reports say that Martians live up to 300 years and produce so much food from one acre of land that they can feed a thousand Martians during the year. This news, as well as the fear that the Martians will soon share their secrets with us, causes a panic in the food industry and leads to a sharp drop in the shares of agricultural enterprises. And the message that the Martians use only solar energy leads to the collapse of the coal and oil industries, after which the Western economy collapses within a few days, giving an impetus to the global financial crisis. US Secretary of Defense Sparks ( Morris Ankrum ) decides to transfer Chris’s work to Washington and to completely secret it.

The Soviet government intends to use the crisis in the West to attack the United States and its allies. However, the US president (Willis Buchi) refuses to start a preventive war with the USSR, and is going to give the order to destroy the transmitter. At this moment, a new message arrives from Mars stating that their “Supreme Leader” announced that the humans were bequeathed two thousand one hundred years ago to love good and hate evil, but they did not succeed. Linda, realizing that this is a Sermon on the Mount, insists, contrary to Chris's opinion, that the message is broadcast. The President agrees, and over the next few days, this and all subsequent religious messages of the world from Martians are heard by people around the world. Among the Russian peasants, to whom this message reaches through the channels of the banned Radio Voice of America, a religious revival begins. They tear down the portraits of Stalin, take out deeply hidden religious relics and unite around the Orthodox Church. In the end, despite the repressions, the people manage to overthrow the communist government and put the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church at the head of the government. Meanwhile, in the Andes, where Calder is gradually drunk, an avalanche collapses, completely destroying his laboratory.

However, Calder himself unexpectedly appears in Chris's laboratory, demanding to admit that it was he who invented the hydrogen tube, with which the transmitter functions. Threatening with weapons, he claims that his goal was to humiliate America, which threw him in prison and stole his invention. To do this, he fabricated and sent the messages that Chris allegedly received from Mars, showing his journal in confirmation. Indeed, messages ceased to be received after his laboratory died. However, Linda notes that messages from Mars continued to come after an avalanche destroyed the caldera’s laboratory. Linda sees that Chris quietly turned away the hydrogen tube hose, letting hydrogen into the laboratory room, which could explode at any moment. Ready to sacrifice herself for peace, she asks Chris to give her a light in order to provoke an explosion that will destroy the laboratory and deprive Calder of the opportunity to take her activities under control. When Chris takes a lighter from his pocket, a new message arrives from the Martians, and an enraged Calder in desperation shoots at the transmitter screen, which leads to the explosion of the entire laboratory. A few days later, the President speaks on television, which begins with the words from the last Martian message interrupted by the explosion: “You did well, my good ones ...”. He further speaks of an established world peace and praises Chris and Linda, whose sacrifice brought about the establishment of world harmony based on religious ideals.

At the end of the film, the word “Start” appears on the screen.

• Peter Graves - Chris Cronin
• Andrea King - Linda Cronin
• Herbert Berghof - Franz Calder
• Walter Sand - Admiral Bill Carey
• Marvin Miller - Arjenian
• Morris Ancrum - Secretary of Defense Sparks
• Willis Buchi - President

The author of the original play of 1932, which formed the basis of the script for the film, John L. Boulderston was the author of the scripts of such famous horror films as Frankenstein (1931), Dracula (1932), Mummy (1932), and Mad Love (1935), The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) and Gas Light (1944, Oscar nomination ) ^[1] . The second screenwriter Anthony Weiller is known for the scripts for the Noir films Let's Live (1939), Assassins (1946, Oscar nomination ) and Alien (1946), as well as for the script for the psychological film Iguana Night (1964). based on the play by Tennessee Williams ^[2] .

The director of the film, Harry Horner, was twice awarded the Academy Award for the films “The Heiress ” in 1949 and the “ Cheater ” in 1961, and was also nominated for an Oscar for the film “ Hunted horses are shot, aren't they?” "In 1969. His most notable works as a director were the noir films Careful, My Sweetheart (1952), Wicca (1953), and Wild Party (1956) ^[3] .

Actor Peter Graves is best known for his many years of playing in the television series Mission Impossible in 1967-73 and later in 1988-90, which brought him the Golden Globe in 1971 and two more nominations for the Golden Globe, as well as for the Emmy . He is also known for starring in the film Noir “The Insidious River ” (1951) and “ Black Tuesday ” (1954), in the military drama “ Stop the Night ” (1956), as well as small roles in such widely recognized films as “The Night of the Hunter ” (1955) and " Prisoner of War Camp No. 17 " (1953) ^[4] . Andrea King played her most significant roles in the horror film The Beast with Five Fingers (1946), as well as in the noir films The Man I Love (1947) and Call 1119 (1950) ^[5] .

Variety Magazine wrote that, despite the name, the entire action of the film "Red Planet Mars" completely takes place on Earth, without the participation of spacecraft, cosmic rays and cosmonauts. This is a fantastic tale that plunges into the realm of science, politics, religion, international relations and communism. Further in the review, it is noted that, “despite all the nonsense that the film offers the viewer, the actors play convincingly” ^[6] .

A review of the New York Times noted that “in the era of nuclear weapons, category B films , the Cold War, and science fiction , phenomena like the Red Planet of Mars are probably inevitable. But this immersion in a frightening blue something - which, by a strange coincidence, does not go beyond California - switches from pseudoscientific research with such a surprise that it discourages even the most devoted fan of cheap fiction. In the middle of this tale, the producers considered it appropriate to introduce a call for a return to religion. This technique in this case is not original and not convincing, and only gives rise to a lot of empty talk about what is more valuable - scientific research or faith. " The film begins with an intriguing assumption, where a couple of scientists create a transmitter that allows you to establish communication with Mars. Their thirst for knowledge of the unknown, as well as their technical equipment, look interesting and believable. However, after several absurd exchanges of messages with Mars and completely unbelievable events that begin to occur on Earth under their influence, “a strange climax of the plot follows, turning our two scientists into even more noble heroes, and the villain into an even more black wretch, but hardly whether such a development of the plot will become a new word in cinema. " Peter Graves and Andrea King in the roles of “indomitable scientists look serious and competent, albeit slightly inexperienced. Marvin Miller creates the standard image of a leading Soviet official, ... and Herbert Berghof , as the Nazi inventor of the hydrogen pipe, who was obsessed with global revenge, seems rather ridiculous than scary. Judging by the volume of champagne that he drinks according to the scenario, we would not even trust him to a lawn mower ” ^[7] .

Time Out magazine called the film "the contender for the title of the most idiotic sci-fi movie of all time and an incredible relic of the Cold War." According to the plot, a message received on the TV channel from Mars that the planet is controlled by a “god-like higher being, causes a global revolution on Earth. But this is only for seed. It is further revealed that the messages were fakes of a mad scientist who had planned to overwhelm capitalism. But this is just another plot twist. This is followed by another, this time genuine broadcast from Mars, proclaiming that their leader is God himself, which gives rise to a worldwide religious revival and universal determination to live in harmony. All this is from a different era, and maybe from another planet ” ^[8] .

Film critic Dave Ker in Chicago Reader called the film “an amazing Cold War artifact,” in which “decrypted messages bring revelation that Mars is the backbone of an interplanetary religious rebirth, and this leads to the immediate insight of the godless Russians. Harry Horner put this film on the stunning script of Anthony Weiler and John L. Boulderston " ^[9] .

Film critic Denis Schwartz in 2001 called the film “one of the most disgusting science fiction films of all time. He offers Hollywood's stupid answer to the 1950s Red Threat , which swept the country after the Senate hearings of McCarthy, who began looking for communists under every bed rug. To understand how stupid this film of the Cold War era is, try to answer such a question about its plot: Can you imagine that the Martians will send a signal to Earth that their leader bears the word of God? ” Schwartz further writes that “this is one of those really bad propaganda films that have no entertaining value, showing how paranoid this country (USA) can be and how it can without hesitation use religion to propagate materialism and Christianity as the highest lifestyle compared to communism. This is arguably the strangest and most perverted Red Threat movie of all time. It ends with a hydrogen explosion in a laboratory in which two American scientists and one disgusting ex-Nazi scientist die, then worked for the Russian Communists ... The film leaves the impression that God himself rules Mars. " Schwartz concludes: “This is a Red Threat movie made for zombies from another planet, or witch hunters who want to justify the need for their dirty work. This is a classic in the negative sense of the word, it must be watched by all those who cannot believe the extent to which a bad film can be bad ” ^[10] .

Film critic Bruce Eder on the Allmovie website described the film as "a terribly fascinating artifact of the era of the Red Threat and the post-war boom of science fiction, reducing these elements to a supernatural story, which is all the more surreal, which is done very seriously." “ Peter Graves and Andrea King - especially King - play as if they were in some kind of modern morality , and Herbert Berghof is so replaying that it becomes embarrassing for his profession. And yet ... in this lies the value of the film - it can be appreciated as an unconscious, ridiculous action in the spirit of (films) of Ed Wood, ”as they usually began to present later. But it can also be considered as "a stupid, but there was an expression of the fears of its time, when the policy of Armageddon swept over the most remote corners of central America." Он отлично смотрелся бы в паре с более либеральным антикоммунистическим фильмом « Вы услышите следующий голос… » (1950) студии « Эм-Джи-Эм » как его катастрофический право-консервативный эквивалент ^[11] .

• Красная планета Марс на сайте IMDB  
• Красная планета Марс на сайте Allmovie  
• Красная планета Марс на сайте Rotten Tomatoes
• Красная планета Марс на сайте Turner Classic Movies
• Красная планета Марс фильм на сайте YouTube