The Wizard of Mars
In 1974, four astronauts, silver shoe-clad Dorothy, overweight Doc, goofy Charlie, and wooden Steve, crash land on Mars when taking readings, with only four days of supplies. They must try to survive on the surface, which is barren except for some canals with huge maggots with fins. After embarking through a golden igneous cavern, braving a storm and finding an unmanned Earth vessel, they discover a golden road which leads them to the unchanging ruins of what was once a beautiful Martian city. The Martians are modeled on the Flatheads of Oz, and their collective consciousness, the "Wizard," forbids them to leave until they perform a very small task...
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- Cast：
- John Carradine , Roger Gentry , Vic McGee , Jerry Rannow , Eve Bernhardt
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Reviews
Let's be realistic.
best movie i've ever seen.
The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
"The Wizard of Mars" is a rather boring low budgeted film. I watched it mostly hoping it was at least interesting when it came to the parallels to "The Wizard of Oz" but sadly this didn't pan out at all.The film begins with a space ship crashing onto the surface of Mars. There are several men and, surprise, a lady. Their biggest problem is that they only have a very limited supply of air and so they leave their vessel in search of some way to survive. This search makes up the bilk of the movie and, sadly, it never gets interesting or the least bit like "The Martian"...it's just a cheaply made film with dull characters (despite the supposed Oz parallels). Even for bad movie buffs, this film has little to offer...it's not even enjoyable on a camp level.
You may be wondering just what horrors await you in the movie, "Horrors of the Red Planet. Let me break it down for you:Story...Horrendous. Acting...Horrific. Script...Horrible.I collect classic sci-fi movies, and in order for the collection to be complete, it was necessary to include this flick. There are lots of really sad sci-fi specimens from the 50//60s, and a few that are true gems. But this has to rate as the worst of the worst. It makes "Plan 9 From Outer Space" look like "Citizen Kane."An appearance by respected actor John Carradine only serves to illustrate, by contrast, how horrible the other actors are, and indeed, how far his own career had slumped by 1965.Prospect of sitting through it a second time...horror personified.
Four dips on a spaceship which looks like a grade school pencil sharpener land on Mars, even though they weren't supposed to (they were only going to take photos to make a map).Once 'our heroes' get their heads out of their butts, they can explore the surface. The crew consists of a lame commander, a co-pilot who could pass for one of the Bowery Boys, a chick with a dubbed voice, and a hairy Mexican.These half-wits cross a pond, get caught in a cave, and almost become roasted when they try to pass through a valley of fire. Unfortunately, they survive all of this and reach a deserted city. It is here where they meet the disembodied head of John Carradine (who else?).Cheap movie cost about $1.75 to make. Cool 'space music', though.
Horrors of the Red Planet (1965) BOMB (out of 4) Four astronauts crash land on Mars where they walk around for an hour's worth of running time before meeting the planet's wizard (John Carradine). Here's a really bad movie that somewhat keeps you interested because you're expecting something to happen but when nothing does happen you can't help but be really upset. Carradine doesn't show up until the final ten minutes and when he does it's only his head. The rest of the cast members are equally awful as are the special effects, directing, screenplay and so on.