A film of its
time
Cerebral
Certain aspects
overdone
- Director: Harry Horner
- Producer: Donald Hyde, Anthony Veiller
- Screenplay: Anthony Veiller, John L. Balderston
- Based on the play Red Planet by John Hoare, John L. Balderston
- Music: Mahlon Merrick
- Cinematography: Joseph Biroc
- Editing: Francis D. Lyon
- Distributor: United Artists
- Running time: 87 minutes
Cast
- Peter Graves: Chris Cronyn
- Andrea King: Linda Cronyn
- Herbert Berghof: Franz Calder
- Walter Sand: Admiral Bill Carey
- Marvin Miller: Arjenian
- Willis Bouchey: President
- Morris Ankrum: Secretary of Defence Sparks
- Orley Lindgren: Stewart Cronyn
- Bayard Veiller: Roger Cronyn
Trailer
Synopsis
At
a time “some years hence,” an American astronomer obtains photographic images
of Mars suggesting large-scale manipulation of the Martian environment, supposedly
by intelligent beings with advanced technology. This conclusion was arrived at
by a comparison between pictures taken that night and another set taken a week
before. On the photographs, it was discovered that there were “canals
traversing the entire planet.” These ‘canals’ seemed to be reflecting “light
like mirrors” which suggested that the inhabitants of Mars were melting the
ice-caps to irrigate the planet.
Meanwhile, a husband-and-wife team of
scientific researchers, Chris and Linda Cronyn have been engaged in a project
to send radio signals to Mars using a hydrogen valve developed by an ex-Nazi
scientist. The Cronyns have been receiving signals which repeat their own transmissions
and they have determined that these signals are not merely echoes bouncing off
the planet’s surface.
The US government eventually gets
involved in the form of Admiral Bill Carey who had cracked an important
Japanese code during World War II. Carey’s role is to assist the scientists
with developing a means of communicating in a meaningful way with the Martians.
It turns out that the scientists’ son is
the one who comes up with the idea of using pi
(geometry & mathematical concepts) as the language of communication. From
this it is hoped that the Martians will realize that they are to continue with
a particular sequence of numbers being transmitted to them and that they will reply
with the appropriate sequence of digits. Chris Cronyn uses his son’s idea with
successful results.
Linda Cronyn, however, does not see the
endeavour to establish contact with an advanced Martian civilisation in terms
of success. For her, the Martians could represent a significant threat to our
own civilisation, especially when you consider that major technological
advances on our own planet have resulted in social dislocations and a heavy
price being paid with more efficient ways being conceived of slaughtering one another.
For Linda, this opportunity for communication with an advanced civilisation
would be far from being a “grandstand seat to the creation of the world.”
Rather it could mean “its death.”
Meanwhile, in the Andes, a German
scientist named Franz Calder (inventor of the hydrogen valve, former scientist
under the Third Reich and convicted war criminal) is using a primitively
equipped laboratory to try and contact Mars. Calder had been rescued from prison
by agents of the Soviet Union. He was to be put to work for the benefit of Soviet
interests and world power. Calder has tried to distance himself from his Soviet
masters but he has not been successful in his isolated attempts to establish
contact with Mars. However, he has been able to intercept all of the
transmissions sent and received by the Cronyns. This ability will at least
prove to be very useful to his Soviet masters.
Chris Cronyn arrives at the stage whereby
he can ask the Martians some important questions such as;
How
long do the Martians live for?
Answer: About 300 Earth-years
How
do the Martians power their entire civilization?
Answer: By harnessing the energy of cosmic rays
Such questions and the answers they
produce causes global political and economic chaos with panic affecting
agricultural, coal, oil, and the electricity industries, all of which will
probably be put out of business if the technology of the Martians is ever
adopted on Earth.
This state of affairs is good news for
the Soviets who consider the possibility of taking advantage of the social and
economic crisis by immediately going to war with the West. That is until the
next question posed to the Martians by Cronyn:
How,
with all their advanced and powerful technology, have they managed to avoid
destroying themselves with war?
Answer: War is an impossibility amongst the inhabitant of Mars because their
planet is ruled………by God!
As proof of this revelation, they offer a
quote from the Sermon on the Mount.
And what of this revelation from Mars?
Is it all just a hoax?
Do greed and self-interest and the accumulation of wealth become a thing of the past?
What implications are there for those living behind the Iron Curtain?
Will the Soviet Union experience popular uprisings?
Will the Soviet people who have been forced for decades to deny God now be free to embrace their religion?
Will the legacy of Lenin and Marx reside in the dustbin of history?
Or.....
Will everything that Linda Cronan had feared become a reality for all of humanity?
Points of Interest
(Warning!
There may be some spoilers beyond
this point!)
Linda Cronyn’s assertion that “Albert Einstein split the atom.” is not really accurate since it was his work that made it possible to predict what would happen if the atom was split.
In 2013, it hasn't been all that long
since many of us have been viewing our entertainment using a flat screen wall
mounted TV. You'll notice that in the 1952 film, the Cronyn family use a flat
panel wide screen set embedded in a wall. Check out the advertisement featuring
a typical TV set from 1952 in my post, “Sci-Fi on Film and the Year 1952” and you'll see why the TV set in the film was a pretty good piece of prediction.
The eerie mood and atmosphere of the
film is derived from the fact that neither the scientists nor we, the audience,
actually see any Martians. We don’t go to Mars and no Martians try to invade
the Earth. Instead, messages are exchanged between Earth and Mars in the form
of a code which is displayed as flickering lines on a video screen. The
flickering lines, flashing lights and monitors and electric sounds add to the eerie
and alien nature of the mysterious beings from another planet.
Another
great feature of the film, Red Planet
Mars, are the plot twists by which we are led to believe that the ex-Nazi
scientist, Calder, is the one who has been transmitting the `Martian' messages in
order to trick the Americans and the whole world! As proof of his assertion,
Calder suggests that the transmissions stopped at the time of his lab’s destruction
by an avalanche. We are then taken through another twist in the plot and are
confronted with a titanic struggle between the Cronyns’ preparedness to
sacrifice themselves for the greater good and Calder’s hateful and vengeful attitude
expressed by his assertion that it would be “better to reign in hell than serve
in heaven.”
The
two characters, Franz Calder and Arjenian are wonderful as the ex-Nazi
scientist and Russian KGB agent respectively. They are both detestable in their
own way, but you can’t help liking them as they bounce off each other and try
to seek advantage over one another. For Arjenian, the Soviets “demand an
accounting” for their investment, to which Calder replies, “you won’t harm me, you
need me!”
There
is one character, however, which really creeps me out! This is none other than
Linda Cronyn. Her hysteria hits you like
a sledge-hammer. Consider her reply to her husband’s contention that science
has advanced us where she spits out at him, “and you’ll have done it!” and (off-screen in the movie and volume up high), “RIGHT INTO OBLIVION!” It is almost like Linda is a
projection of the fear, hysteria and paranoia of the times. She frequently
appeals to her husband, “don’t send a message tonight” and she feels as though
“the whole world is scared” and that “fear has become a natural state.” Such
sentiments are not surprising when you consider that the world of which speaks
had not long before experienced the Great Depression, a truly global war and
was then just coming to grips with the Korean war, a developing Cold War
between the US and the Soviet Union and the internal insanity of the McCarthy
anti-communist witch hunts.
Red
Planet Mars encourages us
to think about what happens when a technologically superior civilisation comes
into contact with one that does not rely on advanced technology. Our history is
littered with the tragic results of such kinds of contact including Australian
Aborigines, South and Central American Indians and many African communities.
Wholesale slaughter, decimation due to introduced diseases, destruction of
religion and culture, theft of land; these have been the sad consequences of such
cultural contacts and clashes. In the film, Red
Planet Mars, as a result of the messages being received, it is little
wonder that Earth's economy has begun to collapse with coal mines shutting down,
resulting in the steel industry grinding to a halt and nervous people
withdrawing money from banks as stocks plummet. The response to this situation
is violence, social unrest, political instability and the declaration of martial
law.
It is unfortunate that the film's
Christian message is laid on rather too thickly with its many references to God
and Christ. This feature of the film results in it taking on a particularly
naïve, arrogant and blinkered view of the world and existence. The following
are some of the examples from the film;
- Calder’s clue to the Russian’s, “You can find me only through finding Christ.”
- Linda’s appeal, “Dear Lord, don’t make us sorry.”
- News headlines like;
“God Speaks From Mars!”
- Messages from the ‘Supreme Being’ on Mars such as, “Seven lifetimes ago….”linking to the time of Jesus Christ.
- The window frame in the lab forming the shape of the Cross with a view of the sky and God’s creation. Notice how it looms above the technological creations of Man’s materialistic science.
- The world-wide religious upheaval with particular emphasis on everything Christian and including rather token all-embracing references to Islam and other religions.
On and on it goes. Such overloading of
the film with religious, mainly Christian, messages tends to detract from its
finer aspects. Instead, it seems to make it more like a poster film for the
more lunatic elements of the American fundamentalist Christian right.
The
overthrowing of the atheistic government in Russia and being replaced by a
“nation finding its soul” and no longer sinfully “worshipping false gods” certainly
has some parallels with what has taken place on the world stage in recent
times. In the early 1990s we witnessed the fall of the communist dictatorship in
Russia and the breakup of the former Soviet Union, along with a revival of
Christianity in Russia. Rather than being the result of an overwhelming desire
to embrace Christianity, it had a lot to do with a bankrupted Soviet Union
being outspent by the West. Tragically, this in turn gave rise to the
increasing influence of criminal groups and oligarchies, along with political
corruption, social inequality and political repression! Not exactly “following the star of
Bethlehem!” It would have been far better to focus on a struggle against the
enemies of freedom which resonates well across different eras and cultures and
which is applicable to our real-life example above of the breakup and fall of
the Soviet Union.
Like
so many other science fiction films of the 1950s, Red Planet Mars is definitely a product of its time. It provides
us with a fascinating glimpse of a period in the USA’s history where 'duck and
cover' drills for kids, the 'red scare' and ‘reds under the bed’ menace and right
wing paranoia were the order of the day. But what makes this film stand out
from so many other films of this genre is that instead of relying on action and
special effects, it does make you think and dare I say…..HOPE for something
better!
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