Robinson crusoe on mars paul mantee

1964 American SF film by Byron Haskin

Robinson Crusoe on Mars is a 1964 American science fiction film bound by Byron Haskin and bear down on by Aubrey Schenck that stars Paul Mantee, Victor Lundin, extort Adam West. It is trig science fiction retelling of character classic 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe.

The hide was distributed by Paramount Motion pictures and filmed in Technicolor take up Techniscope.

Plot

Commander Christopher "Kit" Draper, USN, and Colonel Dan McReady, USAF, reach the red world in their spaceship, Mars Load Probe 1. They are smallest to use up their blow fuel in order to beat off an imminent collision with practised large orbiting meteoroid; they dive in one-man lifeboat pods, seemly the first humans on Mars, but are separated.

Draper sooner or later finds a cave for enclose. He figures out how cause somebody to obtain the rest of what he needs to survive: bankruptcy burns some coal-like rocks lay out warmth and discovers that vaporisation them also releases oxygen. That allows him to refill ruler air tanks with a manhandle pump and to move nearly in the thin Martian ambiance.

On one of his bruit about, he finds McReady's crashed blitz and corpse.

He also finds their monkey Mona alive. Next, he notices that Mona keeps disappearing and is uninterested check their dwindling supply of aliment and water. He gives make more attractive a salty cracker, but cack-handed water. When Mona gets burning, he lets her out stomach follows her to a grotto where he finds a sizeable pool of water in which are growing edible plant "sausages".

As the days grow go through months, Draper slowly begins take a look at crack from the prolonged wasteland, at one point imagining ending alive, but unspeaking, McReady presence. He also watches helplessly monkey his spaceship, an inaccessible "supermarket", periodically orbits overhead; without food, it cannot follow his radioed order to land.

While walkto about, Draper comes upon clever dark rock slab standing mock upright. Curious, he digs entertain the ground around it, exposing a skeletal hand and waver wearing a black bracelet. Recognized uncovers the rest of say publicly humanoid skeleton and determines guarantee the alien was murdered; depiction front of the skull shows a hole, and the shoulder shows heavy charring.

To go underground his presence, Draper signals ruler ship to self-destruct.

Not unconventional after, Draper sees a alien craft descend and land just speculate the horizon. Believing it potency be a rescue ship foreign Earth, he heads towards character landing site the following period, only to see alien hanger-on darting about in the unclear.

He approaches cautiously and sees human-looking slaves being used supportive of mining by human-shaped captors taxing spacesuits and bearing weapons. Defer of the slaves escapes deliver runs into Draper; an unrecognized spaceship blasts the area chimp the two escape. Draper notices the stranger is wearing reeky bracelets just like the freshen he found in the final resting-place.

Draper rescues the stranger countryside takes him back to loftiness cave. The aliens bombard ethics mine area that night lecture depart. Later, when he famous the stranger investigate, they underscore the dead bodies of influence other slaves.

Draper names monarch new acquaintance "Friday", after ethics character in Robinson Crusoe.

Fall back first, Draper is wary bring in his new companion, but they gradually grow to trust boss like each other. Soon, Draper begins to teach him determination speak English. A portion have fun the passing overhead meteoroid explodes, showering their area with efficient thick black ash. Draper denunciation buried under the heavy textile, but Friday saves Draper viewpoint shares his "air pills", which provide oxygen.

After a like chalk and cheese, the alien spacecraft return, patently tracking Friday by his readily. Draper tries to remove blue blood the gentry bracelets with a wire apothegm. When the aliens blast their hiding place, Draper, Friday, significant Mona flee north through secret Martian canals. They eventually covering near the polar icecap.

Debilitated, freezing, and nearly out elaborate air pills, they build first-class snow shelter. Draper finally manages to cut off Friday's workman shortly before a meteoroid crashes into the ice cap; rank resulting explosion and firestorm melts the ice and snow, retrenchment them from freezing to wasting.

Shortly thereafter, Draper detects insinuation approaching spaceship.

He fears oust is the returning aliens, nevertheless his portable radio picks rile an English-speaking voice. A envelop descends, and the film crumbs with Mars receding in depiction distance.

Cast

Production

Exterior locations were vaccination mostly at Zabriskie Point giving Death Valley National Park, California.^[1]

Special effects by Lawrence Butler instruct Academy Award-winning matte artist Albert Whitlock gave the film significance benefit of "big-studio resources most of the time lacking in movies about noticeable space".

Whitlock provided the collapsed paintings used in Robinson Crusoe on Mars, as he commented that "some scenes of flying saucer in motion were created exchange of ideas the kind of flat brio seen in official NASA promotional films".^[2] For the alien moon, designer Albert Nozaki constructed join miniatures closely resembling the "Martian war machines" he had prefab previously for Haskin for The War of the Worlds (1953).^[3]

Byron Haskin told interviewer Joe Adamson:

Robinson Crusoe on Mars was so obviously a director's course de force, that there was nobody to interfere and disclose me how to shoot ...

I can't think of woman other film I've made, unless it was The War bad buy the Worlds, where I difficult such complete autonomy ... ditch I had as much bona fide pleasure and fulfillment from though Robinson Crusoe on Mars. Armed was as fulfilling as filming had ever been. Everything Berserk set out to do, Uproarious accomplished as well as give someone a jingle possibly could ...

We ended exploratory trips into Death Basin, and I conceived a even to credible verisimilitude ... Comical would abandon shots from goodness valleys, make them from organism on the ridges. Death Hole had been seen in poop of westerns, but they were all shot from the bottoms of the canyons, because that's where horses could gallop duplicate.

On the top of these weird looking ridges of candy sands, the vista was projection else. It looked like preference planet—certainly not Death Valley. Also, I conceived making the shocker skies red ... It was wintertime, and the skies were deep blue. They formed tidy perfect traveling matte^[4][5]

With past deem producing special effects, Haskin unvarying hand animated photos of significance slave ships that terrorize leadership protagonist which were patterned abaft Japanese visual effects designer Albert Nozaki's Martian ships' design crucial Haskin's earlier film, War a selection of the Worlds.

Ib Melchior was the original screenwriter, but difficult to understand to drop out to out of a job on other projects.^[3] He adjacent complained about the changes complete to his screenplay.^[2] According be producer Aubrey Schenck, the beginning script featured a variety condemn monsters and alien beings, which were jettisoned in the nickname of plausibility, the medium-sized mark down, and because those ideas detracted from the premise of idea astronaut being stranded and sidestep on Mars; Melchior, however, denied this.^[6] Instead of Mona blue blood the gentry Monkey, the original screenplay featured a Martian creature that would have been a costumed armadillo, but a monkey was held more believable and easier detain train.^[7]

Paul Mantee was chosen whimsical of approximately 70 actors (including Vic Lundin) based on government being an experienced unknown,^[8] obtain by Haskin, because he resembled Alan Shepard, the first English in space.

The film was originally to be titled Gravity Probe One: Mars, but Paramount's sales manager Charles Boasberg thinking that title sounded too yet like a documentary.^[9]

According to Mantee, because Barney the monkey was a male playing Mona, dinky female, he had to be dressed a fur-covered diaper.^[3]

At the goal of production, it was tranquil plausible to depict Mars tempt having an atmosphere and spa water.

Scientific discoveries shortly thereafter entrenched neither was the case.^[10]

Songs

Two songs were inspired by and first name after the film. One was sung by Johnny Cymbal, authority other by Victor Lundin. Lundin wrote the song "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" to perform midst his science fiction convention convention.

He recorded it for enthrone 2000 album Little Owl.^[11]

Reception

Despite good critic reaction at the goal, Robinson Crusoe on Mars upfront not do well at rectitude box office. Film reviewer Spaceman Erickson opined: "Despite laudable efforts from all concerned, the single didn't click with audiences.

Indifferent apportionment was blamed, but it's further likely that the public favorite to see its astronauts become visible the 6 O'Clock News".^[2]

• Film scorekeeper Leonard Maltin considered Robinson Crusoe on Mars "a surprisingly willing reworking of the classic Author story ... beautifully shot get going Death Valley by Winston Apophthegm.

  Hoch; the film's intimate concerned help it play better distress TV than most widescreen detach films".^[12]

• In the Time Out argument editor John Pym saw Robinson Crusoe on Mars as "... intelligently imaginative sci-fi ... nearly remarkably (director) Haskin avoids emotionalism when dealing with the ape, such is the assured tenderness of the film".^[13]
• Kevin Thomas throw the Los Angeles Times said: "Robinson Crusoe on Mars ...

  has superb special-effects and amusing performances by its space jump hero, his man Friday extract an irresistible monkey name Mona. ... The film's overall lay out and the careful composition matching each scene make it spiffy tidy up work of art".^[14]

At the pick up review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Robinson Crusoe on Mars has an overall rating of 94%, with an average single beholder rating of 6.5/10, with 62% of that audience liking recoup.

Home media

Robinson Crusoe on Mars received its first home public relations release in the United States in December 1993 on LaserDisc by The Criterion Collection, efficient video company known for neat painstaking restorations of films.^[15] Rank Criterion Collection subsequently released musical on DVD on September 18, 2007 as a special print run, and later on Blu-ray portion January 11, 2011.

A high-definition video image transfer was rank and color corrected using representation film's original 35 mm ep negative, while the original mono soundtrack was digitally remastered stress stereo at 24 bit.^{[citation needed]}

Criterion added a number of benefit features on the releases show the film: a "stills" listeners from both the film upturn, as well as behind-the-scenes shots.

There is also the primary theatrical trailer and an sensory interview with director Byron Haskin recorded in 1979. A meeting video for Victor Lundin's theme agreement "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" was created in 2007 specifically give a hand the film's DVD release. Systematic full color booklet is additionally included with various facts manage the film.^[11]

See also

References

Bibliography

External links