The Wizard of Mars (1965) Online

I bought the video originally because the box said that Lon Chaney and John Carradine were in it. Well, Lon was nowhere to be found and this flick is not part of his filmography. However, John's head was in it, so that's no lie! The box art was also exciting-looking as it proclaimed the flick was titled "Horrors of the Red Planet." Well, its really "Wizard of Mars," but I would have called it "The Insomnia Cure of the Red Planet." "Wizard" resembles a large budget student film of wannabe filmmakers who must have been using this production for practice and who may (or likely did not) go on to better things. An amateurish looking drywall "spaceship," Death Valley-style desertscape, Carlsbad caverns, and what looks like a warehouse set the scene. Our band of high school play dropout explorers land on Mars and discover an ancient civilization replete with aliens housed in tubes (that have mud packs for makeup) and eventually the alien disembodied "Wizard" image of a John Carradine (desperate for work). The Wizard's "city," as depicted in miniature, looks like an aquarium castle, with a sun shining over it as if with a flashlight shot through a bedsheet in a darkened room. I could go on for several paragraphs with descriptions about the almost scene by scene mistakes of logic, science, bad acting/script/staging, etc...ad nauseum. Perhaps thats why I find this film so fascinating...it has so many mistakes, its an adventure to find them. Only the atmospheric photography in a few scenes and the sci-fi-weird music was really of note.

It's certainly not the best movie, and it's definitely not the worst either...but it is very slow going.

I remember seeing this as a child and never knowing what movie it was...I remember the walk through the volcanic interior of Mars and the part where the hapless astronauts find the oxygen containers...and the run out of the Martian City...but I for the life of me do not remember seeing that inane "yellow brick road", nor the actually pretty scary-looking Martians...lord knows that woulda really scared the beejezus out of me.

Like I said in the title, it's got John Carradine and it's in color. Sums it up pretty well I think.

I saw this little gem on late nite TV as a kid and it has stuck with me every since. From the psychotronic sound track to the low budget effects and cheesy plot, this is a gem of Z grade science fiction from a true Hollywood outsider - David L Hewitt, the king of low budget masterpieces!

I guess I'm nostalgic about unloved, low budget movies from this time period. If you shot a movie like this today on your fancy video camera, edited it on your Macintosh and promoted it on the Internet, it would suck royally. I have a certain respect for self-made directors like Hewitt who churned out exploitation flicks like this in the 60's, when it truly was a 'labor of love'.

I own several Hewitt movies on DVD but sadly, Wizard has yet to see the light of day. I'd pay good money for a Wizard of Mars collectors edition DVD with a commentary from the master himself. Quick, someone get Criterion on the case!

Four American astronauts are trying to orbit Mars so they can take pictures of the surface to make a map. Unfortunately, they get dragged down through the atmosphere by a "mysterious force".

Director David L. Hewitt's red planet offering isn't bad once the space travelers stop bickering on the ship and step out onto the Martian soil. Armando Busick's art direction and Austin McKinney's cinematography give the film a big boost by depicting the planet's terrain as blue (instead of red), and the sky as orange (instead of blue).... very good. John Carradine participates as the planet's 'Wizard'.

An interesting film with fine eerie 'space music' by Frank A. Coe; a fun movie to watch at 3:00 AM with all the lights out.

I remember this movie as being shown a lot on the "Mel Jazz Afternoon Movie" show on an independent Minneapolis TV station in the very early 1970s.

When I was 6 years old and seeing this, it was the stuff of nightmares, especially the frozen Martians in the castle who looked like "Wishnik" trolls in tubes. I also recalled the castle itself, and the way the sun shined with 4 points.

Unfortunately, I was able to see this movie again much more recently, and it did not hold up to childhood impressions.

One of the big continuity flaws not mentioned by others is when the astronauts cross the desert. They are walking in a well-trodden path of hundreds of footsteps in the sand from previous takes of the scenes... and this is supposed to be unexplored territory! There is really no attention paid to matters like this. The presence of a hot dog vender on this popular beach would not have made the scene much worse at all.

The characters are annoying and not very well acted. The only thing I will say for this film now is that some of the music is good, and some of the visual elements (the Wishniks in the tubes and the castle) are decent pieces of production design. The parts I remember from childhood held up, but the rest of it, which I did not recall, is pretty bad.

By rating this film as "excellent", of course, I mean a perfect example of this classic sci-fi space genre. As a collector of these films (I have over 100), this is one that I use as an example of just how "so bad it's good" can get.

The dialog is so terribly limited, and the action is so utterly action-less, that it truly IS hypnotic.

The parallel with "The Wizard of Oz" is just too precious for words. Hey, they even "follow the yellow brick road". No mention of the famous (non-existent) Martian canals, but they do run into a "tin man" in the shape of an old space probe from Earth...probably the best scene in the movie.

John Carradine's role as the Wizard is more like a reprise of his role of The Preacher (Grapes of Wrath) with none of the good writing. He drones on for minutes on end, talking about how the Martians became so smart that they distanced themselves from the Fabric of Time; and suddenly you find that you have, in fact, lost all track of time too. Brilliant.

I'm sure that the film makers were trying to make a serious statement...what that might be, I have no clue. That's not even important. Films like this are not meant to be compared to the post-Star Wars reality of space movies; not meant to be analyzed in a contemporary light.

For me, in the world of sci-fi space films, this one takes at least a tie for first place. Personally, I like to watch this (and most of the other pre-Star Wars space films) in black & white. They seem to make more sense that way. The original color print seems to want me to take this more seriously than I am able to. But the b & w viewing takes me right back to a Saturday Movie Matinée, and I'm 10 years old again.

I find this film particularly delightful when viewed from this nostalgic POV. It's why I collect, and why I whole-heartedly recommend this film.

WIZARD OF MARS is very slow, as some of the preceding comments would indicate, but it is also extremely beautiful, and the slow pacing adds to the hypnotic effect. The film is literally like a half-remembered dream, but it's difficult to decide if this is due to deliberate artistic choice or the demands of the "road show" live performance/film feature combination that this film was originally meant for. One should note that certain themes seen in this film (time loops, nature of time) reoccur in other of Hewitt's films - THE TIME TRAVELLERS most notably. This is *not* an Ed Wood-style "bad film" to be laughed at - either you are prepared to make allowances for it and enter it's half-remembered, dream-like Martian landscape, or you just shouldn't bother to watch it at all. Do not expect convential narrative or action - not for fratboy parties or Mystery Science Theatre-oids.

Hewitt's "Gallery Of Horrors" is one of the great "so bad it's good" funny films, and his really stupid "Monsters Crash the Pajama Party" is inept but a lot less amusing. so the genuine qualities of "Wizard Of Mars" caught me off guard. It's video title "Horrors Of The Red Planet" is actually a lot better and more fitting. I hate to get into a fight here about the obvious merits of MST3K, who did not even do this movie, but it would have in fact been a bad choice for the show, as the film does have a strange, hypnotic effect that goes along with the clumsy flubs one expects from a Hewitt film. The film has a dream like quality, and it's strange story seems, yes, an interesting forerunner to "2001".

Three of Hewitt's "Gallery Of Horrors" stars (Carridine, Roger Gentry, and Vic McGee) are back. McGee does the best work of his career, even toping his

sleazy ganster in Ed Wood's "Sinister Urge." Opps, there I go. Actually, Vic McGee is a terrible actor who appeared in a handful of grade Z films, but his work here is somehow moving. See, this movie just won't let you make fun of it. I don't know if the actress is overdubbing her own voice, but they should have found a better one to use(the whole movie is overdubbed). In any case, see this film. It's right up there with "Creation Of The Humanoids" in the strange department.

This movie is terrible!! A few astronauts crash on Mars, and wander around for about an hour (with very little dialog). After watching these guys wander around they follow a yellow brick road to a castle full of cheap frozen martians. There they meet The Wizard of Mars, played convincingly by John Carradine's dissembodied head. Then John Carradine starts talking for about 5 hours and helps these astronauts get home with some weird clock-thing. Other than that, I can think of absolutely nothing to say about this movie other than don't watch it.

But, on the other hand, if you've only got 80 minutes to live...watch this movie. It will feel like an eternity.

It's certain my friends are sadistic and laughing their asses off every time I admit to watching one of these lame movies they so "thoughtfully" provide to me. Where do they find this crap anyway. Well, I've found a few on my own too so I won't dis em too bad. Anyhow, my coaster collection is growing.

This movie takes boredom to new depths---the depths of Mars. At least there were some of the usual hokey effects to laugh at. Spaceships you can see stars through, Stupid looking lightning storms on Mars, Volcanos & lava that don't remotely resemble the real thing, Lame water snakes that pose no threat other than putting the viewer to sleep. The only decent effect was the Martian in the crystal tube---looked almost cool.

This is a spoiler although there isn't much to spoil: What little story there is goes something like this: 4 total morons crash land on mars and go in search of their main stage (which they dumped earlier) so they can return to Earth. Along their incredibly boring and mostly silent trek they encounter such things as water snakes (really dumb), lightning storms (no rain involved), spelunking via inflatable life raft (somehow they never move but just seem to be sitting there in their little rafts gabbing about nothing), they encounter what is supposed to be volcanic action (not), sand dunes (at least these are real), and of course the ancient Martian city (this looks like something I might have made in the 2nd grade on the beach out of sand).

When they do encounter the Martians, it is via the little gnome-like guy in the tube (this is the high point of the movie---if you can consider this movie as having such a thing as a high point). Then all the Martians' minds get together to form a floating head which lectures the 4 idiots for way way too long (man I thought I was back in English class or something it was so boring). Now supposedly these Martians have their city frozen in time and want to get time going again so they tell the dumb earthlings how to start it up again. They proceed to do this and the city crumbles as they flee for their lives. Of course they stand around the time chamber looking dumb (really easy for these actors) for several minutes while the city is crumbling before actually running.

When they are at last back on the spaceship I guess heading back to Earth (how they got there is a mystery---one instant they were running from the destructing city, the next they're on board their ship), one of the crew says, "it's only been 2 minutes." Now that's exactly how long this movie should have lasted! Oh, yeah. There are 3 references to the Wizard of Oz: The girl's name is Dorothy, There is a yellow brick road (mostly covered in sand), and the disembodied head appears (much less effectively than the Wizard of Oz's). I'm wondering what the actors and producers of this idiotic piece of crap were smoking while working on this.

It's sorta funny to note that these reject butt nuggets start off with full spacesuits, then offer a really lame excuse to use the Martian air, then when in the ancient city, lose the helmets completely. And at the end when they're fleeing the city, they don't even have their suits on. What total bunk.

If you are in search of a painfully dumb plot, moronic actors, hokey effects---and a cure for insomnia, you found it.

Visual artistry, fine acting, a John Carradine performance weighted more by subtlety than flamboyance, accurate scientific research, careful, attentive direction, and a tight, coherent script all WOULD have made this film a good one. But Alas it was not to be! This is a muddled mess about four astronauts that must land on Mars only to follow a yellow brick road to an empty Martian city(one crumbling building). The scientific knowledge used to fuel the script has more holes in it than a chunk of swiss cheese. I must confess the concept has(had) possibilities, but under the grade z budget and the lacklustre acting, etc... it becomes a test of endurance for the viewer..whether or not he or she can see the film without dozing off. The first forty minutes or so are nothing more than the four astronauts walking around in a desert and a bunch of caves, constantly reminding us of the little oxygen on the planet and their own low supply. Funny that, however, as fires raged all over the planet. I always thought a fire would not burn without oxygen...but then again science isn't my strong suit( nor the people's that brought us this film). Finally, the astronauts reach the city with a red dome, find a dead/living alien intelligence and talk with the bust of John Carradine(for over fifteen minutes...a real test of endurance here). After this, I have no idea what really happened, but was glad whatever it was ended. The film is not the worst I have seen...and there are a few good moments, but the budget is just soooo low. A real eyelid drooper!

I like "Wizard of Mars". I first saw it at a drive-in when I was about 12 years old in a double feature with "Dr Terror's Gallery of Horrors". I really didn't catch all the "Wizard of Oz" connections then, but I liked John Carradine and I liked the colorful photography. I didn't really understand the plot, but I found it interesting. Seeing it again as an adult, I can see more of it's shortcomings, but I still like it a lot. David Hewitt's heart was definitely in the right place, and I think he made up for in imagination what he lacked in budget. The plot is pretty ambitious for such a low budget movie, much like Hewitt's "Journey to the Center of Time". The special effects, again though low budget, hold up pretty well, I think, especially the eerie dream like quality of Mars. I find them much more interesting than most of the modern computer generated science fiction special effects that probably cost more for one minute of film than this movie's total cost. John Carradine, as always, is excellent, and the rest of the cast (with the possible exception of Eve Bernhardt who plays Dorothy) are more than adequate. John Carradine, Vic McGee, and Roger Gentry were also in "Dr Terror's Gallery of Horrors". Jerry Rannow, who plays Charlie, is very good, and adds a little humor. They don't make science fiction movies like this anymore. I used to enjoy science fiction movies when they had imagination instead of a lot of noise and special effects, which is about all you see in movies that pass for science fiction today.

OK, OK, it's a bad movie: plot holes, continuity errors, and awful acting. I remember seeing this for the first time on a Saturday afternoon, as a time filler, when I was a preteen. (Remember when you could only get 3 channels?) I purchased this film on video a few years ago, and watched it again, several times. There were possibilities that were never utilized.

*Spoilers ahead* The idea of time standing still, for instance. In the narration, we're told that everybody's watch had stopped. We don't find out why till the conversation with the Wizard: the Martians had stopped time for themselves, and so affected the astronauts. After finding themselves back on the ship, they realized they were 2 minutes overdue on their check-in. The men have 4-5 day beards, so they must have been on the planet. It seems that the Martians, now that they could control time again, had not only sent them back to the ship, but sent them back in time, too. Why? We are not told. A bit of mystery to liven up the dull plot. I give it 2 stars for the cool music, and for the attempt at showing time manipulation.

Four astronauts crash land on Mars and struggle to escape. Their antics are incomprehensible and boring. No one dies in this thriller, yet the female astronaut talks about all the dangers present. This movie tends to remind one of a documentary more so than a sci-fi adventure or action flick. The movie will put you asleep if you're not careful. There are many mistakes made in this movie. The astronauts talk about their oxygen running out, yet at times running around without their face shields on exposing themselves to the atmosphere. There is another scene where the female astronaut(Dorothy) says there is no life. She says this to a group after they pass by a tree. One of my favorite parts is the rifle with unlimited ammunition. This astronaut shoots at these poor helpless aliens floating in the water(cheap looking plastic segmented white worm props). He doesn't even hit one of them even after firing 15 to 20 rounds at a range of two feet. Another great part in this movie is the stage hands leg moving the time machine pendulum back and forth. He is up in the rafters in the ceiling. I can't believe they didn't edit that out. John Carradine climax's the movie with a 20 minute dissertation on history and life.When this movie is done, you wonder, "What's the point of this movie?" I can't believe I bought this movie. I purchased it as "Horrors of the Red Planet". The box it came in described this movie as an intergalactic war movie. Obviously they never watched it. This movie is awful and boring. I rank this up in my top 10 worst movies of all time.

I remember seeing this movie as a kid on the "Sunday Afternoon" movie on the local station in the late 70's, but I couldn't remember the title. I knew it had to be from the 60's so IMDb helped me narrow the possibilities. The key was I remembered the astronauts finding a "Golden" road under the desert, so the "Wizard" title grabbed my eye.

A Google search brought some web sites that fully describe the movie and show screen shots.

I am a bit disappointed now that the actual movie does not live up to my memories of it. I remember it being kinda spooky and strange, but now it seems really stupid.

I would like to see it again, too bad there doesn't seem to be a DVD yet. I wonder if it is on any movie compilation set of "B" movies.

Paul

*Spoiler/plot- 1964 Wizard of Mars- Edgar Rice Bourroughsian idea for a film. Spaceship crew travels to Mars. They find an very ancient civilization. Phantoms and curses from the dead citizens plague the exploration of the city ruins. The supreme dead wizard tries to capture the crew and take control of their spaceship.

*Special stars- John Carradine, Roger Gentry, Vic McGee, Jerry Rannow, Eve Bernhardt. Scientific technical adviser: Forest J. Ackermen.

*Theme- Teamwork wins the day even against planetary wizards.

*Based on- Some people have thought this film's plot was taken from 'Wizard of Oz' due to some minor similarities.

*Trivia/location/goofs- One of the last films for eternal 80+ year old film actor, John Carradine. Film's technical adviser was SF expert and writer, Forrest Ackerman. This film borrows heavily it's special effects and miniature sets from other well know features. The wizards city ruins looks like something out of you kid's goldfish fish bowl. The female astronaut is named "Dorothy" and her role is clearly dubed. Look for a 3 minute wizaded 'rant' of John Carradine reprising his 'Preacher' role from "Grapes of Rath'. Listen to the erroneous plot references to martian canals and having 'Up' and 'Down' while traveling in outer non- gravity space.

*Emotion- A fun film made even more laughable due to the many 'borrowed' expensive production elements from other SF films of the era. A terrible mash-up of borrowed scene elements, special effects, and electronic camera switcher gimmicks to tell this shallow paper-thin plot. Even the martian face has been 'borrowed' from another space travel film.

I thought the music was pretty cool along with the colours on Mars and some of the scenery but the best and spookiest part was near the end when the ancient alien man with his visible brain appears and later when the expedition inserts the orb to get time moving again. Carradine wasn't bad but the funny thing is that with all the wisdom of the ages his Martian civilization claimed they could not overcome the look of being old...namely the bags under his eyes!! What, no plastic surgery or skin treatments to avoid that Mr. Martian? LOL.

Like other reviewers here, I saw this as a youngster on a Sunday afternoon in the 1970s. Being a sci-fi fan, I just had to tune in after seeing the title in TV Guide. Even at that tender age, I thought it was bad, but still had just a spark of intrigue. Decades later, I saw it again, and my reaction was much different. Oh, my god.

Watching it as an adult, I see that it's much worse than I thought. The script didn't make much sense, but as bad as the writing was, it could have been barely salvaged had the actors been at all competent. Alas, the four "astronauts" weren't. Go to your community playhouse and you could probably find a more capable cast. They make Jonathan Harris, Bill Mumy and the others on Lost in Space seem positively Emmy-worthy by comparison. And then there's John Carradine. He has more acting skills than all of the other four put together (and then some) but maybe overcompensates for their shortcomings. Whereas they can't act, he overacts, spending his time on screen being portentously Shakespearean, like some Martian King Lear. The film feels like B-movies made ten years earlier, an impression not helped by the fact that they swiped sound effects and musical cues from Forbidden Planet.

I'll always have a fond memory of that first viewing just out of sheer nostalgia, but if you've never seen it and have something better to do with your time, I recommend sparing yourself.

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.

This low-budget film from 1965 is set in the distant future of 1975. It tells the story of an American spacecraft with four people on-board that crash lands on Mars. There's a kind of twist at the end that renders this synopsis somewhat incorrect. The story actually has a theme to it, which relates to the passage of time. And there are a couple of references to "The Wizard Of Oz".

But overall, it's a slow moving boring affair that tests the viewer's patience. The character named Charlie, second in command, looks like a high school dropout who joined a circus. Much of the dialogue has each crew member informing another crew member of technical information that all four should have known about long before they ever left Earth. All this talky exposition is for the benefit of the viewer, of course. The woman, named Dorothy, whimpers: "Steve, what are we going to do now?" Responds Steve: "We'll have to run for it" ... a crew of real knowledgeable astronauts there.

On Mars, lots of screen time is spent just wandering around their surroundings, making stupid comments and asking dumb questions. In these sequences, the dialogue occurs while the camera is quite some distance from the characters, giving the impression that the visuals were shot first, with the dialogue superimposed in post edit.

Later, they encounter live beings, sort of. And the wizard finally makes an appearance well into the second half. When he does, he speaks in English, conveniently, and his voice has an echo chamber quality to it. He launches into a laughable, loquacious monologue that goes on for a tortuous four minutes. It's one of the more humorous parts of the film.

Special effects look cheap, though I did find the reddish, pink colors marginally convincing, given this is the red planet. Casting and acting are poor. Dialogue is awful. Scientific credibility is nonexistent. At least the script made an effort to create some thematic heft. And for me that's what saved "The Wizard Of Mars" from being a total cinematic disaster.

This movie was so bad even I couldn't stand it. It was the first movie I ever removed from my massive personal collection because it was just that lame. I gave it to someone for free under the condition that he took it away, far away. I bought it under the title "Horrors of the Red Planet", and it was only slightly less nauseating than "Wizard of Mars" because it was shorter. You could cut half of this film out and you wouldn't miss it. The summary on the box had absolutely nothing to do with the movie, it mentioned black holes, alien ships and photon torpedos, none of which appeared in the film. I've seen better films on Petri dishes. The special effects were so bad they made Doctor Who look like Star Wars. (I'm not slamming DW, that's my favorite show.) A wall of shaking tin foil with a red lamp on it wa supposed to be underground magma. The science in this made Godzilla look like Andromeda Strain. One of the characters said something like,"We don't have enough oxygen to make it. But there is a little oxygen in the Martian atmosphere, so if we drop our suit pressure to below Martian air pressure, the extra oxygen will flow into our suits." WROOOOOOOONG! The characters were about as bright as coal sacks, sharp as balloons. I gave this movie a 1, which was far too generous but it's the lowest score available. If you want a better movie, watch Blood Diner.

I saw the trailer on some sci fi trailer collection DVD recently and hunted this thing down. The trailer was all like new dense vision or some stuff I can't recall but they are all like BETTER THAN 3-D. Sisters and brothers the effects in this one ROCK cutting edge stuff for the time, and up there with star trek. The other guy I feel was WAY too harsh about this look up the director, he did A lot of visual effects and even directed GORGO! YEAH! Granted I totally luv sci fi movies, just really dig folks floatin thru space an getting into adventures. This film delivers all the goods in the so bad it's good dept, but also is just pure 60's SCI FI RAD! And not like Corman FLICKS WITH A lot OF DULL! In this they are in space right away and the adventure is full throttle. Prove me wrong.

"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.