Mars

 

RED PLANET MARS-1952-Prof. Chris Cronyn (Peter Graves) and his wife Lynn (Andrea King; THE BEAST WITH FIVE FINGERS) visit a giant telescope site where scientists there have just taken pictures of Mars which they believe show signs of life. This doesn't surprise Cronyn much as he claims to be getting radio signals from it. Meanwhile somewhere in the Andes a communist scientist Franz Calder (Herbert Berghof), a Nazi war criminal who once experimented on humans, tries to contact Mars for his superiors (led by Marvin Miller). Since he is the person who actually invented the device that Cronyn is using, he's rather bitter. Calder is not successful but can monitor Cronin's progress. Using Pi Cronin gets his Martian response. However this doesn't bode well with the US and it's economy starts to crumble. Everybody wants a piece of Cronyn but a Naval commander (Walter Sande) is sympathetic to him. The secretary of state (Morris Ankrum) wants the lab closed down and he and a General (Tom Keene) want the president (Willis Bouchey) to declare war on Russia. Just when all hope seems lost it's discovered God is on Mars! 

Communist Russia is destroyed by a religious uprising! However later when world peace has been established Calder shows up and drops a bombshell on Cronyn. He was the one sending the message replies, not Mars! Calder plans to tell the world of his charade but then a message really does come from Mars. Calder destroys the machine killing himself and The Cronyns but they die heroes. Vince Barnett, Henry Kulky and Gene Roth among others have small roles. 

This wild cold war propaganda movie was the debut film for director Harry Horner, also a production designer who who later made THE WILD PARTY. RED PLANET MARS is based on a play by John Balderston (who co-wrote the screenplay) author of the screenplays for FRANKENSTEIN (1931) and BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935).

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Propaganda

THE HOAXTERS-1952-In this post-WW2 cold war propaganda short film Adolf Hitler, Tojo and Mussolini are compared to snake oil salesmen. It uses footage of war torn Germany, Italy and Japan and blames everything on Karl Marx, the “fourth pitchman of the apocalypse” and says communism is the new snake oil. Stalin (a WW2 ally) is shown watching troops march in Red Square. FDR, Truman, Adlai Stevenson and Dwight David Eisenhower all agree that Communism is the new Nazism. Howard Keel, George Murphy, Walter Pigeon, Robert Taylor, Barry Sullivan and James Whitmore are credited as narrators and Sid Tomack appears as a salesman. No director is credited for this MGM production but the screenwriter Herman Hoffman later directed TV shows and soap operas so it might be him.

DECEMBER 7TH-1943-This film commissioned by the US Navy was directed by John Ford and Greg Toland. Uncle Sam (Walter Huston) explains what's going on in Hawaii (before Pearl Harbor). It kind of ignores how the US came to the islands but talks about all the Japanese who worked and settled there (many of them American citizens). It tries to say that most of the Japanese who live there were loyal to America except those that were part of the Shinto religion (actor Philip Ahn, of Korean descent plays a Shinto priest). Yet then it implies that most of the Japanese were spies who helped bring about the bombings and collaborated with The Nazis. After Sam has a debate with Mr. C (Harry Davenport) he falls asleep. Everyone then goes about their business on that fateful Sunday morning. Many actual and detailed and tragic scenes are shown. It then goes on to show how the attacks negatively affected the Japanese-Hawaiians. Dana Andrews appears as the spirit of a dead sailor while Ralph Byrd and Robert Lowery have un-billed roles as does the narrator Irving Pichel.

 It won a 1943 Academy Award for best documentary short subject.

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Zotz!

ZOTZ!-1962-This is fun black & white comedy from “gimmick director” William Castle (he made MR. SARDONICUS the year before).

A mild mannered professor (Tom Poston) comes in possession of an ancient coin that gives him special powers. When he says the word “zotz” things go in slow motion. When he points his finger at a person they feel intense pain. When he combines them they cause death! He makes most of his friends think he’s crazy and fails to make a US general (Fred Clark) believe him. He’s eventually captured by communists (a henchman is played by Mike Mazurki) but battles his way out and becomes a hero.

Jim Backus plays another professor and rival for the affections a female prof. (Julia Meade). The dean of the college where they teach is played by Cecil Kellaway and his wife is Margaret Dumont! (in her second to last film) 50’s-60’s TV comedian Louis Nye has a cameo. Poston was later in another Castle film, a remake of THE OLD DARK HOUSE.

When I was little kids used to go around pointing their index finger and saying “zotz” a lot. You were of course suppose to slow down when they did that but since I didn’t see this film till years later I was never really in on the joke! It’s based on a novel by a guy who wrote scripts for TV’s VICTORY AT SEA!

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