During a flight to Mars in the spaceship Mars Gravity Probe 1, Commander Christopher 'Kit' Draper and Colonel Dan McReady are forced to deviate from an asteroid and they leave their spacecraft in pods. There is also the original theatrical trailer and an audio interview with director Byron Haskin recorded in 1979. Check out our editors' picks for the movies and shows we're excited about this month, like Mortal Kombat, "Them," and Stowaway. Draper is stranded, with only a monkey named Mona for company. Not long after, Draper sees a spaceship descend and land just over the horizon. He uncovers the rest of the humanoid skeleton and determines that the alien was murdered; the front of the skull shows a hole, and the back shows heavy charring. I guess I am one of the few reviewers that actually likes the title, as I think is a wonderful and very apt allusion employed. A malfunction forces them to eject with only Draper and a monkey, named Mona, surviving. The novel The Swiss Family Robinson (translated into English in 1814) and the films His Girl Friday (1940), Swiss Family Robinson (1960), and Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964) are just a few of the works that riff—some directly, some obliquely—on Defoe’s novel and its main characters. Parish, James Robert and Michael R. Pitts. Get the best deals for robinson crusoe on mars blu ray at eBay.com. When Mona gets thirsty, he lets her out and follows her to a cave where he finds a pool of water in which edible plant "sausages" grow. Some of the props, posters, and scripts from " Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964)" that actor Paul Mantee collected over the years, were destroyed by a fire that burnt down his home. [1], Special effects by Lawrence Butler and Academy Award-winning matte artist Albert Whitlock gave the film the benefit of "big-studio resources usually lacking in movies about outer space". As the days grow into months, Draper slowly begins to crack from the prolonged isolation, at one point imagining an alive, but unspeaking, McReady appearing in his cave. But Mona finds water and an edible plant in the underground. At the film review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, Robinson Crusoe on Mars has an overall rating of 94%, with an average single viewer rating of 6.5/10, with 62% of that audience liking it. Ib Melchior's original script adapted Daniel Defoe's classic novel Robinson Crusoe for the space-race age, populating it with armadillo-like Martian beasts and three-fingered space travelers. Sony Pictures Entertainment. As a new star and planet hurtle toward a doomed Earth, a small group of survivalists frantically work to complete the rocket which will take them to their new home. Shop Robinson Crusoe on Mars [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray] [1964] at Best Buy. On 28 May 1963, DV named Robinson Crusoe on Mars, a science fiction retelling of Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719), as one of eleven completed shooting scripts at Schenck-Zabel Productions. The aliens bombard the mine area that night and then depart. Later, Mars recedes in the distance as the film credits scroll. Aliens come to Earth seeking scientists to help them in their war. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Sci-Fi / Drama (1964) 110 minutes ~ Color Commander Kit Draper, and Colonel Dan McReady, are orbiting Mars in an exploratory surveyor. Exhausted, freezing, and nearly out of the air pills, they build a snow shelter. Qty: Add to cart. Draper lands on the surface of the Red Planet and survives. This allows him to refill his air tanks with a hand pump and to move around in the thin Martian atmosphere. Unrated. Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He also finds their monkey Mona alive. When the aliens blast the castaways' hiding place, Draper, Friday, and Mona flee north through the underground Martian canals. Death Valley had been seen in hundreds of westerns, but they were all shot from the bottoms of the canyons, because that’s where horses could gallop through. Robinson Crusoe on Mars . Pym, John, ed. View production, box office, & company info. It is a science fiction retelling of the classic 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. He learns how to produce oxygen and while exploring the planet, he finds McReady dead in his crashed pod. Draper names his new acquaintance "Friday," after the character in Robinson Crusoe, and begins teaching him English. The classic story of Robinson Crusoe, a man who is dragged to a desert island after a shipwreck. The film was distributed by Paramount Pictures and filmed in Technicolor and Techniscope. When a spaceship lands on the moon, it is hailed as a new accomplishment, before it becomes clear that a Victorian party completed the journey in 1899, leading investigators to that mission's last survivor. Commander Christopher "Kit" Draper, USN and Colonel Dan McReady, USAF reach the Red Planet in their spaceship, Mars Gravity Probe 1. Use the HTML below. Draper finally succeeds in cutting off Friday's bracelets shortly before a low-orbiting meteoroid crashes into the ice cap; the resulting explosion and firestorm melts the ice and snow, saving them from freezing to death. The European Space Exploration Council sends two astronauts to explore a planet similar to the Earth but located on the opposite side of the sun. [citation needed], Criterion added a number of bonus features on the releases of the film: a "stills" gallery from both the film itself, as well as behind-the-scenes shots. Robinson Crusoe on Mars tells the story of U.S. astronaut Commander “Kit” Draper (Paul Mantee), who must fight for survival when his spaceship crash-lands on the barren waste of Mars, a pet monkey his only companion. It looked like another planet — certainly not Death Valley. Be the first one to … He gives her a salty cracker, but no water. A commentary track stitches together comments from a variety of participants, including Mantee, Haskin (in a 1979 interview), and original screenwriter Ib Melchior (disagreements between Haskin and Melchoir are … Get a sneak peek of the new version of this page. Indifferent distribution was blamed, but it's also likely that the public preferred to see its astronauts on the 6 O'Clock News".[2]. Metuchen, New Jersey: The Directors Guild of America and Scarecrow Press, 1984. I would abandon shots from the valleys, make them from up on the ridges. He must learn to live using the resources of the planet. This little film(little in that it receives little recognition for its obvious merits) tells how one man and his monkey survive the rigours of life on the angry red planet. Details When his spaceship crash-lands on Mars, astronaut Kit Draper must figure out how to survive on the barren, lifeless planet with only a monkey to keep him company. I can’t think of any other film I’ve made, unless it was The War of the Worlds, where I had such complete autonomy ... that I had as much genuine pleasure and fulfillment from as Robinson Crusoe on Mars. Escape from the Planet of the Pandemic Parade, Horror Highlights: Nosferatu Lecture at The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies in London, Frank Henenlotter Retrospective Screenings, Telluride Horror Show 2018. Stranded on Mars with only a monkey as a companion, an astronaut must figure out how to find oxygen, water, and food on the lifeless planet. Now he needs to find a way to be rescued and return to Earth. He learns how to produce oxygen and while exploring the planet, he finds McReady dead in his crashed pod. … Later, he notices that Mona keeps disappearing and is uninterested in their dwindling supply of food and water. plus-circle Add Review. During a flight to Mars in the spaceship Mars Gravity Probe 1, Commander Christopher 'Kit' Draper and Colonel Dan McReady are forced to deviate from an asteroid and they leave their spacecraft in pods. While walking about, Draper comes upon a dark rock slab standing almost upright. Topics Robinson Crusoe, Mars. comment. 3 comments. ", The Farther Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a Sailor from York, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robinson_Crusoe_on_Mars&oldid=1013824286, Articles with incomplete citations from September 2020, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2015, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. 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