The Angry Red Planet (1959) (Blu-ray) Available for Preorder (1 Viewer)

[RobertR]

Yes, the nostalgia aspect accounts for a fair chunk of my collection of films that might otherwise be mediocre or even pretty awful when thought about much. But watching films like ANGRY RED PLANET (and CALTIKI and FIEND WITHOUT A FACE and FIRE MAIDENS FROM OUTER SPACE, etc.) is like returning to your childhood home where you rode your bike and wandered about free-range before paranoia set in, where things were predictable and routine and felt comfy and safe, and where you'd lay on your bed and read Famous Monsters of Filmland cover to cover once a month.

I know not all kids had it so good, but I'll bet all of us, regardless of our upbringing, are still drawn to the movies we saw at matinees and on t.v. They just kinda waft over us like a warm blanket when seeing them again, as bad as some of them might be. That's why I'll sometimes choose to view something like WORLD WITHOUT END a third or fourth time while much "better" movies sit on my shelf awaiting a first screening.

Part of the fun of this forum is hearing about other members' early experiences with movies and sharing little anecdotes of our own.

You're making me think of Saturday afternoons in Denver in the 60s, watching Channel 7's Science Fiction Theatre, hosted by Count Sven. What a thrill it was to watch movies such as The Deadly Mantis, This Island Earth, and Tarantula! It was even better when it was raining.

 

[TravisR]

You're making me think of Saturday afternoons in Denver in the 60s, watching Channel 7's Science Fiction Theatre, hosted by Count Sven. What a thrill it was to watch movies such as The Deadly Mantis, This Island Earth, and Tarantula! It was even better when it was raining.

I think back fondly on similar memories.

 

[John Sparks]

It took me years to find out that the movie that I jumped into my mom's lap was THIS ISLAND EARTH!

Here's the odd thing about that. I was working with the LAFD at Fire Station 20 in middle Los Angeles in the 1980's. I remember walking outside and seeing the Romona Theatre across the street.

I thought to myself...is this the theater that I had watched THIS ISLAND EARTH back in 1955...what a rush...and it was!

They say that you can't remember back to a certain age (I was 5). But, I remember my mom telling me about a movie that they had just seen about giant ants talking to a little girl walking through the desert. It was at a drive-in on Riverside Dr. near Elysian Park/Griffith Park.

Again, many years later, I find the marquee on Riverside Dr. for the drive-in theater while doing inspections for the LAFD.

Great memories and hopefully you remember them too. Just as the encounters with Ray Harryhausen at his original home Olympic in Los Angeles before I went to Viet Nam and later in Griffith Park.

 

[TJPC]

"The Angry Red Planet" was the first movie I saw at a drive-in. Didn't some of the astronauts get absorbed by giant jelly fish at the end?
The movie that had me literally getting up and going for the exit was "Robinson Cruso On Mars" when the main character has a "visit" from his dead buddy.

 

[Flashgear]

Angry Red Planet is a childhood favorite, despite the cheese...I'm grateful to Shout for the new Blu-ray...Ib Melchior could get a lot done with a tight fisted budget...Robinson Crusoe on Mars, with another Melchior screenplay and directed by Byron Haskin, is a much better film that I'm glad Criterion gave the deluxe treatment to...these are films that I have treasured and dreamlike memories of seeing first run theatrical or on TV as a child...along with Visit to a Small Planet (thanks, KL for the upcoming BD), Mysterious Island, Jason and the Argonauts, First Men in the Moon, Disney's March of the Wooden Soldiers, Darby O'Gill, Three Lives of Thomasina, etc...even the recent Universal DVD of the Tony Curtis film 40 Pounds of Trouble brings back a warm flood of nostalgia for me...I remember seeing that as a 7th birthday present in January, 1963...I found 50 cents digging in a taxicab's back seat the same evening...a veritable fortune at the time...ha, ha...

 

[BobO'Link]

Yes, the pricing dropped 3 times yesterday and is now $13.28!

They were having a price war with Walmart. Amazon bailed at $13.01. WM held out for a few hours after Amazon bailed. Both are back to ~$18. If you had a pre-order you'll get that price.

 

[Johnny Angell]

I saw this movie on my twelfth birthday. I was asked what I wanted to see most and I'd seen the ad for this and this was it. A few of my junior high school friends and I were taken to the Four Star Theater in LA. I loved these kinds of movies back then and "Cinemagic" whatever it was was irresistible. But even then I knew it was disappointing and not as good as my favorites in the sci-fi genre. But all these years later I feel great nostalgia for it and of course will have it on release day.

Yes, the nostalgia aspect accounts for a fair chunk of my collection of films that might otherwise be mediocre or even pretty awful when thought about much. But watching films like ANGRY RED PLANET (and CALTIKI and FIEND WITHOUT A FACE and FIRE MAIDENS FROM OUTER SPACE, etc.) is like returning to your childhood home where you rode your bike and wandered about free-range before paranoia set in, where things were predictable and routine and felt comfy and safe, and where you'd lay on your bed and read Famous Monsters of Filmland cover to cover once a month.

I know not all kids had it so good, but I'll bet all of us, regardless of our upbringing, are still drawn to the movies we saw at matinees and on t.v. They just kinda waft over us like a warm blanket when seeing them again, as bad as some of them might be. That's why I'll sometimes choose to view something like WORLD WITHOUT END a third or fourth time while much "better" movies sit on my shelf awaiting a first screening.

Part of the fun of this forum is hearing about other members' early experiences with movies and sharing little anecdotes of our own.

I was going to write something along the line of these two quotes, but you've done it better than I would have. Big PLUS ONE on these two quotes.

 

[Robert Crawford]

They were having a price war with Walmart. Amazon bailed at $13.01. WM held out for a few hours after Amazon bailed. Both are back to ~$18. If you had a pre-order you'll get that price.

Apparently that happened with a few titles and I did get this release for $13.01!

 

[Peter Apruzzese]

At $13 this will be a fun watch for my next movie night with the local wackos.

 

[ahollis]

The quote above about the giant amoeba ingesting one of the astronauts brought back a hidden memory of seeing that film when I was a youngster and afterwards asking my mother if there were amoebas in the pool, lake or ocean before I went in for a swim. Of course she had no idea why I was asking so her answer was an always affirmative yes, there are amoebas everywhere. Why I was not having nightmares I will never know.

I'm looking forward to watching this again.