The Angry Red Planet

When a rocket returns from a expeditionary mission to Mars, only two of the original four have survived - and one of those is not a well man. Luckily, the other "Iris(h)" (Nora Hayden) seems to be conscious and from her hospital bed regales us with the details of their trip to the (very) red planet which, contrary to popular opinion, is not barren at all - but populated with distant cousins of the Venus fly trap and the giant ant! Their explorations start off innocently enough, but soon they start to sense that the planet is becoming a bit hostile. Time to head home, if they still can. The dialogue and performances here are all pretty nondescript and the interiors are all standard studio lights and buzzers. It's the photographical effort to create the Martian landscape by shooting everything through red filters that is bit more innovative. It doesn't really work as it's nigh on impossible to discern the characters from their surroundings, but at least it shows that someone was at least trying something different. It's a bit long, but still just about watchable and no worse than a load of these 1950s American sci-fi efforts. The end of story comes with a stern warning too!