Red Planet Mars (1952) by Harry Horner
Sunday, June 8, 1986, 7:00 pm
American Madness: Commie Scare Films of the ‘50s
Films: Red Planet Mars (1952) by Harry Horner, with Peter Graves; The 27th Day (1957) by William Asher, with Gene Barry; The Next Voice You Hear (1950) by William Wellman, with Nancy Davis (Mrs. Ronald Reagan).
Now that the age of Rambo is upon us, the Cinematheque thought it would be a good time to look back at three particularly imaginative, if somewhat ludicrous sci-fi films of the 1950s which dealt with the Red Menace and the future of mankind. Red Planet Mars shows the havoc created by Communist ex-Nazis who pretend to be sending Earth radio-signals from Mars; The 27th Day follows the convoluted plot of E.T.’s from a dying planet who try to take over our planet by having the different superpowers exterminate each other; The Next Voice is a Capra-like classic about what happens to the people of the world when God’s voice (over international radio-waves) materializes to warn them that there is more to life than they are getting out of it.