Flight to Mars Lands on Blu-Ray Thanks to Film Detective

Flight to Mars is one of the earliest Atomic Era science fiction films that capitalized on the dream of interstellar flight. Being a product of its era, the story has an inherent charm in its simpllicity, and yet still delivers a story with political intrigue and raw action and romance.

Dr. Jim Barker (Arthur Franz) heads up a team of scientist who will be making the first manned mission to the Red Planet. Also accompanying him will be his scientifically capable assistant, Carol (Virginia Huston), who carries a torch for him that he's too blind to see. But Steve (Cameron Mitchell) sees it, and he works to get Carol to see that he's the right guy for her, even though he's just an embedded journalist there to document the flight and not a brainy rocket scientist.

Upon landing, the team is welcomed by a Martian envoy -- they'd been expecting the ships arrival, as they've been able to receive radio and television signals from our planet, but have been unable to return them to let Earth know they were there on Mars. All appears to be a peaceful meeting, with the Earth visitors given shelter, food, and casual Martian attire. But there's a political battle underway among the members of the Martian council. The leader, Ikron (Morris Ankrum), wants to use the Earth ship as a template to make more, so that Mars might invade Earth before they run out of their precious resources on Mars. He is opposed by Tillamar (Robert Barrat) at every turn, but the majority always vote with Ikron.

Tillamar's daughter, Alita (Marguerite Chapman), spills the beans to the Earth crew, and they begin a charade of making it look like the ships retrofitting to use Martian fuel will take much longer than anticipated, all while getting the ship operational in secret. But others become aware of the ruse and suddenly there is a race against time for the Earth crew -- and Alita, with whom Dr. Barker has fallen in love -- to blast off and head back home.

This black and white film has been beautifully restored by The Film Detective to give it this wonderful Blu-ray release. If you're a fan of classic science fiction film adventures like Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon, Flight to Mars should be a prominent part of your home video collection.