Red Planet Mars

Red Planet Mars (1952)

Genres - Drama, Science Fiction  |   Sub-Genres - Alien Film, Propaganda Film  |   Release Date - May 15, 1952 (USA - Unknown), May 15, 1952 (USA)  |   Run Time - 87 min.  |   Countries - United States  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Bruce Eder

A husband-and-wife scientist team (Peter Graves, Andrea King) are experimenting with a "hydrogen tube" invention (which he got from a missing German scientist, lost in the collapse of the Reich), when they get signals back from what appears to be Mars. The culture-shock of that event is serious enough, and the couple and their family are suddenly thrust into the spotlight. But then they begin to translate the increasingly complex messages (which started out as mathematical equations) that they receive back, and find that Mars is a perfect world, a true Utopia, and that the messages are quoting Scripture -- and the inevitable conclusion is that God is speaking from Mars. Soon a religious revival starts to spread across the globe. What they don't realize is that the messages are a very calculated fraud, being engineered by a Communist operative (Marvin Miller) and carried out by the scientist (Herbert Berghof) who invented the hydogen tube, and who now has an even more sinister agenda of his own.

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Keywords

Christianity, Communism, conviction, God, Mars, message, panic, peasant, politician, radio, religion, revolution, scientist, space-exploration