Robinson Crusoe on Mars

Yesterday's Saturday afternoon matinee is today's Criterion Collection prestige DVD release, but you don't have to be a Comic-Con attendee to enjoy Robinson Crusoe on Mars, an out-of-this world 1964 sci-fi take on Daniel Defoe's classic adventure. Paul Mantee stars as Commander “Kit” Draper, stranded on Mars after a meteor forces his command ship out of orbit. At first alone (his co-pilot, portrayed by a pre-Batman Adam West, doesn't make it), he is soon reunited with a third traveling companion, a research monkey named Mona. Thank God for Friday (Victor Lundin), a slave whom Draper befriends and then helps to escape his alien captors. Director Byron Haskin (who recycles alien spaceships from his War of the Worlds) and the production crew strive to create a comparatively more realistic view of the Red Planet (food, oxygen, and shelter are Kit's main concerns, not prefab extraterrestrial beasties), which features awesome rocky desert landscapes. While the special effects are dated, they were groundbreaking at the time (in the illuminating audio commentary—culled from separate interviews with Mantee, Lundin, Haskin, and others—we're told that prior to this film, spaceships did not zoom through space as they do here, anticipating the Enterprise warp-speeding through the opening credits of the Star Trek series). Other DVD extras include a new featurette on the accuracy of the science in the film, as well as a music video, and an informative booklet. While the deliberate pace may try the patience of younger viewers, sci-fi fans will be thrilled with this release. Recommended. (D. Liebenson)[Blu-ray Review—Jan 18, 2011—Criterion, 110 min., not rated, $39.95—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1964's Robinson Crusoe on Mars sports a great transfer and a mono soundtrack. Blu-ray extras are identical to the previous DVD release, including audio commentary (by screenwriter Ib Melchior, costars Paul Mantee and Victor Lundin, production designer Al Nozaki, special effects designer Robert Skotak, and excerpts from a 1979 audio interview with director Byron Haskin), a “Destination: Mars” featurette by space historian Michael Lennick (20 min.), a music video for Lundin's song “Robinson Crusoe on Mars,” a stills gallery, trailers, and a booklet. Bottom line: a fine Blu-ray debut for a cult classic.]