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After his spaceship has run out of fuel, Kit (Paul Mantee) crashlands
on Mars as earth's (unintentional) first man on the planet, only
accompanied by his pet monkey Mona. Though Mars seems to be an
unhospitable planet at first, Kit finds it fairly easy to adapt to life
here once he finds rock that breath out air, water, plants that grow
sausages, and he even starts weaving his own cloths after a while. There's
one thing though he can't beat: loneliness. Eventually, Mars is invaded
by alien spaceships that seem to be chasing someone ... Friday (Victor
Lundin), a humanoid alien, who was a slave in some other aliens' mining
operations. After saving him from alien attacks time and again, Friday
accepts Kit as his master and learns his language - while Kit lacks any
and all interest in learning his new companion's language, and actually he
treats him more like a slave than a servant. Actually, Friday isn't even
Friday's real name, Kit just never bothers to ask. Eventually, Kit's
cavern is destroyed by the Friday-hunting aliens, and Kit, Friday and Mona
are cut off from their water supply, so they decide to head for the
Martian polar cap, which promises a limitless water supply ... but once
there, a meteor hits Mars, and the polar cap melts under our heroes hands.
Thank God then that a spaceship from earth stops by to save them. The
title of this movie alone is nothing if not promising. Unfortunately
though the film is less so: First, it takes about an hour to set up what's
actually given away in the title, and goes about it so seriously and
matter-of-factly that it seems to totally forget that it's not based on
fact but a fiction that got all of its science wrong, and then, with the
arrival of Friday, it gets awfully formulaic, and you can't help but
detest the film's lead character Kit for the way he treats Friday either.
In the end, too, the finale comes all too suddenly, it hasn't mbeen
developed out of the story but is just a lame device to put an end to the
on-screen goings-on. That all said, the film isn't totally bad, there
are some beautiful and other-worldly Martian sets (and matte-paintings),
and the 60's style futuristic sets and costumes are certainly great in a
nostalgic sort of way. Still, the film isn't half as much fun as the
title suggests.
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