Lechuguilla This low-budget film from 1965 is set in the distant future of 1975. It tells the story of an American spacecraft with four people on-board that crash lands on Mars. There's a kind of twist at the end that renders this synopsis somewhat incorrect. The story actually has a theme to it, which relates to the passage of time. And there are a couple of references to "The Wizard Of Oz".But overall, it's a slow moving boring affair that tests the viewer's patience. The character named Charlie, second in command, looks like a high school dropout who joined a circus. Much of the dialogue has each crew member informing another crew member of technical information that all four should have known about long before they ever left Earth. All this talky exposition is for the benefit of the viewer, of course. The woman, named Dorothy, whimpers: "Steve, what are we going to do now?" Responds Steve: "We'll have to run for it" ... a crew of real knowledgeable astronauts there.On Mars, lots of screen time is spent just wandering around their surroundings, making stupid comments and asking dumb questions. In these sequences, the dialogue occurs while the camera is quite some distance from the characters, giving the impression that the visuals were shot first, with the dialogue superimposed in post edit.Later, they encounter live beings, sort of. And the wizard finally makes an appearance well into the second half. When he does, he speaks in English, conveniently, and his voice has an echo chamber quality to it. He launches into a laughable, loquacious monologue that goes on for a tortuous four minutes. It's one of the more humorous parts of the film.Special effects look cheap, though I did find the reddish, pink colors marginally convincing, given this is the red planet. Casting and acting are poor. Dialogue is awful. Scientific credibility is nonexistent. At least the script made an effort to create some thematic heft. And for me that's what saved "The Wizard Of Mars" from being a total cinematic disaster.

utgard14 I saw this one under the title "Horrors of the Red Planet." It's supposedly a sci-fi adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. It's a very loose adaptation but I guess it gives the movie something to brag about. God knows it needs it. Obviously the only value this junk has today is to give viewers something to make fun of. John Carradine appears as the Wizard, years removed from any decent movies he had made in the past and years away from any he would be a part of in the future. The rest of the cast is made up of a bunch of never-wases. The budget for this one was about equal to what you might find in between your sofa cushions. It's definitely a weird movie with some unintended camp value. There's an audience for that and, given the right amount of alcohol, I might be a part of it.

oscar-35 *Spoiler/plot- 1964 Wizard of Mars- Edgar Rice Bourroughsian idea for a film. Spaceship crew travels to Mars. They find an very ancient civilization. Phantoms and curses from the dead citizens plague the exploration of the city ruins. The supreme dead wizard tries to capture the crew and take control of their spaceship. *Special stars- John Carradine, Roger Gentry, Vic McGee, Jerry Rannow, Eve Bernhardt. Scientific technical adviser: Forest J. Ackermen. *Theme- Teamwork wins the day even against planetary wizards. *Based on- Some people have thought this film's plot was taken from 'Wizard of Oz' due to some minor similarities. *Trivia/location/goofs- One of the last films for eternal 80+ year old film actor, John Carradine. Film's technical adviser was SF expert and writer, Forrest Ackerman. This film borrows heavily it's special effects and miniature sets from other well know features. The wizards city ruins looks like something out of you kid's goldfish fish bowl. The female astronaut is named "Dorothy" and her role is clearly dubed. Look for a 3 minute wizaded 'rant' of John Carradine reprising his 'Preacher' role from "Grapes of Rath'. Listen to the erroneous plot references to martian canals and having 'Up' and 'Down' while traveling in outer non- gravity space. *Emotion- A fun film made even more laughable due to the many 'borrowed' expensive production elements from other SF films of the era. A terrible mash-up of borrowed scene elements, special effects, and electronic camera switcher gimmicks to tell this shallow paper-thin plot. Even the martian face has been 'borrowed' from another space travel film.

pnunes68 I remember seeing this movie as a kid on the "Sunday Afternoon" movie on the local station in the late 70's, but I couldn't remember the title. I knew it had to be from the 60's so IMDb helped me narrow the possibilities. The key was I remembered the astronauts finding a "Golden" road under the desert, so the "Wizard" title grabbed my eye.A Google search brought some web sites that fully describe the movie and show screen shots.I am a bit disappointed now that the actual movie does not live up to my memories of it. I remember it being kinda spooky and strange, but now it seems really stupid.I would like to see it again, too bad there doesn't seem to be a DVD yet. I wonder if it is on any movie compilation set of "B" movies.Paul