Robinson Caruso on Mars

Yes, I bought the original LaserDisc in SAV mode before it was pulled and replaced with a SLV mode at half the cost.

I do believe the DVD has all of the extras that were on the SAV LaserDisc.
 
It's an underrated film. There are blueprints of the ship out there. Thought I had them.

Some trivia from IMDb. Fur trunks on the monkey? How's that for a prop?
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Robinson Crusoe on Mars (1964)

Many of the scenes of the Martian surface were filmed at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley, California.

Victor Lundin has recently (as of early 1999) written and recorded a "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" song.

The Martian spacecraft are left-overs from The War of the Worlds (1953). Director Byron Haskin was involved in both projects, although George Pal is often given sole credit for the earlier classic.

While filming in Death Valley, the cast and crew were ordered not to touch any of the plant life due to the fact that they were filming in a national park area and most of the plant life was federally protected.

The lobby card for this movie has an official-looking statement: "This film is Scientifically Authentic ... It is only one step ahead of present reality!"

The aliens are seen dressed in the spacesuits from Destination Moon (1950)

A sequel titled "Robinson Crusoe in the Invisible Galaxy" was planned but it was scrapped due to the films lackluster box office.

Female simian astronaut Mona was played by a male Woolly Monkey named "Barney", who wore fur trunks to conceal that fact.

The "air pills" were stock M&Ms, while the "poi sausages" harvested from the Martian plants were pepperonis.
 
The film is on youtube if it helps.

RCOM

-DM


Thank you very much!

I guess that is bettter than nothing.

Scot

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The Martian spacecraft are left-overs from The War of the Worlds (1953). Director Byron Haskin was involved in both projects, although George Pal is often given sole credit for the earlier classic.

The Satellite ships were made for the film. There were three made in different scales, and they were carved out of wood. The weapon domes on the bottom were just pieces of plastic, the models had no working parts. They were filmed like MGP-1, they photographed them, then used the photos for animation.

The model of MGP-1 was repainted in silver to be used as the rescue ship, but those scenes were never filmed.

The aliens are seen dressed in the spacesuits from Destination Moon (1950)

But those were the suits that were made for scenes that were suppose to be in the distance, and were worn by midgets. It wasn't until I looked at the extras on the dvd, that I knew that the slavers were suppose to be little people. Live and learn. :lol

David.
 
On top of the fact that they had these weird lightning bolt patterns painted on their helmets! (Shades of Tom Corbet!) Still, I love the movie. One of my favorite pieces of trivia is the scene where Mona the Monkey clamps her(his) hands together, copying Friday clamping his wrists together due to the alien's manacles... the monkey wasn't trained to do that, it just did one day, and they filmed it! Happy accidents make for good movies!
 
Oh a great movie and I do have the DVD. Don't have time to do any screen grabs right now but maybe this will help:

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I grabbed a few frames for you, there are not any good ones of the ship. Here is what I could get:
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As was pointed out in the extras, the little twin landing craft are based off of the actual Gemini two-man spacecraft that was being flown at that time. The movie version seems to be a bit shortened and of course could not possibly have made a landing on Mars, but at least they're trying. :lol

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Another film featuring advanced Gemini capsules is "Countdown" with Robert Duvall, made later in the Sixties. It's actually a fairly good, accurate depiction of a "backup" program to Apollo, using Gemini capsuiles to shoot one man to the Moon and keep him alive there in a "shelter" until he can be rescued.
 
On a side note it wouldn't be too difficult to use the 1/24 scale Revell Gemini model as a starting point for the scale of the complete ship.

I think you would have to buy 2 or 3 of the kits to make a complete hull minus the 2 gemini hatches and replace them with 1 round docking port.

Scot
 
As was pointed out in the extras, the little twin landing craft are based off of the actual Gemini two-man spacecraft that was being flown at that time.
That was my first thought when I looked at the screen grabs... I immediately recognized the thruster "holes" on the nose and thought Gemini.
 
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