Futuristic spaceflight was so much easier back in 1951. No clumsy spacesuits and none of that weightlessness rigmarole. You just pull up in front of the rocket and climb on board in whatever you happen to be wearing at the time, lie down and put your belt on, and before you know it, you're in space. Sure, there's a short period of weightlessness, but that wasn't in the budget, so you don't have to worry about it. Look out for meteor storms, but it's not like they're going to sneak up on you because they make so much darn noise in space. Crash landing? No problem -- that's what those leather helmets are for. You don't even have to worry about the atmosphere, temperature, etc., of the planet you crash on -- just run out the door and have at it. Best of all, you don't have to leave your pipe and tobacco at home, as it's perfectly safe to smoke onboard the spaceship.

Actually, the most difficult part of this Flight to Mars is putting up with Carol Stafford (Virginia Huston), the "indispensable" assistant to flight engineer Jim Barker (Arthur Franz), who shows her desperate love for Jim by being the witchiest (or something like that) woman in the solar system. I wouldn't want to spend a few weeks stuck in a big can with journalist Steve Abbott (Cameron Mitchell), either, especially when he starts wooing the ice woman. Thank goodness for the two old male scientists who round out the crew of five; they are likable enough when they aren't waxing philosophical or talking about how they don't expect any of them to survive the mission.

By the way, if you think the interior of the spaceship looks familiar, it's basically the same one used in Rocketship X-M a year earlier.

Well, they do make it to Mars, where they are greeted by friendly Martians (clad, unlike their visitors from Earth, in actual spacesuits, the same ones used in the film Destination Moon) who promise to help them in any way they can to repair their ship and return to Earth. If anything, the Martians are a little bit too supportive. Oddly enough, despite all of their technological advances, they can't generate a signal powerful enough to reach Earth -- nor have they gotten anywhere with their own rocket program (maybe their scientists are too distracted by the skimpy dresses the young women walk around in). Will Earth's brave space crewmen (you can't call them astronauts) ever return to Earth? Will they sneak off and leave Carol on Mars (I certainly would)? Will Earthlings and Martians be friends or enemies? These are just some of the questions you might ask as this film works its way to the end. You probably won't care very much, but you might ask the questions, anyway.

I can't comment on the picture quality of the DVD, but I do know that the print I saw was pretty grainy -- so much so that I couldn't read a word of an urgent teletype message posted onscreen early in the movie. I was impressed that the film was shot in color, though -- this is a 1951 film we're talking about here (they were still making plenty of black-and-white science fiction films as late as the early 1960s). It's worth noting that the model spaceship shots created for this movie were good enough to be recycled in such later films as Queen of Outer Space, World Without End and It! The Terror from Beyond Space. Story-wise, though, the film is OK at best. The first half of the film (including the space flight itself) is pretty boring, and the mini-soap opera subplots didn't do much for me, either. Things get more interesting on Mars, but not interesting enough for me to give this film more than a half-hearted hooray.

Despite everything I've said, though, I did actually enjoy Flight to Mars -- and so will you if you share my love for campy old science fiction classics.