Mars in Techniscope
August 06, 2012
Film Info
- United States
- 1964
- 110 minutes
- Color
- 2.35:1
- English
- Spine #404
Special effects wunderkind and genre master Byron Haskin (The War of the Worlds, The Outer Limits) won a place in the hearts of fantasy film lovers everywhere with this gorgeously designed journey into the unknown. Robinson Crusoe on Mars tells the story of U.S. astronaut Commander “Kit” Draper (Paul Mantee), who must fight for survival when his spaceship crash-lands on the barren waste of Mars, a pet monkey his only companion. But is he actually alone? Shot in vast Techniscope and blazing color, this is an imaginative and beloved marvel of classic science fiction.
Cast
| Commander Christopher "Kit" Draper | Paul Mantee |
| Friday | Victor Lundin |
| Colonel Dan McReady | Adam West |
| Barney, the Woolly Monkey | Mona |
Credits
| Director | Byron Haskin |
| Screenplay | Ib Melchior and John Higgins |
| Based on a story by | Daniel Defoe |
| Producer | Aubrey Schenck |
| Executive producer | Edwin F. Zabel |
| Director of photography | Winton C. Hoch |
| Art direction | Hal Pereira and Arthur Lonergan |
| Production design | Al Nozaki |
| Assistant directors | Robert Goodstein and Arthur Jacobson |
| Makeup supervision | Wally Westmore |
| Makeup artist | Bud Bashaw Jr. |
| Technical advisor | Edward V. Ashburn |
| Editing | Terry Morse |
| Process photography | Faciot Edouart |
| Special effects by | Butler-Glouner, Inc. and Lawrence W. Butler |
| Sound recording by | Harold Lewis and John Wilkinson |
| Music | Van Cleave |
Disc Features
- New, restored high-definition digital transfer, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray edition
- Audio commentary featuring screenwriter Ib Melchior, actors Paul Mantee and Victor Lundin, production designer Al Nozaki, Oscar-winning special effects designer and Robinson Crusoe on Mars historian Robert Skotak, and excerpts from a 1979 audio interview with director Byron Haskin
- Excerpts from Melchior’s original screenplay (DVD only)
- Destination Mars, a video featurette by filmmaker and space historian Michael Lennick detailing the science behind the film
- Music video for Lundin’s song “Robinson Crusoe on Mars”
- Stills gallery
- Theatrical trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring a new essay by Lennick as well as Melchior’s “Brief Yargorian Vocabulary” (a glossary of original alien dialect) and a list of facts about Mars, both from his original screenplay
New cover by Bill Sienkiewicz
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