Robinson Crusoe on Mars is exactly what its title implies: a science fiction vision of Daniel Defoe's classic novel. Only one man liked the title. Ib Melchior ed it for his 1961 screenplay, but it was just a working title. By the time Byron Haskin, the director, came on board three years later, he wanted to change it too. But to producer Aubrey Schenk it was the title that sold the film -- to Paramount and the public.

Defoe's novel is, among other things, an adventure in colonialism with Crusoe representing the Protestant capitalist adventurer, the hero who travels to foreign shores and makes them home, the great conqueror who meets the savage tames and converts him. These elements are all very much evident in the film. sci-fi twist forces a few changes, however. Instead of being wrecked on a desert island, our hero, Christopher "Kit" Draper is wrecked on Mars. His animal companion is a monkey instead of a parrot. And the Friday he eventually meets is slave of mysterious beings from some other planet, rather then the near-dinner of his fellow cannibals.

Director Byron Haskin modestly denies any claim to the title "auteur" (though word fits in its literal sense given his hand in rewriting several screenplays and penchant for revising scenes the night before he filmed them). The film was, to a large degree, a group effort. Ib Melchior, who wrote the script, was going to direct the film but ended up directing his script of The Time Travellers.

Following Haskin's divestiture, perhaps we should consider these films less as the expression of Haskin's vision than of their historical moment -- the fate '50s and early '60s, when "our side" was adventurous, individualistic, and benign, while "their side" was a nightmare of totalitorian evil.

It is common to read '50s science fiction films as allegories of the Cold War. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), with its Americans being turned one by one into emotionless pod people is only one of many examples. In an interview, Haskin himself connects the Martian invaders in his earlier film, War of the Worlds, with the Russians. At the film"s climax, when God, in answer to the prayers of a churchful of Los Angelenos, kills the invaders with a disease to which they are not imune, we learn that, although bacteria are God's creatures, Martians are not. In Robinson Crusoe on Mars, the evil spacemen, in ships resembling those in War of Worlds, have enslaved the people of Friday's planet (who look rather like extras from The Ten Commandments).

But the focus has changed between 1951 and 1964, perhaps in response to growing knowledge of outer space. From H.G. Wells' day to the '50s, men from Mars had been the stereotypical villains of science fiction, personifying a fear of the unknown. By the mid-'60s, we knew that there were no such men. In fact, we were pretty sure that as intelligent life forms, we were alone in our solar system. The evolution of the science fiction film parallels this recognition.

The genre also reflects the changing relationship to Russia. The films of the '50s emphasized invasions and battles that were thin disguises for the war against communism. Robinson Crusoe on Mars, however, represents a Kennedy-era turning away from that paranoia toward a future based on successful technology. Indeed, the film's production history charts a hybrid venture based on the specifics of technology. Ib Melchior's three-hour screenplay features a "technically correct" Martian landscape, except for the fact that it is populated by incredible beasts. Like other Melchior projects, Robinson Crusoe on Mars features a high-tech high concept driven by a classic tale about survival against the odds.

Haskin took the screenplay and had it refashioned by screenwriter John Higgins, with the fantastic elements deleted at Haskin's request. "It must be scientifically accurate," Haskin would decree. Melchior had been inspired in the first place by Death Valley, and he even submitted photographs of potential locotions with his screenplay. Death Valley is where Haskin and his crew ended up. Haskin's background as a cinematographer in the '20s and head of the Warners Special Effects Department in the '30s served him well. The desert setting is a beautiful but forbiddingly vast and empty space. All that sand, especially filmed in the widescreen Techniscope process, dwarfs Kit Draper in a convincingly alien environment. And perhaps as much as anything else, the theme of the film is loneliness. With God's help and American ingenuity, our hero can find oxygen, food, water, and shelter; his biggest problem, however, is facing life entirely alone.

--John Peavoy

CAST & CREDITS

Executive Producer ... Edwin F. Zobel

Producer ... Aubrey Schenk

Director ... Byron Haskin

Screenplay ... Ib Melchior & John C. Higgins

Cinematogropher ... Winton C. Hoch

Color Consultant .. Richord Mueller

Art Direction ... Hal Pereira & Arthur Lonergan

Eilm Fditor ... Terry 0 Morse

Music ... Nathan van Cleave

Sound ... Harold Lewis & John Wilkinson

Assistant Director ... Arthur Jacobs & Robert Goodstein

Makeup ... Wally Westmore & Bud Bashaw

Special Photographic effects ... Lawrence W. Butler (BUTLER-Glouner Inc.)

Process Photography ... Farciot Edouart

Technical Adviser ... Edward V. Ashburn

Commander Christopher "Kit" Draper ... Paul Mantee

Friday ... Victor Lundin

Colonel Dan McReady ... Adam West

Mona Barney, the Wooly Monkey

An Aubrey Schenk-Edwin F Zabel (Devonshire/ Paramount) Producton.

Technicolor & Techniscope Based on the novel by Daniel Defoe.

ABOUT THE TRANSFER

This exclusive digital transfer was made from a 35mm duplicate negative, struck from the original 35mm Techniscope intermediate positive, and the original 35mm three track mono magnetic track. This film is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1.

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