Flying Discman from Mars Movie Review

Martians are greatly advanced in this 12-episode Republic chapter play compared to where they were in Republic's 1945 The Purple Monster Strikes. There they could barely get down to Earth and back without tapping human ingenuity. Now they know all about atomic power and weapons so powerful only a handful of Martians can rule the globe with their mighty flying discs. Alas, Republic had little money for a sally into sci fi, so there is only one disc and only one Martian, a certain Professor Mota (atom spelled backwords). As for the saucer, it's a squat cigar-shaped structure built over an automobile and first appeared in the 1942 serial Spy Smasher (and in miniature for 1942's King of the Mounties). Naturally the studio reused this earlier footage wherever it could and filmed no new flying scenes at all for this lower-berth effort. All Republic serials are worth seeing, but put this one on the back burner until you've found all the others you can lay hands on.

1951 167m/B VHS REP, MLB