Movies - Robinson Crusoe on Mars

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	Movies - Robinson Crusoe on Mars

Robinson Crusoe on Mars is a 1964 science fiction film. It was directed by Byron Haskin, produced by Aubrey Schenck, and was based on the classic Robinson Crusoe novel by Daniel Defoe. The cast included Paul Mantee, Victor Lundin, and Adam West.

It was filmed in color and ran for 110 minutes. Many of the Mars scenes were filmed in Death Valley, California, at Zabriskie Point.

The plot is a pastiche of Robinson Crusoe, with an astronaut being marooned on Mars rather than a sailor stranded on a deserted island. Paul Mantee plays Commander Christopher 'Kit' Draper, while Victor Lundin is the Martian Friday.

The story begins with Commander Draper and Colonel Dan McReady (Adam West) in orbit about the planet. The spacecraft malfunctions during a meteor encounter, forcing a parachute landing on the surface. McReady is killed and Draper is stranded alone with a monkey named Mona. The remainder of the tale is a struggle to survive by finding oxygen, water, food, and avoiding some hostile aliens.

The commander discovers a cave where he can take shelter, but it is more by accident that he discovers what he needs to survive. He discovers that burning rocks give off oxygen, so he fashions a way to capture it and repressurize his oxygen tank, taking a whiff when he's breathed the planet's rarefied atmosphere for too long.

Mona keeps disappearing and returning, evidently sustained on an unknown source of food and water, so Draper has to force the monkey to lead him to that source by giving Mona salty food. Mona has found a source of water just under the surface, with alien "sausages" on the surface that Mona is chewing on. Finally, Draper fashions a sand-clock that will sound an alarm to waken him in time for a dose of oxygen.

When alien spacecraft show up, he's hopeful of help, until he sees them mistreating slaves. One escapes and comes to Draper, and their relationship only slowly develops as he has a latent distrust of the non-speaking being. When the being, who Draper thinks of as Friday, exhibits gratefulness that Draper successfully hid him from the aliens, Draper discovers that crude rings around the wrists help discipline and track the slaves, and determines to remove them.

Eventually their hiding place is discovered and they are forced to flee across the hostile Martian surface. Eventually, the aliens seem to give up, the last ring is finally cut off and they reach the north polar cap and its water. Just then, a meteor crashes, melts the polar cap, and they spot a spacecraft. Draper turns on the radio, identifies himself, and a ship comes down to rescue Draper and his companion.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Robinson Crusoe on Mars ]

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Movies - Robinson Crusoe on Mars

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