The Angry Red Planet

The Angry Red Planet (also called Invasion of Mars and Journey to Planet Four) is a 1960 American science-fiction film directed by Ib Melchior and starring Gerald Mohr and Les Tremayne. It was filmed in 1959, and was released on September 8, 1960 on a double bill with Beyond the Time Barrier. It also played in some areas with Circus of Horrors (1960).

Filming for The Angry Red Planet began on September 9, 1959, at Hal Roach Studios in Culver City, California, only a month after Ib Melchior and Sid Pink completed their final draft of the screenplay. Melchior reportedly had an initial production budget of only $200,000 and was given just nine days to film it. Such financial and time constraints necessitated the use of "CineMagic", a film-processing technique that combined hand-drawn animations with live-action footage. The relatively inexpensive process was used for all scenes depicting the surface of Mars. While CineMagic proved unsatisfactory for creating visually believable special effects for The Angry Red Planet, producer Norman Maurer did reuse the process in 1962, although to a lesser extent, in the comedy film The Three Stooges in Orbit.