A Quick Look: MARS NEEDS WOMEN (1967 - color)

   From the better-than-it's-reputation file, MARS NEEDS WOMEN was one of the better AIP-TV movies from director Larry Buchanan. Unlike the bulk of these films, MARS NEEDS WOMEN wasn't a shoestring remake of an earlier, far better, picture. An original work, the film is cheap but effective. Martians infiltrate our society in order to select suitable breeding stock to save their dying world, and their leader falls in love with an Earth woman. True, it's not the most original premise, but Buchanan does some good stuff with it. The film's simple approach of having Martians silently slip into our society by dressing the same as everybody else has a nice subtle undertone. Seen here are the leads, Tommy Kirk and Yvonne Craig. Because both actors are associated with Beach movies, some reviewers have labored under the false impression that the film is somehow intended as camp, or that the film is Buchanan's re-working of PAJAMA PARTY -in which Kirk played a Martian spy who falls in love with an Earth woman! Really, though, the film is nicely effective and I'd heartily recommend it to genre fans.