Mars Needs Women (1968)

Curiosidades

Mars Needs Women is a 1968 independently made American made-for-television science fiction film from Azalea Pictures. The film was produced, written, and directed by self-proclaimed schlock artist/auteur Larry Buchanan, and stars Tommy Kirk, Yvonne Craig, and Byron Lord. The film was released in first-run syndication by American International Pictures without a theatrical release.

Production

Buchanan was making low budget films for AIP. He said he might've rejected an idea that AlP had and told them to call him back in an hour. "With Mars, I called Jim Nicholson with the opening. 'We get this signal from outer space... What is it, Mr. Nicholson, what is it?'. And I said, 'Mars Needs Women!' He said, 'When can you start?' It was almost like a fond throwback to the days at Columbia, when they'd just trust someone with a project.

John Ashley, who had just made The Eye Creatures (1965) for Buchanan, says he was meant to play the lead role but got busy on another project, so Kirk then stepped in.

Kirk recalled "that was a period of my life when I was completely at loose ends. I was out of money, and I did anything anybody offered me. All big mistakes. You can't do that. You must be selective." Kirk called the film "undoubtedly one of the stupidest motion pictures ever made. How I got talked into it, I don't know".

Kirk had previously played a Martian seeking Earth women in AIP's Pajama Party (1964). He had made his mark as a Disney child star, but after being fired, was hoping to revive his career with Mars Needs Women treating it as a serious project, to the extent of rewriting some of his dialogue.

Reportedly, Buchanan allowed Kirk to create his own soliloquy for his scene in a planetarium (at Dallas Fair Park) as he explains that his world is dying.

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