This surely ranks as one of American International Pictures' finest efforts in plot construction. After seeing some excellent spaceship footage purchased by Roger Corman from the 1959 Russian film NIEBO ZOWIET, the producers edited out the clips they wanted and fashioned a story around it.
The final product cost only $50,000 (the most expensive items being helmets to match the Russian ones, purchased for $1,000!) and was shot in approximately eight days. The story casts Rathbone (in quite a different role from his more famous Sherlock Holmes) as a doctor who flies with a crew to
Mars to rescue a downed ship. The only survivor is Marly, who now sports a green complexion and sinister glowing eyes. It is revealed that she is an intergalactic vampire intent on draining crew members of their blood. Saxon and Meredith, the only crew members left, discover that Marly is a
hemophiliac! Considering the production background, this is an entertaining science fiction horror piece with an off-the-wall sense of the macabre. The direction nicely matches the footage and presents it in an eerie, atmospheric style with great effect. Rathbone remained at the studio after
filming was completed to shoot his part in VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET, another film that also employed the pirated Russian footage.
