lancecoach

Imaginatively conceived, cleverly written, competently acted, well directed, funny, colorful, and -- true to the era -- no bad language. Also no violence. A simple "boy-gets-boy" plot with a complicating "girls wants boy but that's a 'no-no'" twist. Excellent score evokes Henry Mancini. Deliberately makes fun of early 60's film characteristics such as bad rear screen, flat lighting, and split-screen phone chats. All in all, some good laughs and a message that's as important and relevant in this day of same-sex marriage as it would have been in the Sixties for mixed race relationships. Reminds one of the excellent early 60's Ossie Davis/Ruby Dee race relations comedy "Purlie Victorious" (aka "Gone are the Days.") Kudos to Executive Producer Ted Trent for the idea and the funding; and to Director/Writer Dan Steadman for bringing the idea to life. I understand this team is working on more films. Good.

I was there. Here's the true story about the open space helmets on Mars. When Darren McGavin first donned his helmet, it was a bad fit and mashed his nose, his most prominent facial feature. He angrily ripped it off, threw it against the sound stage wall (it shattered), and stomped off the Mars set, vowing not to return until the problem was rectified. With time being money and money scarce on this ultra low budget film, the films designer -- possibly hung over -- rushed out and bought and painted some motorcycle helmets. I, as a gopher and the only person on the crew who could type, was ordered to quickly write a few lines of dialogue indicating that the mission crew back on earth had just discovered that there was sufficient oxygen in the Mars atmosphere to permit simplified helmets that only needed to augment the oxygen supply. (That information was revealed in a brief en route scene on the space ship....which may have been edited out...not sure.)(As another reviewer has noted, I discovered through quick research, that this was considered a possibility.) Thus, Darren was back on the set later the same day. There's also the story of the dump truck which, when backing into the set with a load of "Martian sand," fell through a temporarily constructed plywood covering into a giant pit in the center of the sound stage. It took a day to get it pulled up out of the pit. Why, you ask, was Mars being recreated indoors? Because the day before a local Florida mini-tornado roared through destroying the outdoor Martian landscape it had taken days to construct. Let's face it....it was probably a mistake to film a sci-fi special effects film anywhere in the USA outside of Hollywood. - Lance Webster (the director's son, the 24 and just out of college. Now 68.)