Earth receives a message from outer space. For three days the same message is sent. A military station in Houston called the United States Decoding Service (U.S.D.S.) has been trying to decode the message. Finally the message is decoded. It simply says “Mars - Needs - Women”.
An emissary named Dop transports down to the surface of Earth. The Martian appears in a military facility. He explains to the military the purpose of the Martians' visit. They have developed a genetic deficiency that has affected the population of Mars. Births of females has been affected. Only one birth in 100 is female. Martian males need to mate with women that will produce female offspring. They have come to Earth to appropriate females of the human race to bring back to Mars. If they do not complete their mission the entire Martian civilization will eventually go extinct.
The Earth military views this demand as a threat. They refuse to comply. The Martians resort to subterfuge. They land and hide their spaceship in an abandoned building. The company of six Martians from the UFO are sent out into the area to acquire the equipment needed to blend into the community. One robs a gas station for money. One steals a car. One breaks into a store and steals clothes for the Martians to wear. Disguised as Earth men they can go out into the city and select the specimens they need to take back to Mars.
The women have to be young, beautiful, single, in good genetic health, and of child bearing age. They have selected five women to take back to Mars. An artist (Pat Delany), A homecoming queen (Sherry Roberts), a stewardess (Donna Lindberg), a stripper (Bubbles Cash) and a scientist, Dr. Bolen (Yvonne Craig). The last one is an expert in "space genetics". That fact is an extra bonus.
A problem occurs when Dop finds himself falling in love with Dr. Bolen.
“Mars Needs Women” was released in 1967 and was written, produced and directed by Larry Buchanan. It is a made for TV movie. I expected a little more from this film until I found out that it is a Larry Buchanan affair. The movie was slow and dopey. Dopey is OK, slow is not. It was also a little boring. I’m not sure if Larry intended for it to be a comedy or not. Mainly because it really wasn’t all that funny. Of course, I’m not an expert on this. I’m not one for comedies anyway.
One thing I’ve learned about Larry Buchanan movies is that talk is cheap. Buchanan movie budgets are usually somewhere around double the poverty line. Keeping that in mind it is no wonder that most of his movies entail people talking and no action. I did learn one more thing. Stock footage is also cheap. And if it is in the public domain it is totally free. Larry knew this too.
As far as the cockamamie plot is concerned, I don’t understand how only four or five women are going to turn around an entire civilization. Men have millions of sperm. Women have one womb.
The stupid over done plot, the cheesy production values and the ludicrous dialogue are only a few aspects that make “Mars Needs Women” a cult film. Added to all that is the fact that the film was made in a serious tone, well, that’s basically the definition of camp.
If you’ve seen this movie before and you are a fan. Good for you. In reality I have no actually feeling about the movie at all. I didn’t hate it and I definitely didn’t love it. I found the movie to be basically innocuous. In other words, meh.