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Mars Needs Women (1968 TV Movie)
8/10
Tommy Kirk deserves to better recognized for his gifts and and his contribution to the art of film acting.
6 September 2014
Forget about the lurid title, it's really something of a documentary on mid-20th century American culture in the manner of a Frederick Wiseman docu. Mr. Kirk spends most of the film in a very conservative blue suit playing a very serious Martian. Mr. Kirk has nothing to be ashamed of. He gives a lecture to children at a planetarium about what what was believed about Mars at the time, and he falls in love with Yvonne Craig proving Martians, (who spout no antennas) are in fact humans.

There is an extended scene at a strip club and and even longer scene at a Baylor football game. And the Martians break into a men's clothing store and select a very conservative look that fits right in with the code of how mid century American men should look.

There are a couple of inadvertently funny lines delivered with deadpan earnestness but otherwise this is not like the "The Attack of The Crab Monsters" which Tommy Kirk takes Deborah Walley to see in the film " It's a Bikini World."

Mr, Kirk looked great in this film like Shia LaBoeuf before his breakdown and David Gordon Levitt. He is a very talented man (his face is always expressive) who did as much with even this as he could, whose personal identity cost him his career before it was cool to have an afternoon TV show or get married. And Mr. Kirk is very much alive and I trust happy and really Mr. Kirk this innocuous movie is nothing to be ashamed of . You're the best. TCM should be honoring you for your body of work as child actor, adolescent and young man.
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8/10
Good comic sense
30 August 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Tommy Kirk is the great comic actor that should have been and had he lived in a better world and more enlightened time he would have. He should be invited on an episode of The Big Bang Theory opposite Jim Parsons as the older Merlin Jones.

In this film he is winning and charming and he does everything and more that he can with the material. He relates easily to his co star Annette who is just okay and bland, his other comic foils who are familiar faces from early and mid sixties TV. Mr. Kirk has the best way of reading the most stereotypical of lines and his expressive face is priceless.

Furthermore he is good looking. And sexy. So in spite of the supposed nerdiness of his character it is easy to believe that Annette would want him. I just wonder why he doesn't want a girl sharper than her character. She is loyal but her prodding causes his life more complications.

The mind reading sequences are funny, the hypnotizing of the cat is great(and great for kids) and his attempted voo doing of the judge of in court with Annette on the comb for musical accompaniment had me laughing aloud.

Far from being over the hill, Mr Kirk should have been promoted and gone on to better films with substantive scripts for adults. This is no more goofy and no less satiric than "The Thrill of It All" of the same era with Doris Day, though that film is aimed for adults and this for kids. Even so, it is very watchable (still great for kids) and given its age holds up because of Mr. Kirk's talent as a comic actor.
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