This movie contained a sequence showing the consequences of atomic war on Mars, and how it had destroyed the once advanced Martian civilization. This is one of the first times a movie showed the dangers of atomic war, and might have actually been the first.
When the film was originally released theatrically in 1950, the sequences on Mars were tinted red so as to impart a sense of the alien Red Planet into the black-and-white film. But subsequent TV prints did not reproduce this effect, and for decades the Martian scenes were shown only in black-and-white until the red tint was restored for home video in the early 1980s.
In the 1970s, businessman Wade Williams acquired the rights to this film and proceeded to produce new special effects sequences to take the place of the film's original effects scenes. New shots included a model of the rocket in space, sequences depicting the ship descending toward and taking off from Mars, re-filmed sequences on Mars with new actors, and the use of stock footage of an actual nighttime rocket take-off in the launch sequence at the start of the movie. These sequences were substituted for original footage that was cut from the film, and were seen on the initial VHS and DVD releases in the US. In the 1990s, however, much of this substitute footage was removed and the original scenes restored. The only remaining updated effects sequences occur in the initial launch from Earth, and shots of the rocket landing on and departing from Mars (all of which used stock footage of a V-2 rocket in the original). However, the complete, uncut, original version of the film remains unavailable.
The gravity-assist method of achieving escape velocity shown is similar to the one actually used in 2013 by India's Mars Orbiter Mission to leave Earth for Mars.
Unlike most sci-fi films of the 1950s, this early effort correctly predicted that multi-stage rockets were needed to achieve earth orbit.