Don’t Let My Furry Little Monster Bother You

The other day it was snowing. I left work and rented movies. One of them was Robinson Crusoe On Mars, Byron Haskin’s 1964 science fiction story about a U.S. astronaut stranded on the red planet with only a monkey for companionship. I thought it would help me conceptualize life with the cat. Marooned on Mars, the main character Kit Draper struggles to survive. Kit lives in a cave, lights rocks on fire for warmth, and stores up the oxygen they release to breathe. The monkey Mona plays a crucial role. Mona finds water to drink. There is seaweed growing in the water, and the two use these pods as their primary food source. Kit commits his experiences to tape for future humans to learn from.

“All right, here’s another note for you boys in Survival, for you geniuses in Human Factors: A guy can lick the problems of heat, water, shelter, food — I know, I’ve done it. But here’s the hairiest problem of all: Isolation, being alone. Boy, here’s where he’ll crack; here’s where he’ll go under.”

In the scene captured above, Kit transforms his oxygen tank into bagpipes, and leads the monkey on a leash through the harsh landscape playing “Dixie.” Shortly after that, alien ships appear shooting ray-guns, and an alien slave escapes. Kit gives him shelter in his cave and names him Friday. The monkey screeches at the alien. “Mona, shut up. First visitor we’ve ever had, and you act like a gorilla.” Kit tells Friday, “Don’t let my furry little monster both you… But I’m the boss, you remember that. Get out of line one iota and I’ll bring your enemies right into this cave.” Kit and Friday form a mutual trust, and work to escape from the ray-gun ships. The two eat oxygen pills and travel along underground canals to the polar ice cap with the monkey.

The symbolism and semantics of the film are best explored in Walter Rankin’s essay, “Patriotism, Politics, and Propaganda – The Naturalization of Friday’s Man, Robinson.”