Reporter Tim O'Hara, while covering a flight of the Air Force X-15, finds a spaceship that contains a genuine martian. The martian is a professor who specializes in the planet Earth and now has to repair his spaceship before he can go home.
There is triple girl trouble in the O'Hara home. George, the dog Tim is looking after for Mr. Burns, wants Chloe, the dog next door. Tim tries to get George and Chloe together and falls for Chloe's owner, Marsha Carson. Angela is jealous.
Martin has a cold. When he sneezes, he changes to being visible at bad times. Tim is assigned to review Trimbles Department Store's outer space exhibit, rife with stereotyped caricatures. As an advertiser, Trimble expects a glowing review.
Martin reads about a $2 billion American space program, one he knows is doomed. Tim fabricates a letter to the paper which includes Martin's nighttime musings, thinking they will fix the program. Tim is questioned under a lie detector.
A renowned scientist posits that life no more advanced than amoebas can exist on Mars. Martin helps Angela write a class report refuting his claims and she gets a "F". Martin's plan includes Tim planting a seed in the professor's brain.
To get some rarefied air, Martin goes atop a water tower. Passersby and police think he's a jumper and he's sent to the psych ward of the hospital. Martin goes for a quick release by reading the doctor's mind to say what he wants to hear.
Curious, Martin experiences an emotion foreign to Martians: love at first sight. He falls for an exotic dancer and wants to marry her after they date once. But her previous suitor, Officer Thorp, explains he lied because he was an orphan.
Martin agrees to give Tim a power of mind reading in limited form; it will expire the next day at midnight. Tim uses it indulgently. He hopes it will aid in an interview with a politician. But he is surprised and thinks Martin tricked him.
Junk men mistakenly empty the guy's garage instead of Mrs. Brown's, taking Martin's spaceship. She has no idea which junkyard but a neighborhood dog, Booboo, helps track it down. When they get to the junkyard, they find it has been sold.
After using a stranger's fingerprints to get a driver's license, Uncle Martin falls under suspicion of being a notorious jewel thief. Martin and Tim set a trap for the thief employing good old Martian know-how.
Martin needs to make an alloy of silicon and cobalt he calls silibalt. But the cyclotron he has rigged in the kitchen is inadequate so he follows Tim on his interview at the university to access their cyclotron where a prodigy is at work.
Tim is pursuing the seemingly unattainable Cynthia Parker. Martin reads her mind and finds she is passionate about classical arts: music, literature or art. She figures Tim is not, which is the truth. Tim tricks her into thinking he is.
The O'Hara's have new neighbors, a boy Stevie and his adult sister Jennifer. The foursome go to picnic on Sunset Mountain as Martin needs to get an metal ore called "glink" for his craft. It is located there not yet discovered by humans.
7.6/10 (56)
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By what name was My Favorite Martian (1963) officially released in India in English?