It Conquered the World (1956)

When I first saw this movie, I thought it was kind of slow and boring. I don't know what was wrong with me. I admit I had already checked out Zontar: The Thing from Venus on youtube some years before. I did it wrong and should really have watched Corman's It Conquered the World first. Zontar is a remake of this film that somehow manages to be sillier and is definitely far worse in the acting department. This one comes off quite a bit more serious and professional, which might turn out to be less appealing for some, I guess. The thing is: I am a fan of 50s sci-fi movies, and after a second, more considered viewing, I feel that this is one of the stronger ones. The reason? It's got some thought put into it; the characters are mostly rather sympathetic, there are no annoying child actors, it's free of cloying sentimentality or meaningless, dated patriotism or political messages. It's possible to read an anti-commy subtext into the film, if you want to, what with the alien mind control devices supressing emotions and free will and all, but I think you'd be clutching at straws to do so. Besides, isn't it Mars that's "The Red Planet", after all?It struck me that this film is actually a lot like the British classic, Quatermass/The Quatermass Xperiment/the Creeping Unknown. it's probably a coincidence, but still interesting how the stories can be viewed as parallel. here, of course, the satellite sent out into space is unmanned, so instead of a lost astronaut slowly turning into a Space Vegetable before going on a rampage, we get the Venusian Space Squash himself, who immediately finds a nice hot cave to hole up in so he can start mind controlling a few key personnel. It doesn't seem like the smartest plan at first, but I figure if he just turns the citizens of the town into a fighting force of some kind, and if they're the only ones with working power, he might eventually be able to storm the government or something, and enact bigger, more immediately profitable things.I mentioned the cast in my title, and indeed, Corman has assembled a small but reliable group of actors who acquit themselves very well, as far as these things go. Particularly I have to single out lee van Kleef as a rather sympathetic, misguided scientist, who gets lured into some kind of long-distance friendship with the alien, whom he is convinced is coming to Earth to save us from our evil, destructive natures. There were some classic science fiction stories with a similar premise, only in many of those that I can recall, the radio-alien did in fact turn out to be benevolent. not so here. it clearly seeks to dupe our mr Anderson, and enslave the world! Anderson's wife is played by a woman named Beverly Garland. I'm not sure off-hand if I've seen her in anything else, but I must say she delivers a concerned, somewhat intense performance, that was above average for this kind of film. Although, I must point out that her continual dismissal of her husband at the outset as a sick, insane man seems a little unfortunate. She means really well though, and after all, is kind of the quintessential "normal, caring 50s housewife", I guess. In the end, she transcends this and kind of becomes the hero of the piece.What struck me about this, moreso than in Zontar, which just seemed kind of bad-tempered (or maybe that was John Agar?), was just how grim this film actually is. Most of the characters die, and not very nicely. Dr. nelson shooting his wife was particularly cold-blooded seeming. He didn't even bother to try and find out whether she could be cured or something. It felt unusual to me that a 50s SF film should so mercilessly bump off its characters. In the end, I think it adds to the sense of authenticity or serious intent which this movie has. I've read comments about people finding this film slow and "talky", as if movies where people talk to each other are somehow a bad thing. To hell with that, I say. Sure, this film's dialogue is largely functional rather than stylistic, but you understand these characters and their motivations; you believe Van kleef and peter Graves' characters are friends and there's no doubt especially that Van Kleef's Anderson is not psychotic and genuinely wants to make the world a better place. All this makes the ending that much more tragic.Give this movie a chance, if you are into classic science fiction. If you are willing to settle in for the stately pace, and a story that depicts small stakes to represent much larger ones, I think you may well be as impressed as i eventually was.

An amusing, entertaining and cheesy little B-movie from exploitation king Roger Corman. All factors are present and correct for this typical alien invasion flick, from the violence to the bad special effects to the glamour content. Dispensing with any slow-paced moralising about humans destroying the planet, instead this film concentrates on a plot of alien possession, murder, and then take-over. The cheapness of the movie is clear, but doesn't detract from the inherent fun to be had from the simple premise.This film isn't remotely plausible, but don't let that put you off from watching. Where else can you see flying bat-creatures capable of possessing human beings? What if I were to say these creatures are poorly-animated and unconvincing? On top of that, another major plus is that the killer alien RESEMBLES A GIANT CARROT! That's right, it hides in a warm cave for most of the film's running time, only to emerge as a hulking vegetable with rubbery, crab-like pincers! The alien is only destroyed when a scientist sacrifices himself and shoves a blowtorch into its eye, unleashing a steady flow of strawberry jam from the empty socket! The acting is pretty wooden and non-existent, with one notable exception: a winning performance from Lee Van Cleef, who would later go on to star in numerous westerns. Cleef is exceptional as a multi-dimensional scientist, torn between his human instinct for survival and his willingness to help an alien invader conquer the world! His dilemma and eventual sacrifice is actually quite moving. On top of this, a high percentage of the cast die violently; all the women are sacrificed or murdered, and Corman regular Dick Miller appears as a comic-relief soldier. INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS is an obvious influence, but this doesn't stop IT CONQUERED THE WORLD throwing in its own ideas as well as a few snatches of fearful paranoia. Not bad at all; apart from the monster that is!

This 1956 "Roger Corman" cheese flick is about an alien from Venus trying to take control of people with by little bat-like pizza puppets. The alien also shuts down all stuff from clocks, telephones, cars and trains somehow. In the end the thing is killed by a blow torch to the eye. What I think: The alien looks like a goofy traffic cone with lobster claws and devil horns. How anyone can not laugh at is is near to impossible. However the movie is pretty decent. These idea's of loosing ones emotions and thing stopping for a while have been used before, most notably in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956), "The Day the Earth Stood Still"(1951) and Invaders from Mars(1953). How Corman is able to get away with this stuff is beyond me. But this does not mean I hate all of his films. despite all the movies problems, it is good for a late night watch.

Basically "It Conquered the World" is the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" meets "The Day the Earth Stood Still" — and the quality of those two movies only underscores how pitiful this one looks by comparison. I'll give Roger Corman credit for being the best director who ever regularly worked at American International — not that that's saying much for him — and for at least attempting to work serious political and social commentary into a few of his movies, including this one. Ideologically, "It Conquered the World" is a hard-Right propaganda piece (much the way John Carpenter's 1983 "They Live" took the central premise of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and used it for liberal-Left propaganda) in which the Venusian strategy for conquering the world is exactly what the Right of the time said the Communists were doing — targeting political, scientific and military leaders, recruiting them and using them to subvert the country by stealth — and Lee Van Cleef's character is clearly supposed to be what the Right of the time called a "Com-Symp," someone who wasn't an active Communist but so dangerously iconoclastic he was easy prey and all too willing to do their dirty work. But any attempt Corman and his writer, Lou Rusoff, might have been making for serious political commentary is subverted (pardon the pun) by the sheer ludicrousness of the appearance of the Venusian alien. (The makers of the first "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" showed great wisdom in avoiding any shots of the alien invaders in their natural form.) Maybe the upended half-cucumber with toothpick arms isn't quite as risible as the diving-helmeted gorilla who conquered the world in "Robot Monster," but that's damning with faint praise; the ridiculous monster takes what could have been a decent piece of half-serious science fiction and turns it into pure camp.