It Conquered the World (1956)

Wow! Such a good movie.

The greatest movie ever made..!

Great Film overall

Blistering performances.

For those of you who like to watch cheesy Black and White movies from the fifties, here is one. The writer is Lou Rusoff, the director is Hollywoods' most recognized creator from the 1960s; Roger Cormon. He gave us other films like Barbarella and Frankenstein Unbounded which were also his film projects. In this movie we have Lee Van Cleef (Few dollars More) inviting a creature from the Planet Venus to colonized the Earth. To stop him before the creature takes the planet over is Peter Graves (Mission Impossible). The alien monster with Van Cleefs' help lands in a small town with a smaller population and begins to harness the population with mind control devices. With little effort, he soon has the authority figures under his control. With the wives of the two main figures helping him, the creature is sure to win. For an early Cormon film, this movie is extremely interesting and fun to watch and despite it's poor visual monster and flying bat-like helpers, it does it's best to hold the audience. OK, so it's cheesy, it held mine as a pre-teen in 1956. Today, I recommend it to anyone who likes early Lee Van Cleef or Peter Graves movies. For those of you interested in Extras, there is Dick Miller, star of many B-pictures as well. See it, you might like it, if you don't laugh too loud. ***

It Conquered the World starts at NASA mission control where an expensive state of the art satellite is being launched, misguided physicist Dr. Tom Anderson (Lee Van Cleef) warns against such actions but his claims of impending doom are dismissed. Later that night at Tom's home his good friend & satellite designer Dr. Paul Nelson (Peter Graves) is round having dinner when Tom says he has something to show him, taking him to some computer equipment Tom claims he can speak to an alien creature from Venus but Paul is skeptical. Then Paul gets a phone-call to say that something is wrong with his satellite which has disappeared from radar, Tom knows that his Venusian friend has hijacked it & is using it as a ride to Earth where it lands in the Californian mountains. Hiding out in a cave & being helped by Tom the alien monster manages to stop Earth's power supply & bring it to a complete halt as it prepares to conquer the entire world by turning people into mindless zombies...Produced & directed by the prolific king of the cheapies Roger Corman this well remembered sci-fi monster flick from the 50's makes a valiant effort to be a bit deeper than most from the period but wooden dialogue, silly moments (some comedy relief soldiers & the rather sudden & cold blooded shooting of Joan by her husband Paul) & the infamously goofy cucumber alien monster prevent it from being anything other than a fun piece of dated cinematic nostalgia. Clocking in at a fairly brisk 70 odd minutes long It Conquered the World still manages to drag in places with it's exposition heavy script, It Conquered the World is a very talky film & I got the impression every line was meant to have some deep meaning but watching it today the dialogue comes across as really wooden & stiff, silly little speeches that are supposed to have great meaning feel tired & actually slow the film down. From the story about alien invaders that arrive under the pretence of peace & idealogical scientists It Conquered the World played on the fear of war while various popular sci-fi themes of the time are mercilessly copied from the stand alien invasion to the body snatching themes of being taken over, the idea of a world without emotion is at the core of the script as it tries to stress how important free will & free thinking is. Of course when all said & done It Conquered the World is still a silly 50's monster film but I saw a little bit more effort & meaning here than other similar films of the period even if it had no great impact or effect on me. The potential was here for a great little sci-fi film that was never realised because of a low budget, wooden script & a laughable monster.Although titled It Conquered the World a more appropriate title would have been It Conquered an Insignficant Cave as the monster doesn't really do that much & it's unclear quite what it's ultimate plan & goal are. Does it want to control the human race or destroy it? When finally seen at the end the monster does look very silly with it static rubber faced features & it's squat little body with a huge cone shaped grown on top of it's head as it sort of glides & shuffles along the ground. It does have two cool looking crab like claws though. There are also some flying bat like alien monsters that look like they are being flown into shot on fishing rods, the props were then reused in Roger Corman's next film The Undead (1957).Filmed in just five days in California it was released by AIP in 1956 on a double bill with The She-Creature (1956), the cast are pretty poor here although it's odd seeing the late great Lee Van Cleef in this.It Conquered the World is not a bad attempt at a sci-fi film with meaning but does fall way short thanks to a talky script & a goofy monster, however there's enough fun & good intention here to make It Conquered the World an enjoyable way to waste on hour. Was used as the basis for the Mystery Science Theatre 3000: It Conquered the World (1991) television episode while it was also remade by Larry Buchanan as Zontar: The Thing from Venus (1966).

It Conquered the World seems to be trapped in a sort of sci-fi Twilight Zone. Though it has a sizable cult following that appreciates its quirky genius, there are many genre fans who dismiss it as b-grade schlock. Rarely mentioned on lists of science fiction greats from the fertile 50s, the movie nonetheless survives and continues to entertain genre fans today. That It Conquered the World is a b-movie is undeniable--indeed, it is a near-perfect example of the type--but its b-movie status doesn't mean it can't be good. And it is actually quite good.The story of an alien intelligence that takes advantage of a disillusioned scientist to plot a takeover of Earth, It Conquered the World is incredibly ambitious. The globe-spanning plot was typical of science fiction from the period, but director Roger Corman didn't have the budget of War of the Worlds or Earth Vs. The Flying Saucers. Corman had to rely on imagination, and his audience's willing suspension of disbelief. Yes, the limited sets and small cast at Corman's disposal don't always do the story justice--crowd scenes are not particularly crowded, the military response to the emergency is about 1/100th what it should be, etc.--but as a result the more intimate drama becomes a fascinating character study, and the multi-layered plot works as both Cold War paranoia thriller and introspective morality play. Corman and writer Lous Rusoff (and an uncredited Charles B. Griffith) are working with a complex, thoughtful plot that belies the movie's b-level reputation.And the cast does wonders with the story. Headliners Lee Van Cleef and Robert Graves are solid as the scientists whose friendship turns bitter once it becomes clear that Van Cleef has sold his soul to the devil in exchange for revenge upon a cruel world. The beautiful Beverly Garland is often singled out for her outstanding performance as Van Cleef's desperate wife, and her nuanced portrayal of a woman trying in vain to pull her husband out of the pit is indeed excellent, and with her gorgeous looks, charm, and a killer scream Garland is one sci-fi's earliest great scream queens. Often overshadowed by Garland's performance, Sally Fraser's role as Graves's benighted wife is nearly as important to the plot, and Fraser's transformation from a caring, decent woman to alien-possessed temptress is highly convincing. Dick Miller, a genre stalwart, plays an army sergeant whose platoon is hunting the alien down...but what can they hope to do to "It" if they find it? Critics often blast this movie's special effects, and there's no denying they really aren't that special. But the script doesn't demand a lot of dazzling pyrotechnics, except for the climax, and the lack of high-end spectacle doesn't really take anything away from the drama. The creature design for "It" is much-maligned, but there is something wonderfully malevolent about "It" that overcomes any shortcomings. In any event, "It" spends most of the film lurking in the shadows, where many cinematic monsters are more frightening anyway. Despite the lack of sophisticated FX, even by 50s standards, the story itself draws you inexorably in, and the effects, limited as they are, nonetheless work within the context of the overall plot.Beyond the natural problems generated by the miniscule budget--most of which Corman manages to overcome--the film's biggest problem is pacing. The script, character driven as it is, is necessarily rather talky. Much of the dialog is vital to the surprisingly philosophical plot, but the relative dearth of action is a genuine weakness, and the film does feel rather longer than it really is. While there are moments of humor, the script generally takes itself quite seriously, and the performers do a good job of avoiding the temptation to surrender to parody.It Conquered the World is hard to find these days, but if you can locate a used tape or catch it on late-night TV there are few sci-fi gems from the great 50s that can equal its ambition and creativity. Well-written, competently acted and imaginatively directed, It Coqnuered the World is one of the best b-movies ever made.

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.