It Conquered the World (1956)

Thanks for the memories!

I'll tell you why so serious

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

In spite of the supposedly super-intelligent and ultra-menacing alien monster looking like a laughable and oversized vegetable with an angry face drawn on it, there are still several good reasons to watch this early low-budgeted Sci-Fi gem directed and produced by Roger Corman. For starters, there's the excellent ensemble cast! There are good roles and solid performances for Peter Graves, Beverly Garland, Corman's pal Dick Miller and – most of all – an exceptionally rare civilized role for Lee Van Cleef! Generally he only starred in raw westerns and exclusively depicted nasty villains, but here he's a respectable and clean shaven scientist. He even has a wife who genuinely loves him and remains faithful no matter what happens! Of course, he still remains Lee Van Cleef, so his character never smiles and nevertheless endangers the life of hundreds of other people. Another reason why this little gem plays in a different league than the vast majority of B-movies of the fifties is because of the clever and dead-serious script. As said, the monster may look silly, but the story behind it is tense, thought-provoking and compelling. Scientist Tom Anderson (Van Cleef) has been mocked for years regarding his theories about intellectual extraterrestrial lifeforms and how they could overtake our planet and save humanity from itself. From within his private home, Anderson has been corresponding with an alien from Venus and now helped it to hijack a NASA satellite and travel to earth. He believes that humanity should get enslaved by this super-intelligent creature and benefit from its wisdom and telekinetic powers, but his best friend Paul Nelson and own wife Claire desperately attempt to convince Tom that people should remain in control of their own emotions. This rather sober subject matter, in combination with a handful of deeply philosophical speeches and a few authentically tragic moments, leads "It Conquered the World" to be a much better Sci-Fi effort that it superficially seems. In the end, people are likely to just remember the goofy Mr. Potato Head alien and the silly bat-creatures, and that's almost a shame. Of course I understand that Roger Corman absolutely wanted to have a monster physically present in his film, in order to lure more people to the cinema, but in case the monster would have remained off-screen and hidden in its cave, the film might have been regarded as highly as contemporary classics like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" or "The Thing from Another World".

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!

Knock it all they want to, IT CONQUERED THE WORLD delivers. Intense performances from the three leads, Lee Van Cleef ("We're all in a state of high hilarity."), Peter Graves, and Beverly Garland ("I hate your living guts!"), help make this one of the more enjoyable low-budget Masterworks to come out of the 1950s. Of course, Paul Blaisdell's assortment of Monsters are the REAL stars, as any true aficionado knows. The "It" of the title is especially photogenic, despite It's photo phobia (it hides in a cave until It's forced out into the light). As anyone who's ever tried to put together a No-Budget Monster Movie knows all too well, things can (and WILL) go horribly wrong when you least expect it; kudos to Corman and company for pulling off what amounts to a minor miracle. ("If it's a good movie, it's a Miracle!") (On a personal note: the "monster" at the end of one of MY Public Access Horror movies was- believe it or not- a sock puppet. You make do with what you've got...)

Roger Corman directed this cult classic that stars Lee Van Cleef(!) as Dr. Tom Anderson, a disgruntled scientist who aids a creature from Venus in its plans to conquer the world. It uses bat-like creatures to brainwash and control the population to minimize resistance, but Dr. Paul Nelson(played by Peter Graves) successfully overcomes the creatures, and leads the authorities to the cave where it is hidden, though Tom's wife(played by Beverly Garland) gets there first, since she plans to shoot it dead. It is revealed to be a bizarre cucumber-like alien that can only wobble around! Good cast and memorable(though laughable) looking alien can't save this ridiculous film. Not yet on DVD, though has been on YouTube.