azathothpwiggins Dr. Paul Nelson (Peter Graves- KILLERS FROM SPACE, BEGINNING OF THE END) heads a team that has just launched the latest satellite. His friend, Dr. Tom Anderson (Lee Van Cleef- ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK) has tried in vain to get the project scrapped. Why? He says he's been in contact w/ a life-form from Venus. Seconds later, the satellite disappears! Is Tom crazy, or is he actually communicating w/ an alien intelligence?His wife, Claire (Beverly Garland- NOT OF THIS EARTH) hopes neither is true! Nearby, something has arrived from space. causing a mass power failure. Cars stop dead! Watches and clocks won't work! Airplanes fall from the sky! Rubber, bat-like creatures grab onto people's necks! Has the apocalypse begun? No, it's just another Roger Corman film. Taking up residence in a cave, the titular creature wreaks havoc. Due to the comical appearance of the monster, it's only fully seen toward the -abrupt- end. This jiggling, flailing mountain of Limburger could be the most preposterous prop ever conceived! Alas, this leaves it up to the humans to fill in the gaps, blathering endlessly about the implications of what has occurred. A must for the true lover of cinematic agony! EXTRA POINTS FOR: Dick Miller and Jonathan Haze as a pair of bumbling soldiers! Peter Graves on a bicycle! Beverly Garland's encounter w/ bendy, rubber claws!...

BA_Harrison A giant crawling turnip from Venus smooth-talks American scientist Dr. Tom Anderson (Lee Van Cleef) into organising a trip to Earth, whereupon the creature promises to save mankind from itself by eradicating human emotions. Of course, the ugly alien only intends to conquer the planet. Thankfully, Dr. Paul Nelson (Peter Graves) isn't convinced by Anderson's good intentions and refuses to co-operate.A cold-war-era sci-fi quickie from director Roger Corman, It Conquered The World is in the same vein as Invaders From Mars and Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, a thinly veiled warning for all of us in the West to keep an eye out for 'reds under the beds', those who might have been indoctrinated by Communism. While the idea isn't a new one, and the film's low budget doesn't allow for any fancy special effects or a decent creature (the Venusian is one of the goofiest looking monsters imaginable), Corman's assured direction ensures an entertaining movie nonetheless, the film's success helped by strong performances throughout (with a special nod for Beverly Garland as Anderson's wife Claire) and some unexpectedly strong violence (a cold-blooded shooting, a man burnt alive, and death for all of the women!).

Paul Andrews 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).

MARIO GAUCI I would not exactly call this a good film but it certainly exemplifies what a guilty pleasure is – since it features one of the goofiest monsters ever (actually rivaling ROBOT MONSTER [1953]) in its clumsy carrot-shaped Venusian! In fact, I enjoyed it more than Corman's ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS (1957) – precisely because of its having well-known faces in the lead roles, namely Peter Graves (well suited to this type of film, as confirmed by the title which followed in my Halloween challenge i.e. Bert I. Gordon's BEGINNING OF THE END [1957]), Beverly Garland (though saddled with a one-note character) and Lee Van Cleef (too young to play an eccentric scientist in exile but this actually adds to the film's quirkiness). The 'invasion' takes the form of widespread power failure a' la THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (1951) and eventually an emotion-drained personality (after being pricked in the neck by a bat-like control device – perhaps a nod to INVADERS FROM MARS [1953]): as with many films of its ilk, the villain here is really Communism and, in fact, Graves brands Van Cleef a traitor for having led the alien to our planet in the misguided belief that it would solve mankind's problems! However, the film – running a brisk 68 minutes – balances its cautionary messages with action, movement (scenes depicting military maneuvers and the panic-stricken townsfolk) and even poignancy (Graves is forced to kill his wife after she has been 'taken over'); that said, we still have to contend with Van Cleef's 'climactic' tussling with the ultra-fake alien and the wacky combo of Dick Miller and Jonathan Haze (made to look and sound Hispanic) leading the soldiers!