It Conquered the World

Roger Corman has given us so much as a producer/director, and this is one of his best. It was made during the terrors of the Cold War/Atomic Age era, and was even re-made twelve years later with John Agar. We have a post-Fury, pre-Mission Impossible Peter Graves, a still-getting-started Lee Van Cleef. Marvelous humor from Jonathan Haze and Dick Miller. And the always hot Beverly Garland as Van Cleef's wife. The monster, embarassingly bad by Paul Blaisdell, probably might scare my three year old grandson, but, that might even be a stretch. Ronald Stein interlaces his excellent score with the events to heighten the excitement. You can poke fun at the show's smaller production values, the monster, the paranoid atmosphere of the fifties, but, this is excellent entertainment.

This movie was originally given an 'X' rating in England, and was almost banned. This was in reaction to the violent treatment of the alien at the movie's end (it's shot many times and has a blow torch put to its right eye). The concern was not over the violence itself, but rather that an "animal" was its object. The movie's director argued the alien was not an animal, but rather an intelligent being. Incredibly, based on this redefinition of the alien the ban was removed. The movie itself? It's lots of fun with some good and familiar actors. If you're old enough to have seen this type of movie as a kid it'll bring back some pleasant memories.

OK, it's got one of the goofiest monsters ever constructed, a toothy rubber cone that no one could possibly take seriously. Never mind that. This is a nifty little piece of Body-Snatchers style Cold War paranoia about free will and the fear of ideological slavery, with Lee Van Cleef wound *really* tight as the Brilliant Scientist On The Edge, a never-better performance by Peter Graves as his Heroic and Visionary Colleague, and Beverly Garland at her all-time coolest - 50's sweater and all - as the rifle-toting wife who storms into Zontar's cave to settle the hash of the beastie who stole her man. This is *good* stuff!

It conquered the world is one of my favorite sci fi movies of the 50,s.OK,so the monster is a little ridiculous looking but that just adds to the fun.Beverly Garland is terrific as lee van cleefs aggravated wife and she gives some great screams in her moment of terror.It,s eerie to see people you once trusted turn against you,not of their own volition of course.This movie has good murder scenes,people getting shot down and a great strangling scene,not to mention the monsters way of finishing off his victims.Try to catch this film.It,s corny but habit forming.

One of Roger Corman's funnest films. It's a 1950s budget science fiction & horror film that I'm sure many teenagers and 20-somethings enjoyed at the old drive-in pictures shows during it's release. These are cucumber-looking creatures are from planet Venus - and there aren't many of them left. They are somewhat logical but not completely - they have no feelings are emotions. They are using humans to kill one another - turning them into mindless slaves. This happened because Dr. Tom Anderson (van Cleef) was in contact with them and helped to guide them to our planet Earth. It is up to Dr. Paul Nelson (Graves) to help put an end to the destruction and deaths. If you don't take this film seriously and just watch it for the fun of it then you might enjoy this Roger Corman feature. 6/10

This is an entertaining, well acted, well edited film of its genre. Classic anti-communist fear, rubber monster, Roger Corman trash fun. Heavily cut on its initial release. BEWARE, the only available DVD release from Siren Entertainment (coupled with Creature from the Haunted Sea) retains these cuts. 29 cuts in total including ALL IMAGES of the monster! Ludicrously, while all images of our rubber friend are removed, most of the human to human violence, some of which is quite strong, remains. I will never understand censorship ! Where Siren entertainment got this copy from I do not know. The film deserves a restored, uncut release.

A well meaning scientist guides an alien monster to Earth from Venus, so that he can rid mankind of feelings and emotions -- but only death and sorrow results. Yes, this is a terrible movie by any real standards. Once you see the monster (or cucumber, or whatever it is) that allegedly "conquers the world", you will instantly know this is not a film to be taken seriously. But, of course, that is sort of the point. Roger Corman built his reputation on cheesy science fiction fun. He knew it was not terrifying, but that was not the goal -- grab some popcorn and a Dr Pepper, and just have fun!