It Conquered the World
                                     
Director: Roger Corman
Year: 1956
Rating: 6.0
Roger Corman was once again hitching on recent trends with a film about an alien invasion that has echoes of Invaders from Mars and Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It runs at a sleek 71-minutes and really not a minute is wasted. The creature is from Venus - hitchhiked on a satellite - and may be the silliest looking monster ever in an alien or monster film. Squat, sharp teeth, claws and beady eyes. But it is a genius. Just as ugly as your typical blind date. This has for the time period some shocking scenes of violence - not graphic - just very unexpected. Let's step back a bit.



Scientist Dr. Anderson (Lee Van Cleef trading in his cowboy boots for a toupee) warns the military not to send a satellite into space. They think he is nuts when he tells them that other life forms will see this as a threat. Which makes zero sense later on when we discover that he is nuts but in a different way. He has been communicating with these super intelligent life forms on Venus who promise him that if they can come to earth, they will make everything better - no more emotions, people under control. Sounds good to him. His wife (Beverly Garland) worries about him but loves him. She is the highlight in the film. His best friend Paul (Peter Graves) who works at the space station thinks he is crazy too, but what are friends for.



When the monster shows up, it mentally shuts down all electronics in the area and sends out these bird-like creatures that have spikes that it can jam into the back of necks making people mindless slaves that it can control. It only has eight of these and that may not be enough to control the world. We will have to wait and see. Anderson is a fanatic who keeps arguing with his wife and friend, that this is for the best. The world is a mess and it needs order. The wife goes, "But love is an emotion". And the world needs love.



Dick Miller shows up of course as one of the soldiers who has to face off against the monster.  Garland gets two great quotes. Angry at her husband for not seeing reason, she calls up the monster on his equipment and tells it, "I hate your living guts, I know you for the coward you are and I'm going to kill you". Then as she faces the beast, rifle in hand, "So that's what you look like. You're ugly, horrible. Go on. Try your intellect on me. You think you are going to make a slave of the world. I'll see you in hell first". Should have won the Oscar for that.