IT CONQUERED THE WORLD (1956)
Tagline: Every man its prisoner... every woman its slave!
(Sci-Fi, Horror, Ricotta Cheese) [G]
And you want me to condone this reign of terror? To swear allegiance to this monstrous king of yours? To kill my own soul and all within reach? Well, I won't, Anderson. I'll fight it 'til the last breath in my body. And I'll fight you, too, because you're part of it - the worst part.
Oh man, so in this one, a being from outer space makes friends with Dr. Tom Anderson. Anderson follows the instructions of the creature once it gets to earth even as chaos ensues around him. Anderson is convinced that the alien is going to get rid of feelings and emotions thereby solving all the world’s problems. As the menace takes over the world using flying bat creatures to take over people’s minds, he begins to realize he couldn’t be more wrong.
First off, the acting in this movie is pretty amazing given its budget and the fact that it’s known for having one of the craziest (and most beloved) Paul Blaisdell creature designs ever. It has one of the better actors we’ve seen for decades in Peter Graves as Dr. Paul Nelson. Graves is best known for the TV series “Mission Impossible” but was also in AIRPLANE and 139 other projects. We also get a few scenes with Dick Miller in only his 4th movie ever. Dick Miller has been in everything from PIRANHA to NIGHT OF THE CREEPS. Beverly Garland plays one of the main characters, Claire Anderson. She is probably best known for THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE but was also in just tons of other movie and TV productions. She famously sarcastically made fun of the alien in this movie saying she could knock it over with her handbag. Then we have Sally Fraser who was famous for doing a lot of these types of films. She was a good friend of director Roger Corman’s as well. Her effort in WAR OF THE COLOSSAL BEAST was so good that she is the only actor or actress I even thought was trying in that otherwise terrible movie. I should also point out that Lee Van Cleef was in this, he is best known for ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. So all of that is to say that there is absolutely zero shortage of talent in this film, the acting is superb.
One thing I noticed in several scenes in this movie is that either the camera appears to be slipping or it’s just on something weird. It feels like someone is bent over backward and another person is doing a handstand on them and they are placing the camera on top of that person’s feet, then everyone is spinning them right round like a record player, seriously right round. I mean it’s just weird and all results in some jolty-looking shots that might have just been them trying to do something different with the camera work, but I highly doubt that.
I would be lying if I said I didn’t think this movie was absolutely delightful nonsense in the best way possible. I mean it’s just freakin nuts and it settles itself right down into the cheesiest recesses of my brain like lightly salted and carefully melted cheddar. I mean I really loved this thing.
Where my issues come in is that I think Dr. Paul Nelson’s character is a bit overwritten in the sense that it is extremely unlikely he would take some of the drastic actions he does in this movie, specifically 1. The editing is choppy as heck and some of the secondary actors are just very static. Having said all that, all of that is to be expected when you walk into any Corman movie. It just comes with the territory, in fact, if you are streaming ANY of his movies you can smell the mozzarella emanating from your TV or computer monitor within minutes.
For those reasons, I have to put this one at a solid 5 out of 7. It’s definitely a movie I will be watching again.
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