Memorable, crazy movie

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

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!...

When the film begins, Dr. Tom Anderson (Lee Van Cleef) approaches the military brass to beg them NOT to send any satellites into space. He has a wacky theory that this will incite beings on other planets and they will then come to Earth to stop our program one way or another. In essence, he thinks it's best we keep a low profile! He bases this on some weird signals he's intercepted from Venus. Naturally everyone thinks he's a nut...including Dr. Paul Nelson (Peter Graves), his old friend. After all, the satellite WAS launched and has been in space several months and nothing's happened. Well, not surprisingly, when Nelson says this, the satellite disappears! Then, some time later, it's back!! Obviously some external force IS out there.During the interim, Anderson's attitude sure has changed! He's been communicating with one of the aliens and is now convinced their arrival is a good thing! This being from another world promises to help the world by eliminating human feelings...as emotions lead to wars and hatred. While this would be a terrible thing, what the alien actually envisions is much worse! And dumbbell Anderson has been helping the aliens to pick out who on Earth to control with their giant killer hemorrhoid-like devices!! And, it turns out the Earth's last hope rests on Dr. Nelson as he tries to fight these flying 'things'.In many ways, this film is like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and even more like the episode "Conspiracy" from "Star Trek: The Next Generation". And, I must admit that these were both very good sci- fi programs. The problem with "It Conquered the World" is that the basic idea is great...but the aliens are ridiculous to say the least and their flying devices nearly as laughable. With DECENT aliens and 'thingies', I'd give this one a 7 or 8. But with the dopey, cheap and stupid ones, it only merits a 4.

Dr. Tom Anderson (Lee Van Cleef) asks his friend Dr. Paul Nelson (Peter Graves) to listen to a strange humming sound, a signal from Venus. Tom thinks that's a Venusian talking to him. Paul just thinks Tom is going mad. Anyhow, an ugly looking Venusian lands on Earth, shuts off all technical devices just like that and sends out bats to bite people in the neck (yes, that's a bit low tech for an invader). Tom is convinced the Venusian can bring progress to mankind by merciless mind control. Paul is convinced that Tom is not making any sense and became a dangerous traitor. Tom is talking to the alien regularly to pick up its instructions. Tom's Wife Claire (Beverly Garland) decides she hates the alien because it took her husband away from her. Time for phone calls is over, she is going to face the intruder...Even though the movie features one of the most ridiculous rubber monsters ever to disgrace the silver screen, it has a remarkably good quality in most other respects. Building up the story as a personal revenge rather than a typical invasion puts the focus on the actors who do a better job than usual in the low budget flicks. Paranoia SF of the 1950s at its best.

Basically "It Conquered the World" is the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" meets "The Day the Earth Stood Still" — and the quality of those two movies only underscores how pitiful this one looks by comparison. I'll give Roger Corman credit for being the best director who ever regularly worked at American International — not that that's saying much for him — and for at least attempting to work serious political and social commentary into a few of his movies, including this one. Ideologically, "It Conquered the World" is a hard-Right propaganda piece (much the way John Carpenter's 1983 "They Live" took the central premise of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and used it for liberal-Left propaganda) in which the Venusian strategy for conquering the world is exactly what the Right of the time said the Communists were doing — targeting political, scientific and military leaders, recruiting them and using them to subvert the country by stealth — and Lee Van Cleef's character is clearly supposed to be what the Right of the time called a "Com-Symp," someone who wasn't an active Communist but so dangerously iconoclastic he was easy prey and all too willing to do their dirty work. But any attempt Corman and his writer, Lou Rusoff, might have been making for serious political commentary is subverted (pardon the pun) by the sheer ludicrousness of the appearance of the Venusian alien. (The makers of the first "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" showed great wisdom in avoiding any shots of the alien invaders in their natural form.) Maybe the upended half-cucumber with toothpick arms isn't quite as risible as the diving-helmeted gorilla who conquered the world in "Robot Monster," but that's damning with faint praise; the ridiculous monster takes what could have been a decent piece of half-serious science fiction and turns it into pure camp.