Movie review – Corman #7 - “It Conquered the World” (1956) **1/2

Early Roger Corman sci-fi flick which was really too ambitious for its limited budget, being about the attempt of a Venus space creature to take over the world – here the “world” is limited to some scientists and their wives, a group of soldiers, some townspeople. But it is a surprisingly strong story – the creature does it by using bat-like creatures who attack locals and convert them into mind controlled slaves, there is a scientist (an intense Lee Van Cleef) who, frustrated by humankind’s failings, helps the aliens, and there are some full on scenes when a good scientist (Peter Graves) shoots various humans who’ve been taken over by the alien – including his own wife! (He doesn’t even try to lock her in the basement or anything, he just shoots her). Also surprising was the scene where the traitor scientist’s wife (Beverly Garland) who for most of the film is shown to be a can’t-help-loving-that-man ninny, goes after the alien with a shot gun – but ends up dead. These things all make the film unexpectedly powerful. OK, it’s a limited sort of power – the sfx are dodgy, the flying bats and the alien itself looks like a giant cucumber (there are times when it appears the audience should see the monster but don’t – I have a feeling it was cut out after screenings because it looked so ridiculous and incurred laughter rather than screams). Good role for Van Cleef and it moves along briskly.