Something From an Alien Garden
In 1956, in the middle era of 1950s science fiction films, a genre composed of great, good, mediocre, and bad movies, Roger Corman (who went on to become the most successful B movie producer and director) directed his second science fiction effort, It Conquered the World.
I've seen this film at least three times. It doesn't make much sense. The writing is too off-kilter at times for the film to be taken seriously as drama. The depiction of military men is played for comedy, with two of Corman's later lead actors from legendary films, Jonathan Haze (The Little Shop of Horrors) and Dick Miller (A Bucket of Blood) portraying a silly fool/straight man combination having nothing to do with the plot.
Even so, the film fascinates me because of Lee Van Cleef's performance as a scientist somehow in radio contact with an alien from Venus. The Venusian has convinced Dr. Tom Anderson (Van Cleef in his early thirties, his mustache dark instead of showing the later fade displayed a decade later in Sergio Leone's masterpiece For a Few Dollars More) that its arrival will transform humanity for the better. Tom is willing to sacrifice the humanity (i.e. the emotions, which the Venusian wants to eliminate) of even his wife and friends, as well as that of the people of the nearby town, the first step in world conquest, the Venusian and its eight fellows still back on Venus acting as saviors.
Anderson refers to the Venusian as "the Benefactor," to its victims who lose their emotions and will to it as "the Released."
The film could be regarded as an anti-Communist warning, with the Venusians representing an alien threat to good old American values, yet, now that the 1950s have passed, I see this interpretation as limited. The film does fit into a continuum of similar contemporary movies and novels, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Robert A. Heinlein's novel The Puppet Masters. Even though such fictional works function successfully as anti-Communist allegories, they still possess the overriding idea that it's best to not let someone else do your thinking for you.
The Venusian itself isn't seen much, nor is it ever explained how Tom Anderson is able to understand its language over the radio. The creature itself looks like a vegetable with mean eyes and a fanged mouth, spindly arms and crab claws. It seems to be telepathic, able to cause electricity failures too, make certain cars operate while shutting down all others. It's like a master hacker. And it is funny-looking, its physical appearance one of the movie's highlights. A slowly moving cone of weird alien flesh, grinning malevolently to the accompaniment of intense music on the soundtrack.
Tom doesn't see the alien until the end. The Venusian expresses reluctance at one point to meet in person. Repulsive, it needs willing humans to enact its goal of conquest. Its own appearance, its evil face, dooms its quest, for Tom treats it like it's a Japanese soldier on Okinawa, complete with flamethrower.
A strong emotion, hatred, defeats the Venusian enemy.
Vic Neptune
In 1956, in the middle era of 1950s science fiction films, a genre composed of great, good, mediocre, and bad movies, Roger Corman (who went on to become the most successful B movie producer and director) directed his second science fiction effort, It Conquered the World.
I've seen this film at least three times. It doesn't make much sense. The writing is too off-kilter at times for the film to be taken seriously as drama. The depiction of military men is played for comedy, with two of Corman's later lead actors from legendary films, Jonathan Haze (The Little Shop of Horrors) and Dick Miller (A Bucket of Blood) portraying a silly fool/straight man combination having nothing to do with the plot.
Even so, the film fascinates me because of Lee Van Cleef's performance as a scientist somehow in radio contact with an alien from Venus. The Venusian has convinced Dr. Tom Anderson (Van Cleef in his early thirties, his mustache dark instead of showing the later fade displayed a decade later in Sergio Leone's masterpiece For a Few Dollars More) that its arrival will transform humanity for the better. Tom is willing to sacrifice the humanity (i.e. the emotions, which the Venusian wants to eliminate) of even his wife and friends, as well as that of the people of the nearby town, the first step in world conquest, the Venusian and its eight fellows still back on Venus acting as saviors.
Anderson refers to the Venusian as "the Benefactor," to its victims who lose their emotions and will to it as "the Released."
The film could be regarded as an anti-Communist warning, with the Venusians representing an alien threat to good old American values, yet, now that the 1950s have passed, I see this interpretation as limited. The film does fit into a continuum of similar contemporary movies and novels, like Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Robert A. Heinlein's novel The Puppet Masters. Even though such fictional works function successfully as anti-Communist allegories, they still possess the overriding idea that it's best to not let someone else do your thinking for you.
The Venusian itself isn't seen much, nor is it ever explained how Tom Anderson is able to understand its language over the radio. The creature itself looks like a vegetable with mean eyes and a fanged mouth, spindly arms and crab claws. It seems to be telepathic, able to cause electricity failures too, make certain cars operate while shutting down all others. It's like a master hacker. And it is funny-looking, its physical appearance one of the movie's highlights. A slowly moving cone of weird alien flesh, grinning malevolently to the accompaniment of intense music on the soundtrack.
Tom doesn't see the alien until the end. The Venusian expresses reluctance at one point to meet in person. Repulsive, it needs willing humans to enact its goal of conquest. Its own appearance, its evil face, dooms its quest, for Tom treats it like it's a Japanese soldier on Okinawa, complete with flamethrower.
A strong emotion, hatred, defeats the Venusian enemy.
Vic Neptune
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