It Conquered the World (1956)

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Posted By: brian@brianschell.com October 28, 2021

Spoiler-Free Judgement Zone

It’s all right. It’s not boring, and the creature is one of those things you just have to see to believe. It’s another mind-controlling alien, but (spoiler) it doesn’t conquer the world!

Synopsis

Dr. Paul Nelson is working in the space lab, they’re getting ready to launch their new 9-million-dollar satellite.Dr. Tom Anderson has warned the government over and over to cancel the program. He has a complicated list of credentials, but the government can’t stop progress because of his warnings. He thinks alien intelligences are watching us constantly.

Tom and Peter and their wives have dinner together. It’s been up there for three months now. Tom shows Paul his radio set, and he’s picking up alien voices from Venus; Paul doesn’t hear the voices. Paul gets a phone call; the satellite is gone!

The satellite suddenly appears. Even Tom’s wife, Claire, thinks he’s crazy at this point. He has long conversations with someone on the radio that no one else can hear. He’s certain that the voice is his friend.

The military decides to bring down the satellite to see what happened. The satellite crashes, but the voice tells Tom that he survived the crash. Everything with power suddenly stops; it’s some kind a power failure. Communications are down as well.

Paul and Joan’s car stalls with everything else, and they walk to Tom’s house for help.

Meanwhile, the ugly alien shoots out little butterfly-like drones. Tom’s car works because he was smart. One of the drones attacks the sheriff, who throws the creature in the garbage can. Another one gets the General in the same way.

Paul and Joan arrive at Tom’s house, and Tom explains that he expected all this. Tom thinks the alien is here to rescue mankind from itself, not enslave it. Paul doesn’t believe any of it, and he doesn’t like the story, either.

The sheriff evacuates the town. The newspaper editor refuses to go, so the sheriff shoots him. One of the drones goes after Paul, but he shoots at it and scares it off before driving to Tom’s house. He accuses Tom of being a murderer. Tom explains that there are only nine of the creatures alive, but only one has come to Earth. Paul calls Tom a traitor to mankind and storms off.

Claire tells Tom that she hopes Paul kills the thing, and she agrees that Tom is in the wrong. Joan uses one of the drones to attack Paul, but he kills it. The alien tells Tom to kill Paul, since his control device has been killed.

Paul shoots Joan without much drama; he just kills his wife without a thought. Claire gets on the radio and tells the creature that she’s going to find a way to kill it. She then grabs the shotgun and gets in the car; she knows where the creature is hiding.

Paul tries to talk Tom into helping fight the thing. Claire enters the cave where the creature lives, and sees it; it’s horrible. She shoots it a couple of times until it kills her. Tom and Paul hear her die over the radio.

There is a company of soldiers that have been wandering around the woods for most of the story which have done nothing but supply some very weak comic relief. One of them hears Claire screaming and brings the others.

Paul goes to the lab and kills the general and two of the controlled scientists. No, the general isn’t really dead; he follows Paul, as does the sheriff.

Tom kills the sheriff. The soldiers attack the monster in its cave, but have to fall back. They do however, draw it outside. Tom arrives with his little flame thrower and burns the thing as it kills him. Paul arrives and makes a speech about how perfect humanity is.

Commentary

Another alien mind-control story. This one’s got a lot more action than some of its predecessors, although the fight scene choreography is laughably bad.

The little flying drones are stop-motion or something, and they are a pretty good effect. The main monster, on the other hand, manages to be creative, unique, and completely ridiculous all at the same time.