ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

Ambitious in scope, undeniably action-packed: George Pal's third 1950s sci-fi film is loaded with glorious, Technicolor special effects that rival "2001: A Space Odyssey" (supervised by John P. Fulton).











Unfortunately, the movie suffers mightily from the embarrassing performances of some of its stars. The script contains several ethnic stereo-types which are just short of tasteless ethnic jokes. Perhaps the film's worst flaw is its choice of "villains" — a mission commander who goes crazy from reading the Bible too much. The message isn't really anti-religious, but it can easily be misinterpreted as such.







However, if you're able to get around this particular flaw, "Conquest of Space" is a wonderful science fiction adventure. Impressive sets and props by art directors Hal Pereira and Joseph MacMillan Johnson. Excellent music by Van Cleave ("The Space Children", "The Colossus of New York").







Directed by Byron Haskin. Starring Eric Fleming, Benson Fong, Phil Foster, Ross Martin, Mickey Shaughnessy, Walter Brooke, and William Hopper. Based on a book by Willy Ley and Chesley Bonestell (who also provided the space art).
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

After having seen this movie only once as a callow youth and being mesmerized by the visuals, my next opportunity to watch it came as a college student at a campus screening, double-billed with Metropolis. That experience changed my whole perspective on the movie.

Conquest was screened first. Right out of the starting gate the audience began chuckling at every line of dialog or, by that time, visual cliche (the movie being full of them). My innocence was stripped away and I saw the movie in a completely different light, hopelessly dated and stuck in time. (For Metropolis, on the other hand, the room remained hushed in reverential silence.)

Still, I admire those fine miniatures and marvelous visualizations to this day.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[Bud Brewster]

Good anecdote, Wayne. It describes what we've all experienced at some point in our lives, either with this movies or another — and often with several formerly beloved films.

It's always puzzled me that George Pal got it so right with Destination Moon, When Worlds Collide, and The Time Machine — and got it so wrong with The Conquest of Space.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Robert (Butch) Day]

You forgot about the TIME period in which it was made. The anti-communist witch-hunts of Senator Joseph McCarthy and his House Un-American Activities Committee, hmm?

Hollywood was terrified and many movies which would otherwise be fine were ruined by this.
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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Gord Green]

At the time this was produced it was very state of the art as far as the visuals were concerned.

Unfortunately it fell into the cold war post WW2 mentality of translating the "Army-Navy" experience and transposing it into the future. Spacemen were going to be like drafted soldiers and a ship's crew were to be like WW2 submarine crews and the story angles went from there.

Still, these aside it was visually striking and the Chesley Bonestall concept art was perfect 50's art. It, along with DESTINATION MOON and FORBIDDEN PLANET marks the best of 50's sci-fi.

[orzel-w]

Dang it! I'm going to pull out my DVD and set it aside for watching tomorrow night.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[Bud Brewster]

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Oddly enough, one of the quoted reviews in the Wikipedia article for Conquest of Space is this rather puzzling and unkind remark.
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The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction said "The special effects are quite ambitious but clumsily executed, in particular the matte work."
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I think The Encyclopedia of Sci-Fi was written years later, so the author may have been judging the 1950s FX based on standards from decades later.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[orzel-w]

Some of the bluescreen shots did come out obviously matted, such as the "taxi" between the Mars ship and the space station, even to a kid back in the day. Largely, however, the sfx were high quality in comparison with other sci-fi titles back then.
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...or not...

WayneO
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[orzel-w]

[Rick]

Actually, they do have their own thing going on in India. I've had to learn this the hard way. My son is currently studying in Southern India and he is 9 1/2 hours ahead of New York time.

I don't know why they do it, but I know it's real. So that's not a mistake. Actually, it shows a surprising attention to detail.
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Man need not kneel before the angels,
Nor lie in death forever,
But for the weakness of his feeble will.

[Bud Brewster]

[orzel-w]

[Brent Gair]

The Canadian province of Newfoundland also has a 30 minute offset in it's time zone.

9:00PM Eastern Standard Time is 9:30PM Newfoundland Standard Time.

[scotpens]

[Gord Green]

Absolutely true.

But, I think he was referring to the zietgiest (spirit of the times) rather than the literal combination of the two movements.

Still, the movie suffers from the same thing many post WW2 films did. It perpetuated concepts that could only be viewed as anachronistic by future viewers.