"We'll have no unnecessary floating around aboard this ship."
Translating ones imagination effectively to the silver screen can be tricky, especially during a time when special effects were not created through the use of computers, and, in the 50s, few did it better than George Pal (Destination Moon, When Worlds Collide, The War of the Worlds). While Conquest of Space (1955) isn't necessarily his best work, there felt, to me at least, just as much effort put forth as in any of his other films, that's to say a whole lot more than most. Produced by George Pal and directed by Byron Haskin (Treasure Island, The War of the Worlds, Robinson Crusoe on Mars...I'd like to see this last one released onto DVD), the film stars Walter Brooke ("The Green Hornet", Tora! Tora! Tora!), Eric Fleming (Queen of Outer Space, "Rawhide"), and comedian turned actor Phil `Frank DeFazio' Foster ("Laverne & Shirley"). Also appearing is Mickey Shaughnessy (From Here to Eternity), Benson Fong (Our Man Flint, The Love Bug), Ross Martin (The Colossus of New York, The Great Race), William `No relation to Dennis' Hopper (The Bad Seed, 20 Million Miles to Earth), Vito Scotti (The Boatniks, The Godfather), William `Harding' Redfield (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest), and Joan Shawlee (Prehistoric Women, The Wild Angels).
The film begins with a voice over monologue telling us that `This is a story of tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow...', okay, I know this is meant to put the viewer in the proper frame of mind, but my cynical side immediately started making jokes...perhaps it's the day after the day after tomorrow, sometime around 4 PM? Don't mind me...anyway, we soon witness the majesty of what may be one of man's greatest achievements, a giant, circular space station orbiting the Earth, the brainchild of Colonel Samuel T. Merritt (Brooke), a driven man seemingly hell bent on conquering space (hence the title of the film). The station serves a two-fold purpose, the first being an observatory, and the second, and more importantly, a launching pad for future missions into the great, inky void we know as outer space. As the story proceeds we meet various individuals and learn the crew on the station is basically a melting pot of ethnicities (although I didn't see any African Americans) and also the world of tomorrow is comprised of not a multitude of little gooberments, but one, large monolithic entity that rules all. Some stuff happens, then some more stuff, and then we get the word from the Supreme International Space Authority (SISA)...Mars is a go! There's some trepidation as this wasn't part of the original plans, but apparently mankind's need for exploitable resources is worsening by the day, so, with a hand picked crew (including his son...how's that for nepotism?), General Merritt (the new mission came with a promotion), board a specially designed rocket and begin a perilous mission...but a lengthy tenure in orbit has begun to take its toll on the General, developing into a form of the `space madness' that could threaten all...are we explorers on the verge of one of the last, great frontiers, or are we trespassers within God's domain, venturing into areas not meant for us?
All right, there is some real hokum in this film, like the notion that a man can remove the glove of his spacesuit and sift through alien soil with his hand (they did make it to Mars, by the way...it's getting back that turns out to be the real pain), but one would do well to keep in mind this film was made about 50 years ago. I was really amazed at the level of achievement in this film in terms of special effects and wonder how many minds were blown at the time (did anyone notice how much the rocketship looked like our current stealth bomber?). The space station, the rocketship, space walks, Martian landscapes...all were created with a real eye for detail and geared towards fostering the belief that we were in space...which I accepted easily, but the one aspect I found very difficult to buy off on, one which came up a few times, was the notion that the crew on the space station, and specifically on the rocketship, were the very best of the best the Earth had to offer, especially in terms of the wisecracking, comic relief/electrician Jackie Siegle (with thick, Brooklyn accent), played by Phil Foster...don't get me wrong, his was one of the more interesting characters in the movie, and I've always assumed the distant future would be one without distinctive, somewhat exaggerated stereotypes (too much Star Trek, I suppose)...but again, given the age of the film, one should make for allowances. The script is a little weak, but the story does move along at a fairly good clip, wasting little time and certainly not overstaying its welcome with a roughly 80 minute running time. This isn't really a character driven story, but focuses more so on occurrences, settings, and the problems incurred (the space station, the mission to Mars, etc.), although I did like the speech the Japanese astronaut made with regards to the importance of making the venture to Mars. I also thought the theory put forth by the General's son, played by Fleming, was a well presented in that, basically, we are where we in terms of development as being a part of some great plan (Earth's resources are nearly depleted around the same time we begin to venture into space). There are a number of noteworthy scenes and sequences...some of my favorites include the scene where two of the Mars mission crewmembers, prior to leaving, receive televised messages from their loved ones back on Earth...my thoughts immediately turned to `Oh yeah, one of these two guys ain't coming back from the trip'...and I was right...here's a tip...if you're ever flying in a spaceship traveling 20,000 mph and ordered to go outside and fix a video receptor, you might want to think twice...another sequence, and perhaps the funniest (unintentionally) is in the rocketship as it is blasting off towards Mars...all of the crewmembers faces are shown as being mashed due to extreme gravitational forces...pulling a few G's, I think is what they say, the being people who get to ride in machines that go really, really fast. All in all a strong, albeit dated, effort that falls just shy of being a sci-fi classic, but still worthy of attention, if you enjoy imaginative movie making and getting a glimpse at some amazing special effects artistry of the day.
The widescreen (1.85:1), enhanced for 16X9 TVs looks really sharp and clean, and the Dolby Digital mono audio comes though very clearly. There are no special features, not even a trailer, so if that's your bag, you're going to be disappointed. Some extras would have been nice, but I'm happy with what's here.
Cookieman108
CLASSIC UNDERRATED '50'S SPACE OPERA
This film is worth seeing and getting for the ambitious realisation of the incredible Chesley Bonestell and his paintings. This is the way man might have gone to space given an unlimited budget and a ten year head start on Sputnik and Gagarin. The film is a little corny even by 1950's standards, and having the Commander of the expedition go a little loony AND ultra-religious is somewhat jarring. But I do like this film, for it is visually well-done and it is what it is: a product of it's time.
See one of the inspirations for "2001"
For me this was the great unseen film that I had seen stills from since childhood. After avoiding the VHS tape I had heard so many bad things about, I got the DVD the day it went on sale. I had heard that this was one of the many many science fiction films Stanley Kubrick watched with Arthur C. Clarke during preproduction of "2001: A Space Odyssey," but I was unprepared for some eerie similarities that I cannot write off as mere coincidence. "Conquest of Space" is a film in which a civilian scientist arrives by transport on a wheel-shaped space station orbiting Earth, astronauts watch TV from Earth and watch one-way messages from their loved ones, a spacecraft's mission is prepared in secrecy and its destination changed just before launch, an astronaut is killed while making a repair to a spacecraft antenna and his body must be retrieved, and the crewmember in charge of a space mission goes insane and tries to kill other crew and sabotage the mission...
...and this was in 1955, not 1968.
But I don't want to build this up too much for those of you unaccustomed to 1950's science fiction movies. This isn't as good as "Forbidden Planet," but if you've enjoyed George Pal's other '50's films such as "Destination Moon," "War of the Worlds," and "When Worlds Collide," then you will probably see a great deal of the charm in this admittedly lesser though perhaps more ambitious work.
Shorts, tight t-shirts and funky skull caps are the uniform that will be worn for space flight in the 1970's. Actually this movie was somewhat accurate in the depiction of space flight. As seen through the eyes of people in the 50's im sure this was pretty high tech thinking. A commie spy forces a landing on the moon and the astronauts must find a way to survive for they cant get back to the space station. All in all a charming slice of cheese from a time at the hight of the cold war. More Info about this DVD Director(s): Richard Talmadge DVD Release Date: Released the 13 November 2001 Usually ships within 24 hours
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When production on Destination Moon began in 1949, everything about the project was state of the art. The great science fiction author Robert Heinlein cowrote the script (based on his novel Rocketship Galileo) and served as technical advisor. The film's astronomical visions were realized by Chesley Bonestell, whose artwork virtually defined the look of space travel at the dawn of the rocket era. Destination Moon is even noted in NASA's official timeline of space-travel history, and almost inevitably won the Academy Award for Best Special Effects. It remains a milestone film, not so much as classic science fiction but--like 2001: A Space Odyssey 18 years later--as an attempt to visualize the reality of space exploration. (To educate the audience on this... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): John Archer - Warner Anderson Director(s): Irving Pichel DVD Release Date: Released the 30 January 2001 Usually ships in 24 hours
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In a utopian future of universal peace and brotherhood--1985 to be specific--a mysterious artifact found in Siberia is discovered to be a message from Venus. While the recording is studied, an international team of scientists is rocketed off to make contact with the mysterious planet. It takes the film some time to get going (worldwide harmony makes for a beautiful future but pallid drama when everyone gets along so nicely), but things begin to cook once they land on the misty wasteland of Venus. Swarms of metal bugs hop from glassy mutant trees and bubbling black mud oozes after our astronaut heroes, but no Venusians can be found amidst the geodesic architecture and buzzing power plants. What they discover instead is a terrifying conspiracy wrapped in an anti-war parable. Based... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Kurt Maetzig - Hugo Grimaldi DVD Release Date: Released the 19 September 2000 Usually ships within 24 hours
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This film terrified me when I first saw it at the age of 9, but I doubt it will terrify anyone who has been raised in the era of sophisticated special effects. Nonetheless, it is a short (75 minutes), entertaining, and fun movie that captures the mood generated by the 1950s flying saucer scares.
The story centers on Nora and Frank, two strangers who've been left behind while the city was evacuated in response to an unknown (to them) threat. The eerie opening music creates the mood as Nora wakes from the stupor of an attempted suicide via sleeping pills. Alarmed to discover that both her rooming house and the entire city (as seen through her window) seem to be deserted, she gets dressed and goes off in search of someone.
With overhead photography worthy of... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Sherman A. Rose DVD Release Date: Released the 25 February 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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