It Conquered the World (

1956

) ½

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) was a sci-fi classic that left its mark on a whole generation of filmmakers. For instance, it’s easy enough to see lingering touches of its politics and faith in the work of Rod Sterlings’ teleplays. Indeed the notion of benevolent aliens visiting earth in order to uplift mankind to a new age of peace and prosperity is still with us as evidenced by movies like Arrival (2016). Yet when I was watching that film I couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe it’s being too optimistic, too hopeful about the nature of our extra-planetary visitors. We have no more reason to assume the best of our visitors from across the stars than the original inhabitants of the Americas did about their visitors from across the Atlantic. Wouldn’t it be a great subversion of audience expectations if the humane scientists were wrong about their assumptions and were really placing all of mankind in horrific danger? If Arrival (2016) really wanted to screw with our heads they could have given us an out of nowhere happy ending where the day is saved by the ever-vigilant CIA spook who had been quietly warning about the potential danger of the aliens since he appeared onscreen. That would have surprised me a hell of a lot more than the twist that the filmmakers actually went with. Alas, the trend in human thinking now is too vain to consider for a moment that we might not be unique in our cruelty, our greed, and our indifference to the suffering of others.

Mercifully, such thinking is a phenomenon unique to our times. The filmmakers of the 1950s had no problem imagining an intergalactic wolf coming to us in sheep’s clothing as evidenced by the work of Roger Corman. Corman’s early sci-fi films are littered with seemingly benevolent aliens that arrogantly seek to subvert and control mankind and the earth. From the aliens of War of the Satellites (1958) that try to bar mankind from outer space to the titular monster of Night of the Bloodbeast (1958) that comes to earth in peace but thinks nothing of devouring a couple of humans if it means more efficiently accomplishing its mission. In today’s film though, the monster even uses the same tactics as Klantuu from The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) when he cuts off the power everywhere in the world at once going so far as to disable clocks and watches. Unlike Klantuu though, he’s not particularly concerned about the loss of human life so he forgoes the safeguard of keeping planes in the sky powered.

The alien monster is, without question, one of the most ludicrous creatures put forward by a film in all seriousness. It resembles a massive head that creeps along the ground on hundreds of small tentacles. It has two big clumsy arms but seldom uses them, and instead relies on a host of small, symbiotic organisms that it controls psychically. These sub-organisms resemble giant bats and are capable of biting individuals and bending their personalities to the alien monster’s will. It can only produce eight of these things at a time though; meaning the number of people it can control is seriously restricted. It’s also poorly-adapted to the earth’s atmosphere, being used to the sulfurous air of Venus, meaning the thing can only hide out in a cave near a hot-spring lest it shrivel up and die. Lacking any knowledge of human society, culture, or even language the monster would pose almost no threat to mankind were it not for its human quisling: Dr. Tom Anderson.

Dr. Tom Anderson is a figure that is immediately familiar to most people’s lived experience, yet almost wholly absent from the film. He’s a man of tremendous insight and brilliance, who thinks that his education and abilities make him better than other people. Yet he is not so special, nor so capable as to overcome the fact that everyone he meets finds him frustrating and off-putting. It’s a problem that seems to afflict only people of moderate intelligence, as the truly brilliant know just how little they really know. He’s a crackpot that mistakes his own failure for the purposeful sabotage of his fellow men. ‘If only I wasn’t held back by these dullards!’ he seems to shout in every scene, unaware that his patient and kind friends are far wiser than he. He’s the antithesis of the coolly rational Professor Barnhardt from The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) who identifies and accepts Klantuu’s wisdom and thus falls prey to this movie’s anti-Klantuu’s constant praise of his abilities and intelligence. Lee Van Cleef, who thanks to his serpentine visage, would go on to play a long line of cinematic ne'er-do-well, is to be commended for bringing this character to life. Real human evil is seldom cruel or insane, but rather arrogant and petty and Cleef captures this truth in his performance perfectly.

In contrast, Peter Graves playing Anderson’s friend Dr. Paul Nelson has considerably less to do, he merely needs to stand straight and look heroic (which lets be honest, is Graves’ default expression). He is the classic heroic scientist of the 1950s, working tirelessly to better mankind in general and his nation in particular. The debate scenes with Anderson, which begin as friendly exchanges and gradually become more and more serious as Nelson begins to realize just how far gone Anderson is, are aided by the physicality of the two actors. Nelson tall, fair, and dignified, while Anderson is shorter, darker, and always has the look like he’s up to no good.

When we start the film Nelson is hard at work on a new satellite, a project that Anderson sabotages under the orders of a mysterious broadcast he’s getting beamed into his house from Venus. Anderson’s sabotage doesn’t destroy the satellite; instead, it allows a Venusian alien to get onboard before crashing it gracelessly into a mountainside (seriously, I have no idea how the alien crawled out of that mess). Once on earth, the Venusian uses its bat-like sub organisms to try and dominate the most important people in the surrounding town: The Mayor, The Chief of Police, The General in command of the military base and the head of the satellite research project Dr. Paul Nelson.

It Conquered the World, is a film that has the potential to provide a much-needed rebuttal to the idealistic The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), yet it falls flat technically and often, crucially, in terms of entertainment. The broad ethnic stereotypes provided by the hapless soldiers throughout the film’s runtime are probably its worst crime against entertainment. Mercifully the scenes are brief, we are not dealing with Transformers (2007) or Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999) levels of minstrel humor here. The script falls flat at crucial moments, like when Nelson dumbfoundedly watches the police chief summarily execute a non-compliant shopkeeper. His response to the scene of wanton cruelty is one of bemused curiosity rather than outright terror. Then there’s the stuff that’s great but that we don’t get nearly enough of, like when Nelson’s wife is given the body snatcher treatment. The actress chooses to play this as a grotesque stereotype of the “good” 1950s housewife and it is without a doubt one of the funniest and creepiest bits in the whole film. Beyond that, the script feels oddly drawn out despite the fact this movie is a scant 71 minutes long. Was it really necessary to have so many confrontations between Dr. Nelson and Dr. Anderson? I understand that they constitute the film’s central relationship but it seems like they are eternally meeting and arguing rather than acting on their oft-stated convictions.

The film also does not deliver on its titular promise. Sure, the alien has cut all power across the world but he never “conquers” anything more than a single remote town in the Rockies. Even that is pretty hotly contested as he fails in gaining control over one of his primary targets. Still “It Conquered the World” has a nice ring to it, something horrifying yet nonetheless dignified so I’ll let it pass. What’s harder to overlook is the fact that any town could possibly be so isolated in 1956 that there would be no attempt made to reestablish communication with it in the event of an emergency. This is especially galling when you consider that the townhouses not only a military base but also a team of valuable research scientists. Sure, the alien has knocked out radio and cars but as Nelson demonstrates bikes are still working just fine. Surely someone would bother to send a bicycle messenger up to the town to investigate, right?