Conquest of Space
Conquest of Space
| 20 April 1955 (USA)
Conquest of Space Trailers

A team of American astronauts leave their space station on the first mission to Mars, but the captain's religious beliefs may get in the way.

Reviews
Sharkflei Your blood may run cold, but you now find yourself pinioned to the story.
Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Zlatica One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
jtwcosmos "Permission denied."This is the story of how the earth conquered Mars. The first time. The movie has weak directing, script, actors and music. Great sets though.Yet another in a long list of space movies by producer George Pal, this is one of his weakest offerings. I would say more, but the thing is clearly dead. Err... very old. So I'll do the decent thing and shut up.Conquest of Space. Watch the trailer. It tells the whole story minus the aggravation. 3/10. Because it's old.Not sure what else to say.Conquest of Space. 1955.
disdressed12 for a science fiction film released in 1955,this one is pretty good.the effects are above average.the acting is good,the story is good,as is the dialogue.all of these elements are much better than in the later released television show Lost in Space,which i was reminded of.there's even a message that isn't pounded into the viewer with a sledge hammer.there are a couple instances of stereotypical characters behaving in a stereotypical way,but these moments are kept to a minimum,thankfully.certainly with the era and the genre,there ample opportunity for hammy and over the top dialogue and acting but there is little of that.what we do get is an entertaining and sobering 81 minute tale that makes you think.for me,Conquest of Space is a 7/10
MartinHafer During the 1950s, Hollywood made a ton of films about voyages to the Moon or Mars. Most of these films look very quaint and old fashioned when seen today, but you must allow for the fact that they simply couldn't produce the grand special effects we take for granted in more modern films. Plus, while the way the trips occur seem pretty strange compared to the actual moon landings, you must also allow that back in the 1950s it was still all speculation--they simply didn't know better about many of the important aspects of such a journey.However, despite some very old fashioned ideas about such a voyage, CONQUEST OF SPACE is a very good film for its day. Much of this is because unlike most of the other films of the genre, this one does not use stock clips of old V-2 launches and features all original rocket and space shots. Sure, the models in this production are a bit on the cheesy side, but you can tell they at least tried to get it right. In particular, what I founds interesting is that they used a space shuttle-like craft to go to Mars--not a more traditional rocket.The film was also interesting because instead of the traditional bug-eyed monsters or malevolent external forces like some films employed, the big nemesis of this film is space fatigue and mental illness caused by this exhaustion. The only negative about this was later in the film when the general obviously was insane due to these effects and yet his best friend so doggedly refused to admit it--even when the guy did everything but put on a hat and declare that he was Napoleon!! The only other thing that bothered me about the film is that like some of these types of films, there was a crazy notion that the film needed a comic relief crew member (Siegel). While not an uncommon plot device, you'd sure think that the Earth with its billions of people would have someone better and smarter than him!! Overall, an excellent film for people like me who like this genre, though I can pretty safely assume that many people today would not be particularly interested in the film. It's a shame, as it's an interesting glimpse into the 1950s.
Edward E. Pringle Warning: Spoilers ahead...This film contains some amazing predictions: The movie was written in 1953, filmed in 1954, and released in the spring of 1955. The time setting of the story is, I believe, the mid-1980s or early 1990s. The older Americans on the station are veterans of a war fought (in their past, our future): in "Indo-China" (Vietnam).One of NASA's greatest concerns, as they plan the Mars expedition, is how to prevent tensions among the crew from escalating to the point of physical violence, or worse. The time line, 8 months to get there, and another 8 months for the flight back, plus many months of time spent on the surface present one of the biggest problems that they face -- and who's "solutions" are not guaranteed.Mars is shown as containing liquid water, which is probably true."The Wheel" has an international crew.