Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Phonearl Good start, but then it gets ruined

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

BA_Harrison A giant crawling turnip from Venus smooth-talks American scientist Dr. Tom Anderson (Lee Van Cleef) into organising a trip to Earth, whereupon the creature promises to save mankind from itself by eradicating human emotions. Of course, the ugly alien only intends to conquer the planet. Thankfully, Dr. Paul Nelson (Peter Graves) isn't convinced by Anderson's good intentions and refuses to co-operate.A cold-war-era sci-fi quickie from director Roger Corman, It Conquered The World is in the same vein as Invaders From Mars and Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, a thinly veiled warning for all of us in the West to keep an eye out for 'reds under the beds', those who might have been indoctrinated by Communism. While the idea isn't a new one, and the film's low budget doesn't allow for any fancy special effects or a decent creature (the Venusian is one of the goofiest looking monsters imaginable), Corman's assured direction ensures an entertaining movie nonetheless, the film's success helped by strong performances throughout (with a special nod for Beverly Garland as Anderson's wife Claire) and some unexpectedly strong violence (a cold-blooded shooting, a man burnt alive, and death for all of the women!).

Hitchcoc I agree that this is a pure B movie (maybe C if there is such a thing) but to rate it a 9 or a 10 really diminishes the meaning of such ratings. It's not that I didn't like it. I adore these clunky sci fi things, put together on a shoestring, and this one is no exception. But lets face facts that the plots are often ridiculous and the dialogue even worse. So let's revel in that. We are treated to an interesting alien and a cast of pretty good actors, trying to make a buck in the summertime in the 1950's. Graves had several of these things, including the "Beginning of the End," where he played second fiddle to transparent grasshoppers. These are charming representative of an era that we will not see again. But, I still give it a 5.

Paul Andrews It Conquered the World starts at NASA mission control where an expensive state of the art satellite is being launched, misguided physicist Dr. Tom Anderson (Lee Van Cleef) warns against such actions but his claims of impending doom are dismissed. Later that night at Tom's home his good friend & satellite designer Dr. Paul Nelson (Peter Graves) is round having dinner when Tom says he has something to show him, taking him to some computer equipment Tom claims he can speak to an alien creature from Venus but Paul is skeptical. Then Paul gets a phone-call to say that something is wrong with his satellite which has disappeared from radar, Tom knows that his Venusian friend has hijacked it & is using it as a ride to Earth where it lands in the Californian mountains. Hiding out in a cave & being helped by Tom the alien monster manages to stop Earth's power supply & bring it to a complete halt as it prepares to conquer the entire world by turning people into mindless zombies...Produced & directed by the prolific king of the cheapies Roger Corman this well remembered sci-fi monster flick from the 50's makes a valiant effort to be a bit deeper than most from the period but wooden dialogue, silly moments (some comedy relief soldiers & the rather sudden & cold blooded shooting of Joan by her husband Paul) & the infamously goofy cucumber alien monster prevent it from being anything other than a fun piece of dated cinematic nostalgia. Clocking in at a fairly brisk 70 odd minutes long It Conquered the World still manages to drag in places with it's exposition heavy script, It Conquered the World is a very talky film & I got the impression every line was meant to have some deep meaning but watching it today the dialogue comes across as really wooden & stiff, silly little speeches that are supposed to have great meaning feel tired & actually slow the film down. From the story about alien invaders that arrive under the pretence of peace & idealogical scientists It Conquered the World played on the fear of war while various popular sci-fi themes of the time are mercilessly copied from the stand alien invasion to the body snatching themes of being taken over, the idea of a world without emotion is at the core of the script as it tries to stress how important free will & free thinking is. Of course when all said & done It Conquered the World is still a silly 50's monster film but I saw a little bit more effort & meaning here than other similar films of the period even if it had no great impact or effect on me. The potential was here for a great little sci-fi film that was never realised because of a low budget, wooden script & a laughable monster.Although titled It Conquered the World a more appropriate title would have been It Conquered an Insignficant Cave as the monster doesn't really do that much & it's unclear quite what it's ultimate plan & goal are. Does it want to control the human race or destroy it? When finally seen at the end the monster does look very silly with it static rubber faced features & it's squat little body with a huge cone shaped grown on top of it's head as it sort of glides & shuffles along the ground. It does have two cool looking crab like claws though. There are also some flying bat like alien monsters that look like they are being flown into shot on fishing rods, the props were then reused in Roger Corman's next film The Undead (1957).Filmed in just five days in California it was released by AIP in 1956 on a double bill with The She-Creature (1956), the cast are pretty poor here although it's odd seeing the late great Lee Van Cleef in this.It Conquered the World is not a bad attempt at a sci-fi film with meaning but does fall way short thanks to a talky script & a goofy monster, however there's enough fun & good intention here to make It Conquered the World an enjoyable way to waste on hour. Was used as the basis for the Mystery Science Theatre 3000: It Conquered the World (1991) television episode while it was also remade by Larry Buchanan as Zontar: The Thing from Venus (1966).

mgconlan-1 Basically "It Conquered the World" is the original "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" meets "The Day the Earth Stood Still" — and the quality of those two movies only underscores how pitiful this one looks by comparison. I'll give Roger Corman credit for being the best director who ever regularly worked at American International — not that that's saying much for him — and for at least attempting to work serious political and social commentary into a few of his movies, including this one. Ideologically, "It Conquered the World" is a hard-Right propaganda piece (much the way John Carpenter's 1983 "They Live" took the central premise of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and used it for liberal-Left propaganda) in which the Venusian strategy for conquering the world is exactly what the Right of the time said the Communists were doing — targeting political, scientific and military leaders, recruiting them and using them to subvert the country by stealth — and Lee Van Cleef's character is clearly supposed to be what the Right of the time called a "Com-Symp," someone who wasn't an active Communist but so dangerously iconoclastic he was easy prey and all too willing to do their dirty work. But any attempt Corman and his writer, Lou Rusoff, might have been making for serious political commentary is subverted (pardon the pun) by the sheer ludicrousness of the appearance of the Venusian alien. (The makers of the first "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" showed great wisdom in avoiding any shots of the alien invaders in their natural form.) Maybe the upended half-cucumber with toothpick arms isn't quite as risible as the diving-helmeted gorilla who conquered the world in "Robot Monster," but that's damning with faint praise; the ridiculous monster takes what could have been a decent piece of half-serious science fiction and turns it into pure camp.