Tuesday, October 28, 2008

It Conquered the World!


Time once again to examine another movie that I just have to see during the Halloween season.
" It Conquered the World " is Roger Corman at his best...er, worst.
It featured a radish from Venus that came to Earth to , well, conquer it.
The alien was invited to our world by a pouty scientist on his "space radio".
This movie has everything you need to have fun:
1. A rubbery monster with big claws that bend and flop around as the actors pretend to be
pinched to death.
2. Gross looking bat-like robot things that sting you in the back, enabling the radish to control
you.
3. The pouty scientist is played by the master bad-guy, Lee Van Cleef. That's right, " The
Good, the Bad, and the Ugly ", " Octagon ", " Escape From New York ", yeah... THAT Lee
Van Cleef.
4. It also has Peter Graves.

Did I mention that the hero has to pedal around on a crummy bike in order to save the world, because the Space Radish has stopped all electrical power on Earth?
( That's right, automobile ignitions work on electricity).
I know it sounds like a huge plot point lifted from a much better movie, " The Day the Earth Stood Still ", but that's a good movie which won't be discussed in this post.
I guess Corman saw that film in 1951, wrote that idea down, and sat on it til 1956 when he cranked out this gem.
Still, ICTW is a fun movie, and it is part of my Halloween traditional viewing.
Next posts, I will talk about some of my favorite GOOD Halloween movies.

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