Movie Night: It Conquered the World.

Review #684: It Conquered the World.

Cast
Peter Graves (Dr. Paul Nelson), Lee Van Cleef (Dr. Tom Anderson), Beverly Garland (Claire Anderson), Sally Fraser (Joan Nelson), Russ Bender (General James Pattick), and Taggart Casey (Sheriff N.J. Shallert) Directed by Roger Corman (#368 - The Little Shop of Horrors)

Review
With less than three days left in the year, why not review a monster mash flick from the 1950s? And from Roger Corman, no less. Only this time the monster draws laughs not because it's meant to, but because it looks like an ice cream cone with dopey looking eyes for good measure. At least the cast tries to seem less than ready to laugh at the monster (Garland notably laughed at the monster when she first saw it on the set, kicking it over, which led to it being made 3 feet taller...which only made it about 5 feet). I like Peter Graves in this film, though no one could make the last line "man is a feeling creature, and because of it, the greatest in the universe" sound anything but overblown, though the lines that precede and follow it aren't as silly. The movie is quick (save your complaints about me saying that all the time), which makes for an easy film to breeze through. It's tough to determine if this is a good movie, but if you're looking for a 50s monster mash movie to gawk (or laugh) at, I'd recommend it. Or the MST3K version.

Overall, I give it 6 out of 10 stars.