NekoHomey
Purely Joyful Movie!
2hotFeature
one of my absolute favorites!
Ginger
Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.
bkoganbing
Producer George Pal was a man of vision and accurate imagination. The one thing that he can be given undeniable credit for is how accurately he portrayed the surface of Mars. The Mars Explorer photographs when we had them revealed a world not unlike what we see in Conquest Of Space. Of course a lot of credit is also due to scientist Willy Ley whose books are the basis of the film.Conquest In Space is a future world concept from 1955 where we now have a World Space Organization where the USA is taking the lead in space exploration. An international space station is constructed and people live there months at a time. It's under the command of General Walter Brooke who is concerned with the psychological problems of being too long in space. So he wants a handpicked crew for the exploration of the moon.But the authorities on earth are shooting for bigger game. Kind of unrealistically they decide to forget the moon and aim for Mars. Brooke is in command and his eventual crew is his own son Captain Eric Fleming, Sgts. Mickey Shaughnessy, Benson Fong, and Phil Foster. In this future world no blacks or women are on the space station. The presence of the latter might well have cured at least some of the problems the guys were having.On the way there Brooke develops some space problems of his own as he gets downright metaphysical, wondering if God meant for us to leave the planet earth that He bequeathed as a domain for man. Those issues cause all kinds of problems for the rest of the Mars expedition that are the basis for the plot of the film.Conquest Of Space is imaginative but also intelligent. No hostile Mars creatures are found at least not in the corner of Mars they land. It was a realistic assessment of man surviving in a hostile environment and one of the better science fiction films of the Fifties.
jmillerdp
Wow, that just plain wasn't good! Interesting concept, poor execution. The movie starts out with the interesting idea of sending a group of astronauts to Mars. But, it follows that idea with odd characters spending the movie fighting with each other, lower-grade Visual Effects, and George Pal's awkwardly putting The Bible into the mix.Pal always added discussion of The Bible into his movies. Here, he does again, but it comes across as awkward and oddly used. While Pal was religious, it is interesting that he has a character turn into a religious fanatic.The movie is more about the characters clashing than about space exploration. The Visual Effects are noticeably lower grade than in Pal's previous Sci-Fi films like "War of the Worlds." It is said that Pal had his lowest budget on this, and had a Visual Effects Supervisor who was distracted by his simultaneously working on "The Ten Commandments."Overall, a disappointing conclusion to George Pal's time at Paramount. See his "Destination Moon" for a definitely better space adventure from Pal.**** (4 Out of 10 Stars)
Panamint
I don't know what to make of this film- it is OK production-wise. It is way too talky definitely, but the acting is quite good by the some of the cast (although Phil Foster is just terrible) so when most of them talk its OK as such. The talk is well staged and competently written. Its almost as if the producers and director were thinking in terms of producing a stage play- not usually a good approach to an outer space movie.The artwork is above average and excellently done. Even the spacecraft are above average for the 1950's.The whole film is competent but they forgot one thing- THEY FORGOT TO INCLUDE ANY ENTERTAINMENT VALUE. The main reason for this is simply lack of action. Even the increase in activity at the end is not given much punch by the cast.Its good to see the young William Redfield and young Ross Martin. However they aren't given much to do. Would Ross Martin have been well used in "Wild Wild West" if just standing and talking? His acting would have been good but... unless you're doing Shakespeare an excessive amount of talk probably isn't satisfying enough to a movie audience.Someone should issue an edited version with Phil Foster cut out- and why not, he doesn't add anything anyway.
ferbs54
"Conquest of Space" is a wholly likable but decidedly second-tier sci-fi film from 1955 that should just manage to please fans of the genre. In it, Man's first flight to the Moon is scrapped in favor of an even grander project: a trip to Mars and back! Thus, blasting off from an orbiting space wheel 1,000 miles out, Earth's first space cruiser departs with its complement of five: General Sam Merritt (Walter Brooke), a ramrod martinet who, suffering from space fatigue, will question mankind's "blasphemy" in attempting to invade God's celestial domain; his son Barney (Eric Fleming, who, three years later, would enjoy some conquests of his own, in "Queen of Outer Space"); Sgt. Siegle (Phil Foster), the obligatory wisecracking palooka from NYC; Imoto (Benson Fong), a Japanese botany expert; and Fodor (Ross Martin), the ship's doctor. The film looks fine (for 1955, that is), with decent enough FX and superb painted backdrops courtesy of legendary "Astounding Science-Fiction" cover artist Chesley Bonestell; indeed, Bonestell had rendered the illustrations for science writer Willy Ley's 1949 textbook "The Conquest of Space," which very loosely inspired this film. The FX just mentioned were brought in by producer George Pal and director Byron Haskin, whose work, together and separately, on such sci-fi classics as "Destination Moon," "The War of the Worlds," "The Time Machine" and "Robinson Crusoe on Mars" certainly eclipses that seen here. Still, "Conquest of Space," despite its at-times silly humor and unusual Christian subtext, gets the job done. The picture looks just good enough, the characters are sympathetic and well drawn, the acting is more than passable and the script, for the most part, is fairly intelligent. Like I said, not a top-rung effort, but surely worthy of any sci-fi fan's attention. The picture may not itself be a total conquest, especially when compared to the following year's superb "Forbidden Planet," but you won't be bored. And, oh...the film's best line: "You forgot your toothbrush."
