MovieChat Forums > Conquest of Space (1955) Discussion > Very Disappointing...

Very Disappointing...

posted 14 years ago by xerses13
12 replies | jump to latest

Rating this IMDB****Stars (4) this is the worst of the George Pal 'Fantasy Epics' at Paramount and even beyond. Starting with a irrational or better yet specious argument concerning the merits of interplanetary space travel. Ludicrously argued against by the voyage Commander! Director Byron Haskins seemed not to be able to reign in some of the poorer writing aspects of this film. Producer Pal letting his religious mania take over what could have been a fine exploration film if it had been played straight.

The normally competent SFX featured in Pal's films are entirely gone. John Fulton head of the SFX Department at Paramount must have divorced himself from this project and left it for the 2nd team. After all what would you want to spend your time on, a tight budgeted 'B' film or THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (1956). Now that is a easy choice. Compare this film with DESTINATION MOON (1950) released just five years earlier, which looks fresher and more competently made.

This film effectively killed Pal at Paramount and left the AFTER WORLDS COLLIDE project in perpetual limbo. He would regain his footing releasing a mixed bag of films through M.G.M. Finally ending his career with the atrocious DOC SAVAGE: The Man of Bronze (1975) IMDB**Stars (2).

[–] plwblj 13 years ago

...i believe there is a lot to recommend here;

especially the visual beauty plus the extraordinary Music.

[–] xerses13 13 years ago

plwblj; If you are talking about DESTINATION MOON you are right, with this film wrong.

[–] Strazdamonas 13 years ago

wow you are so confused.

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All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for enough good men to do nothing.

[–] xerses13 13 years ago

Strazdamonas; There is nothing confusing about you. You have obviously nothing to say. Go away.

[–] Strazdamonas 13 years ago

Yes, nothing confusing about me. You are however confused about this movie.

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Best way to deal with trolls is to add them to your ignore list.

[–] Fugitive_Bill 12 years ago

Yeah the 'religious mania' of the 'General' bugged the HELL out of me.
But I must admit even the Apollo missions involved some mentioning of religious text.

I believe religious stuff should be totally left out of space flight/travel.
But, hey that's just me.

Also I'd never get in space ship with any of those nut cases except maybe the Japanese guy and the Captain - the General's son.

B!LL!

[–] xerses13 12 years ago

Fugitive Bill: C. S. Lewis who created the popular CHRONICLES OF NARNIA which spawned three (3) successful films is behind the religious motivations of the 'Nutty' General. Interestingly he started off as Christian, then turned Atheist then back to Christianity in a most orthodoxy sense. He would of gotten on great with the DUGGARs' on '19 Kids & Counting'!

There is no problem with Religious Faith as long as it does not interfere Historical or Scientific realities. Which it does in this film. What could have been a fine one and a natural continuation with DESTINATION MOON if played straight. It effectively scuttled PAL's career at Paramount. Even with the backing of C. B. DeMille the Studio Heads were not going to put up with embarrassing failures like this one.

[–] LJ27 12 years ago

Actually, it wasn't Pal's religious mania, it was the studio exec's. Pal had wanted a much more elaborate exploration of the planets of our solar system and was trying to make a good film. He was sabotaged by a studio exec who demanded the father/son fight be inserted into the film as this exec had a maudlin relationship with his own father. Thus, the father becomes a religious nut and the son has to save the day. Neither Pal nor Haskin approved of this quackery but were powerless to stop it. In spite of Pal having very little control over the final product, he reaped all the blame when CONQUEST OF SPACE tanked at the box office. I'm not sure if Paramount ended Pal's contract over CONQUEST OF SPACE or if Pal just decided not to renew it but either way, this was his last film for Paramount. Pal pretty much refused to even discuss this film for years afterwards. In his defense, I have to say there are at least two other drafts of the screenplay that were written before the final shooting script, both of which focused much more on the business of conquering space than father and son estrangement. Pal was unique among producers of the time, as he was interested in science fiction and fantasy and able to get such subjects produced at major studios with relatively large budgets, but since not many studios would gamble on sci-fi at the time, there was only so much he could do. If he'd pushed too hard, he knew he'd be out on the street.

[–] franzkabuki 12 years ago

Yeah, by all appearences, it`s supposed to be a remarkably character driven adventure, but boy is all the so-called character development pitifully clumsy and often nothing short of preposterous. A bunch of goofy yokels and a particularly poorly drawn caricature of a Japanese slouching in space, discussing various topics in awfully written dialogue, with some really "deep" philosophical/religious speechmaking thrown in at regular intervals - and since there`s surprisingly little of any actual action going on, that stuff just about snuffs it. Also, while with these kinds of films, it`s generally pointless to nitpick over the sci-fi side of things, but here one can`t help but note that they really managed to make everything about as wrong, and ridiculous, as they possibly could. Ultimately, Conquest is no smarter than Plan 9 From Outer Space yet considerably less fun. A truly horrendous movie.

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

[–] xerses13 12 years ago

franzkabuki: CONQUEST OF SPACE (1955) formed a demarcation in the films of George Pal. The previous efforts for Paramount are still thought well of and are entertaining despite their limitations. After that Pal went over to M.G.M. for backing and had success particularly with THE TIME MACHINE and THE 7 FACES OF DR. LOA. Even ATLANTIS THE LOST CONTINENT has some endearing merits. The sad ending with DOC SAVAGE though was devoid of all the trade-marks of quality he had built on in his career.

[–] franzkabuki 12 years ago

Just saw War Of The Worlds yesterday and the effects/production design there are absolutely outstanding, especially for their time. The look of Conquest, on the other hand, is indeed rather awful. Totally cheap and fake.

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

[–] xerses13 12 years ago

franzkabuki: WAR OF THE WORLDS still is a enjoyable watch. Love those Martian WAR-MACHINES. Agree with you analysis of the CONQUEST OF SPACE. John Fulton head of the Paramount SFX Dept. had better things to do at that time. Like C. B. DeMille's THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. The second team was definitely in action on C.O.F.