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Greetings, and welcome to VIEWING THE CLASSICS. Here you'll find capsule reviews of vintage movies from the early days of cinema through the 1970s, with a special emphasis on sci-fi, horror, and mystery movies. Be sure to check out the Pages links, where you can find a Film Index of all my reviews, links to the reviews organized by cast members, directors, and other contributors, and links to my reviews of the films of talented young director Joshua Kennedy.

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Sunday, February 7, 2016

It Conquered The World (1956)

Starring Peter Graves, Beverly Garland, Lee Van Cleef, Sally Fraser, Russ Bender
Directed by Roger Corman
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

A physicist dissatisfied with the state of the world is contacted by an alien intelligence from Venus, whom he agrees to help take over the Earth for the benefit of humanity.

Although often ridiculed for its low budget and less than convincing alien creature, I've always found this picture to be a fun science fiction thriller, buoyed by terrific performances by Beverly Garland and in particular Lee Van Cleef, whose intensity as the determined physicist anchors the film.  Van Cleef, per Wikipedia, went on to to a distinguished career playing a series of villains in notable westerns, culminating in his role in Sergio Leone's The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly.  Corman paces scenes tightly and efficiently and although the Venusian may elect more laughs than genuine horror, it's certainly unique and memorable.

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