Conquest Of Space (1955)

Starring Walter Brooke, Eric Fleming, Mickey Shaughnessy, Phil Foster, William Redfield
Directed by Byron Haskin

(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

On a mission to Mars, the general leading the spaceflight begins to have doubts about man invading the heavens and seeks a way to sabotage the mission. 

Producer George Pal delivers another science fiction drama, this time about man's journey into space on a mission to Mars, and it's an often eye-popping adventure, with beautiful stellar backgrounds from Chesley Bonestell and striking special effects.  At the time, there was a school of thought that interstellar space craft would have to be launched from a way station in space to avoid Earth's gravitational pull, and that is depicted here with a circular "wheel" space station housing the crew working on the project.  Drama is mined from the select individuals aboard who are selected for the spaceflight and have been trained and tested and switched to a diet of pills, as well as from the father-son relationship between commanding officer Brooke and Fleming, who wants to return to Earth to reunite with his wife, but is being blocked by Brooke.  When the actual spaceflight begins, a new set of dramatic conditions commences as Brooke worries man's conquest of space is contrary to the Bible's teachings, and engages in actions that threaten his own crew.  The actors are generally fine, although Foster is quite a bit over the top as an outspoken Italian-American, but as far as standouts, I found Benson Fong came off best as a sensitive Japanese native who wants to elevate his nation.  Van Cleave delivers an appropriately majestic score and the art direction and set design are well done and complement the excellent exterior visuals.  

Bloodlust! (1961)

Starring Wilton Graff, June Kenney, Walter Brooke, Robert Reed, Gene Persson
Directed by Ralph Brooke
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

Young people on a boating vacation decide to explore a mysterious island, and become the captives of a madman who has turned to hunting human beings for his own amusement.

Although not credited as being based on Richard Connell's famous story, The Most Dangerous Game, the movie obviously is and can't compare to the classic 1932 film adaptation.  That doesn't mean it's not fun however, and while Graff is not as memorable as Leslie Banks was in the previous film, he does give a believable performance as the deadly serious hunter.  Robert Reed, the future patriarch of TV's The Brady Bunch, leads the quartet of young people who would seem to be playing teenagers but were actually all in their late 20s or early 30s when this was filmed.  The film was photographed by Richard Cunha, and it fits in well with the four sci-fi/horror shockers he made in the late 1950s, with some grisly scenes of Graff's victims and dark atmospheric music.  Per IMDB, Walter Brooke, who plays another resident of the island trying to escape, would go on to utter the immortal "Plastics" line in The Graduate.