Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

A giant crawling turnip from Venus smooth-talks American scientist Dr. Tom Anderson (Lee Van Cleef) into organising a trip to Earth, whereupon the creature promises to save mankind from itself by eradicating human emotions. Of course, the ugly alien only intends to conquer the planet. Thankfully, Dr. Paul Nelson (Peter Graves) isn't convinced by Anderson's good intentions and refuses to co-operate.A cold-war-era sci-fi quickie from director Roger Corman, It Conquered The World is in the same vein as Invaders From Mars and Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, a thinly veiled warning for all of us in the West to keep an eye out for 'reds under the beds', those who might have been indoctrinated by Communism. While the idea isn't a new one, and the film's low budget doesn't allow for any fancy special effects or a decent creature (the Venusian is one of the goofiest looking monsters imaginable), Corman's assured direction ensures an entertaining movie nonetheless, the film's success helped by strong performances throughout (with a special nod for Beverly Garland as Anderson's wife Claire) and some unexpectedly strong violence (a cold-blooded shooting, a man burnt alive, and death for all of the women!).

When the film begins, Dr. Tom Anderson (Lee Van Cleef) approaches the military brass to beg them NOT to send any satellites into space. He has a wacky theory that this will incite beings on other planets and they will then come to Earth to stop our program one way or another. In essence, he thinks it's best we keep a low profile! He bases this on some weird signals he's intercepted from Venus. Naturally everyone thinks he's a nut...including Dr. Paul Nelson (Peter Graves), his old friend. After all, the satellite WAS launched and has been in space several months and nothing's happened. Well, not surprisingly, when Nelson says this, the satellite disappears! Then, some time later, it's back!! Obviously some external force IS out there.During the interim, Anderson's attitude sure has changed! He's been communicating with one of the aliens and is now convinced their arrival is a good thing! This being from another world promises to help the world by eliminating human feelings...as emotions lead to wars and hatred. While this would be a terrible thing, what the alien actually envisions is much worse! And dumbbell Anderson has been helping the aliens to pick out who on Earth to control with their giant killer hemorrhoid-like devices!! And, it turns out the Earth's last hope rests on Dr. Nelson as he tries to fight these flying 'things'.In many ways, this film is like "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and even more like the episode "Conspiracy" from "Star Trek: The Next Generation". And, I must admit that these were both very good sci- fi programs. The problem with "It Conquered the World" is that the basic idea is great...but the aliens are ridiculous to say the least and their flying devices nearly as laughable. With DECENT aliens and 'thingies', I'd give this one a 7 or 8. But with the dopey, cheap and stupid ones, it only merits a 4.

This rip off of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" isn't as stupid as it might be. True, the story is unoriginal. The special effects are rudimentary. With some exceptions -- notably the two or three principals -- the performances have been bettered by some that might be seen in a high school play in Keokuk, Iowa. But if the whole affair is cheesy, it's at least not that no-fat, tasteless crap that has the texture of gum, with each slice wrapped in its own plastic. No, this is the crumbled Gorgonzola you find only in the specialty section of WalMart.A monster from Venus enlists the aid of Lee Van Cleef in taking over the earth. Lee Van Cleef is described as "an illustrious physicist," so you know you're in trouble right off the bat. Lee Van Cleef is not a physicist at all. He's a heavily sun-tanned guy wearing a flat-brimmed cowboy hat and a cape in some spaghetti Western, that's what he is.The protagonist is Peter Graves -- tall, handsome, earnest. And he has a really nice-looking wife, Sally Fraser, whom Graves deliberately shoots and kills after she becomes possessed by the monster's flying bats. (Don't ask.) The film was shot in something like five days on a minuscule budget and this must account for the almost casual way in which Graves goes around shooting friends he's known and worked with for years, with not a sign of chagrin. Can you imagine Kevin McCarthy picking up a .45 and deliberately shooting the pure, elegant, helpless Dana Wynter through the heart and then walking grimly away? No, you can't.Some of it is unintentionally funny. A squad of soldiers is led by the always enjoyable Dick Miller. They carry Springfield '03s and World War I bayonets bought in an Army-Navy store. Some isn't funny. The film closes on one of those dicta telling us that if we expect to be saved, it must come from inside us. "Man is a feeling being." He or she loves and hates, and we have to learn to control those emotions ourselves. Graves recites it ex cathedra.Actually, we don't seem to be doing such a hot job of it at the moment. Our cerebral cortex -- all that bulbous matter that is gray in death and pink in life -- has a much older infrastructure that prompts us to act irrationally. Well, let's not get into our imperfectibility except to make the observation, a mere aside, that we could use a little help from Venus now and then.

50's sci-fi at its properganderest. You might say that there is no such word but it is true, this movie is simply oozing with anti-communist, pro-American propaganda. I was told by my American History Lecturer that there was a lot of this in the 50's and the first movie that I watch it hits me in the face. This movie is basically a collection of anti-communist monologues connected by a vaguely science fiction plot.The concept is the paranoia of the invisible enemy taking control of the powerful positions in the state and taking over by that. Kennedy says that it is an invasion of subversion, not of tanks or missiles, and this is what this movie displays. The movie focuses on the removal of emotion and freewill and equates this with communism. It believes that communism is conformity and with conformity there is death. This movie promotes individuality and selfishness, yet the main characters fall into a very conforming mould: they are both married and are in prestigious positions, namely generals and scientists that worked on world changing projects such as the atom bomb.One scientist though has supposedly been brainwashed by an alien intelligence and it is using him to create a beachhead for the invasion of the world. It promises peace and happiness and in the end brings death and destruction. Thus we are being told to beware of such schemes because they will never work. True freedom, this movie says, is living in a world of conflict.The anti-communist feeling of this movie drifts to the breaking up of the marriage unit. The loyalty to the United States stands far above that of one's loyalty to one's wife. It comes to a point where the main character kills his wife because she is no longer free, but has been captured by the alien force. It also has the other character's wife run from him because she could not accept his views. Communism is something to be feared for it will destroy relationships and split families.This movie is full of individualistic ideologies. Freedom comes from being an individual, not apart of a collective unity helping the whole to achieve the ends. The Bible stands diametrically opposed to this with passages like 1 Corinthians 12 where it encourages people to work as a collective unity -- something that communism stands for. This makes me wonder why Christians become incredibly anti-communist when the system of government that the bible encourages is a very communist one. This baffles me.In the end, this is going to be one of many films that stands up and tells the American people to beware of communism for it will slip in, undermine and destroy their freedom. I do not believe this to be true because I am apart of a collective unity that is the Christian Church yet I know that I am free.