What a waste of my time!!!

Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Eh, I suppose it was a decent concept. It's rare that you see monsters in B movies like this, using sophisticated psychological warfare to get what they want. The monster looks like a pissed off unopened parasol so it gives you a good laugh or two, but it also almost gives you a sense that it's trying to METAPHORICALLY symbolize the dangers and realities of alcohol abuse, but that may just be my inner poet. Not a bad watch, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting.

I agree that this is a pure B movie (maybe C if there is such a thing) but to rate it a 9 or a 10 really diminishes the meaning of such ratings. It's not that I didn't like it. I adore these clunky sci fi things, put together on a shoestring, and this one is no exception. But lets face facts that the plots are often ridiculous and the dialogue even worse. So let's revel in that. We are treated to an interesting alien and a cast of pretty good actors, trying to make a buck in the summertime in the 1950's. Graves had several of these things, including the "Beginning of the End," where he played second fiddle to transparent grasshoppers. These are charming representative of an era that we will not see again. But, I still give it a 5.

Dr. Tom Anderson (Lee Van Cleef) asks his friend Dr. Paul Nelson (Peter Graves) to listen to a strange humming sound, a signal from Venus. Tom thinks that's a Venusian talking to him. Paul just thinks Tom is going mad. Anyhow, an ugly looking Venusian lands on Earth, shuts off all technical devices just like that and sends out bats to bite people in the neck (yes, that's a bit low tech for an invader). Tom is convinced the Venusian can bring progress to mankind by merciless mind control. Paul is convinced that Tom is not making any sense and became a dangerous traitor. Tom is talking to the alien regularly to pick up its instructions. Tom's Wife Claire (Beverly Garland) decides she hates the alien because it took her husband away from her. Time for phone calls is over, she is going to face the intruder...Even though the movie features one of the most ridiculous rubber monsters ever to disgrace the silver screen, it has a remarkably good quality in most other respects. Building up the story as a personal revenge rather than a typical invasion puts the focus on the actors who do a better job than usual in the low budget flicks. Paranoia SF of the 1950s at its best.

While It Conquered the World can't compare with some of the best sci-fi from the 50s, it's still a fun movie if you can get past the special effects. The plot is straight out of the 1950s Guide to Sci-Fi/Monster Movies. An alien comes to earth with the intention of taking over the place. The alien uses some sort of bat looking things to help him gather "volunteers" to his cause (they hit them in the back of the neck and inject them with some mind-control device). The biggest difference between the plot of It Conquered the World and other similar movies is that one character, Dr. Tom Anderson (Lee Van Cleef), is in communication with the alien and willingly tries to help him. This brings the whole Red Scare subtext found in a lot of these movies to the front as Dr. Anderson's friend and colleague Dr. Paul Nelson (Peter Graves) calls him a traitor. Being called a traitor (i.e. a commie) was about as bad as you could get in the 50s.One thing that elevates It Conquered the World is the cast. You don't expect (at least I don't expect) to see names like Peter Graves, Lee Van Cleef, Beverly Garland, and Dick Miller in the same low budget Roger Corman film. I can't think of many movies shot on this kind of budget with four names I'm so familiar with. Corman really had a knack for spotting young talent.The less said about the special effect the better. The monster is not as bad or poorly thought out as something like Ro-Man from Robot Monster, but it comes close to being just as silly. It Conquered the World might have benefited from not showing the monster. I recently watched The Space Children and noted that Jack Arnold was wise to limit his monster's screen time. What I wrote for that film applies here too – "Too often, low-budget sci-fi films from this period look ridiculous because of the desire for elaborate special effects (i.e. monster and aliens) that outstripped the funding it would require." In the end, while you can certainly find better sci-fi from the 1950s than It Conquered the World, you can just as easily find much worse. This one is about average but worth at least one look if you're into this kind of thing. You might want to check it out just to hear Peter Graves closing speech – "Man is a feeling creature, and because of it the greatest in the universe. He learned too late for himself that men have to find their own way, to make their own mistakes. There can't be any gift of perfection from outside ourselves. When men seek such perfection they find only death, fire, loss, disillusionment and the end of everything that's gone forward. Men have always sought an end to our misery but it can't be given, it has to be achieved. There is hope, but it has to come from inside, from Man himself." It's worth the price of admission if you ask me!