WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: It Conquered the World 0:00:03.080 --> 0:00:06.120 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:15.520 Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:18.599 This is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick. And 0:00:18.680 --> 0:00:21.479 today on Weird House Cinema, we are finally going to 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:24.239 be devoting a full episode to a movie that we 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:27.040 have referenced in passing quite a bit over the years. 0:00:27.040 --> 0:00:28.880 I don't know if it's come up as often as 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.680 Highlander two, but it's got to be close. This is 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:36.600 the subject of a fan favorite episode of Mystery Science 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:40.320 Theater three thousand from season three with Joel and another 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:44.680 example of one of our favorite niche subgenres, low budget 0:00:44.720 --> 0:00:48.320 atomic age sci fi horror thrillers, directed by Roger Corman, 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:51.120 which played as part of a double bill at your 0:00:51.159 --> 0:00:55.040 local drive in in the fifties. This one. Most of 0:00:55.080 --> 0:00:57.880 these movies are great because they're usually less than seventy 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:01.200 minutes long. This one's at the the longer end of 0:01:01.240 --> 0:01:05.520 that scale. It's like sixty nine seventy minutes, you know, 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:08.240 they get even shorter. Attack of the Crab Monsters is like, 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:11.800 what sixty two minutes or something, But it's still right 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:15.720 in the zone. And as I've said before, I want 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:18.320 to be on record that I think it's okay for 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:20.959 feature films to be that short. You don't need to 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:24.319 try to stretch it out, as even this short movie 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:27.560 does with all these scenes of driving and parking. 0:01:28.000 --> 0:01:30.920 Yes, indeed, modern filmmakers, you can make them this short 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:31.480 we approve. 0:01:31.840 --> 0:01:33.639 Oh wait, but I didn't say the name yet. Sorry, 0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:37.200 Today we're talking about it Conquered the World from nineteen 0:01:37.280 --> 0:01:41.919 fifty six, starring Peter Graves, Beverly Garland, and a devious 0:01:42.000 --> 0:01:45.560 Earth betraying Lee Van Cleef, who is redeemed in the end. 0:01:46.520 --> 0:01:51.040 You know. So this is a movie I've seen primarily 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:56.720 in the Mystery Science Theater episode, and I guess because 0:01:56.800 --> 0:02:00.440 of the MST framing, i'd never really give it a 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:04.440 serious chance on its own terms. I actually had seen 0:02:04.480 --> 0:02:07.240 it on its own before, but still just kind of 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:09.720 with the mind of looking for the cheesy bits, and 0:02:09.760 --> 0:02:11.679 there are plenty of those, we can talk about them. 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.880 But this movie is not bad. This is a pretty 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:18.640 solid scrappy drive in film. 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.080 Absolutely. Yeah. This is a film I too, had seen 0:02:22.160 --> 0:02:25.799 numerous times in its MST three K format over the decades, 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:28.920 but this was actually my first time watching it straight up. 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:32.520 So yeah, I feel like, as is often the case 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:35.840 with the best MST three K episodes, the underlying movie 0:02:36.240 --> 0:02:39.519 is very watchable on its own. You know, it has 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:44.480 some wonky pacing at times, nothing really zings visually, at 0:02:44.560 --> 0:02:47.360 least as it's intended to zing. 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:50.280 I mean, I would say the monster zing's but mostly 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:51.720 because of how funny it looks. 0:02:51.800 --> 0:02:55.160 Yes, yeah, yeah, it does not inspire terror, but it 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:58.880 is amazing and in a different way. Yeah. It has 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:02.280 a couple of spirited performances that we'll discuss, and it 0:03:02.280 --> 0:03:05.480 at least bats around some deeper sci fi concepts as 0:03:05.520 --> 0:03:11.359 well as some rather obvious anxieties about communist brainwashing. Now, 0:03:11.400 --> 0:03:14.359 this is not a film about communists, but as is 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:16.840 often the case with some of these sci fi films 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:20.359 about alien minutes from this time period, you know, it's 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:23.079 very clear that they're getting into some of the popular 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:27.880 anxieties about communism in the way that they're describing and 0:03:28.000 --> 0:03:30.359 dealing with this extraterrestrial threat. 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.160 In most of these movies with alien brainwashing, and it's 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.680 the same case in this one. The alien ideology is 0:03:38.120 --> 0:03:42.280 less controversial and specific, and this one it's about ridding 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:47.080 human beings of emotion, which At first that sounds like 0:03:47.160 --> 0:03:49.880 kind of a placeholder themes, like oh yeah, okay, but 0:03:50.440 --> 0:03:53.800 it actually leads to a couple of interesting dialogue scenes, 0:03:53.840 --> 0:03:56.480 Like they go deeper with that theme than you would 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:58.160 expect for a movie of this sort. 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:01.960 Yeah. Yeah, And I feel like I've always enjoyed those scenes, 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:04.040 Like this is a film that is sixty percent living 0:04:04.120 --> 0:04:08.720 room dialogue scenes in which luckily they do get into 0:04:08.720 --> 0:04:11.360 some of these topics. It's like thirty five percent driveways 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:14.960 and then some lab scenes and caves scene sprinkled to 0:04:15.040 --> 0:04:17.400 fill out the rest of it. But it moves right along. 0:04:17.760 --> 0:04:19.680 I feel like I always end up loving it when 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:22.920 I watch it. Yeah, and it at least bats around 0:04:22.920 --> 0:04:27.120 some deeper concepts, even even if the same. At the 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:29.760 same time, you have to acknowledge that this is a 0:04:29.880 --> 0:04:32.120 fast film. This is a cheap film. I think they 0:04:32.200 --> 0:04:35.919 filmed it in five days. Like all of that taken 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:38.360 into account, it holds up really well. 0:04:38.680 --> 0:04:41.200 I agree, and I think the movie literally I think 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:45.039 actually the weakest element of it is the padding. I 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:47.680 think if you were to edit out about ten to 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:50.560 fifteen minutes of this movie, cut it down to like 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:53.920 a fifty to fifty five minute film, it would be 0:04:54.520 --> 0:04:56.600 really solid. Like you just cut out a lot of 0:04:56.640 --> 0:04:59.520 the driving and the three point turns, the dramatic three 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:03.320 point turn. I'm sorry, Roger, they're not I'm not buying it. 0:05:03.400 --> 0:05:05.440 That's not as great as you think it is. 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:11.080 Yeah, yeah, yeah, A lots of parking scenes. And then 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:14.040 you know, anytime we're outdoors, I feel like it feels 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:17.600 like it's a thousand degrees like direct sunlight a high noon. 0:05:18.920 --> 0:05:20.480 It is not a technical masterpiece. 0:05:21.040 --> 0:05:23.120 Another one of the weak points. I would say, no 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:26.160 offense to him personally, nothing against Peter Graves, but Peter 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:29.640 graves performance in this movie I think is quite wooden. 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:33.839 He's like pressure treated Pine in this But it's funny 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.560 because they put him opposite actors who I think for 0:05:36.640 --> 0:05:39.120 a movie like this, are doing a fantastic job. We've 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:41.800 got Beverly Garland and Lea van Cleef and they are 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:43.360 wonderful in this movie. 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:48.560 Yeah, with Peter Graves, it's interesting because Peter Graves certainly 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:52.039 has has a style, you know, and this is very 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:57.640 much a sort of teeth gritted square kind of performance. 0:05:57.680 --> 0:06:00.040 You know, this is Peter Graves and he's here to 0:06:00.120 --> 0:06:03.080 it by the books, but at the same time there, 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:06.920 I think there are some very weird choices in his 0:06:07.080 --> 0:06:09.960 character that I mean, I don't know what you would 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:12.520 ask God him to do, you know. So we'll get 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:14.280 into that when we get into the plot a bit more. 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:18.839 Because he ultimately his character is ultimately like the champion 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:22.800 of human emotion, and yet his character seems to have 0:06:22.920 --> 0:06:26.919 only like maybe two emotions and makes some and engages 0:06:26.960 --> 0:06:31.200 in some very cold blooded murder as the plot progresses. 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:34.919 Yeah, he is the advocate for the benefits of emotion 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:38.080 as a motivating force for humans, and yet he doesn't 0:06:38.080 --> 0:06:42.159 really display any Levan Cleef is arguing against us having 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:45.120 emotions and is giving a quite passionate performance. 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:47.279 Yeah, and is often in the throes of emotion, and 0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:48.800 I guess it kind of works with that regard, Like 0:06:48.839 --> 0:06:54.279 he he understands the throes of emotion and sees how 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:58.000 this affects other people and has glimpse a path out 0:06:58.000 --> 0:07:03.320 of that trap. Peter Grive's character is more like get emotions, good, must, 0:07:03.360 --> 0:07:05.440 We've got to keep them. That's what makes it special. 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:08.599 Now I want to talk briefly about this movie's meta 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:13.640 because there's an interesting contradiction here. I think despite the 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.040 fact that this movie has a famously goofy looking monster. 0:07:17.160 --> 0:07:19.240 When you actually get to it in the film, it 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:23.280 mostly shows up in the last three minutes or so, well, no, 0:07:23.360 --> 0:07:25.320 a little bit before that, mostly in the last ten 0:07:25.360 --> 0:07:28.480 minutes or so. When you see the monster, it is 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:31.600 not very convincing, It is not very scary, and in 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:36.000 fact is quite hilarious. But the exact same monster design 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:41.240 when rendered as an illustration gazing into your Soul from 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:46.040 the movie poster rendering is awesome. I think that this 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:49.160 monster looks great on every poster I've seen for It 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:51.840 Conquered the World. In fact, I've got a poster for 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:54.000 this movie framed in my office because it's one of 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:55.920 my favorite fifties movie posters. 0:07:56.200 --> 0:07:59.680 It is indeed a terrific poster, and it's just a 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:01.880 test to the craft that they can make it look 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:04.600 this good when nothing else in the movie really looks 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:05.040 this good. 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:08.360 But further regarding the meta, oh man, this has some 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:11.720 great taglines. So one of the posters, of course, it 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:15.160 has the title. It's got a screaming Beverly Garland. It's 0:08:15.160 --> 0:08:18.080 got people being attacked by these sort of you know, 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:23.120 mind control bats. It's got the creature from Venus, staring 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.000 into our souls with red eyes. But then it's got 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:28.520 some some text on it, so it says it conquered 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:32.720 the world. Every man it's prisoner, every woman its slave. 0:08:33.320 --> 0:08:37.400 See world conquered by the horrible beast from beyond the stars. 0:08:37.840 --> 0:08:42.240 See the hideous flying fingers of the monster. And then 0:08:42.280 --> 0:08:44.840 below that, I think we see Leavan Kleef with like 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:48.800 his little blow torch kind of oh yeah, monster like 0:08:48.840 --> 0:08:50.920 it's looking in the window of a house. But that 0:08:50.960 --> 0:08:52.240 doesn't ever happen in the movie. 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.760 Yeah, but certainly the monster the Benefactor looks amazing here. 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:00.520 And yeah, I mean, I guess they couldn't really even 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:03.959 attempt to depict the monster carrying a woman though, because it, 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:05.960 as we see, it's so low to the ground. 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:09.360 Yes, how would that even work. It's arms are not 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:13.560 long enough to carry a human body. Yeah, well t 0:09:13.720 --> 0:09:15.840 rex arms, but they're mounted on the sides. 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:16.600 Yes. 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:19.480 No, wait, hold on, I said that, but I take 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:22.200 it back, because actually the weight it's drawn in the 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:24.760 poster here it has short little arms, but in the 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:27.120 movie it does sort of reach out with its arms 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.840 and really grab around people. That's how Lee van Cleef 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:32.160 bites it. In the end, the monster just reaches up 0:09:32.160 --> 0:09:33.920 and grabs him with the with the claw. 0:09:34.080 --> 0:09:37.480 Yeah, they kind of reach up, but not so much out. 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:41.320 It would still be hard to imagine this creature carrying 0:09:41.320 --> 0:09:44.439 a woman. All Right, we're not going to feature trailer 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:47.560 audio on this one. But instead, Joe, why don't you 0:09:47.679 --> 0:09:49.960 just go ahead and recite the film's most famous monologue 0:09:49.960 --> 0:09:50.439 for us here. 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:52.520 Oh, you're putting me on the spot, but I guess 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:54.880 we should. We should do that. Do that near the beginning, 0:09:54.920 --> 0:09:56.800 because this is another one of the most famous things 0:09:56.840 --> 0:10:00.360 about the movie. I've already praised the scripts, so put 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:02.800 that aside. It is I think, a pretty tight, kind 0:10:02.800 --> 0:10:06.000 of scrappy script. It's got some interesting ideas. This ending 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:10.920 monologue is atrocious. Here's how it goes. He learned almost 0:10:10.960 --> 0:10:14.560 too late, that man is a feeling creature, and because 0:10:14.600 --> 0:10:17.480 of it, the greatest in the universe. He learned too 0:10:17.559 --> 0:10:20.000 late for himself that men have to find their own 0:10:20.040 --> 0:10:23.080 way to make their own mistakes. There can't be any 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:27.319 gift of perfection from outside ourselves, and when men seek 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:33.920 such perfection they find only death, fire, loss, disillusionment. The 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:37.640 end of everything that's gone forward men have always sought 0:10:37.640 --> 0:10:40.240 an end to the toil and misery, but it can't 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:43.640 be given. It has to be achieved. There is hope, 0:10:43.800 --> 0:10:47.520 but it has to come from inside, from man himself. 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:51.200 And I like to sometimes. Of course, it is Peter 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:53.120 Graves who says this at the end of the movie, 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:56.760 and it's also a very bloated, wooden kind of delivery. 0:10:57.240 --> 0:10:59.800 But I like to imagine this monologue being given by 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:03.360 David Huddleston as the Big Lebowski in The Big Lebowski, 0:11:03.440 --> 0:11:04.959 and it has to be achieved. 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:08.760 Yeah, yeah, it would have taken. It would have had 0:11:08.760 --> 0:11:14.160 a different energy certainly, But yeah, this is the ending monologue. 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:18.920 This is ultimately like the the thesis statement for the picture, 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:19.400 I guess. 0:11:19.800 --> 0:11:23.079 I guess so to defend what comes before this monologue, 0:11:23.080 --> 0:11:26.360 I think the film makes these points without this hilarious 0:11:26.400 --> 0:11:27.280 speech at the end. 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:30.680 Yeah, just sort of like patting it out a little bit, maybe, yeah, 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:32.360 and trying to punctuate it. 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:34.880 It's the verbal equivalent of another parking scene. 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:39.800 All right, Well, if you want to watch it conquered 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:41.920 the world, you can certainly go out and do so. 0:11:42.240 --> 0:11:45.480 As of this recording, this one isn't available as a 0:11:45.559 --> 0:11:48.320 legit stream anywhere you can find it if you look around, 0:11:48.320 --> 0:11:51.960 but couldn't find it on any of the legit streaming platforms. 0:11:52.520 --> 0:11:54.800 You're also hard pressed to get a DVD of it, 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:58.199 though there are some for sale and reasonable prices and 0:11:58.280 --> 0:12:01.160 some of the familiar websites, but I don't know who 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:04.360 is putting them out, so I don't know what kind 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:06.520 of releases these are. But there is not a Blu 0:12:06.600 --> 0:12:10.600 ray release. And while famously featured in that nineteen ninety 0:12:10.640 --> 0:12:13.160 one episode of MST three K, I don't think this 0:12:13.280 --> 0:12:17.480 episode has ever been made available on disc. So the 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:21.000 rights for this film and a handful of other AIP films, 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:23.560 including the amazing Colossal Man and I Was a Teenage 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:27.760 Werewolf sadly seemed to be held up. And it's a 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:31.160 shame because it conquered the world certainly deserves placement in 0:12:31.240 --> 0:12:34.440 a proper physical release of Roger Corman's films. 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:37.520 Yeah, I got confused because I have a couple of 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:40.760 different Corman box sets and this wasn't in either of them, 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:44.520 so I had to go elsewhere. But yeah, so this 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:47.199 has come up on the show before. There's a number 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:49.200 of films on this list that are apparently being held 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:52.800 up by the same rights holder. And this came up 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:56.120 because we were wondering, why isn't the amazing Colossal Man 0:12:56.760 --> 0:12:58.000 viewable at all? Really? 0:12:58.360 --> 0:13:00.960 Yeah, yeah, and this would to be the answer. So 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:03.920 you know, these things tend not to last forever. So 0:13:04.440 --> 0:13:06.920 you know, at some point in the future these films 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:10.960 will be released, they'll get some nice physical additions and 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:15.120 become available on streaming. But until that time, we're left 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:15.880 with what we can get. 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:18.280 But I agree with your statement that it conquered the 0:13:18.280 --> 0:13:22.760 world belongs in any proper you know, fifties Corman box set. 0:13:23.240 --> 0:13:25.920 It's I would say it is up there with movies 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:28.760 like Not of This Earth, except it's a little bit flabbier. 0:13:28.800 --> 0:13:31.400 There's a little more, you know, there's a little more 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:34.000 stuff you could cut out, not if this Earth has 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:36.760 similar strengths, but I think is a little tighter. 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:47.600 Yeah. All right, let's talk about the folks involved in 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:50.240 this production, starting at the top with someone we've talked 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:52.200 about in the show before, and that's Roger Corman, the 0:13:52.240 --> 0:13:55.320 director and producer here who lived nineteen twenty six through 0:13:55.400 --> 0:13:59.079 twenty twenty four. Corman was, of course the Wizard of 0:13:59.120 --> 0:14:02.960 b Movies, and a prolific creator of late fifties drive 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:06.920 in flicks. We've covered numerous Corman produced and or Corman 0:14:07.000 --> 0:14:10.439 directed films on Weird House Cinema already, including sixty four's 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:13.640 Mask of the Red Death, which is probably among his 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:17.440 best work, as well as some of his many entertaining 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:20.640 low budget films like nineteen fifty seven's Not of This Earth. 0:14:21.200 --> 0:14:23.760 Seth joined me on Weird House for an episode on 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:26.600 the nineteen fifty nine beat Nick horror comedy A Bucket 0:14:26.640 --> 0:14:30.080 of Blood, and this is our first episode about a 0:14:30.120 --> 0:14:33.960 Corman directed film since his death earlier this year at 0:14:33.960 --> 0:14:35.120 the age of ninety eight. 0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:38.160 Though we may come back to Corman's Vincent Price Poe 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:39.520 movies this October. 0:14:39.800 --> 0:14:44.600 Yes, so this was one of four Corman directed films 0:14:44.760 --> 0:14:47.840 released in fifty six, but the only sci fi or 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:52.760 horror title. Swamp Woman, which also had Beverly Garland, was 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:56.440 a crime picture, and both Gunslinger with Beverly Garland and 0:14:56.520 --> 0:15:00.600 The Oklahoma Woman with Peggy Castle were westerns. This was 0:15:00.800 --> 0:15:04.400 the year before Attack of the Crab Monsters, and as 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:07.040 Michael Weldon points out in the Psychotronic Film Guide, this 0:15:07.200 --> 0:15:10.760 was only Corman's second sci fi film, which is it's 0:15:10.760 --> 0:15:13.720 always interesting to realize this sort of thing when we 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:16.600 think about Roger Corman, who's best remembered for so many 0:15:16.680 --> 0:15:20.360 of these sci fi and or horror pictures, but he 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:22.640 also did a lot of westerns and other sorts of 0:15:22.720 --> 0:15:23.440 flicks as well. 0:15:23.640 --> 0:15:25.920 It's hard to believe he only did four movies in 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:28.520 this year though. I mean, yeah, pick up the pace, Roger. 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:32.720 Well, those are just the director's credits. I didn't check production, 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:34.960 but yeah, he was, you know, ratchet it up. I 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:39.440 think the late fifties were really his key years of output. Yeah. 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:42.240 Was it fifty seven that he I want to say, 0:15:42.320 --> 0:15:45.240 made either eight or eleven movies that year. 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:48.480 Yeah, I mean he would pump them out. I mean 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:52.320 even this film again shot in apparently five days, shot 0:15:52.320 --> 0:15:55.560 in California, with key scenes taking place at Bronson Cave 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:57.520 in Griffith Park, which has come up time and time 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:01.440 again on the show a popular place in California to 0:16:01.480 --> 0:16:05.440 shoot your otherworldly or just desolate scenes. 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:09.360 In this movie, they say that the creature from Venus 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:13.600 is living there because the conditions inside mimic those on Venus. 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:16.680 I don't know about that. 0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:20.320 All right, Let's get into the writing Here. Lou Rusoff 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:23.200 is credited with the screenplay. He Lived nineteen eleven through 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:26.920 nineteen sixty three, screenwriter and producer whose other credits include 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:29.440 fifty Five's Day The World Ended, fifty six is The 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:33.080 She Creature, sixty threes Beach Party, and sixty seven Zontar 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:35.920 The Thing from Venus. I think that's kind of a 0:16:35.960 --> 0:16:38.520 reworking of some of the same ideas here. And his 0:16:38.640 --> 0:16:42.400 production credits include the US version and or US release 0:16:42.680 --> 0:16:44.320 of nineteen sixties Black Sunday. 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:47.760 You know, I was surprised when watching the credits this time, 0:16:47.800 --> 0:16:50.720 and I noticed that the screenplay credit went to Rusof 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:54.240 and not to who I assumed was the writer of 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:56.640 this movie, which is Charles B. Griffith. Charles B. Griffith 0:16:56.640 --> 0:16:59.840 wrote Not of This Earth, wrote Attack of the Crab Monster. 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:03.680 Was a common writer in the Corman scene of this time, 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:07.159 and was famous for being able to crank out a 0:17:07.200 --> 0:17:12.200 script that was pretty witty and tight and quickly made. 0:17:13.080 --> 0:17:14.879 He could make he could write him fast. 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:18.000 Well, you know, he apparently did some work on the 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:22.040 script anyway. He's listed on IMDb as an uncredited screenwriter 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:25.480 post film, so you know he got in there and 0:17:25.480 --> 0:17:27.960 worked on it to some degree anyway. But indeed, you 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:29.800 think of Corman pictures from this area, You think of 0:17:29.880 --> 0:17:32.639 Charles B. Griffith, who lived nineteen thirty through two thousand 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:35.680 and seven. You know films like Not of This Earth Attack, 0:17:35.680 --> 0:17:37.439 of the Crab Monster. It's a little shop of hors 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:40.399 and bucket of blood. All right, let's get into the 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:44.600 cast here, and I'm going to not go in billing order. 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:47.600 We'll reference the billing order, but we're going to take 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:51.440 it by couple because this film centers mostly around two 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:55.080 married couples, the Nelson's and the Andersons, though I'd argue 0:17:55.080 --> 0:17:57.639 that it's chiefly the story of the Andersons. 0:17:57.359 --> 0:17:59.199 That's where the real emotional meat is. 0:17:59.640 --> 0:18:03.360 Yes, all right, so let's start with the Nelson's here, 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:06.920 starting with Doctor Paul Nelson, played by the top Build 0:18:07.200 --> 0:18:11.240 Peter Graves. Graves live nineteen twenty six through twenty ten, 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:14.000 best known to many for his long running hosting gig 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:16.080 on A and E's Biography, or at least for some 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:20.320 of us. I don't know if they're still rerunning episodes 0:18:20.320 --> 0:18:23.480 that Graves hosted, but he was a longtime host on Biography, 0:18:23.760 --> 0:18:25.760 and of course he had a long run on the 0:18:25.800 --> 0:18:30.160 original TV series Mission Impossible from sixty seven through seventy three. 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:32.639 I don't think I ever watched any of that, but 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:35.960 I do remember watching some of the late nineteen eighties reboot, 0:18:36.440 --> 0:18:39.679 a reboot that I only recently learned resulted from a 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.920 Hollywood writers strike. The studio was like, well, we got 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:46.720 to make episodes of something, but we can't use writers. 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:49.120 And they realized, well, let's just go back and get 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:53.520 old Mission Impossible scripts that weren't filmed and just film 0:18:53.560 --> 0:18:56.920 them in Australia, and that's what they did. That's where 0:18:56.960 --> 0:18:59.080 this show came from. But I remember watching it and 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:03.879 digging it and getting very excited about a Nintendo game 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:06.520 titled Mission Impossible that was some sort of tie in. 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:09.200 I think it was an official tie in, but also 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:15.080 just a legendarily difficult games. It's one of those Nintendo 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:17.200 games that I don't know if anyone ever beat this thing. 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:20.560 It was just so difficult, but also had some interesting 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:22.760 like stealth mechanics that seemed ahead of their time. 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:25.640 I'm looking it up now. I never played this one. 0:19:26.040 --> 0:19:28.840 Yeah, and nothing in the game really matches up with 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:31.919 what you see in a Mission Impossible TV show, But 0:19:32.280 --> 0:19:34.720 I don't know. I was excited for it at the time. 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:37.879 That was common for video game tie ins to movies 0:19:37.880 --> 0:19:40.919 and TV shows at the time. There's almost no resemblance 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:43.080 to the plot of the original thing. 0:19:43.480 --> 0:19:46.639 Yeah, so Graves was a US Air Force vet. He 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:49.840 was also, of course the brother of James Arness. Graves 0:19:49.920 --> 0:19:53.200 is his stage name. Arness We talked about in the 0:19:53.240 --> 0:19:57.440 past because he was the Thing from Another World and 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:00.320 graves acting credits go back to the early fifth these 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:03.600 including an early starring sci fi role in fifty two's 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:07.760 Red Planet Mars, but he scored much more success when 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:10.800 he appeared in a supporting role in Billy Wilder Stalog 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:15.480 seventeen in nineteen fifty three. He was not nominated, but 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:19.639 the film earned AUSTAR nominations for two of its stars 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:23.280 and its director. Graves went on from here to have 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:25.720 a long career on TV and screen, appearing in the 0:20:25.880 --> 0:20:29.359 likes of fifty four's Killers from Space, fifty five's The 0:20:29.440 --> 0:20:33.840 Night of the Hunter seventy nine. Yeah, yeah, The Night 0:20:33.880 --> 0:20:35.639 of the Hunter not I think there was later a 0:20:35.640 --> 0:20:40.159 TV version it's different, but yeah, he was in the picture. 0:20:40.640 --> 0:20:43.119 He was in nineteen seventy nine The Clonis horror. Another 0:20:43.240 --> 0:20:45.440 MST three K favorite of many. 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:48.000 Oh, is that the one about Going to America. 0:20:48.480 --> 0:20:52.119 Yes, yeah, it's a you know, it's a dull person 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:55.640 movie about clones. But it's one that is I think, 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:58.960 kind of stupid, but also kind of great and has 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:03.439 been sort of re explored, we should say, I guess 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:07.040 with subsequent clone movies. Yes, he was, of course in 0:21:07.080 --> 0:21:10.200 a nineteen eighties Airplane. He was in ninety three's Adams 0:21:10.280 --> 0:21:13.760 Family Values and nineteen ninety nine's House on Haunted Hill. 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:15.720 I think he kind of played himself in both of those, 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:18.520 like a TV presenter role, and he also pops up 0:21:18.520 --> 0:21:21.120 in two thousand and two's Men in Black two. 0:21:21.520 --> 0:21:23.399 Now we've already talked a bit about the irony of 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:25.959 the casting here, where they have Peter Graves playing the 0:21:26.320 --> 0:21:29.200 sort of the earthling hero who stands up for human 0:21:29.200 --> 0:21:35.760 emotions and yet is quite stiff and clenched in his performance. 0:21:36.080 --> 0:21:39.240 But so he is, in a I think, traditional interpretation, 0:21:39.440 --> 0:21:40.639 the hero of the movie. 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:44.480 Yes, yeah, yeah, he is, you know, and I guess 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:46.800 he has the look for it right. He plays a 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:50.959 he's a space flight scientist. He runs this satellite command 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:53.760 center that I think is a government operation, or at 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:57.080 least it's protected by government forces. 0:21:57.600 --> 0:22:00.080 Yeah. So, I mean this is from the fifty so, 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:02.560 which remember, like you know, we didn't really have our 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:05.560 full space program yet at the time, you know, the 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:10.720 Apollo program wouldn't until like nineteen sixty one. So they're 0:22:10.760 --> 0:22:14.840 imagining a space program that is being run by the military. 0:22:15.600 --> 0:22:19.240 And so, yes, Paul Nelson is he's I think the 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:22.840 creator of a satellite that is sort of a first 0:22:22.920 --> 0:22:26.200 satellite in orbit sort of thing. And he is also 0:22:26.600 --> 0:22:30.479 depicted as great friends with Lee van Cleef's character, who 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:31.480 will get to in a minute. 0:22:31.920 --> 0:22:34.600 All right, So that's doctor Paul Nelson. And doctor Paul 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:38.040 Nelson's wife is Joan Nelson, played by Sally Frasier, who 0:22:38.040 --> 0:22:41.960 lived nineteen thirty two through twenty nineteen. I mean, glamorous 0:22:42.000 --> 0:22:45.240 b movie star of the nineteen fifties, whose credits include 0:22:45.280 --> 0:22:48.520 another couple of notable genre pictures in the late fifties, 0:22:48.600 --> 0:22:51.959 nineteen fifty eight's War of the Colossal Beast. Oh, actually 0:22:51.960 --> 0:22:56.199 two more, Giant from the Unknown and The Spider Hmmm. 0:22:56.400 --> 0:22:58.280 Trying to think if I've seen any of those. 0:22:58.400 --> 0:23:00.560 I'm not sure I've seen War of I think I've 0:23:00.560 --> 0:23:02.800 seen War of Colossal Beasts, but I can never remember 0:23:02.840 --> 0:23:05.480 if that is the film that comes before The Amazing 0:23:05.480 --> 0:23:09.200 Colossal Man or after, because the films before and after 0:23:09.480 --> 0:23:12.320 The Amazing Colossal Man featured the same makeup, this kind 0:23:12.320 --> 0:23:16.919 of like scarred faced Cyclops makeup, So I don't remember 0:23:16.920 --> 0:23:17.880 off the top of my head. 0:23:17.960 --> 0:23:21.400 Here, I think the Amazing Colossal Man is the first one. 0:23:21.480 --> 0:23:23.280 So War of the Colossal Beast has got to be 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:25.840 a sequel or a subsequent film. 0:23:26.160 --> 0:23:28.719 Yeah, but there is. I think there is another Giant 0:23:28.720 --> 0:23:31.640 Man picture in the mix. 0:23:31.480 --> 0:23:34.639 There, just looks it up. Yeah, Colossal Man is fifty seven, 0:23:34.720 --> 0:23:36.640 War of the Colossal Beast is fifty. 0:23:36.359 --> 0:23:38.439 Eight, and then what year is the Cyclops? 0:23:39.000 --> 0:23:42.040 Oh with Lon Chaney Junior. I think that that's fifty seven. 0:23:42.240 --> 0:23:45.080 Okay, yeah, that is the same makeup as War of 0:23:45.119 --> 0:23:46.560 the Colossal Beast, I see. 0:23:46.640 --> 0:23:47.000 Okay. 0:23:47.400 --> 0:23:49.879 So Joan is Paul's loving wife. This is a very 0:23:49.920 --> 0:23:52.720 much supporting role, but she gets to have some fun 0:23:52.760 --> 0:23:53.840 moments late in the picture. 0:23:54.119 --> 0:23:56.879 Yeah, she has a wonderful Paul. I have a present 0:23:56.920 --> 0:24:00.000 for you've seen? Yes, yeah, thats out. It's an alien 0:24:00.040 --> 0:24:01.119 in mind control device. 0:24:03.320 --> 0:24:05.919 All right, let's move on to the Andersons here starting 0:24:05.920 --> 0:24:10.720 with doctor Tom Anderson played by the legendary Lee van Kleef, 0:24:10.720 --> 0:24:13.560 who lived nineteen twenty five through nineteen eighty nine. It's 0:24:13.600 --> 0:24:18.520 old Angelized himself. Now, Van Cleef's career would ultimately really 0:24:18.560 --> 0:24:22.040 take off in the mid nineteen sixties. That's when Sergio 0:24:22.119 --> 0:24:24.800 Leoni cast him in the Clint Eastwood Western for a 0:24:24.840 --> 0:24:28.040 few dollars more, followed by a role as the villain 0:24:28.160 --> 0:24:31.119 Angelize and sixty six is The Good, the Bad, and 0:24:31.160 --> 0:24:34.440 the Ugly, And this just cemented him as a spaghetti 0:24:34.520 --> 0:24:37.920 western superstar. And you know, before and after that too, 0:24:37.960 --> 0:24:40.560 he appeared in tons of westerns. Like you look at 0:24:40.600 --> 0:24:45.040 his filmography, it's really like mostly westerns and some crime 0:24:45.119 --> 0:24:50.080 pictures and that sort of thing. Director John Carpenter, of course, 0:24:50.119 --> 0:24:52.879 grew up as a fan of all these westerns and 0:24:53.280 --> 0:24:56.919 cast him as police Commissioner Bob Hawk in the nineteen 0:24:56.960 --> 0:25:00.800 eighty one classic Escape from New York picture, where I 0:25:00.800 --> 0:25:03.600 think Van Cleeve really shines. This is one of my 0:25:03.680 --> 0:25:06.359 favorite supporting characters, I think probably of all time, one 0:25:06.400 --> 0:25:09.480 of those supporting characters that leaves you wanting more and 0:25:09.600 --> 0:25:13.000 has some interesting hooks about where this character has been 0:25:13.080 --> 0:25:15.359 and where they might be going, and you want to 0:25:15.400 --> 0:25:17.560 know those stories. But of course the film doesn't take 0:25:17.640 --> 0:25:19.920 us there. It just teases us with these possibilities. 0:25:20.240 --> 0:25:22.440 Yeah, and of course I love Him. And The Good, 0:25:22.480 --> 0:25:23.840 the Bad and the Ugly. The Good, the Bad and 0:25:23.880 --> 0:25:26.960 the Ugly is a movie of many villains. Two main 0:25:27.080 --> 0:25:29.680 villains sort of alluded to in the title there. One 0:25:29.760 --> 0:25:34.119 is played by Eli Wallach, who is the more humorous 0:25:34.160 --> 0:25:37.920 and talkative of the sort of villainish characters with kind 0:25:37.920 --> 0:25:41.600 of shifting loyalties. But Lee van Kleef's character is the 0:25:41.840 --> 0:25:47.480 very straight, hard, bad, mysterious, serious villain. Nice. 0:25:47.800 --> 0:25:51.040 Now, at this point in Lee van Cleef's career fifty six, 0:25:51.359 --> 0:25:54.000 he'd already had a few years experience in TV and film, 0:25:54.560 --> 0:25:56.800 but with loads of credits as you often see, like 0:25:57.400 --> 0:26:00.359 he was working a lot. Let's see, he made his 0:26:00.400 --> 0:26:03.160 film debut in the Oscar winning western high Noon from 0:26:03.200 --> 0:26:05.800 fifty two, and in fifty three he was in the 0:26:05.800 --> 0:26:09.240 Beast from twenty thousand fathoms. He acted in again a 0:26:09.320 --> 0:26:13.800 lot of westerns and crime projects throughout his filmography, But 0:26:14.680 --> 0:26:18.199 one of the interesting things is that this film The 0:26:18.200 --> 0:26:20.720 Beast from twenty thousand Fathoms and Escape from New York. 0:26:20.800 --> 0:26:23.560 Those are apparently the only three sci fi or horror 0:26:23.600 --> 0:26:26.680 pictures that he ever did, though I believe he did 0:26:26.720 --> 0:26:29.159 act in at least one sci fi TV series in 0:26:29.160 --> 0:26:32.760 the early fifties, and he played a ninja on TV's 0:26:32.800 --> 0:26:35.080 The Master in the mid eighties, but you know that 0:26:35.200 --> 0:26:38.640 wasn't sci fi or horror, and so in this picture, yeah, 0:26:38.680 --> 0:26:43.280 he is Anderson, a disgruntled physicist whose big ideas about 0:26:43.320 --> 0:26:47.000 aliens have pushed him outside of the mainstream. But then, 0:26:47.040 --> 0:26:49.679 of course the picture of centers around the fact that 0:26:49.720 --> 0:26:53.000 he ends up making actual contact with an alien intelligence 0:26:53.240 --> 0:26:55.879 from the planet Venus, and it places him in the 0:26:56.000 --> 0:26:59.240 role of well, it could be Earth's savior or perhaps 0:26:59.240 --> 0:27:02.760 it's destroyed. For a lot of the picture, it depends 0:27:03.600 --> 0:27:05.679 which side of the philosophical debate you're on. 0:27:06.160 --> 0:27:09.080 There are a lot of interesting things about the way 0:27:09.119 --> 0:27:12.880 this character is written and the way Van Cleef plays him. 0:27:13.600 --> 0:27:17.760 So the character is in some ways portrayed as a crank, 0:27:18.080 --> 0:27:21.600 like he has these ideas that are not accepted by 0:27:21.640 --> 0:27:24.199 other scientists or by the the you know, the the 0:27:24.200 --> 0:27:28.439 civil leadership, and they have to do with aliens of course, 0:27:28.520 --> 0:27:31.040 and nobody pays attention to him. They're just like, ah, 0:27:31.080 --> 0:27:33.760 he's going off on his favorite subject again, and this 0:27:33.880 --> 0:27:36.600 makes him embittered to the fact that nobody's paying attention 0:27:36.680 --> 0:27:39.840 to him, which I think is pretty interesting because that is, 0:27:40.400 --> 0:27:42.360 you know, it almost makes me think of when when 0:27:42.440 --> 0:27:46.560 sun Zoo came up recently in our episodes about the Ninja, 0:27:46.920 --> 0:27:50.160 where you know, he's talking about who to find within 0:27:50.240 --> 0:27:53.560 the enemy's ranks to recruit to your side, to be it, 0:27:53.600 --> 0:27:56.480 to be a secret agent and betray the enemy, and 0:27:56.880 --> 0:27:58.760 one of the things he says is look for someone 0:27:58.840 --> 0:28:03.240 who has who feels they have been mistreated or unappreciated 0:28:03.280 --> 0:28:06.840 by enemy leadership, someone who feels their genius is not 0:28:07.040 --> 0:28:09.040 being made use of by the enemy. 0:28:09.520 --> 0:28:10.760 Yeah. Yeah, that matches up. 0:28:11.119 --> 0:28:14.600 So he's portrayed as simultaneously like in some ways an 0:28:14.600 --> 0:28:18.199 appreciated scientific genius but also at the same time a 0:28:18.240 --> 0:28:21.240 crying who people are dismissive of, at least with his 0:28:21.320 --> 0:28:27.240 ideas about aliens. But then he also interestingly, I would say, 0:28:27.280 --> 0:28:31.480 he plays this scientist character in a way that's very 0:28:31.840 --> 0:28:36.560 textually different than most scientist characters in horror and sci 0:28:36.560 --> 0:28:39.239 fi movies of the fifties, who are usually portrayed as 0:28:39.400 --> 0:28:45.120 very straight laced and with high social class signifiers in 0:28:45.160 --> 0:28:47.920 the way they speak. Van Cleef's character does not come 0:28:48.000 --> 0:28:51.280 off that way. He is playing a physicist who has 0:28:51.400 --> 0:28:57.520 a more rough, aggressive and kind of sounds like he 0:28:57.560 --> 0:29:02.280 has probably working class origins and speaks with a speaks 0:29:02.280 --> 0:29:05.600 with a distinctive voice rather than the kind of formal 0:29:06.480 --> 0:29:10.120 or or character free way that a lot of scientist 0:29:10.200 --> 0:29:11.600 characters in these movies talk. 0:29:11.920 --> 0:29:14.440 Yeah, yeah, you're right. He does stand out in that regard. 0:29:15.120 --> 0:29:17.720 And and it's interesting too, like his some of his 0:29:17.800 --> 0:29:20.160 ideas that especially the ones we hear about early on, 0:29:20.320 --> 0:29:22.480 like you know that they are actual ideas that are 0:29:22.520 --> 0:29:26.520 sometimes batted around concerning the possibility of extraterrestrials, like the 0:29:26.560 --> 0:29:31.120 idea that they're watching and that they might interfere if 0:29:31.640 --> 0:29:34.600 they didn't like some development that was happening here, you know, 0:29:34.680 --> 0:29:36.560 Like some of these ideas, you know, they're they're not 0:29:36.680 --> 0:29:39.840 they're not out of line with with some of the 0:29:39.880 --> 0:29:44.800 speculative notions that are discussed regarding alien intelligence. Uh. And 0:29:44.840 --> 0:29:48.120 then of course it ends up taking on this this 0:29:48.560 --> 0:29:52.120 higher purpose that he sees the idea that through contact 0:29:52.120 --> 0:29:55.040 with aliens we can save ourselves. And of course this 0:29:55.120 --> 0:29:59.280 is a common theme in u apology. And and then 0:29:59.480 --> 0:30:03.000 I guess in in some like serious contemplations on what 0:30:03.160 --> 0:30:07.320 first contact would mean for humans, you know, the possibility 0:30:07.360 --> 0:30:11.200 that it could greatly improve life on Earth if we 0:30:11.240 --> 0:30:14.640 had outside contacts something some other force that could help 0:30:14.720 --> 0:30:15.720 us fix our problems. 0:30:16.120 --> 0:30:18.920 I don't know if we've talked about this recently, maybe 0:30:18.920 --> 0:30:22.080 it's come up on the show before, but I noticed 0:30:22.200 --> 0:30:27.160 a pretty strong tendency these days for beliefs about UFOs 0:30:27.200 --> 0:30:31.880 and alien life to essentially merge with religious thinking, for 0:30:32.000 --> 0:30:35.960 it to be actually not really separate propositions at all. Though, 0:30:36.040 --> 0:30:40.160 like a lot of people who believe strongly in UFOs 0:30:40.240 --> 0:30:44.520 and alien presence on Earth these days, that belief sort 0:30:44.560 --> 0:30:48.440 of edges into ideas about them being spiritual or heavenly 0:30:48.560 --> 0:30:51.200 beings that are in some way going to save us. 0:30:51.920 --> 0:30:55.360 Yeah, yeah, it is. It is a common theme. I've 0:30:55.360 --> 0:30:58.840 seen it in crystal shops too, and actual and actual 0:30:59.440 --> 0:31:02.240 crystals for your christ consciousness. And then on the next 0:31:02.240 --> 0:31:07.880 table you got crystals for aliens, for extraterrestrial So I 0:31:07.920 --> 0:31:09.520 guess you can grab one of each, you know, put 0:31:09.520 --> 0:31:12.040 one in each palm, mix them up, mix and match. 0:31:20.840 --> 0:31:24.400 Oh but Lee Van Cleeve's character Tom Anderson, Doctor Tom 0:31:24.440 --> 0:31:28.600 Anderson here is the husband of Claire Anderson, who is 0:31:28.720 --> 0:31:31.920 also a very interesting character in this movie, played by 0:31:31.920 --> 0:31:32.800 Beverly Garland. 0:31:33.120 --> 0:31:36.600 Oh yes, Beverly Garland, who, to be clear, has second 0:31:36.640 --> 0:31:39.560 billing in the picture, even though we're discussing her fourth, 0:31:39.800 --> 0:31:41.560 I want to stress that she did have second billing. 0:31:41.840 --> 0:31:46.640 Her performance here is great. It's spirited, and she plays 0:31:46.640 --> 0:31:49.560 she doesn't just play like a damsel or some character 0:31:49.640 --> 0:31:51.480 who's just kind of like, oh, honey, I wish you 0:31:51.480 --> 0:31:56.120 wouldn't betray humanity to the aliens. Like she is supportive, 0:31:56.240 --> 0:32:00.240 like fiercely supportive, but she is also very skeptical, and 0:32:00.280 --> 0:32:02.600 she voices her skepticism and in the end she's also 0:32:02.680 --> 0:32:05.440 she's more than willing to fight for the man she 0:32:05.480 --> 0:32:08.920 loves and the planet she loves in a really inspiring 0:32:08.960 --> 0:32:11.680 fashion like this is ultimately, especially for this Ara, this 0:32:11.720 --> 0:32:14.480 is pretty strong role and she does a great job 0:32:14.520 --> 0:32:17.800 with it, like any she now, to be clear, occasionally 0:32:17.840 --> 0:32:20.680 she has some some some maybe not all that thought 0:32:20.680 --> 0:32:24.000 out lines she has to work with. But even then, 0:32:24.160 --> 0:32:27.080 like Beverly Garland, gives it her all, and she makes 0:32:27.120 --> 0:32:30.000 those those lines live on the screen when they should 0:32:30.040 --> 0:32:32.080 have been that they shouldn't have have had as much 0:32:32.120 --> 0:32:32.840 life to them. 0:32:33.080 --> 0:32:35.480 That's the part where she's talking to leaving Cleef. They're 0:32:35.480 --> 0:32:37.320 in the middle of talking about aliens, by the way, 0:32:37.560 --> 0:32:40.000 and she says something like, I'll stay with you not 0:32:40.120 --> 0:32:42.680 just because you're my husband, but because I love you. 0:32:43.520 --> 0:32:46.640 Yeah, lines like that. She's she'sually fighting for her life 0:32:46.680 --> 0:32:49.480 with lines like that. But she does a great job you. 0:32:49.640 --> 0:32:52.200 But yeah, she she has to manage. I think a 0:32:52.440 --> 0:32:57.960 difficult character here who's like her motivations shift over the 0:32:57.960 --> 0:33:00.880 course of the movies. She's always conflicted. But at the 0:33:00.920 --> 0:33:04.440 beginning of the movie, she's conflicted because she loves her husband, 0:33:04.520 --> 0:33:07.400 but she thinks he's losing his mind. She thinks that 0:33:07.560 --> 0:33:13.240 he is having delusions of contact with alien life. But 0:33:13.400 --> 0:33:16.440 then when it becomes clear he is actually talking to 0:33:16.480 --> 0:33:18.840 an alien and he was right all along and she 0:33:19.000 --> 0:33:21.840 was wrong for doubting him. Then it shifts to her 0:33:22.120 --> 0:33:26.400 realizing that his vindication is not a good thing because 0:33:26.440 --> 0:33:29.680 it means that he is actually partnering with this alien 0:33:29.840 --> 0:33:33.000 to take over the planet and destroy everything that she 0:33:33.160 --> 0:33:35.920 holds sacred and so she like makes a case to him. 0:33:36.040 --> 0:33:39.120 This movie involves a lot of scenes of people just 0:33:39.240 --> 0:33:42.600 like laying out an argument for why Earth should not 0:33:42.720 --> 0:33:45.920 be conquered, and she does great in those scenes, Like 0:33:46.000 --> 0:33:50.520 she sort of brings things up to Lea Vancleef about 0:33:50.520 --> 0:33:53.400 what this alien conquest would mean for their family and 0:33:53.440 --> 0:33:55.959 their marriage, and it's like things that he hadn't occurred 0:33:55.960 --> 0:33:56.600 to him before. 0:33:57.120 --> 0:34:01.880 Yeah, yeah, so again I love this performents. Beverly Garland 0:34:01.920 --> 0:34:04.480 lived nineteen twenty six through two thousand and eight. She'd 0:34:04.520 --> 0:34:07.640 been enacting in TV and films since I think nineteen 0:34:07.680 --> 0:34:11.759 forty nine at this point, and It Conquered the World 0:34:11.800 --> 0:34:13.839 seems to have led to a number of additional low 0:34:13.840 --> 0:34:17.160 budget sci fi films, though she'd also act in supporting 0:34:17.200 --> 0:34:20.840 roles on bigger pictures and of course on TV. For instance, 0:34:20.840 --> 0:34:23.239 I think at least at one point, most people would 0:34:23.239 --> 0:34:25.840 be familiar with her from her role on TV's My 0:34:25.960 --> 0:34:29.839 Three Sons, but she also appeared in such films as 0:34:29.880 --> 0:34:34.200 fifty six's Caruku Beast of the Amazon Not at This 0:34:34.280 --> 0:34:36.320 Earth in fifty seven, so we have discussed her on 0:34:36.360 --> 0:34:40.360 the show before The Alligator People in fifty nine, Twice, 0:34:40.400 --> 0:34:43.200 Told Tales in fifty three, Pretty Poison in sixty eight, 0:34:43.280 --> 0:34:46.360 in Airports seventy five, In seventy four. 0:34:46.680 --> 0:34:51.400 Is Alligator People a sci fi horror movie where like 0:34:51.440 --> 0:34:54.560 a mad scientist is turning people into alligators and the swamp? 0:34:54.840 --> 0:34:56.360 Yep, that's the one, okay. 0:34:56.840 --> 0:35:00.000 I wonder if is that the movie that is being 0:35:00.200 --> 0:35:03.120 referenced in the Rocky Ericsson song It's a Cold Night 0:35:03.160 --> 0:35:04.000 for Alligators. 0:35:04.160 --> 0:35:07.600 I believe this is widely accepted, yes, okay, with as 0:35:07.680 --> 0:35:12.000 much clarity as we can have regarding what Rocky's singing 0:35:12.000 --> 0:35:14.239 about exactly in a number of these songs, but I 0:35:14.280 --> 0:35:16.959 think that is often pointed too, is the reference point 0:35:17.000 --> 0:35:18.919 for that awesome song. 0:35:19.480 --> 0:35:21.319 If you don't know what we're talking about and you're 0:35:21.320 --> 0:35:23.960 in the mood for some B movie themed rock and roll, 0:35:24.000 --> 0:35:26.719 go listen to the Rocky ericson album The Evil One, 0:35:26.800 --> 0:35:30.040 produced by Stu Cook. Yeah, it has this song on it. 0:35:30.040 --> 0:35:32.400 It's a Cold Night for Alligators has the great line 0:35:32.480 --> 0:35:35.320 the dogs choke on their barking when they see alligator 0:35:35.360 --> 0:35:37.080 persons in the bog and fog. 0:35:37.719 --> 0:35:41.360 Oh yeah, great album, especially for October. I highly recommend 0:35:41.640 --> 0:35:42.360 putting that one on. 0:35:42.840 --> 0:35:45.680 I've listened to this one so many times. It's a 0:35:45.719 --> 0:35:46.640 personal favorite. 0:35:47.239 --> 0:35:49.319 All right. Getting into some of the bit performers here, 0:35:49.440 --> 0:35:51.800 we have to mention Dick Miller is in this, of course, 0:35:52.960 --> 0:35:56.319 legendary character actor and Corman mainstay who in nineteen twenty 0:35:56.320 --> 0:35:59.279 eight through twenty nineteen. He plays Sergeant Neil here, who 0:35:59.280 --> 0:36:01.120 I guess kind of he heads up the X comm 0:36:01.160 --> 0:36:03.400 squad of soldiers who are going to help us do 0:36:03.480 --> 0:36:06.360 battle with the aliens eventually, but mostly they just wander 0:36:06.400 --> 0:36:06.960 through the woods. 0:36:07.320 --> 0:36:10.360 They're primarily comic relief. They wander around in the woods 0:36:10.400 --> 0:36:13.120 that they stand guard at gates. They make wise cracks. 0:36:13.160 --> 0:36:17.200 Dick Miller makes some very nineteen fifties like my wife jokes. 0:36:17.080 --> 0:36:20.680 Yeah, yeah, there's a He has a lot of interaction 0:36:20.840 --> 0:36:24.280 with the private Manuel Ortiz, who is in this picture 0:36:24.320 --> 0:36:28.320 played by Jonathan Hayes Bor nineteen twenty nine American actor, 0:36:28.360 --> 0:36:31.319 best known for his work in Corman films, especially Little 0:36:31.360 --> 0:36:34.520 Shop of Hers, in which he played the main character Seymour. 0:36:35.320 --> 0:36:37.439 He was also in fifty seven's Not of This Earth 0:36:37.480 --> 0:36:40.240 and pops up in the nineteen eighty two Wings Houser 0:36:40.280 --> 0:36:44.920 film Vice Squad. This is a bit comedic role, and 0:36:44.960 --> 0:36:47.799 I have to say, not a shining moment in his filmography. 0:36:48.400 --> 0:36:50.560 Don't love it. And let's see who else we have. Oh, 0:36:50.640 --> 0:36:53.920 we have Russ Bender here playing Brigadier General James Patrick. 0:36:54.320 --> 0:36:58.800 He lived nineteen ten through nineteen sixty nine. General American 0:36:58.840 --> 0:37:02.120 B movie actor often played these kind of like authority figures. 0:37:02.600 --> 0:37:05.080 He was also in fifty seven's The Amazing Colossal Man 0:37:05.120 --> 0:37:07.560 and fifty eighth War of the Colossal Beast that plays 0:37:07.560 --> 0:37:08.799 a different character in each. 0:37:09.200 --> 0:37:11.279 Now, Rob, I think we've got to talk about the 0:37:11.320 --> 0:37:15.600 special effects here, especially the creation of the monster suit, 0:37:15.800 --> 0:37:19.680 because I have read some behind the scenes accounts of 0:37:19.880 --> 0:37:24.560 even the crew and cast at the time reacting with 0:37:24.760 --> 0:37:28.400 disbelief at this monster. I think there's a famous story 0:37:28.400 --> 0:37:32.120 of Beverly Garland being like that conquered the world. 0:37:33.880 --> 0:37:39.000 Yeah. Yeah, the benefactor the monster here was designed and 0:37:39.280 --> 0:37:42.440 monster suited by Paul Blasdell, who I've talked about on 0:37:42.480 --> 0:37:46.520 the show before, because he is responsible for some very 0:37:46.760 --> 0:37:50.759 iconic monster designs from this time period, including it the 0:37:50.880 --> 0:37:53.040 Terror from Beyond Space that we recently talked about on 0:37:53.080 --> 0:37:53.440 the show. 0:37:54.280 --> 0:37:54.759 That was great. 0:37:55.080 --> 0:37:57.600 Yeah. Yeah. He lived nineteen twenty seven through nineteen eighty three, 0:37:58.920 --> 0:38:02.240 responsible for Let's see what are some of the other creatures, 0:38:02.280 --> 0:38:04.480 The Beast with a Million Eyes and the Day the 0:38:04.520 --> 0:38:08.319 World Ended from fifty five not of this Earth, which 0:38:08.480 --> 0:38:11.239 I thought those were pretty cool little saucer creatures in there, 0:38:11.880 --> 0:38:15.520 Invasion of the Saucer Men Teenagers from Outer Space, which 0:38:15.760 --> 0:38:18.120 has a great dog zafting scene in it where the 0:38:18.560 --> 0:38:20.360 one of the alien zaps a dog and turns it 0:38:20.400 --> 0:38:23.719 to bones. So you know, he's involved in a lot 0:38:23.760 --> 0:38:26.840 of stuff in his designs. Have they have a signature 0:38:26.880 --> 0:38:31.160 look to them which is great and has and is 0:38:31.200 --> 0:38:34.160 you know, kind of worshiped by people who love nineteen 0:38:34.160 --> 0:38:37.280 fifties B movies, like they're model kits of the monster 0:38:37.400 --> 0:38:40.200 from this picture. But at the end of the day, 0:38:40.520 --> 0:38:46.160 it is also ineffective. Is it is a goofy looking 0:38:46.200 --> 0:38:50.320 monster that does not inspire terror, That is a great 0:38:50.400 --> 0:38:55.960 pains to convincingly interact with human actors. It just ultimately 0:38:56.000 --> 0:38:58.520 falls flat. But you can't help but love it at 0:38:58.560 --> 0:38:59.120 the same time. 0:38:59.600 --> 0:39:04.520 It's I how did I actually think it is a 0:39:04.640 --> 0:39:07.480 kind of great design If you were just going to 0:39:07.560 --> 0:39:11.399 say focus on the face and the shape of it 0:39:11.640 --> 0:39:14.239 and render it as an illustration or something. And that's 0:39:14.280 --> 0:39:16.960 why I think it works quite well on the movie poster. 0:39:17.640 --> 0:39:21.560 It just doesn't work as a physically embodied prop moving 0:39:21.600 --> 0:39:23.360 and interacting with actors. 0:39:23.960 --> 0:39:26.799 Yeah, it looks and I'm not the first to make 0:39:27.160 --> 0:39:30.160 some of these comparisons to it, but it looks like 0:39:30.239 --> 0:39:34.000 the mascot, the demonic mascot for an arti Choke Heart company, Like, 0:39:34.080 --> 0:39:38.600 it looks like a big artichoke heart with tentacles, tentacle arm, 0:39:38.760 --> 0:39:43.560 clawed arm things. And it apparently at one point it 0:39:43.600 --> 0:39:46.000 didn't have that conical head. It was like flat because 0:39:46.000 --> 0:39:48.880 they were like, well, it's Venus and their head in 0:39:48.960 --> 0:39:51.560 their minds, Well, it would be crushed flat by the gravity. 0:39:52.640 --> 0:39:54.839 I don't know, we know that's that wouldn't exactly be 0:39:54.840 --> 0:39:57.320 the case. It was crushed, It would be by the atmosphere. 0:39:57.320 --> 0:40:00.399 But at any rate, they put it on on set 0:40:00.440 --> 0:40:02.120 and he realized, no, this thing's way too short. We've 0:40:02.160 --> 0:40:04.640 got to make it taller. So let's just make its 0:40:04.719 --> 0:40:07.600 head like an inverted ice cream cone. And that's what 0:40:07.640 --> 0:40:08.000 they did. 0:40:08.239 --> 0:40:11.040 I think that I've read that the cast were comparing 0:40:11.080 --> 0:40:13.080 it to an ice cream cone on the set because 0:40:13.080 --> 0:40:16.680 it's got a conical head, no body, and arms coming 0:40:16.719 --> 0:40:18.920 out of the side of its head. Uh. There's a 0:40:18.920 --> 0:40:21.080 great part in the movie where it's it's got sort 0:40:21.120 --> 0:40:23.759 of a little like, you know, a round skirt around 0:40:23.800 --> 0:40:25.839 the bottom of it, and it starts just sort of 0:40:25.880 --> 0:40:29.120 pooping out these little bats that fly away, the mind 0:40:29.160 --> 0:40:33.879 control bats. But as you said, artichoke, I've always thought 0:40:33.920 --> 0:40:35.560 of it as an artichoke. It is an art to 0:40:35.680 --> 0:40:36.439 choke from hell. 0:40:38.800 --> 0:40:42.279 If you look up images of the original costume, it 0:40:43.320 --> 0:40:47.200 was apparently read. Its name on set was Beulah. I 0:40:47.239 --> 0:40:53.480 believe Paul Blasdell called it as such himself. Oftentimes these 0:40:53.560 --> 0:40:56.760 monster effects have like little pet names behind the scenes, 0:40:56.760 --> 0:41:00.359 and this was Beulah. And yeah, I mean it. It's 0:41:00.400 --> 0:41:03.239 it's a it's a terrible and amazing design at the 0:41:03.280 --> 0:41:05.600 same time, it like it. It has stood the test 0:41:05.640 --> 0:41:09.359 of time. People love it. And it looks evil, it 0:41:09.360 --> 0:41:12.399 looks like it's up to no good. Yes, yeah, And 0:41:12.800 --> 0:41:14.279 I don't want to be too hard on it. There 0:41:14.320 --> 0:41:16.960 are maybe a couple of scenes with it that that 0:41:17.120 --> 0:41:21.280 do resonate, and it's it's interactions with the human actors 0:41:21.320 --> 0:41:24.839 are not entirely unconvincing, but clearly it needed a lot 0:41:24.880 --> 0:41:25.239 of help. 0:41:26.880 --> 0:41:28.480 Well, it's one of those things where you know that 0:41:28.560 --> 0:41:32.280 scene in ed Wood where Bella Legosi is being attacked 0:41:32.280 --> 0:41:34.520 by the octopus, but they don't have the motor to 0:41:34.520 --> 0:41:36.400 make its arms move, so he's got to kind of 0:41:36.440 --> 0:41:41.120 throw the arms around himself. Yeah, there's a similar thing 0:41:41.239 --> 0:41:45.839 happening in this movie where it can't really be made 0:41:45.960 --> 0:41:51.400 to in a perspective shot, be made to attack people, 0:41:51.560 --> 0:41:54.960 so instead we see people leaping into its claws. 0:41:55.520 --> 0:41:59.200 Yeah, like you run at it, sort of skid into 0:41:59.239 --> 0:42:02.200 its claws and then go flat. Yeah. And like there's 0:42:02.200 --> 0:42:05.280 one scene in particular where the stunt person or actor 0:42:05.360 --> 0:42:07.560 doing this like really goes for it, really eats it 0:42:07.960 --> 0:42:10.080 and makes it look good, and I was like, yeah, 0:42:10.160 --> 0:42:13.840 all right, it's looking alive now. But like, again, it 0:42:13.920 --> 0:42:16.080 takes a lot of help for this thing to look 0:42:16.440 --> 0:42:18.400 even halfway believable on the screen. 0:42:18.520 --> 0:42:20.600 Like for the people who get mulled by it are 0:42:20.680 --> 0:42:23.480 essentially like a puppy running up to somebody for a hug. 0:42:23.760 --> 0:42:28.040 Yeah. At the same time, I will acknowledge that part 0:42:28.080 --> 0:42:31.480 of the plot is that the thing can't move around 0:42:31.520 --> 0:42:33.759 all that well, and it's kind of like isolated, so 0:42:34.120 --> 0:42:34.560 I don't know. 0:42:34.920 --> 0:42:38.120 Yeah, that's sort of a revelation, right, Like Leavan Kleef 0:42:38.160 --> 0:42:41.000 is all about, Oh, it's super powerful, it's perfect, it 0:42:41.040 --> 0:42:44.200 can do anything. But Beverly Garland is like, wait a minute, 0:42:44.239 --> 0:42:46.960 but it can't leave this cave and it's like stuck 0:42:47.040 --> 0:42:49.680 theirs and it needs people to do its dirty work. 0:42:49.719 --> 0:42:51.560 That makes it sound like it's not as powerful as 0:42:51.600 --> 0:42:55.279 you think. And she's got a point. Yeah, maybe it's 0:42:55.320 --> 0:43:01.440 supposed to look somewhat awkward and unable to act very 0:43:01.480 --> 0:43:04.880 effectively within Earth's atmosphere because it's not from here and 0:43:04.920 --> 0:43:06.839 it needs people to do its job for it. 0:43:07.239 --> 0:43:10.239 Yeah, but it is highly intelligent and highly manipulative, as 0:43:10.239 --> 0:43:13.000 we'll get into all right. One final note on the 0:43:13.080 --> 0:43:16.680 music for this picture, though the music is nothing really remarkable, 0:43:16.719 --> 0:43:19.040 but the music is credited to Ronald Stein, who lived 0:43:19.080 --> 0:43:21.800 nineteen thirty through nineteen eighty eight. Composer who worked on 0:43:21.840 --> 0:43:25.240 a lot of low budget films, particularly for American international pictures, 0:43:26.080 --> 0:43:28.200 the likes of Not of This Earth, Attack of the Crab, 0:43:28.239 --> 0:43:32.560 Monster's Queen of Blood, Dementia thirteen, and more, including The 0:43:32.640 --> 0:43:36.360 Rain People, Francis Ford Coppola's picture prior to the Godfather. 0:43:36.880 --> 0:43:40.480 I didn't really notice much about the music itself one 0:43:40.480 --> 0:43:43.240 of the so the music wasn't bad, it wasn't great. 0:43:43.600 --> 0:43:46.760 But one thing I did notice that was quite funny 0:43:46.960 --> 0:43:50.719 was the pairing of certain pieces of music with what 0:43:50.960 --> 0:43:53.279 was happening on the screen. Rob, did you notice that 0:43:53.680 --> 0:43:56.799 some of the most dramatic music in the movie was like, 0:43:57.040 --> 0:43:59.600 while we were watching Peter Graves do a three point 0:43:59.600 --> 0:44:00.840 turn in the truck. 0:44:01.680 --> 0:44:03.879 I did. I don't think I really made note of that, 0:44:03.960 --> 0:44:06.200 but I always think when I think music in this 0:44:06.320 --> 0:44:09.680 I think about the musical stinger to the monologue where 0:44:10.280 --> 0:44:13.480 he finishes the monologue and then you hear bomb bomb 0:44:13.520 --> 0:44:16.239 bomb bomb or something to that effect. You know, just 0:44:16.400 --> 0:44:19.400 really just punctuating the whole message. 0:44:19.800 --> 0:44:21.960 Yeah, I agree with that, Uh, but it is it 0:44:22.040 --> 0:44:24.400 is funny getting the like the real like the strings 0:44:24.440 --> 0:44:28.600 are ascending as they're literally somebody coming out of a driveway. 0:44:29.520 --> 0:44:31.560 Yeah. There are whole scenes in this film where it's like, well, 0:44:31.600 --> 0:44:34.000 I drove up all the way, now I've got to 0:44:34.040 --> 0:44:35.879 go back, so I'll go back. 0:44:36.320 --> 0:44:39.120 Yeah, let me turn around, go back down this winding 0:44:39.200 --> 0:44:41.600 road we sell people go up these s curves. I 0:44:41.600 --> 0:44:43.360 don't know, like five or six times. 0:44:43.680 --> 0:44:54.960 Yeah, all right, well let's get into the plot of 0:44:55.120 --> 0:44:56.720 it Conquered the World. 0:44:57.120 --> 0:45:01.120 Okay. Well, the action begins with a bunch of scientists 0:45:01.239 --> 0:45:03.640 in a lab at what I think is an Air 0:45:03.680 --> 0:45:06.759 Force bace. It's a military installation of some kind. You 0:45:06.840 --> 0:45:10.480 got technicians in white coats, electronic equipment beeping all over 0:45:10.480 --> 0:45:13.120 the place, these big view screens on the walls, and 0:45:13.400 --> 0:45:16.879 radar pinging with contacts from the sky. And here in 0:45:16.960 --> 0:45:20.040 command of all this is doctor Paul Nelson. That's again 0:45:20.160 --> 0:45:23.600 Peter Graves. The people in this lab are preparing for 0:45:23.680 --> 0:45:27.400 a satellite launch. And note that this movie was released 0:45:27.520 --> 0:45:31.200 in nineteen fifty six, which was a year before the 0:45:31.239 --> 0:45:34.920 Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first ever artificial satellite to 0:45:34.960 --> 0:45:38.279 achieve orbit. So what is being depicted here was at 0:45:38.280 --> 0:45:41.440 the time pure science fiction. Humans had not yet at 0:45:41.440 --> 0:45:44.480 the time of this movie put a satellite into orbit. 0:45:44.960 --> 0:45:46.600 Yeah, it's always fun to sort of put these in 0:45:46.640 --> 0:45:50.480 the perspective of where we actually were with the space 0:45:50.520 --> 0:45:51.680 exploration at the time. 0:45:51.880 --> 0:45:55.839 Yeah. Yeah, So some of the chatter between the scientists 0:45:55.840 --> 0:45:59.080 in the room reveals that the satellite program costs nine 0:45:59.239 --> 0:46:03.239 million dollars as wow, and it is at moderate risk 0:46:03.320 --> 0:46:07.640 of crashing into an unrelated airplane during liftoff. They're like, oh, 0:46:07.719 --> 0:46:11.520 I better get that plane out of the way. Peter Graves, 0:46:12.080 --> 0:46:17.000 he's got sort of corny, overwrought moments pretty much immediately, 0:46:17.080 --> 0:46:20.200 Like in this very first scene, one of one of 0:46:20.239 --> 0:46:22.960 the technicians says, you know, all systems are ago, and 0:46:23.080 --> 0:46:27.359 Graves looks almost directly into the camera and says, then 0:46:27.480 --> 0:46:30.200 man is finally ready to move into space. 0:46:31.160 --> 0:46:34.719 But these lines are perfect for Graves. Yeah, they're over 0:46:34.760 --> 0:46:38.040 the top, but like Man, he delivers them like few others. 0:46:38.320 --> 0:46:41.759 Well, I can just imagine, like, you know, Joan, his 0:46:41.840 --> 0:46:45.239 wife bakes him a macaroni and cheese TV dinner and 0:46:45.280 --> 0:46:47.000 sets it down in front of him, and he looks 0:46:47.080 --> 0:46:50.719 up and says, Men is finally ready to achieve sustenance. 0:46:52.360 --> 0:46:55.319 So from here we go into a general's office to 0:46:55.480 --> 0:46:59.120 meet our next main character, Tom Anderson. That's leave Enkleef. 0:46:59.800 --> 0:47:03.160 And in this scene we learned that Tom Anderson is 0:47:03.200 --> 0:47:08.399 a highly accomplished and respected physicist with quote every degree imaginable. 0:47:08.440 --> 0:47:10.360 So I guess that means he also has an MBA. 0:47:10.600 --> 0:47:13.720 He's got a you know, an accounting degree, all that stuff. 0:47:14.480 --> 0:47:19.120 He once worked on something called the perpetual missile project. 0:47:19.280 --> 0:47:21.319 I was trying to imagine what could that mean. A 0:47:21.360 --> 0:47:23.760 missile that is, a missile that lasts forever. 0:47:23.960 --> 0:47:26.080 What I don't know. My best guess is that it 0:47:26.160 --> 0:47:29.480 is maybe something like the supersonic low altitude missile or 0:47:29.520 --> 0:47:33.400 slam concept in the mid fifties, or just pure technobabble 0:47:33.480 --> 0:47:37.320 like it could be. It could be either perpetual missile. 0:47:38.200 --> 0:47:41.480 But anyway, we discover that Tom has lately developed some 0:47:41.880 --> 0:47:45.759 fringe ideas that are a cause for concern to the 0:47:45.760 --> 0:47:48.799 military leadership and to his colleagues. This has led to 0:47:48.840 --> 0:47:52.000 a sort of career exile. The way he explains that, 0:47:53.160 --> 0:47:56.000 Van Cleef says, there are a lot of fat heads 0:47:56.040 --> 0:47:59.040 who are not ready to hear the truth. And you know, 0:47:59.120 --> 0:48:03.000 it's classic rank behavior. People don't accept my ideas because 0:48:03.040 --> 0:48:07.200 they are stupid and wicked and want to hide the truth, which, 0:48:07.400 --> 0:48:09.640 you know, it's funny. I understand exactly why this is, 0:48:09.680 --> 0:48:12.880 because it makes for a better storytelling dynamic. But it 0:48:12.960 --> 0:48:15.279 is kind of unfortunate that most of the time in 0:48:15.320 --> 0:48:20.839 the movies the people who act like this are proven right. Yeah, yeah, 0:48:20.880 --> 0:48:23.840 But anyway, so van Kleef. He's imploring the general to 0:48:24.000 --> 0:48:28.040 call off the satellite project before it launches. Why well, 0:48:28.520 --> 0:48:31.560 it seems that a smaller satellite that the Space program 0:48:31.640 --> 0:48:35.160 tried to launch some time ago exploded before it reached orbit, 0:48:35.600 --> 0:48:38.839 and Anderson says that this was no mere accident. It 0:48:39.000 --> 0:48:43.480 was a warning from someone out there. Other planets in 0:48:43.520 --> 0:48:46.719 our Solar system are watching us closely every minute of 0:48:46.760 --> 0:48:49.680 every day to make sure that we don't put anything 0:48:49.680 --> 0:48:53.000 into space, because if we do, that means we're a 0:48:53.040 --> 0:48:55.080 threat to them, and if we're a threat to them, 0:48:55.320 --> 0:48:58.439 they may choose to destroy us. So for the sake 0:48:58.480 --> 0:49:01.080 of all humankind, we've got to stock this whole project. 0:49:01.680 --> 0:49:03.560 Yeah, and as I alluded to earlier, this is not 0:49:03.640 --> 0:49:06.920 a crazy concept in and of itself. In the nineteen eighties, 0:49:06.960 --> 0:49:10.520 for example, cosmologist Edward Harrison argued that the first life 0:49:10.560 --> 0:49:14.719 form to achieve a certain level of interstellar technology at 0:49:14.800 --> 0:49:19.040 least within you know, certain distances, because of course the 0:49:19.120 --> 0:49:23.400 universe is so vast, but the first civilization to achieve 0:49:23.440 --> 0:49:26.680 a certain level of interstellar technology would essentially become a 0:49:26.719 --> 0:49:31.680 super predator intent on preventing other civilizations from advancing sufficiently. 0:49:31.719 --> 0:49:34.719 In their technology, you know, because it's like, well we 0:49:35.160 --> 0:49:39.160 have achieved it, anybody else achieving it, they could be 0:49:39.239 --> 0:49:41.600 as bad as us or worse. So we've got to 0:49:41.600 --> 0:49:43.600 prevent them. We've got to blow out their satellites, we've 0:49:43.600 --> 0:49:46.640 got to interfere with their launches. This is also a 0:49:46.680 --> 0:49:49.960 concept that is explored in the Three Body Problem. 0:49:50.280 --> 0:49:52.120 Yeah. Yeah, do you want to make a sound in 0:49:52.160 --> 0:49:54.160 a dark forest if you don't know what else is 0:49:54.200 --> 0:49:57.040 out there? And the idea that there's sort of a 0:49:57.080 --> 0:50:00.000 game theory logic at work within the dark forest, where 0:50:00.160 --> 0:50:03.480 it's in anybody's interests there to destroy anything else that 0:50:03.520 --> 0:50:06.840 makes a sound. Yeah, But in this case, the general 0:50:06.920 --> 0:50:10.560 is not dissuaded. He ignores Anderson's warnings, and the satellite 0:50:10.640 --> 0:50:13.680 launches into space. Now, the movie, as we've said, does 0:50:13.719 --> 0:50:16.200 not have a lot of visual excitement, but here there 0:50:16.239 --> 0:50:19.600 is some good use of downward facing blast off footage 0:50:20.239 --> 0:50:22.279 stock footage, I assume, but I don't really know what 0:50:22.400 --> 0:50:24.280 it would be from. I think that's kind of interesting. 0:50:24.600 --> 0:50:26.799 Yeah, this is not one like there are certain bits 0:50:26.800 --> 0:50:29.920 of stock footage you see a lot in movies from 0:50:29.920 --> 0:50:33.000 this period, or you feel like you've seen some repetition 0:50:33.080 --> 0:50:35.640 and that might just be similarity between different bits of footage, 0:50:35.640 --> 0:50:38.360 but yeah, this one felt new to me anyway. 0:50:38.360 --> 0:50:41.640 We cut from here to a dinner party three months later, 0:50:41.680 --> 0:50:45.440 so we're told some time has passed and here there 0:50:45.520 --> 0:50:48.200 are four characters, so we have Tom Anderson this leave 0:50:48.280 --> 0:50:51.799 Enkleef and his wife Claire played by Beverly Garland, and 0:50:51.840 --> 0:50:54.239 they are hosting at their house Paul Nelson as Peter 0:50:54.320 --> 0:50:58.399 Graves and his wife Joan played by Sally Fraser. And 0:50:58.560 --> 0:51:01.080 so this is where we learned that and Tom are 0:51:01.120 --> 0:51:03.680 actually good buddies. I don't know exactly how far back 0:51:03.719 --> 0:51:06.280 they go, but they've been friends for a while. Apparently 0:51:06.320 --> 0:51:09.480 they have a tendency to geek out about rocket science 0:51:09.520 --> 0:51:11.799 at the dinner table, and Joan has to beg them 0:51:11.800 --> 0:51:16.719 to stop talking about conical graduations, and there is in 0:51:16.760 --> 0:51:19.719 the scene something there's kind of a tension because there 0:51:19.800 --> 0:51:23.360 is clearly something Tom wants to bring up with Paul, 0:51:23.920 --> 0:51:27.600 but Claire is distressed. She is like, please do not 0:51:27.680 --> 0:51:30.080 start talking about this in front of company. They're gonna 0:51:30.080 --> 0:51:33.279 think you're insane. So whatever it is, it's something he's 0:51:33.280 --> 0:51:35.360 been champing at the bit to talk about, and she 0:51:35.480 --> 0:51:36.840 does not want him to bring. 0:51:36.719 --> 0:51:39.399 Up did we see what they were eating? I can't. 0:51:39.440 --> 0:51:41.880 I don't recall how they finished eating or hadn't started 0:51:41.920 --> 0:51:43.320 eating yet. And we're just doing drinks. There are a 0:51:43.360 --> 0:51:44.520 lot of drinks in this movie. 0:51:44.560 --> 0:51:48.160 They're talking about a pie, I think because Beverly Garland 0:51:48.160 --> 0:51:50.959 makes that quip. Somebody's like, ooh, this pie is so good. 0:51:51.040 --> 0:51:54.520 Did you make it? And Beverly Garland says, oh, yeah, 0:51:54.560 --> 0:51:57.319 it's an old family recipe that my grandmother sold to 0:51:57.360 --> 0:52:01.279 the bakery. So Anywaym's not going to be able to 0:52:01.400 --> 0:52:04.839 resist sharing whatever it is he's not supposed to be 0:52:04.880 --> 0:52:07.680 talking about. So Tom takes Paul from the dining room 0:52:07.760 --> 0:52:10.960 into the living room and he pulls back a curtain 0:52:11.080 --> 0:52:14.160 to reveal this huge recess in the wall which is 0:52:14.280 --> 0:52:18.400 full of radio and stereo equipment, and then Tom tunes 0:52:18.440 --> 0:52:21.400 into some kind of signal on the dial which plays 0:52:21.440 --> 0:52:25.600 through the speakers. It is an eerie, hollow, humming sound, 0:52:26.280 --> 0:52:28.719 and Tom asks Paul, do you have any idea what 0:52:28.760 --> 0:52:31.880 you're listening to? Paul is flippant. He's like, is it 0:52:31.920 --> 0:52:37.319 the London Philharmonic? But Tom says no, it's Venus, And 0:52:37.400 --> 0:52:40.359 so at first Paul is like, oh, okay, so you're 0:52:40.400 --> 0:52:43.640 saying we're bouncing signals off of venus or something, or 0:52:43.680 --> 0:52:50.120 maybe it's radiating impulses geomagnetically or something. And Tom says, no, no, no, 0:52:50.280 --> 0:52:53.120 I don't mean the static. Can't you hear it the 0:52:53.200 --> 0:52:57.120 other thing. Listen to the voice. Listen to the voice, Paul. 0:52:57.440 --> 0:53:01.200 But Paul does not initially hear anything, and we don't 0:53:01.200 --> 0:53:03.919 hear to be clear, we don't hear an explicit voice either. 0:53:04.000 --> 0:53:04.920 We just hear the humming. 0:53:05.440 --> 0:53:08.120 Yeah, it's I guess it's to leave a little room 0:53:08.160 --> 0:53:10.520 open for the possibility early in the picture that he 0:53:10.760 --> 0:53:14.400 isn't hearing anybody that this is, you know, some unhinged 0:53:14.400 --> 0:53:18.240 behavior here or hallucination or something. Yes, but it also 0:53:18.360 --> 0:53:21.120 I have to It's also kind of similar to say, 0:53:21.360 --> 0:53:25.200 anytime a character has a conversation with a Wookie or 0:53:25.239 --> 0:53:27.439 a droid in the Star Wars universe, you know, where 0:53:27.440 --> 0:53:30.759 it's like, we don't understand what's being said, that there's 0:53:30.800 --> 0:53:32.600 some sort of conversation going on here. 0:53:32.680 --> 0:53:35.720 Yeah where. When these conversations happen later in the movie, 0:53:35.880 --> 0:53:38.360 Tom will often have to like repeat back what he 0:53:38.400 --> 0:53:40.520 has just heard from the other side. So it's those 0:53:40.560 --> 0:53:45.600 classic Wookie conversations. Yeah, what do you mean the hyperdrives broken? Yeah. Anyway, 0:53:45.640 --> 0:53:48.240 while they're listening to the humming trying to hear the voice, 0:53:48.520 --> 0:53:51.640 the phone rings. It's for Paul. It's the Rocket Lab. 0:53:51.960 --> 0:53:55.400 They inform him that just this very moment, the satellite 0:53:55.440 --> 0:53:58.400 that they put into orbit three months ago has disappeared. 0:53:58.800 --> 0:54:01.600 It darted out of its bit and off into space. 0:54:02.160 --> 0:54:04.560 So Paul and Joan have to leave Claire in Tom's 0:54:04.560 --> 0:54:07.160 house in a hurry so Paul can deal with the satellite. 0:54:07.400 --> 0:54:09.640 And as they're going out and getting into the car 0:54:09.719 --> 0:54:12.120 to drive away, Joan says, I've always thought Tom was 0:54:12.160 --> 0:54:16.320 a little off tonight. He went too far. So anyway, 0:54:16.360 --> 0:54:19.120 they drive to the installation, but by the time they 0:54:19.120 --> 0:54:22.439 get there, the satellite is already back wherever it went. 0:54:22.520 --> 0:54:25.320 That was pretty quick, and Paul decides they're going to 0:54:25.400 --> 0:54:28.560 have to bring the satellite down for inspection. Is that 0:54:28.640 --> 0:54:31.440 a thing in reality with satellites? I don't know about that. 0:54:32.120 --> 0:54:34.080 Yeah. Yeah, this is again it's a moment where you 0:54:34.120 --> 0:54:36.239 have to remind ourselves that the thing that they are 0:54:36.239 --> 0:54:41.560 depicting is near future science fiction and reality went a 0:54:41.600 --> 0:54:42.840 slightly different way with all of this. 0:54:43.200 --> 0:54:47.120 Yeah. So, meanwhile, back at Tom and Claire's house, Claire 0:54:47.239 --> 0:54:50.440 is walking around fiddling with things nervously. She's in a 0:54:50.440 --> 0:54:55.040 state of anxiety. She is obviously unhappy that Tom started 0:54:55.080 --> 0:54:58.000 talking about the messages from Venus, even though he promised 0:54:58.000 --> 0:55:01.520 her that he wouldn't. So Tom goes to his covert 0:55:01.640 --> 0:55:05.680 Venus radio and he tunes in, but then, to our shock, 0:55:05.760 --> 0:55:09.120 he begins speaking to someone. Now, once again, we don't 0:55:09.120 --> 0:55:10.719 hear a voice on the other side. We just hear 0:55:10.719 --> 0:55:13.680 the spooky humming. It kind of oscillates at different frequencies. 0:55:13.960 --> 0:55:16.680 But Tom hears something because he responds to what the 0:55:16.719 --> 0:55:22.680 present says. He says, this is Anderson Acknowledge. Where are you? Yes, yes, 0:55:23.080 --> 0:55:26.080 it's true. I am your only friend. Nobody else even 0:55:26.160 --> 0:55:29.080 knows you exist, but they will and it will be 0:55:29.160 --> 0:55:32.759 the greatest day in the history of mankind. Now, at 0:55:32.760 --> 0:55:35.279 some point in this conversation, Beverly Garland comes out of 0:55:35.320 --> 0:55:38.280 the bedroom and like a big puffy nightgown with a caller. 0:55:38.320 --> 0:55:41.719 I love these old movie nightgowns. So she asks Tom 0:55:41.760 --> 0:55:44.080 to come to bed, but he is not ready. He says, 0:55:44.160 --> 0:55:47.320 he's here, darling. He drew the satellite to his world, 0:55:47.360 --> 0:55:50.719 to Venus, and now he's back. Within an hour, he's 0:55:51.640 --> 0:55:54.480 in the circling laboratory, just waiting to come down to 0:55:54.600 --> 0:55:59.160 us to save us. And Claire is obviously disturbed. She 0:55:59.320 --> 0:56:02.200 thinks he's going mad. But Tom is just a big 0:56:02.239 --> 0:56:05.480 ball of excitement. He says he's finally proven right. All 0:56:05.520 --> 0:56:08.200 of his theories about alien observers from other planets in 0:56:08.200 --> 0:56:10.399 the Solar System, they were all correct. He was right 0:56:10.440 --> 0:56:14.359 all along. But while in the past he didn't know 0:56:14.480 --> 0:56:17.799 if their intentions would be good or evil, he now 0:56:17.840 --> 0:56:21.160 knows that they're good. That this intelligence from Venus has 0:56:21.200 --> 0:56:24.600 returned with the goal of helping our planet to ascend 0:56:24.760 --> 0:56:28.040 and thrive. So later Tom falls asleep on the couch 0:56:28.080 --> 0:56:30.680 by his radio kit, and Claire comes out and lays 0:56:30.680 --> 0:56:33.560 a blanket over him, and it's a tender moment because 0:56:33.719 --> 0:56:37.440 she is frightened and bewildered by his behavior, but she 0:56:37.520 --> 0:56:39.560 still loves him and she wants him to be well. 0:56:40.080 --> 0:56:41.400 Yeah, it is a nice little scene. 0:56:41.520 --> 0:56:43.640 So the next day there's a scene where the scientists 0:56:43.680 --> 0:56:46.920 are bringing down the satellite and it is not responding 0:56:46.960 --> 0:56:49.200 to their remote controls the way it's supposed to it 0:56:49.239 --> 0:56:53.400 eventually crashes somewhere near the base. In some ways, I 0:56:53.440 --> 0:56:55.600 think this is supposed to be one of the quote 0:56:55.640 --> 0:56:58.840 exciting scenes. It's creating a type of suspense, what's going 0:56:58.920 --> 0:57:01.360 to happen to the satellite? I don't think it works 0:57:01.400 --> 0:57:04.160 super well. I think they could have trimmed stuff like this. 0:57:05.239 --> 0:57:07.200 Not that there's a lot of space to trim. 0:57:07.520 --> 0:57:09.920 Yeah, well this could have gone in the pile with 0:57:09.960 --> 0:57:11.879 all of the parking scenes and the driving scenes. 0:57:11.920 --> 0:57:14.359 Yeah stuff, thin you risk cutting it down to like 0:57:14.480 --> 0:57:16.080 a nice lean forty minutes. 0:57:16.720 --> 0:57:18.720 Well yeah, but as we were saying earlier, I mean 0:57:19.040 --> 0:57:21.440 I think this movie could work as a good, like 0:57:21.520 --> 0:57:24.720 forty five minute you know, philosophical sci fi story. 0:57:24.880 --> 0:57:27.080 Yeah, like basically like an Outer Limits episode. 0:57:27.120 --> 0:57:31.480 Yeah, yes, yeah. So Tom learns from his radio that 0:57:31.560 --> 0:57:34.520 the presence from Venus survived the crash and is now 0:57:34.600 --> 0:57:37.680 hiding in the mountains about ten miles south of the installation, 0:57:38.160 --> 0:57:40.920 And here we get our very first glimpse of the alien, 0:57:41.000 --> 0:57:44.400 moving slowly through the thick brush of a forest. We 0:57:44.480 --> 0:57:47.000 do not see its whole body. We see the conical 0:57:47.080 --> 0:57:50.600 tip of its head with some little antennae poking out 0:57:50.880 --> 0:57:53.600 and then it stops and reaches up and waves these 0:57:53.640 --> 0:57:56.560 clawed hands around. This part is already pretty funny. 0:57:56.800 --> 0:58:00.280 Yeah, it's probably a bad sign when you're in the 0:58:00.360 --> 0:58:02.440 right thing, you're not showing your full monster. And it's 0:58:02.480 --> 0:58:06.760 already ridiculous because we've talked about other films where at 0:58:06.840 --> 0:58:10.000 least the first like in Mortal Kombat, the first little 0:58:10.000 --> 0:58:12.600 glimpse you get a goro, it worked really well. Yes, 0:58:12.680 --> 0:58:16.400 it's only as you reveal more that the problems become obvious. Here, 0:58:16.640 --> 0:58:18.680 it's a little hilarious from the get go. 0:58:19.280 --> 0:58:22.280 Oh you know what, I realized the static design of 0:58:22.320 --> 0:58:25.160 the monster face and it conquered the world is basically 0:58:25.200 --> 0:58:28.240 in the same zone as the goro punched in the 0:58:28.280 --> 0:58:29.080 groin face. 0:58:31.600 --> 0:58:32.640 Yeah, yeah, okay. 0:58:33.040 --> 0:58:38.360 Anyway, next we get a montage of all machinery coming 0:58:38.360 --> 0:58:41.880 to a halt. There's some clever use of stock footage 0:58:41.920 --> 0:58:44.720 played in reverse here to achieve a stopping effect on 0:58:44.800 --> 0:58:48.800 things like So the idea is the alien has managed 0:58:48.840 --> 0:58:52.120 to shut off every machine in the area. I think 0:58:52.160 --> 0:58:55.160 I saw some plot summary that said it managed to 0:58:55.160 --> 0:58:57.880 stop every machine in the whole world. I don't recall 0:58:57.920 --> 0:58:59.680 if they actually say that in the movie. I don't 0:58:59.680 --> 0:59:00.600 think they do well. 0:59:00.640 --> 0:59:03.320 The title of the movie is it conquered the World, 0:59:03.400 --> 0:59:06.680 And there's maybe like some brief mention of that, but 0:59:06.840 --> 0:59:08.880 the whole film feels very regional. 0:59:09.080 --> 0:59:12.480 Yes, the action is quite local. Yeah, so I don't 0:59:12.520 --> 0:59:15.400 know whatever's going on far away, at least within this talent. 0:59:15.480 --> 0:59:19.240 Around the military installation, all machines stop, and that's all 0:59:19.280 --> 0:59:23.480 machines of every kind, electrical gas combustion, all the cars 0:59:23.520 --> 0:59:26.080 come to a stop in the road. We see airplanes 0:59:26.080 --> 0:59:28.320 falling out of the sky. A train stops, we see 0:59:28.480 --> 0:59:31.439 I think a printing press stop printing, and it even 0:59:31.480 --> 0:59:35.800 stops just purely mechanical machines like Jones wind up watch 0:59:35.880 --> 0:59:36.640 stops working. 0:59:37.440 --> 0:59:40.880 This is like the same level of logic that you 0:59:41.000 --> 0:59:45.280 get in maximum Overdrive, where whatever is controlling all the 0:59:45.320 --> 0:59:49.000 machines controls everything from like a high tech vehicle to 0:59:49.120 --> 0:59:53.360 a toaster. Yeah, like whatever the alien is doing, it 0:59:53.400 --> 0:59:56.760 can stop a power plant, it can stop a wristwatch. 0:59:57.000 --> 0:59:59.640 Presumably like the drinking birds are no longer working. 1:00:00.960 --> 1:00:02.960 Yeah, that's right, it stops dipping. 1:00:03.120 --> 1:00:05.960 Yeah, wind up toys are totally non functional. 1:00:06.400 --> 1:00:11.520 Yeah, that monkey is not clapping symbols anymore so, that's 1:00:11.560 --> 1:00:13.640 phase one of the takeover plan. Turn off all the 1:00:13.680 --> 1:00:18.040 machines begin phase two. Tom is on the radio with 1:00:18.080 --> 1:00:20.280 an alien. Now, why does his radio still work? Because 1:00:20.320 --> 1:00:24.960 the alien can specifically target certain machines to still function. 1:00:25.120 --> 1:00:28.720 They're the machines that belong to the alien's allies, and 1:00:28.800 --> 1:00:31.280 right now I think Tom is the only ally and 1:00:31.440 --> 1:00:33.760 Tom and Claire's household, so their stuff still works. 1:00:33.840 --> 1:00:38.120 Yeah, which again speaks to this being a very local invasion. Yes, 1:00:38.160 --> 1:00:43.000 maybe like maybe limited to a single California county. Yes, 1:00:43.320 --> 1:00:45.120 maybe not even municipal regions yet. 1:00:47.000 --> 1:00:49.160 So Tom's on the radio with the alien and he's 1:00:49.160 --> 1:00:53.000 reading off a list that he has created of control personnel. 1:00:53.480 --> 1:00:56.080 This includes the mayor of the town, the chief of police, 1:00:56.200 --> 1:00:58.560 the commander of the air Force base, and also his 1:00:58.600 --> 1:01:03.440 friend Paul Nelson. They say that these four men, along 1:01:03.480 --> 1:01:06.280 with their wives, will be the targets of the eight 1:01:06.520 --> 1:01:11.160 control devices that the Presence has brought with them from Venus, 1:01:11.720 --> 1:01:14.760 and it will take time on the scale of weeks 1:01:14.800 --> 1:01:17.640 to create more control devices. So this is all they've 1:01:17.680 --> 1:01:21.840 got right now. And then in a hilarious cutaway, we 1:01:21.880 --> 1:01:26.600 see these little mineoch type creatures, nasty little winged beasts 1:01:26.640 --> 1:01:29.880 scooting out from under the alien's costume and flying away. 1:01:30.240 --> 1:01:32.920 Now Here we begin a number of scenes that are 1:01:33.080 --> 1:01:36.560 the mind control attacks. So these flying creatures, they spread 1:01:36.600 --> 1:01:39.360 out all over the place, They swoop down on their targets, 1:01:39.480 --> 1:01:42.160 latch briefly onto the back of the neck, and then 1:01:42.280 --> 1:01:44.480 once they do and it only takes a few seconds, 1:01:44.880 --> 1:01:48.080 the target is fully obedient to the will of the 1:01:48.080 --> 1:01:52.440 benefactor from Venus, I think, in a seemingly psychic sense, 1:01:52.520 --> 1:01:55.600 like they automatically into it their orders. They don't have 1:01:55.680 --> 1:01:57.960 to check in via radio like Tom does. 1:01:58.800 --> 1:02:01.600 I guess there are a few moments in the in 1:02:01.680 --> 1:02:03.600 the in the plot though, where you're like, well, maybe 1:02:03.640 --> 1:02:07.400 it's not instant communication. Maybe they get like an update 1:02:07.480 --> 1:02:10.120 every few hours. I don't know. Yeah, but I'm going 1:02:10.160 --> 1:02:14.520 to try not to be too pedantic about it. Overall, 1:02:14.880 --> 1:02:16.680 pretty cool little mind control concept, I. 1:02:16.680 --> 1:02:19.479 Guess, yes. And then once they bite you and mind 1:02:19.480 --> 1:02:22.200 control you, they just fall off and die immediately. They 1:02:22.840 --> 1:02:23.440 say it's. 1:02:23.240 --> 1:02:26.800 Like a b sting, yeah, kind of like a face hugger, 1:02:26.880 --> 1:02:32.360 you know, yes, face hug Yeah. 1:02:37.720 --> 1:02:40.320 Now we learn that in this early phase of the 1:02:40.360 --> 1:02:43.480 plan that they're targeting these key leadership figures in the 1:02:43.520 --> 1:02:46.880 immediate vicinity of the crash site set where the satellite 1:02:46.960 --> 1:02:51.360 came down. But ultimately we learned that the way the 1:02:51.440 --> 1:02:56.040 being from Venus intends to help or save humanity is 1:02:56.080 --> 1:02:59.960 by subjecting all of us to a mind altering procedure 1:03:00.360 --> 1:03:05.240 which will leave us with no emotions, only logic. And 1:03:05.600 --> 1:03:09.120 Tom explains the rationale here, emotions are the source of 1:03:09.200 --> 1:03:15.440 everything bad in human society, all war, hate, stupidity, unnecessary strife. 1:03:15.680 --> 1:03:20.760 This purging of emotions will purge humankind of these evils 1:03:21.040 --> 1:03:24.840 and elevate us to a state of utopian rationality. Now, 1:03:24.920 --> 1:03:30.040 ultimately this plan comes under some serious interrogation by various 1:03:30.120 --> 1:03:33.040 characters in later scenes. But I first wanted to ask, 1:03:33.600 --> 1:03:37.560 so this is Tom's understanding of the alien's plan. We 1:03:37.560 --> 1:03:40.400 hear it explained in Tom's words, what the alien is 1:03:40.440 --> 1:03:43.640 going to do purge us of emotions and elevate us 1:03:43.680 --> 1:03:47.320 to a better existence. But I had a serious question, 1:03:47.840 --> 1:03:51.560 do we ever find out if the alien itself actually 1:03:51.640 --> 1:03:56.200 believes this? Like, from the alien's perspective, is it really 1:03:56.240 --> 1:03:59.640 trying to help us at least what it would consider help, 1:04:00.200 --> 1:04:02.680 or in the alien's own mind, is this just a 1:04:02.760 --> 1:04:07.280 mission of conquest and exploitation, and the emotion purging Utopia 1:04:07.360 --> 1:04:10.440 story is a way of manipulating Tom into helping it. 1:04:10.880 --> 1:04:13.080 Yeah. I don't know. There are various ways to sort 1:04:13.120 --> 1:04:17.439 of interpret this because on one level, I was thinking 1:04:17.520 --> 1:04:23.280 earlier about the earlier satellites that had failed gone missing, 1:04:23.360 --> 1:04:27.120 and Anderson's theory that this was due to alien interference. 1:04:28.640 --> 1:04:31.720 Perhaps those were different aliens, you know, the idea that 1:04:31.720 --> 1:04:35.240 there are different intelligence is in the Solar System that 1:04:35.400 --> 1:04:38.440 don't want Earth to advance too much. But then you 1:04:38.520 --> 1:04:43.040 have a few bad players on Venus who realize, actually, 1:04:43.560 --> 1:04:46.920 we can make this work for us. We need to 1:04:46.960 --> 1:04:50.200 get off Venus. We would love to manipulate these people 1:04:50.240 --> 1:04:53.320 and make them work for us, conquering their world. 1:04:53.600 --> 1:04:57.000 Because later we do learn that these creatures from Venus 1:04:57.560 --> 1:05:02.800 they have severe limitations their own environment, like they we 1:05:03.200 --> 1:05:05.600 sort of get the idea that Venus is lacking in 1:05:05.680 --> 1:05:08.720 the resources they need to achieve their ultimate goals. 1:05:09.360 --> 1:05:13.480 Yeah, And it's also later discussed that the Venusians themselves 1:05:13.680 --> 1:05:18.919 lack emotion. Yeah, but at the same time, we've seen 1:05:19.040 --> 1:05:22.720 this creature's face. Its face is clearly evil, it's full 1:05:22.720 --> 1:05:26.080 of emotion. Yeah, so I don't know, the message is 1:05:26.080 --> 1:05:28.960 a little skewed here, like is it evil and I'm 1:05:28.960 --> 1:05:33.520 looking to manipulate our desire for betterment and Anderson's desire 1:05:33.640 --> 1:05:37.440 for human advancement? Or is this all just perfectly logical 1:05:37.480 --> 1:05:40.760 to it, like, of course I'm going to you know, 1:05:40.800 --> 1:05:44.120 take over key leaders and overthrow the government because these 1:05:44.120 --> 1:05:46.320 are all necessary logical steps that need to take place 1:05:46.320 --> 1:05:50.280 in order to bring about this new utopia. We don't 1:05:50.280 --> 1:05:52.040 really know. It's kind of the movie seems to have 1:05:52.080 --> 1:05:52.760 it both ways. 1:05:53.040 --> 1:05:55.360 Yeah. Yeah, So I've got my own thoughts about the 1:05:55.440 --> 1:05:58.400 sort of emotion logic divide here that we can get 1:05:58.400 --> 1:06:00.160 into after we talk about some of the scenes where 1:06:00.200 --> 1:06:04.360 they discussed this. But before we get to that, in 1:06:04.400 --> 1:06:06.160 the middle of the movie, there are a lot of 1:06:06.160 --> 1:06:09.000 scenes of like Paul riding around on a bicycle to 1:06:09.120 --> 1:06:12.320 different locations trying to figure out what's going on. Paul 1:06:12.480 --> 1:06:15.480 sort of slowly gets wise to the fact that something 1:06:15.600 --> 1:06:18.600 is really wrong. But I had a question, if a 1:06:18.680 --> 1:06:21.760 wind up watch stops working, why would a bicycle work? 1:06:24.320 --> 1:06:28.920 Yeah, yeah, exactly, because it's It's likewise the same question 1:06:28.960 --> 1:06:31.800 with maximum overdrive. Did the bicycles take off and if 1:06:31.800 --> 1:06:34.680 they didn't, why not Why is the bicycle immune to 1:06:34.800 --> 1:06:39.600 being maximum overdrived? Yeah, or maximum overdriven if you will. 1:06:39.640 --> 1:06:41.560 I'm not sure which term is preferred. 1:06:41.840 --> 1:06:44.560 Yeah, I don't know the answer to that. But anyway, 1:06:44.640 --> 1:06:46.920 So in this middle, I'd say a big part of 1:06:46.960 --> 1:06:52.440 the middle of the movie is characters such as Tom's 1:06:52.480 --> 1:06:57.160 wife Claire and Paul becoming convinced that Tom is not 1:06:57.400 --> 1:07:00.600 hallucinating and that the plans of the benefactor from Venus 1:07:00.680 --> 1:07:04.400 are real. And so this leads to scenes where these 1:07:04.480 --> 1:07:07.240 characters are trying to talk since into Tom. 1:07:07.560 --> 1:07:10.640 And these scenes are really the meat of the movie. Yeah, 1:07:10.840 --> 1:07:12.520 And I say that in a good way because they're 1:07:12.560 --> 1:07:13.960 generally entertaining scenes. 1:07:14.240 --> 1:07:14.520 Yeah. 1:07:14.560 --> 1:07:17.120 If they weren't, the entire film would be a watch. 1:07:17.560 --> 1:07:21.560 Yeah. So there's one scene between Tom and Claire that's 1:07:21.920 --> 1:07:25.400 leev Ncleeve in Beverly, Garland, and he's trying to sell 1:07:25.440 --> 1:07:27.960 her on the benefits of being part of the alien's 1:07:28.000 --> 1:07:31.280 plan and purging all emotion. But she's like, if we 1:07:31.320 --> 1:07:34.560 have no emotion, will we won't we have no love 1:07:34.640 --> 1:07:39.040 for one another? And Tom is he's not dissuaded, but 1:07:39.080 --> 1:07:40.840 it seems like he doesn't really have a very good 1:07:40.880 --> 1:07:43.840 answer for this. He says something like, well, even if 1:07:43.840 --> 1:07:47.320 there are no emotions, they'll still need you. But Claire 1:07:47.480 --> 1:07:49.840 presses him on this. She's like, okay, but if you 1:07:50.000 --> 1:07:52.919 need me but you don't love me, what does that mean? 1:07:53.880 --> 1:07:57.080 So would I just basically work for you? And it 1:07:57.120 --> 1:07:59.520 seems that this kind of gets through. Tom doesn't really 1:07:59.560 --> 1:08:01.640 have a good answer, but he just kind of like 1:08:01.760 --> 1:08:04.800 is like, well, I can't think about that right now. Yeah, 1:08:04.840 --> 1:08:07.440 somewhere also in here, we've got the I've got a 1:08:07.480 --> 1:08:10.880 present for you scene, which is great but also a 1:08:11.000 --> 1:08:13.680 huge WTF scene, Yeah. 1:08:13.480 --> 1:08:16.960 Because because earlier we get a scene where Paul leaves 1:08:17.000 --> 1:08:18.960 Joan to go off on one of his bike rides 1:08:19.000 --> 1:08:21.880 to try and figure out the mystery, and he's like, 1:08:21.920 --> 1:08:23.920 don't you know, don't leave the window open, make sure 1:08:23.960 --> 1:08:26.519 you're inside, and like the door's open for a second, 1:08:26.560 --> 1:08:28.840 and we give you in like one of the flying 1:08:28.880 --> 1:08:32.479 bat creatures swoops in and we presume that it gets her. 1:08:32.800 --> 1:08:37.840 Yes, So Paul comes home and Joan is in. She's 1:08:37.920 --> 1:08:41.280 very much in Stepford wife mode. She's like, honey, welcome home. 1:08:41.360 --> 1:08:44.080 I love you. I have a present for you. Why 1:08:44.120 --> 1:08:46.160 don't you sit down? Right there, and I'll show you, 1:08:46.160 --> 1:08:48.080 you know, show you what I'm holding behind my back. 1:08:48.960 --> 1:08:50.639 And of course, what do you know, it's a mind 1:08:50.680 --> 1:08:55.360 control bat. Beautiful, thank you, thank you, Happy birthday. She 1:08:55.520 --> 1:08:59.000 releases it, and she's while it's attacking Paul. She's like, 1:08:59.040 --> 1:09:00.519 I'm going to go out for a while. I'll be 1:09:00.600 --> 1:09:03.760 back when you're feeling better, And so she goes out 1:09:03.800 --> 1:09:06.559 for a walk, but Paul bests the mind control bad. 1:09:06.600 --> 1:09:08.280 He kills it with a fire poker. 1:09:09.120 --> 1:09:12.040 And I rather like the scene where he kills it 1:09:12.040 --> 1:09:14.240 with the fire poker. It had some some oomph to it. 1:09:14.520 --> 1:09:18.040 Yeah, yeah, it's good. Uh. And then when she comes back, 1:09:18.120 --> 1:09:21.559 she thinks he has been turned. So these the people 1:09:21.600 --> 1:09:23.960 who have been turned by the mind control devices are 1:09:24.000 --> 1:09:28.840 not like omnipotent, like they don't fully understand everything. Uh 1:09:29.000 --> 1:09:31.439 So I guess that comes back somewhat on my guess 1:09:31.439 --> 1:09:34.760 about them being sort of psychic. She doesn't know he 1:09:34.800 --> 1:09:37.880 hasn't been turned. He's faking it, and he's like, will 1:09:37.920 --> 1:09:39.920 we ever go back to how we were? And she 1:09:40.040 --> 1:09:44.840 says no, the change is irreversible, and then Paul shoots 1:09:44.880 --> 1:09:49.519 her yes what yes, Like what if she was wrong 1:09:49.560 --> 1:09:51.200 about the fact that they couldn't go back. 1:09:51.680 --> 1:09:54.800 Yeah, yeah, what if there was some sort of cure? Yeah, 1:09:55.200 --> 1:09:58.439 so many questions here. So yeah, this is like really shocking. 1:09:59.400 --> 1:10:01.200 I mean, I think part of it is most of 1:10:01.280 --> 1:10:03.559 us at this point we've seen enough vampire and zombie 1:10:03.640 --> 1:10:07.360 films to be very well acquainted with the my beloved 1:10:07.479 --> 1:10:09.280 is no longer my beloved. They're a monster. Now I'm 1:10:09.280 --> 1:10:11.360 going to have to kill them. Seen. You know, he 1:10:11.520 --> 1:10:15.160 usually comes with a great deal of emotional anguish, and 1:10:15.600 --> 1:10:20.160 sometimes you know, it's it's the individual facing this choice, 1:10:20.800 --> 1:10:23.679 can't do it, you know, like their emotions are too strong. 1:10:23.680 --> 1:10:26.120 They're like, I know you're a zombie now, but I 1:10:26.200 --> 1:10:28.040 can't kill you. I'm gonna have to lock you in 1:10:28.080 --> 1:10:29.720 the basement instead, that sort of thing. 1:10:30.000 --> 1:10:32.040 And most of the time in those scenes, there's like 1:10:32.160 --> 1:10:35.600 a lot of also just esthetic work being done to 1:10:35.680 --> 1:10:38.599 fully convince you like it's not the person anymore. They 1:10:38.600 --> 1:10:40.960 are not in there. It's a difference, it's just their 1:10:41.000 --> 1:10:43.559 body being controlled by a demonic entity or. 1:10:43.560 --> 1:10:45.200 So yeah, they want it. They have to drive home 1:10:45.320 --> 1:10:48.280 a very black and white scenario while also driving home 1:10:48.320 --> 1:10:50.320 that this is a terrible choice that is having to 1:10:50.320 --> 1:10:53.400 be made. Yes, but Paul does not hesitate. He just 1:10:53.400 --> 1:10:56.479 shoots her down in cold blood, then presumably has a 1:10:56.520 --> 1:10:59.519 smoke and finishes reading the newspaper. I don't know. Yeah, 1:10:59.520 --> 1:11:03.160 there's no exploration of the parameters here, no consideration of 1:11:03.200 --> 1:11:06.040 how much of her is truly in there anymore. And 1:11:06.400 --> 1:11:09.160 it's even weirder when you drag in the whole sort 1:11:09.200 --> 1:11:12.759 of like cold War anxiety aspects of this film, because 1:11:12.760 --> 1:11:14.400 it's kind of like, no, sir, I found out my 1:11:14.439 --> 1:11:16.479 wife was a secret Communist, and I did what any 1:11:16.479 --> 1:11:20.800 red blooded American would do, and it just comes off 1:11:20.880 --> 1:11:25.920 like darn. But Paul is a cold guy. Again. This 1:11:25.960 --> 1:11:29.120 is our champion of emotion in the film, and he 1:11:29.880 --> 1:11:33.120 shows very little emotion in making this fatal choice. 1:11:33.560 --> 1:11:35.600 Yeah, that's right. So that is a real tension and 1:11:35.720 --> 1:11:39.800 how these themes are realized within the movie because of 1:11:39.840 --> 1:11:43.479 how cold Paul is. But so later we get these 1:11:43.520 --> 1:11:48.080 scenes where Tom and Paul are themselves arguing about the 1:11:48.800 --> 1:11:53.400 plans of the benefactor from Venus. Paul is convinced basically 1:11:53.400 --> 1:11:55.360 of what's going on. He goes to talk to Tom 1:11:55.439 --> 1:11:57.000 about the merits of the plan. I think there are 1:11:57.120 --> 1:12:00.000 various they're planning to kill each other. Also in these scenes, 1:12:00.200 --> 1:12:04.120 because Tom has received orders from the alien that he 1:12:04.160 --> 1:12:07.200 has to kill Paul. I think Paul has plans of 1:12:07.200 --> 1:12:10.080 his own, but they're arguing it out, and so we 1:12:10.120 --> 1:12:13.720 get some speeches. One thing is that Tom says, you know, 1:12:13.800 --> 1:12:16.120 first of all, he tries to convince Paul to join him. 1:12:16.200 --> 1:12:18.640 He's like, he wants you on his side, next to me. 1:12:18.760 --> 1:12:21.679 He wants you so like, you know, come be, Come 1:12:21.720 --> 1:12:26.080 be the lieutenant of the Venus invasion plan. And Paul says, 1:12:26.160 --> 1:12:28.680 you want me to condone this reign of terror, to 1:12:28.760 --> 1:12:32.000 swear allegiance to this monstrous king of yours, to kill 1:12:32.040 --> 1:12:35.320 my own soul and all within reach. Well I won't, Anderson. 1:12:35.600 --> 1:12:37.920 I'll fight it till the last of breath in my body. 1:12:38.120 --> 1:12:40.280 And I'll fight you too, because you're part of it, 1:12:40.479 --> 1:12:43.360 the worst part, because you belong to a living race, 1:12:43.479 --> 1:12:46.759 not a dying one. This is your land, your world. 1:12:47.120 --> 1:12:50.400 Your hands are human, but your mind is enemy. You're 1:12:50.400 --> 1:12:53.680 a trader, Anderson, the greatest trader of all time. And 1:12:53.760 --> 1:12:57.080 you know why, because you're not betraying part of mankind, 1:12:57.280 --> 1:13:00.960 you're betraying all of it. That's a Peter Graves speech. 1:13:01.240 --> 1:13:02.000 That's pretty great. 1:13:02.040 --> 1:13:03.680 I mean, and you know, I have to say I'm 1:13:03.720 --> 1:13:05.800 glad they're doing this in person, because if this film 1:13:05.840 --> 1:13:08.360 we're set today, this whole conversation would take place on 1:13:08.400 --> 1:13:12.599 Facebook and it would just be super awful, and half 1:13:12.600 --> 1:13:14.320 of it would be in memes. Half of it would 1:13:14.320 --> 1:13:14.839 be memes. 1:13:15.120 --> 1:13:17.479 You know. Yeah, it's a comment. He's got a lot 1:13:17.479 --> 1:13:21.640 of little the mad face emoji reactions. Yeah, So he 1:13:21.680 --> 1:13:23.760 makes the case that he's being a trader. But they 1:13:23.760 --> 1:13:29.439 also have a conversation where Paul explains why the why 1:13:29.479 --> 1:13:33.200 he thinks that the emotion purging plan won't work. He's like, 1:13:33.400 --> 1:13:37.200 I think Earth is actually going to defeat these you know, 1:13:37.320 --> 1:13:43.000 these supposedly purely logical, mind controlled beings from Venus, because 1:13:43.040 --> 1:13:48.200 he says, for example, humans will feel emotional solidarity for 1:13:48.240 --> 1:13:52.440 one another, and their emotions will cause them to cooperate 1:13:52.560 --> 1:13:58.320 together and to sacrifice their own personal interests in you know, 1:13:58.360 --> 1:14:01.320 in the interest of better protect humanity as a whole, 1:14:01.560 --> 1:14:06.160 so they can coordinate and cooperate and make sacrifices in 1:14:06.200 --> 1:14:11.600 a way that these purely logical, rational, individualistic beings controlled 1:14:11.600 --> 1:14:15.040 by the aliens will not. Now I sort of get 1:14:15.040 --> 1:14:16.760 what they're going for there. I don't know if that's 1:14:16.800 --> 1:14:19.120 exactly the way I would frame it, but I think 1:14:19.160 --> 1:14:22.640 it raises a lot of interesting questions. I think the 1:14:22.680 --> 1:14:26.280 way I would think about it more is that the 1:14:26.320 --> 1:14:29.920 way Tom is thinking about logic versus emotion is just 1:14:30.400 --> 1:14:33.599 a little bit miscalibrated as to the roles these things 1:14:33.640 --> 1:14:37.960 actually play in how we act. Like, logic is a 1:14:38.080 --> 1:14:41.599 good way of formulating plans of action, right, It's better 1:14:41.640 --> 1:14:45.000 to think logically about what to do than to just 1:14:45.080 --> 1:14:47.320 act emotionally to try to figure out what you should do. 1:14:47.760 --> 1:14:51.759 But emotions generate all of the motivation states for action. 1:14:52.320 --> 1:14:55.120 So if you have a very logical plan about how 1:14:55.160 --> 1:14:58.360 to achieve a goal, the way you decide what your 1:14:58.479 --> 1:15:03.120 goal is as usually emotion like. You have emotional motivations 1:15:03.640 --> 1:15:06.040 that tell you what you want and what you think 1:15:06.120 --> 1:15:08.519 is good, and then you have logic to help you 1:15:08.600 --> 1:15:10.599 decide best how to achieve that thing. 1:15:11.200 --> 1:15:14.840 Yeah, and of course logic can be flawed. Logic can 1:15:15.200 --> 1:15:19.439 lead to incorrect answers like it's interesting to think about 1:15:19.840 --> 1:15:23.040 you Anderson here, like he has been he has followed 1:15:23.040 --> 1:15:26.719 a path that is both logical and emotional to reach 1:15:26.800 --> 1:15:29.360 this point where he risks dooming the planet, you know, yes, 1:15:30.160 --> 1:15:32.040 so yeah, it is hard to sort of tease tease 1:15:32.120 --> 1:15:34.040 these apart. You know, you get into the whole vulcan 1:15:34.120 --> 1:15:38.080 territory right of trying to figure out what a what 1:15:38.120 --> 1:15:40.400 a people would be like if they purge themselves of 1:15:40.439 --> 1:15:45.040 emotion and followed pure logic, you know, what what would 1:15:45.040 --> 1:15:47.160 that look like and what would be what kind of 1:15:47.160 --> 1:15:48.559 pitfalls would still be possible. 1:15:49.000 --> 1:15:51.560 But there's a great twist here because in one of 1:15:51.600 --> 1:15:54.040 these scenes where Paul comes over and he's arguing with 1:15:54.080 --> 1:15:59.439 Tom about what they should do, Claire actually sneaks out, 1:15:59.479 --> 1:16:03.679 like she she comes to hate this alien presence and 1:16:03.760 --> 1:16:05.599 she's like, you know what, I'm going to deal with 1:16:05.640 --> 1:16:09.600 this issue myself. So Beverly Garland steals Tom's rifle that 1:16:09.680 --> 1:16:12.160 he was going to use to kill Paul and then 1:16:12.240 --> 1:16:14.640 goes and gets in the car and drives away to 1:16:14.840 --> 1:16:18.400 find the alien. And she at one point, she I think, 1:16:18.439 --> 1:16:22.200 gets on the radio and says like I'm coming for you, yeah, yeah, 1:16:22.240 --> 1:16:25.040 and I love this. Like Claire, she gets in the car, 1:16:25.240 --> 1:16:27.719 arms herself, gets in the car and goes to find 1:16:27.760 --> 1:16:31.160 the cave where the alien lives, and she's like, I'm 1:16:31.200 --> 1:16:32.120 going to destroy it. 1:16:32.520 --> 1:16:35.880 Yeah. She's a woman of action, and Beverly Garland really 1:16:35.920 --> 1:16:37.840 brings a lot of energy to this role. Is great 1:16:37.840 --> 1:16:41.519 in this role, So like this alone is a breath 1:16:41.560 --> 1:16:44.040 of fresh air for movies of this time period. 1:16:44.439 --> 1:16:46.400 Yeah, and she has some great lines too. I think 1:16:46.439 --> 1:16:49.400 when she's going to kill it in the cave, she says, 1:16:49.439 --> 1:16:51.360 you think you're going to make a slave of the world, 1:16:51.640 --> 1:16:53.439 I'll see you in hell first. 1:16:54.680 --> 1:16:55.800 Yeah, and she sells it. 1:16:56.000 --> 1:16:57.639 She also tells it that it's ugly. 1:17:00.240 --> 1:17:02.320 It is ugly, Yeah, And I think that's one thing 1:17:02.320 --> 1:17:04.200 they were trying to sort of drive, like they're trying 1:17:04.200 --> 1:17:07.240 to like hold off this is one of the tricky 1:17:07.280 --> 1:17:09.800 things of having seen this picture so many times and 1:17:09.960 --> 1:17:12.720 or having seen that face on the poster. You know, 1:17:13.040 --> 1:17:15.880 the menace, the alien menace is ugly, and I think 1:17:15.920 --> 1:17:18.599 the film is crafted in a sense where they wanted 1:17:18.640 --> 1:17:22.120 that to be a big reveal and it you know 1:17:22.200 --> 1:17:25.160 that this would be a realization. Oh, the thing that 1:17:25.400 --> 1:17:28.000 we thought was a benefactor really as a hideous monster. 1:17:28.320 --> 1:17:31.000 And there's something about its appearance that cluses into this 1:17:31.080 --> 1:17:33.680 even more. But you know, what can you do? You 1:17:33.720 --> 1:17:35.000 got to put a monster on the poster. 1:17:35.479 --> 1:17:40.080 That's right. So eventually Tom is convinced. He's sort of 1:17:40.120 --> 1:17:43.040 he's talked down out of cooperating with the alien, which 1:17:43.080 --> 1:17:47.559 is pretty interesting. I don't know if I would normally 1:17:48.160 --> 1:17:50.360 expect the plot to work that way in a movie 1:17:50.400 --> 1:17:54.720 like this. I would normally expect some kind of I 1:17:54.760 --> 1:18:00.439 don't know, like sight or plot twist to change Tom's allegiance. Instead, 1:18:00.479 --> 1:18:02.680 he's just sort of convinced through argumentation. 1:18:03.400 --> 1:18:05.760 Yeah, and well, and I think the fact too that 1:18:06.479 --> 1:18:09.280 his wife is in peril now, Like he realizes that 1:18:11.160 --> 1:18:13.400 she is in danger, right, and he has to go 1:18:13.479 --> 1:18:16.800 attempt to save her, but also rectify this problem that 1:18:16.840 --> 1:18:19.320 he is doomed that he's potentially brought to the planet. 1:18:19.560 --> 1:18:21.479 That's right. So Claire has run off to fight the 1:18:21.479 --> 1:18:25.240 alien herself. Tom is on Paul's side now, He's like, okay, 1:18:25.240 --> 1:18:28.040 we got to stop it. So Paul and Tom both 1:18:28.120 --> 1:18:31.360 run off to enact various parts of the plan. Tom 1:18:31.520 --> 1:18:34.760 arms himself with like a little flamethrower of some kind, 1:18:34.920 --> 1:18:36.960 like a it's not a huge flamethrower. What do you 1:18:37.000 --> 1:18:39.080 call this thing? It's like a little tiny, sort of 1:18:39.160 --> 1:18:41.080 kettle sized flamethrower. 1:18:41.439 --> 1:18:45.719 Yeah, like some sort of like little blowtorch sized flamer device. Yeah, 1:18:45.760 --> 1:18:49.360 but I really like this division in weapons because obviously 1:18:49.360 --> 1:18:51.680 Paul will shoot anything that moves, so he needs a 1:18:51.680 --> 1:18:56.080 handgun that fits his character. But Anderson. Anderson's more of 1:18:56.120 --> 1:18:57.720 a you know, a thinker. You know. It's like he 1:18:57.760 --> 1:19:00.880 had that rifle earlier and the rifle's gone now. I 1:19:00.880 --> 1:19:03.559 don't know, it feels appropriate that he's using something a 1:19:03.560 --> 1:19:07.120 little more sciency, a little more sci fi, you know, 1:19:07.160 --> 1:19:08.679 this little flamethrower device. 1:19:09.200 --> 1:19:12.799 There is some more brutal violence in this movie. Shocking violence, 1:19:12.800 --> 1:19:15.120 I would say for a movie from fifty six where 1:19:16.800 --> 1:19:20.400 the mind controlled police chief that is working for the 1:19:20.439 --> 1:19:23.240 alien he tries to stop Tom from getting to the cave, 1:19:23.320 --> 1:19:25.960 and he's like shooting at Tom and Tom just burns 1:19:26.080 --> 1:19:27.400 him yeah. 1:19:27.080 --> 1:19:29.640 Yeah, yeah, flames him up. Yeah, and he runs a 1:19:29.680 --> 1:19:33.720 little bit and falls over on fire. Yeah. So yeah, pretty. 1:19:33.439 --> 1:19:35.640 Harsh, But eventually they get to the cave. Oh and 1:19:35.720 --> 1:19:40.120 this intersects with a fairly consistently grown inducing subplot where 1:19:40.320 --> 1:19:43.639 some soldiers are wandering around in the woods and they're like, oh, 1:19:43.920 --> 1:19:45.720 we're hungry, where can we get food? They are not 1:19:45.920 --> 1:19:50.080 mine controlled, and they're wandering around but they eventually hear 1:19:50.280 --> 1:19:53.439 the violence in the commotion at the cave, so they 1:19:53.479 --> 1:19:55.760 go there with all their weapons, and so we end 1:19:55.840 --> 1:19:57.960 up with a bunch of soldiers going into the cave 1:19:58.160 --> 1:20:01.720 confronting the monster, and the monster attacks them. I think 1:20:01.720 --> 1:20:05.559 it kills some of them, and ultimately, in the final showdown, 1:20:05.720 --> 1:20:08.640 Tom himself has to go up against the creature that 1:20:08.720 --> 1:20:10.160 he invited from Venus. 1:20:10.800 --> 1:20:13.639 Yeah, and this is a this is a pretty satisfying showdown. 1:20:13.680 --> 1:20:17.040 I mean, again, the blocking of it, what is possible 1:20:17.120 --> 1:20:21.040 with interactions between the monster and human actors aside? Uh, 1:20:21.560 --> 1:20:23.519 it plays out rather well, I think. 1:20:24.000 --> 1:20:27.040 Yeah, the broad payoff in terms of what the characters do, 1:20:27.880 --> 1:20:30.760 at least maybe as described on paper works pretty well. 1:20:30.800 --> 1:20:34.920 So Paul, sorry, Tom does run up and he like 1:20:35.040 --> 1:20:38.240 burns one of the alien's eyes with the blowtorch. 1:20:38.479 --> 1:20:40.720 Oh, he like just like sticks that sucker into the 1:20:40.760 --> 1:20:43.760 eye socket. I mean it's it's great and and it's 1:20:43.840 --> 1:20:48.240 made even better because Lee van Kleef delivers like just 1:20:48.320 --> 1:20:51.120 this awesome line line that has a lot of like 1:20:51.200 --> 1:20:53.599 venom in it, you know, like he's finally seen through 1:20:54.520 --> 1:20:56.880 the to the menace here and he's like, I'm gonna 1:20:57.000 --> 1:20:58.880 like this is what you get for messing with Earth. 1:20:59.200 --> 1:21:02.200 Yeah yeah. But then, of course he is killed in 1:21:02.240 --> 1:21:05.200 the scuffle as well, so he's laying there next to 1:21:05.240 --> 1:21:08.800 the dead overturned ice cream cone or artichoke, however you 1:21:08.840 --> 1:21:11.600 think of it. And then finally, so all of the 1:21:11.720 --> 1:21:14.960 characters except Paul are dead. Basically he's the only one 1:21:15.040 --> 1:21:17.680 left standing. And then he gives the monologue the one 1:21:17.720 --> 1:21:20.400 I delivered earlier. I'm not going to say it again, 1:21:20.800 --> 1:21:23.840 but he does explain that, referring to Tom, he learned 1:21:23.880 --> 1:21:27.799 almost too late, that man is a feeling creature. Well wait, no, actually, 1:21:27.800 --> 1:21:31.200 hold on a second. I always assumed in this monologue 1:21:31.280 --> 1:21:33.880 he's talking about Tom. Do you think he could be 1:21:33.960 --> 1:21:36.479 talking about the alien from Venus or is he definitely 1:21:36.479 --> 1:21:37.920 talking about Tom, who. 1:21:38.720 --> 1:21:41.720 Let's see, let's think about it, and for himself. That 1:21:41.840 --> 1:21:44.720 men have to find their own way, to make their 1:21:44.760 --> 1:21:48.479 own mistakes. There can't be any gift of perfection from 1:21:48.520 --> 1:21:54.040 outside ourselves. I think he's probably talking about Tom. 1:21:54.160 --> 1:21:55.720 Yeah, yeah, yeah. 1:21:55.439 --> 1:21:58.840 Because you know Tom is looking for that outside fix. 1:21:59.240 --> 1:22:03.120 It's going to help humanity, something that will help us advance, 1:22:03.160 --> 1:22:07.439 like we're struggling to advance on our own. We need 1:22:07.880 --> 1:22:09.280 salvation to come from above. 1:22:09.680 --> 1:22:14.639 Yeah, this monologue assumes it was a good faith desire 1:22:14.720 --> 1:22:17.400 to get perfection from the outside. And I don't know 1:22:17.400 --> 1:22:20.160 if Paul would assume that about the alien from Venus, 1:22:20.160 --> 1:22:23.120 that it was actually trying to help us. Yeah, so 1:22:23.200 --> 1:22:25.360 there is hope, but it has to come from inside, 1:22:25.439 --> 1:22:26.920 from man himself. 1:22:27.600 --> 1:22:29.519 Of course, they don't get into this, and of course 1:22:29.520 --> 1:22:31.880 there was never a sequel or anything to this film. 1:22:31.920 --> 1:22:34.880 But you know, there are still other members of the 1:22:34.880 --> 1:22:37.439 Benefactor race on Venus. I forget what the head count was. 1:22:37.439 --> 1:22:38.519 They said they're like nine of them. 1:22:38.560 --> 1:22:41.360 I think, yeah, it's only eight or nine or something, 1:22:41.439 --> 1:22:42.559 and this is just one of them. 1:22:42.720 --> 1:22:46.880 Yeah, there's still eight super intelligent Venusians out there who 1:22:46.920 --> 1:22:49.960 may or may not be reaching out to humans via 1:22:50.000 --> 1:22:54.720 their radar. There may be other alien players in the 1:22:54.760 --> 1:22:59.160 Solar System who have a vested interest in keeping humanity 1:22:59.240 --> 1:23:03.760 from advance beyond a certain technological level. So I don't know. 1:23:03.800 --> 1:23:05.599 It's kind of commendable that a film like this, this 1:23:05.720 --> 1:23:09.719 does ultimately introduce those kinds of concepts, you know, where 1:23:09.920 --> 1:23:13.120 you can leave the theater thinking about all of these 1:23:13.160 --> 1:23:16.040 things and wondering, well, how would this how would the 1:23:16.120 --> 1:23:17.960 characters from this film, how would the world from this 1:23:18.040 --> 1:23:18.839 film progress? 1:23:19.240 --> 1:23:22.160 Yeah? What if the benefactors from Mars come to purgase 1:23:22.200 --> 1:23:24.320 of all logic and leave us with only emotion? 1:23:24.800 --> 1:23:28.679 Oh wow, there you go. Now there's an interesting sequel 1:23:28.720 --> 1:23:31.880 idea for it conquered the World. Like this time they 1:23:32.040 --> 1:23:36.479 promise pure emotion, pure ecstasy, they come in peace. 1:23:38.280 --> 1:23:40.960 Yeah, okay, well I think that's all I've got on 1:23:41.200 --> 1:23:42.520 It Conquered the World. 1:23:42.800 --> 1:23:45.879 All right. Well, yeah, it's a fun one. Highly recommend 1:23:45.880 --> 1:23:47.639 it to anyone who's never seen it, and if you've 1:23:47.640 --> 1:23:50.479 seen it before, watch it again. It's Yeah, it's a hoot. 1:23:50.880 --> 1:23:53.960 That MST three K episode is, of course rightfully considered 1:23:53.960 --> 1:23:55.040 one of the best as well. 1:23:55.320 --> 1:23:58.479 If I recall correctly, by the time that episode is over, 1:23:58.640 --> 1:24:01.960 they've played the end monologue by Peter Graves at least 1:24:02.000 --> 1:24:03.400 three times, maybe four. 1:24:04.040 --> 1:24:04.360 You have. 1:24:06.320 --> 1:24:07.040 Good choice. 1:24:07.680 --> 1:24:09.800 All right, We're going to gohea and close out here, 1:24:10.040 --> 1:24:12.680 but we'd love to hear from everyone out there. Misty's 1:24:12.720 --> 1:24:15.080 if you want to write in about this one. Old 1:24:15.120 --> 1:24:19.439 school science fiction fans, Roger Korman fans write in as well, 1:24:20.160 --> 1:24:22.400 Western fans. You may have some thoughts here as well. 1:24:22.479 --> 1:24:25.920 Especially as it relates to Lee van Cleef. But yeah, 1:24:25.960 --> 1:24:28.519 this was film number one hundred and seventy five for 1:24:28.600 --> 1:24:30.599 Weird House Cinema. If you want to see the full 1:24:30.600 --> 1:24:32.679 list of films we've covered over the years and sometimes 1:24:32.720 --> 1:24:34.800 get a peek ahead at what's coming up next, go 1:24:34.880 --> 1:24:37.080 to letterbox dot com. That's l E T E r 1:24:37.120 --> 1:24:40.400 box d dot com. Our user name there is weird 1:24:40.400 --> 1:24:43.080 House and you can find that list. Let's see. If 1:24:43.080 --> 1:24:46.400 you're on Instagram, follow us. We are st b ym 1:24:46.479 --> 1:24:48.679 podcast and that way you can keep up with everything 1:24:48.680 --> 1:24:50.799 we're doing in the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast space. 1:24:51.200 --> 1:24:54.840 Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Jjposway. 1:24:55.120 --> 1:24:56.800 If you would like to get in touch with us 1:24:56.840 --> 1:24:59.320 with feedback on this episode or any other, to suggest 1:24:59.360 --> 1:25:01.439 a topic for the future, or just to say hello, 1:25:01.760 --> 1:25:04.360 you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow 1:25:04.400 --> 1:25:12.120 your Mind dot com. 1:25:12.200 --> 1:25:15.160 Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For 1:25:15.240 --> 1:25:18.040 more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, 1:25:18.200 --> 1:25:21.200 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.