Conquest of Space (1955)

Synopsis:

In the near future, a group of scientists runs a space station that travels in orbit around Earth. One day, the scientists are ordered to travel to Mars to collect data, but the unprecedented journey is filled with endless complications.

Reaction & Thoughts:

“According to the Bible, Man was created on the Earth. Nothing is ever mentioned of his going to other planets.”

Celebrated Hungarian producer George Pal (The War of the Worlds and The Time Machine) started his career making shorts films using stop-motion animation in Europe. He moved to Hollywood in the 1940s, where he developed his legendary Puppetoons, three-dimensional cartoons using handmade puppets. Pal achieved fame later in life as the producer of popular live-action fantasy and sci-fi films.

Conquest of Space is one of Pal’s least satisfying movies. The film under-performed at the box office. Critics weren’t kind to the movie either. Furthermore, the failure of the movie ended Pal’s long association with Paramount Pictures.

I have to agree with the consensus: this is one of Pal’s weakest efforts. The screenplay, credited to Philip Yordan, Barré Lyndon, George Worthing Yates and James O’Hanlon, is clumsily constructed. In addition, the visual effects, by John P. Fulton (The Ten Commandments), are ambitious, but awfully inconsistent. The movie is obviously trying to push the envelope, but the end result ins’t all that good.

Conquest of Space does look good for the most part. I liked Oscar-winning cinematographer Lionel Lindon’s (Around the World in Eighty Days) candy-colored camera work. Lindon makes space travel look fun. The Art-direction (by Hal Pereira, The Greatest Show on Earth) is fanciful, but some sets do look cheap.

The acting is just okay. Walter Brooke (Yours, Mine and Ours) plays General Samuel T. Merritt with authority. I did think that Mickey Shaughnessy (Pocketful of Miracles) mugs for the camera too much for my liking. Film debuts of Ross Martin (Artemus Gordon in TV’s The Wild Wild West) and Eric Fleming (TV’s Rawhide).

Conclusions & Final Thoughts:

Conquest of Space suffers from producer George Pal’s space fatigue — he never again made another out-of-space movie. The failure of the movie was a blessing in disguise. After leaving Paramount, Pal moved to MGM, where he quickly regained his footing and made some of his best movies. Color, 81 minutes, Not Rated.

Theatrical Trailer: