311. It Conquered The World (1956)

Trailer to It Conquered The World (1956).

2 Likes

This one is pretty good. It always surprises me how decently made it is and sometimes itā€™s easy to get caught in the story. But itā€™s still Corman, so thereā€™s still loads to work with and they riff it well!

For me, one of the highlights here is the Snow Thrills short! My goodness, is this a dark riff. Shorts usually bring out their dark side and they really do Go There often with this one. Itā€™s so hilarious. One of my favorites! :smiley:

The corresponding host segment is fantastic! Always impresses me with how well choreographed it is!

4 Likes

Is the shortness of the movie a problem you think? The slightly longer skits? Etc?

3 Likes

image

3 Likes

This is a case of the short outshining the movie. The short is a classic! Hilarious from start to finish. The movie is, well, kinda good. Seriously, other than the absolutely ridiculous looking monster this movie is actually good. Good cast, especially Lee Van Cleef. Beverly Garland is actually good also. Truth is, Roger Corman movies are always fun to watch even considering their low budgets. Iā€™m a huge Corman fan, (The Undead is my favorite). Itā€™s a shame Roger hates Mst3K. His movies are perfect for it!

5 Likes

Might be a bit of both. Itā€™s telling when Joel (during that oddball ā€œsiblingsā€ segment) outright says ā€œthe movieā€™s running shortā€. Replaying the Graves speech over-and-over at the end was clever, though.

Perhaps throwing-in another short couldā€™ve helped. :slightly_smiling_face:

3 Likes

Alright! Alright! I give in, Iā€™m watching it right now already!

Peanut

5 Likes

Thank you for pointing out this awful scene. Itā€™s horrific.

Itā€™s hard to believe the movie actually made the decision to present to its audience the scenario that not only has this woman been gratuitously strangled while wearing lingerie, but also that her body was then dumped outside. Like a dog joyously rolling in excrement, the film here appears to be savoring its own disgustingness.

This is not about the villainy of the alien who ordered this murder. This is about the awfulness of the people behind the camera; the people who control the content and direction of the film. No horror needed to be imported from some other planet. This horror came from right here, on planet Earth.

7 Likes

Itā€™s interesting that you mention this, as I noticed while watching this episode today that there are quite a few scenes of people standing or sitting around, just talking. So the movie feels longer than it really is at times because of these rather static sequences. But I would describe this episode as being in the Goldilocks zone of ā€œjust rightā€ for me. I enjoyed the skits, even the Hollywood names one that Joel admits is acting as filler. So it all kind of ā€œevens out,ā€ and I donā€™t notice how short the run time really is.

7 Likes

First of all, heh, I just wanted to say that I wish the MST3K team would have had the hilarious chutzpah to include the entirety of Peter Gravesā€™s ā€œHe learned almost too lateā€¦ā€ speech as the stinger and not just that snippet.

They were running short on time for this episode and had to stretch things out, and having a humorously long stinger wouldā€™ve helped things out a tad, no?

4 Likes

SPOILER ALERT: itā€™s turrible.

Itā€™s the guy who directed Attack of the the Eye Creatures doing a remake of THIS movie with John Agar in the Peter Graves role. That pretty much tells you everything you need to know.

7 Likes

The SCTV re-reboot is fabulous, though. One of THE best moments in the history of comedy is Earl Camembert aghast at a possessed Floyd Robertson and snapping, ā€œHave you been drinking?!ā€

5 Likes

As for the episode itself?

Letā€™s start in with that Snow Thrills short. As was mentioned by a number of you earlier, we have another instance where the short upstages the feature presentation. I think thatā€™s due to the relative high energy of Snow Thrills, which in turn serves to entice the riffers to step up their game in order to keep up.

And keep up, they do! Thereā€™s some wonderfully caustic joking going on here, such as Servo going into his Mighty Announcer Modeā„¢ to dub this ā€œthe parade of shame and wasted lives!ā€ Then thereā€™s Joelā€™s amazingly dark riff of ā€œYou know, thereā€™s nothing quite as pretty on a summer day as arterial spray on the white snow,ā€ which causes Crow and Servo to murmur their casual agreement.

Of course, thereā€™s that great moment where the narrator curiously tells us that the correct pronunciation of skiing is ā€œshee-ing,ā€ prompting Joel to tell the narrator that heā€™s ā€œfull of skit.ā€ See, THIS is why we sign up for MST3K!


Because It Conquered the World is so thoroughly Corman-ized (weā€™ll see those flying tortilla things again in The Undead), it offers up great riffing opportunities about both the absurdity and the cheapness of the work. Thereā€™s something so inherently funny about Lee Van Cleef becoming obsessed with using his radio to communicate with an intergalactic conquering pickle, AND get harangued by Beverly Garland for that (Joel as Lee Van Cleef: ā€œHoney, why canā€™t you just let me once take over the world?ā€)


Letā€™s pause here and get to one of the episode highlights: Beverly BY GOD Garland. Paul Chaplin had a whole write-up about her in the Amazing Colossal Episode Guide, and rightly so; you absolutely have to believe her conviction in the ridiculousness of a scene where she spits fire and wrath in the face of the killer cucumber. Even amidst all the cinematic cheesiness we bear witness to, thereā€™s usually some mitigating element (or elements) that make the proceedings that much easier and much more fun to bear. As it is with Cormanā€™s other efforts in Swamp Diamonds and Gunslinger, the human element of Beverly Garland adds LUDICROUS DEPTH to these films, and weā€™re all the better for checking that action out.

And seeing Lee Van Cleef here? Always a win.

Now letā€™s get back to the sass.


Parts: The Clonus Horror features a veritable barrage of Biography with Peter Graves jokes, but you donā€™t get to that deluge of comedic material without THIS episode as something of a warmup act. And the jokes about that show make this one a hoot: ā€œWell, ran out of gas, honey. Now would be a good time to tell you about Biography on A&E.ā€ Not to mention the James Arness stuff that they would revisit during that Clonus end credits bit.

Also, if I may go out of sequences and all over the map here, I will forever and always love this last triumphant riff couplet after the big pompous concluding speech:

Crow: "James Arness will be back in Sweet Sweetbackā€™s Baadasssss Song!"
Servo: ā€œPeter Graves!ā€

And you gotta love another Arness moment as Peter Graves takes the phone: ā€œGunsmoke, nah, itā€™ll never work, call my brother!ā€


When it says Corman on the label, youā€™re going to get shoddy workmanship, which leads to funny observations like Crow saying ā€œOh, just get a pair of scissors and cut the string!ā€ as a flying tortilla gets menacing.


But yeah, thereā€™s some solid joke writing for the movie, but it doesnā€™t quite feel like it TAKES WAY THE HELL OFF like they did with the short. You still have to appreciate it for tackling Corman, and with some humor that can skew as darkly as the short does. One such instance:

[Graves mows down three possessed scientists]
Servo as Peter Graves: ā€œUh, you all were bad guys, werenā€™t you?ā€

Also terrific:

Joel: ā€œYeah, everybody gets a day off at the end of the world. Didnā€™t you know that? Itā€™s a free day!ā€

Another gloriously dark moment:

[Peter Graves has previously killed his possessed wife, Joan]
Lee Van Cleef: ā€œHowā€™s Joan?ā€
Crow as Peter Graves: ā€œSheā€™s deā€¦ deaā€¦ um, dusting!ā€


The episode feels like it soars when all hell breaks loose in the film and you get all this guano insanity bringing the best out of the SOL crew. But the movie can be a tad slower when compared to, oh, say, Gunslinger or The Undead. That slower pace and those drier moments keep the movie riffing from reaching the dizzying heights of the short, thus making this feel uneasy, but Iā€™d still call it a worthy episode for all the bustinā€™ on Peter Graves.

6 Likes

Time for the host segments!

Itā€™s weird that in a series full of classic songs and musically motivated moments, I always forget about the siblings song here. Itā€™s not one of those ā€œthatā€™s because this episode was never officially releasedā€ things, because it feels like the ā€œGodzilla Genealogy Bopā€ from Godzilla Vs. the Sea Monster comes to mind much more readily. Again, not a complaint, just an observation.

Servo in Mighty Narrator Modeā„¢ will always remain involving, thanks to Kevin Murphyā€™s ridiculously good-sounding pipes giving the sketch that heft and atmospheric dimension.

But for me? The SOL crew and the Mads listening intently and being genuinely moved by Peter Gravesā€™s speech shouldnā€™t be as funny as it is, but hot damn, does it workā€¦ and the hilarity is only increased when we get the speech again over the credits and in the stinger!

One more time:

:musical_note: da da da, DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA :musical_note:

5 Likes

With an even lower budget.

3 Likes


I own this statue of IT! This is from Forrest Ackermanā€™s private collection won at auction. The creature is affectionately know as Beulah and was created by Paul Blaisdell.

7 Likes

In February 2020, I took a hike up to Bronson Canyon, as a fact-finding mission to confirm that the opening/closing scenes for Village of the Giants was filmed along the path leading to the canyon.

After that, I decided to wander around the area, that had been seem in films like Robot Monster, Teenage Caveman, The Magic Sword, and It Conquered the World.

Viewing ICTW afterwards, I was shocked that picture I took, almost lined up with the camera angle of one shot in the film. Below is the paste-over to prove it.

5 Likes

This is one of my top 25. Its one of those movies that is definitively NOT a ā€œbad movieā€. It is actually pretty good for what they had to work with. I mean, if you ignore the period effects (which you have to do even with great movies like The Thing) this is probably a better movie than almost any other movie in the whole MST pantheon. Consider all other other ā€œlone alien who is going to conquer Earthā€ movies like Human Duplicators and Night of the Blood Beast. ICtW spanks them by a country mile. Good performances from all the actors ā€¦ nothing that sticks out as TOO cheesy ā€¦ and this show is eminently watchable in its own right.

Add to that some great riffing and good host segments and its a winner. Not the best MST has to offer ā€¦ but pretty high up there.

2 Likes

This is definitely one of those ones that given its subject matter, holds up a bit better for me.

Just he way that Van Cleefā€™s character feels that the alien is the first thing that thinks heā€™s right, and so has no problems with what its doing. Heck, h3ā€™s willing to allow mind control of those he knows if it means heā€™s seen as the genius he believes himself to be.

It is neat in regards to how everything begins to spiral out of control and Van Cleef stays relatively unfazed, until his wife is killed, and then he starts to realize maybe alien conquest isnā€™t such a cool idea after all.

3 Likes

Naaah. Personally I love them repeating the speech!

7 Likes