Conquest of Space

Rating: ***/*****, or 5/10

George Pal, the renowned producer behind such Fifties' Sci-Fi classics/special effects extravaganzas like When Worlds Collide (1951) and The War of the Worlds (1953) once again teams up with the director of the latter, Byron Haskin, in an effort to combine expensive FX with scientifically correct (or as much as can be) space travel, which worked so well for him on Destination Moon (1950). Working with a plot based on a novel by famous science fiction artist Chesley Bonestell, Pal tells the story of man's first deep space mission to Mars, setting off from a giant wheel shaped space station (a motif often repeated in the genre) in an odd looking rocket ship adorned with completely superfluous wings (a less often featured staple of the genre, thankfully). However, Pal soon trades in intriguingly feasible science for a philosophical debate on whether or not mankind should venture into space at all, sadly driven by religious reasoning as space is seen as God's backyard, or so the ever more insane mission leader claims as he endangers the daring move into the great black, as well as the lives of him and his men. Sadly the special effects feel quite lacking for most of the film, unlike in Pal's past Sci-Fi glory which won him three Academy Awards in a row. The result is a somewhat chaotic obscurity of a science fiction flick that had great aspirations but unfortunately failed to fully develop them into a 'Pal worthy' film. Still worth a watch for science fiction aficionados.

Starring: Walter Brooke, Eric Fleming, Mickey Shaughnessy

Directed by Byron Haskin

USA: Paramount Pictures, 1955