Conquest of Space
Directed by Byron Haskin
Written by James O’Hanlon, Philip Yordan, Barré Lyndon, and George Worthing Yates from a book by Chesley Bonestell and Willy Ley
1955/USA
Paramount Pictures
First viewing/Amazon Instant
[box] Sergeant Imoto: Some years ago, my country chose to fight a terrible war. It was bad, I do not defend it, but there were reasons. Somehow those reasons are never spoken of. To the Western world at that time, Japan was a fairybook nation: little people living in a strange land of rice-paper houses… people who had almost no furniture, who sat on the floor and ate with chopsticks. The quaint houses of rice paper, sir: they were made of paper because there was no other material available. And the winters in Japan are as cold as they are in Boston. And the chopsticks: there was no metal for forks and knives and spoons, but slivers of wood could suffice. So it was with the little people of Japan, little as I am now, because for countless generations we have not been able to produce the food to make us bigger. Japan’s yesterday will be the world’s tomorrow: too many people and too little land. That is why I say, sir, there is urgent reason for us to reach Mars: to provide the resources the human race will need if they are to survive. That is also why I am most grateful to be found acceptable, sir. I volunteer.
General Samuel T. Merritt: Thank you, Sergeant Imoto. You’re not a little man.[/box]
This George Pal space extravaganza would be the definition of mediocre if it were not so strange.
It is the contemporary future and a unit of the International Space Agency works on a space station constructing a space ship. Its commander is Col. Sam Merritt, who designed the space station. Merritt is a no-nonsense guy to say the least, having commandeered his son Barney for involuntary work there and taking no flak whatsoever from any of his men. We learn early on that prolonged stays on the station can cause “space fatigue” which manifests itself in different forms. One of the astronauts who was selected for the initial expedition experiences temporary paralysis and is booted out of the program. Col. Merritt is secretly experiencing severe headaches and insomnia.
An official from earth comes to deliver new orders sending the spaceship to Mars, rather than the moon as had been expected. Here is where the colonel begins to wig out. He calls for volunteers and his son tears up his transfer orders to become second in command in the craft. Once launched the colonel, now promoted to general, spends much of his time reading his bible. He begins to view landing on Mars as the ultimate blasphemy. Can the ship and crew survive its commander’s hysteria?
The special effects are rudimentary even compared to earlier science fiction films produced by George Pal. The story is a little reminiscent of Moby Dick with the General as Ahab. It’s heavy on the melodrama with some not-too-comic relief from the resident Brooklynite and Irishman. Yet I watched it all in a single sitting. The biblical prophesies piqued my interest. I really could not figure out whether the filmmakers meant them as a warning until the end.
Trailer
