War of the Satellites

Release: 1958
Director: Roger Corman
Company: Santa Cruz Productions

Notable Actors:

Dick Miller as Dave Boyer
Susan Cabot as Sybil Carrington
Richrd Devon as Dr. Pol Van Ponder
Michael Fox as Jason ibn Akad
Robert Shayne as Cole Hotchkiss
Bruno VeSota as Mr. LeMoine
Roy Gordon as The President


Plot: A race of aliens declares they are protecting the universe from the human race who are beginning to experiment with space travel. Humanity as a response becomes more determined to conquer the stars.

The aliens replace one of the members of the space project and works to cancel the program behind the scenes. When that fails we head to space as the human race is going to try and break the barrier set up by the aliens. Who will win in this space race war?

The Monster: Our impostor is from a race that call themselves the Masters of the Spiral Nebula Ghana. So we never see what the alien looks like in it's true form we do get a see a fair number of powers in this movie.

The alien can disguise itself as another person. It can also replicate itself and internal organs. The movie never really explains how but when the doctor needed to check for a heart beat, the alien was able to grow one for himself. I don't know how the alien knew how to create a heart and have it beat properly but he did. Overall, I wouldn't even say we have a monster this time. This is more a disguised traitor on the ship kind of plot.

Thoughts: This is the first film review that I have done on this blog of a movie I hadn't seen previously. Going in I didn't really have much in the way of expectations. These low budget cold war space movies usually end up being pretty boring affairs. I was pleasantly surprised by this movie.

The budget for this is obviously next to nothing. The sets were minimal and there were next to no special effects. The actors in this movie were pretty strong though. I saw a lot of familiar faces and I would say most of them put in above average performances. Seeing Dick Miller of Gremlins fame as a really young man was a fun time.

The first half was really nothing to write home about. It's your standard, political sci fi type thing. The first 20-30 minutes of the film are fairly boring if I am being honest. But when they get into space, this movie really hits a stride and becomes a compelling story.

Once the plot gets to space, the alien that replaced Van Ponder starts to make some moves. He kills someone early on and some members of the crew suspect and start trying to prove that something is wrong with Van Ponder. I know what you're thinking, this sounds like an episode of Star Trek or Twilight Zone. You would be right on both counts. I could see this playing out in an episode of either show. But it's executed relatively well. It's well acted for the most part and it even manages to pull off a bit of suspense at the end.

The two areas where I will be a little critical is the special effects and the sets. You can tell how small the budget was by both of these. A flashing light represents the aliens earlier in the film and when we get to the space ship parts, it's obvious they just moved some things around here and there to make a couple of backdrops look a little different. You find yourself wishing those areas were a little better because they do distract a bit from the movie.

I don't say this ever with a movie but this film could have probably used another 15-20 minutes to really flesh some things out. I would have liked some more expansion on what the aliens were capable of doing and a little more time to develop the characters and let the tension of suspense build a little more. But those are pretty small complaints and I understand they were shooting this on a budget for next to nothing.

Unfortunately for this movie, it's competence seems to have made it a less popular film. It's not bad enough to be memorable and it isn't an excellent movie. It's just a competent B movie that executes it's plots and ideas well enough.

Verdict: This ended up being a really nice surprise of a movie. It takes the cold war space race formula and does some interesting things with it. This is by no means a classic or a must see but I think it's a solid film that any fan of the 50s/60s era of sci fi should check out. **1/2 for a pretty good film.

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