mark.waltz O.K., so in the 63 years since this film came out, no actual earthling has walked on Mars, but the desire for space travel and the expansion of our overcrowded earth has continued. For this beautifully colorful George Pal adventure, the audience is taken into the somewhat restricted world of the astronauts where small cramped quarters, lack of real oxygen and a desire for something as simple as healthy water is a major concern. The first half of this film takes place on both the giant space wheel sent into orbit and the rocket sent up with supplies and other astronauts to prepare for its journey to Mars. Conflicts between father and son over their different ambitions for their lives as astronauts creates an interesting family subplot and interesting dimension past the science fiction themes 10 years prior to actual human space travel. The second half shows them on Mars dealing with the inability to get off the planet and the lack of water to sustain life. Sudden "Mars quakes" opens up the ground beneath them, giving me the hint that giant creatures were about to emerge from them. While that is not the case, what does happen is equally as thrilling, creating some brilliant special effects and some shocking visuals as the astronauts strive to leave this strange world and return home.Not a great movie so much as it is an entertaining one, it does get a bit talky in the first half, but is still never dull. The often boring lives of the astronauts is interrupted by moments of their personal interactions, as well as a brief glimpse of a colorful musical number featuring Rosemary Clooney in "Here Come the Girls", a 1953 Paramount film that seems to parallel the mythical view of outer space with its Arabian Knights costumes. Walter Brooke and Eric Fleming are father and son, much conflicted with their differing views, and give very good performances. Benson Fong, as the wise Japanese astronaut, is most thoughtful in his performance, while Mickey Shaugnessy, Phil Foster (Laverne DeFazio's TV father) and William Redfield are certainly representative of the common no-nonsense American, out to have fun wherever they can, but still very determined with their mission. The final sequence is rather scary, and while I wouldn't call this a truly realistic view of what the conquest of space was really like, it gave film audiences a fun way to imagine it as only special effects master George Pal could do.

flapdoodle64 This film has good-for-the-time FX, but unfortunately has a few really egregious errors depicting astronauts kicking themselves off a space platform in a zero-g vacuum. In a better film, that kind of error would be more tolerable, but this is not such a film. There are some good actors and some good moments here and there, and by virtue of this being a big budget George Pal 1950's production, an old school scifi fan is going to have a bit of fun here and there with this film. But the enjoyment is radically impaired by numerous instances of over-the-top and embarrassing sentimentality, emotionalism, and feeble attempts at comic relief. This is a good film to make fun of, but is no fun if you try to take it seriously. It has little in common with the good Pal films, such as Destination Moon, War of the Worlds, When Worlds Collide, other than FX. It is interesting, however, to note that this movie contains many plot elements and scenes that would later be included in '2001: A Space Odyssey:' 1. Ferris Wheel type space station and shuttle scenes 2. Repairing an antenna on a space walk scene 3. Picture phone communication between an astronaut and his lover exposing the emotional estrangement of the couple ENGAGE SPOILER WARNING 4. Decompression of space vehicle scene 5. Crew member going nuts and trying to kill everyone on the mission

MartinHafer During the 1950s, Hollywood made a ton of films about voyages to the Moon or Mars. Most of these films look very quaint and old fashioned when seen today, but you must allow for the fact that they simply couldn't produce the grand special effects we take for granted in more modern films. Plus, while the way the trips occur seem pretty strange compared to the actual moon landings, you must also allow that back in the 1950s it was still all speculation--they simply didn't know better about many of the important aspects of such a journey.However, despite some very old fashioned ideas about such a voyage, CONQUEST OF SPACE is a very good film for its day. Much of this is because unlike most of the other films of the genre, this one does not use stock clips of old V-2 launches and features all original rocket and space shots. Sure, the models in this production are a bit on the cheesy side, but you can tell they at least tried to get it right. In particular, what I founds interesting is that they used a space shuttle-like craft to go to Mars--not a more traditional rocket.The film was also interesting because instead of the traditional bug-eyed monsters or malevolent external forces like some films employed, the big nemesis of this film is space fatigue and mental illness caused by this exhaustion. The only negative about this was later in the film when the general obviously was insane due to these effects and yet his best friend so doggedly refused to admit it--even when the guy did everything but put on a hat and declare that he was Napoleon!! The only other thing that bothered me about the film is that like some of these types of films, there was a crazy notion that the film needed a comic relief crew member (Siegel). While not an uncommon plot device, you'd sure think that the Earth with its billions of people would have someone better and smarter than him!! Overall, an excellent film for people like me who like this genre, though I can pretty safely assume that many people today would not be particularly interested in the film. It's a shame, as it's an interesting glimpse into the 1950s.

gsh999 Mission to Mars, 1955 style. You have to love the idea of a space station where the guys can just fire up a cigarette. In the 1950's, no smoking areas were impossible to conceive. This movie was a good effort. Decent special effects, good acting, interesting plot. I am a big fan of classic sci-fi and I consider this one a gem. There are interesting twists in the story and interesting characters. There is a bizarre moment when a Japanese crewman describes why the mission is important. There is a religious aspect to the story but not like the in-your-face Christianity of War of the Worlds. I really like Eric Fleming as the studly hero. He is rather believable and looks like an astronaut. Really pretty good flick and a pleasant surprise to a guy who thought he had seen every sci-fi flick ever made.