War of the Satellites (1958)
** (out of 4)
American scientists are trying to send a satellite into outer space but they keep running into some sort of force shield that causes the satellite to explode. After the tenth failed attempt the aliens from space grow tired so they kill the scientist (Richard Devon) and take over his body so that they can sabotage any future attempts. It's up to Dave (Dick Miller) and Sybil (Susan Cabot) to try and bring down the alien as well as the deadly satellite shield. I love Roger Corman. I love the films he directed and produced no matter if they were higher quality stuff like the Price-Poe flicks or lower trash like this film here. There's no question that this film belongs in the "so bad it's good" category and I must admit that I'm rather shocked that this film doesn't get called out more than it does. Perhaps because until recently it was hard to see many fans haven't given it the badly made label because if you watch this thing and then watch something from Ed Wood you're going to notice a lot of things in common. As with most of Wood's features, this here features a large amount of stock footage and more often than not it doesn't match up with the "new" footage. Take for example the scene where the aliens try to teach the world a lesson by doing various bad things. We're greeted with all sorts of stock footage with stuff taken from previous movies and it appears one scene showing a full moon was borrowed from one of the Universal werewolf pictures. Another funny bit is when a couple are making out when something crashes and explodes. When we see the explosion it's far away from the kids but the boyfriend goes to look for the item and finds it a few feet from where they were. One, this doesn't match up with what we've seen and if it really was that close then the explosion would have killed the kids. Other funny moments include some really over-the-top performances including one hilarious sequence where the alien/scientist burns himself and the young scientist starts freaking out. The expression on his face as he tries to convince someone else of what he saw is priceless. Dick Miller fans will be happy to see him playing the hero here and it's always nice to see Cabot. WAR OF THE SATELLITES is one of many rips of THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. Most of the rips are poorly made and boring. This one here doesn't have much quality to it but the thing is never boring and fans of bad cinema should have a good time with it.
