War of the Satellites

This is cut-rate science fiction from Allied Artists and producer-director Roger Corman. The United Nations space program involving launching manned spacecraft into outer space is met with defeat after defeat as a strange energy barrier surrounding the planet destroys any craft that gets too close. One last chance is taken with an experimental solar device which will hopefully subvert the energy field, only unbeknownst to the programs members, the proposed captain (Richard Devon) has been replaced by an alien duplicate bent on stopping human efforts in space exploration once and for all.

This was rushed out in reportedly eight weeks, from conception to theaters, in an effort to cash-in on the Sputnik launch in the news. The special effects aren't very special, and a good bit of the film's final third is comprised on people walking back and forth through the same 10-foot stretch of ship corridor. But I liked seeing Richard Devon, a familiar character actor, in a lead role, and there are some fun moments when his true alien nature pops up. Longtime Corman regular Dick Miller gets one of his very few heroic leading man roles, and he uses a more serious voice than normal, much to my amusement. Susan Cabot acts a bit like a robot. This movie is no one's idea of high art, but it hit enough of the right B-movie buttons for me to be entertaining.

WAR OF THE SATELLITES is too low budget for it's subject matter but is still great fun. First of all, you have the great Dick Miller as the lead, a cool score by Walter Greene and pretty good low-budget special effects by Irving Block, Jack Rabin and Louis DeWitt. Basic plot is that aliens take over earthlings in order to sabotage our space program, particularly the satellites. Roger Corman's strength was making something out of nothing and this film is no exception. He pulls off some neat ideas and manages to make us so interested in the film we forget how silly some of it is. I think it only runs a little over an hour so he gets right down to business. The movie is very fast-paced. I wish someone would take all of Corman's films for Allied Artists such as ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS and NOT OF THIS EARTH and this one and release them in a big box set with commentary. Are you listening to this Criterion/Voyager? Not likely but I can dream, can't I? WAR OF THE SATELLITES is hard to find but worth the effort it takes to see it. Recommended for sci-fi fans and Corman/Dick Miller completists.

For those who enjoy the schlock scifi spectrum of cinema, this Roger Corman epic will be fun and interesting. And by 1958 Corman standards, this film is indeed an epic...it has at least 3 different sets as opposed to the usual 1 or 2, and has hundreds of feet of stock footage from other films, greatly expanding upon Corman's usual trailer park scope of action. There are a number of curiosities about this film.

Of particular note is the footage containing matte-paintings of rocketships, and the rocket miniature FX footage...these segments look nothing like typical Corman stuff, being almost barely acceptable. Corman loved to buy foreign movies on the cheap, and the rockets look like the ones from an old Italian pic...I bet you a nickel all the exterior rocket shots are from a foreign film Corman bought.

There's also a strange comedy relief bit in which 2 necking teenagers find a small alien artifact...one of the teens is young Mitzi McCall, whose career occasionally flirted with modest success...anyway, this bit is totally out of tone with the rest of the film...it must have been filmed either before or after the rest of the movie and edited in. This short sequence does provide information and advance the plot, but the rest of the film is so deadly serious that this sequence is bizarre. It does hint at the horror/scifi comedies that were just around the corner for Corman.

The deadly serious and low key tone is effective for an invasion/paranoia story. Richard Devon is very effective in his portrayal of an ambivalent alien invader disguised as an Earth scientist. The loyal and long-suffering Dick Miller does an unusual turn as a square-jawed hero, and although he is noticeably shorter than the villain, his performance does not come up short.

The title of this film is often discussed. IMO, the idea of calling the film 'War of the Satellites', besides capitalizing on the newly popular term, also evokes the Cold War. In 1957, the USA considered the Soviet satellite Sputnik as a veiled threat...and the frantic haste of the USA to launch its own satellite was in fact a counter-move in the Cold War. Therefore, at the time of this film's production, a real War of the Satellites had already begun...on Earth.

It is not unusual for Corman's films to contain a degree of thinly-veiled political commentary.

Here is a great quote, spoken by one of the astronauts, after the evil alien invader has offered him a chance to join the aliens: 'You can go to Hell! I was born a human and I'll die one before I join a race that kills innocent people for abstract ideas!'

Of course, that line is highly ironic...human beings kill innocent people all the time over abstract ideas, such as capitalism, communism, democracy, fascism, Christianity, Islam, etc.

In October, 1957, the Soviet Union surprised everyone with the first successful launch and orbit of a spacecraft, a satellite dubbed "Sputnik". That name and the term "satellite" was on front pages of every newspaper in America.

"War of the Satellites" was produced by Roger Corman because he knew he could get a deal (funding) from his distributor by promising a film with the then hot buzz-word, "satellite", on the marquee. His plan worked and the film was rushed together. By then, Corman had a number of capable people he could count on to pull it off. Discount the war-surplus and junkyard props and and the hardly scientific premise and "War of the Satellites" turns out to be fun and a rather credible popcorn epic. It was released on a double bill and the title brought in the expected crowd.

Famously concocted in 8 weeks after director Roger Corman promised Allied Artists a "satellite' movie in time to cash in on America's fascination with (or fear of ) Sputnik, 'War of the Satellites' really has nothing to do with the cold war or the Russian space program or, for that matter, any other reality. Briefly, Earth's attempts to put people in orbit are met with disaster when the ships approach a mysterious barrier and we are warned by the "Masters of the Spiral Nebula Ghana" that humans have been prohibited from exploring space. To ensure our compliance, the aliens kill the head of the space program, Dr. Van Ponder (Richard Devon), and replace him with a sinister doppelganger. Astronomer David Boyer's (Corman perennial Dick Miller) suspicions concerning his new boss leads to a show-down in outer space, the outcome of which could determine the future of humanity. There are some adequate special effects shots, such as the rocket base or the in-orbit assembly of a space station but other than these, the film is strictly a dime-store production, especially the interiors the space ships (featuring recliner lounges with seatbelts) or the flimsy looking control panel manned by none other than Corman himself). The plot/script makes little sense and, other than Miller and Devon, the acting is underwhelming. Typical for a Corman picture, 'War of the Satellites' turned a profit and remains watchable today (half a century after Sputnik fell out of the sky) in a chintzy sort of way.