'War Of The Satellites" directed by Roger Corman

This blog was begun Wednesday night March 25th, and completed the following day :

Tonight's "Youtube Spectacular" was "War of the Satellites"(1958), directed by Roger Corman and starring Richard Devon and Susan Cabot. Ever since we reversed course on our opinion of Corman we've been having luck with his movies, and though "Satellites" doesn't match the low-budget brilliance of his mid-60s horror classics, it's a pretty solid early effort. In hindsight, I should never have called Corman a hack. I just had the misfortune to see two of his genuinely bad movies as my first experience of his work ("The Terror" and "Little Shop of Horrors"). Every picture I've seen since however has ranged from good to top notch. This one falls somewhere in between those two ratings.

Richard Devon, a character actor you've seen many times, plays Dr. Pol Van Ponder - "Van" for short - a brilliant scientist who has developed a program to send man into Outer Space. Keep in mind this is right after Sputnik, when satellites were very much in the public eye. Van's breakthrough idea is to launch a manned satellite inside the standard vehicle of a three stage rocket, and to take it past the orbital level where it will be free to push forward into space, to explore the Final Frontier as it were.

In their initial attempts, Dr. Van and his satellite crews have encountered a Mysterious Barrier at an unquantified distance. Think of Felix the Cat and his attempts to break the Sound Barrier on his trips to Mars. This barrier has a similar repulsive force, but it's unnatural, and in fact it's being produced by - you guessed it! - an Alien, the same kind of smug, know-it-all we encountered in last night's "The 27th Day". What is it with these dudes, anyway? Why the conceit?  ;)

Well, as usual, it turns out he's down on humanity, got a low opinion of us, although this time it's not specified why, exactly. He simply says, in a Grand Pronouncement, that he likens us to an "infection" in the interstellar scheme of things, and therefore he has set up the barrier as a preventative "quarantine", to keep us from spreading into the far reaches of the Universe.

Now I must take a moment to swear an affidavit that no, I did not seek this movie out under search terms relating to the coronavirus. Actually I chose it because it was made by Roger Corman and had a great title. But out of the blue came these coincidental words of dialogue, infection and quarantine, which made the viewing both timely and a little unnerving.

A meeting is held at the United Nations, during which it is discussed whether the Sigma Project, as it is now being called in reference to the Alien's use of Latin, should proceed. Both viewpoints are presented, pro and con, by many of the sponsoring nations. Some argue against continuation with the dire fact that many satellite crews have already been lost. Naturally in favor are Dr. Van Ponder's team, including Cabot, his main assistant. The UN Mediator asks to hear from Dr. Van himself. "Is he here? He was supposed to attend this meeting". Cabot assures the mediator that Dr. Van is on his way. He'd informed her that he might be late, as he's been working overtime on his new "three pronged" satellite, which will have enough power - finally - to break through the alien force field.

It is here that Corman cuts to a shot of Dr. Van driving down a country road on his way to the meeting. You'd think he'd be in Manhattan, or on a nearby freeway, but Corman was filming on a budget and had to use a local canyon, haha, probably Malibu or Kanan. Anyhow, as he is driving he suddenly finds it increasingly difficult to steer. There is a high pitched ringing noise and a Bright Pulsation in the sky that resembles  a supernova. The Alien is messing with Van's car! Man, he's just like a Mafioso. Why didn't he just fix the brakes? Oh well, I guess the steering wheel is just as effective. Now Dr. Van can't turn it at all. He goes off a cliff, the car explodes and he is dead. Except.......

Just as the UN Mediator is about to call off the debate, in walks Dr. Van. You and I know it's not The Real Him but the others do not (though his zombified gait and overly formal manner should be a clue). This "Dr. Van", who of course is The Alien, has no choice but to argue in favor of the project. To do otherwise would arouse suspicion, as he has always been it's biggest champion. Plus, he's been working on the latest satellite, the 3-in-1, or he had been, before he was killed. The Alien knows all of this, so, as "Dr. Van Ponder", he gives a rather stiff speech in support of Sigma, assuring the assembly that he now has the means to break through the space barrier. Behind his human disguise, he knows he can destroy the satellite by other means.......by captaining it himself!

From here, the plot takes on the conflict typical of a Star Trek episode, like when Spock turns against Captain Kirk or Mr. Sulu mutinies. Impressed with his speech, the UN gives the go ahead for the Three Pronged launch. "Dr. Van" assumes command of the mission and the delegates - not knowing who he really is - are impressed with his willingness to put his own life on the line. As he is inspecting the solenoids the day before launch, a blowtorch falls over and badly burns him, charring his hand to a crisp. The head engineer (the project's Scotty) runs to get a doctor, but "Dr. Van", knowing he'll be relieved of duty if examined, rubs his hand until it's healed completely. Now it looks as good as new, and when it was burning he didn't even feel it! When the doctor arrives, with the engineer in tow, "Dr. Van" simply says the supposed accident never happened. The engineer must have imagined it, but it's okay, he's been under a lot of stress don't you know.

The doctor shrugs it off and the mission is still "go", but big-time suspicion is created on the part of the engineer. "I know what I saw"!, he reiterates, and what he saw was a Charbroiled Hand without a wince of pain from his boss.

They get ready to blast off the next day, and here, Roger Corman has created a really cool look for the scene, using a giant matte painting featuring three gigantic rockets of classic Atomic Age design. They are streamlined and monolithic, and the matte looks so much better, even in all it's staged unreality, than does CGI. I just had to get that in there as an aside, not that CGI is horrible because it has it's uses. But it's been overused to the point where it all looks the same, and while matte painting (and the use of models) was more primitive cinematically, it was also a lot more fun to look at. And there are a lot of super duper 1950s special effects in this movie, including a truly bitchin double exposure when "Dr. Van" leaves his body in order to replicate.

But to finish off the plot, or at least what I'm going to tell you, now that they've achieved liftoff, "Dr. Van", i.e. the Alien in disguise, is ready to carry out his Nefarious Plan and guide the Three Prong into disaster. Can the engineer stop him? Can he get Susan Cabot, or Dick Miller the copilot, to believe that it's not the real Dr. Van onboard? He's gonna need some help, that's for sure, because "Dr. Van" has a hand grip that's similar to the Spock "shoulder pinch", and now that I think of it, I wonder if Gene Roddenberry was a fan of this movie? Roger Corman himself has a nice cameo as a dead serious Mission Control operator. Given his typical low budget, it's impressive the care he took with this film, to avoid it being cheap looking or corny, which it decidedly is not, even though it has "1950s Sc-Fi" written all over it. Like "The 27th Day", it has a simple plot and an "either/or" level of conflict (i.e. no twists or complications) but it has better sets and more "space hardware" than that movie. It doesn't have "27"s existential considerations or philosophical dialogue, but it's just as enjoyable in a Saturday Afternoon "Rocket Ship Movie" kind of way. I give it Two Big Thumbs Up! It was another great print on Youtube, once again in black and white, as all 1950s Sci-Fi should be.  ////

That's all for the moment. I'm gonna go for my evening CSUN walk in just a few. We're still doing the Winter Thing here, it's Four Layer Chilly and windy, too. When I get back I'll do some reading, and then search Youtube for another classic........

See you tonight at the Usual Time.

Tons of love!  xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo  :):)