'War of the Satellites' is another typical cold war era space paranoia film they made loads of in the fifties. The film was distributed as double feature with much more famous 'Attack of the 50 Foot Woman' (which is real cult classic now), while 'War of the Satellites' remains mostly unknown today. The reason for that is probably because the film is too mediocre - it's not laughably bad and it is not (Corman's) good either. The film was rushed together after Soviet Union launched it's first satellite Sputnik into the space, and Corman found the satellite idea easy to sell for a drive-in crowd. The acting is fantastic considering it is a silly B-movie that is not meant to be taken seriously. Sets are fantastically low key and unrealistic (even by the standards of '50s sci-fi), making the inside of satellite look like a mansion (notice the lounge chairs the astronauts are strapping themselves into before the launch).
High point of the film actually comes at the very beginning of the movie with loving couple in the convertible ("Yeah, but getting warmer every second, a-ring-a-ding-ding.") who find the alien capsule with message to human race. Great piece of sleaze.
'War of the Satellites' is not the Corman's worst, but probably his least memorable one.
High point of the film actually comes at the very beginning of the movie with loving couple in the convertible ("Yeah, but getting warmer every second, a-ring-a-ding-ding.") who find the alien capsule with message to human race. Great piece of sleaze.
'War of the Satellites' is not the Corman's worst, but probably his least memorable one.