War of the Satellites
- Charles YnfanteSeptember 22, 2025War of the Satellites. 1958. This movie is a about an hour long. The title "War of the Satellites" is misleading. There is no war or battle. . The whole point of the movie is for satellites and, later, two space ships full of people to try and go beyond an outer space blockade, a kind force field. This blockade is set up by an unseen force or "something" to prevent the human race from exploding the galaxy. This unseen force believes the human race is too inexperienced for space travel. . This unseen force causes the main character, Dr. Ponder, to die in a car crash, and then takes over his body, . The movie then becomes a kind of inverted or watered down version of the 1956 "Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Dr. Ponder is able to clone his body into a duplicate. He does this by simply having a ghost-like spirit walk out of his body. . The alien-invaded body of Dr. Ponder then tries to sabotage the two space ships filled with people --- to stop them from crossing the blockade force field. . Others are becoming increasingly suspicious that Dr. Ponder is not really human. To prove that he is human--- and to fool everyone, he gives himself a human heart. He simply touches his chest to do this. . But now his human side is confusing and distracting him from his mission. (Here there are shades of Spock from the later TV series, "Star Trek." Spock, in several episodes, experiences his human side, which also confuses him). . Because Dr. Ponder is no longer completely alien-invaded and has lost some non-human powers, he can be killed. Thus, humanity can now cross the barrier and explore the galaxies. . If the movie had a different title, then I probably would not have been mislead. I would have probably accepted the movie it really is: a simple story of an individual's identity taken over by an alien force. . The scenes with the rockets on the launching pad, though not real, were cool. The space ships in outer space were of an external architecture you do not normally see. The art designers did a good job. . The costume designer did a good job creating the uniforms everyone wore on the space ships. The uniforms were form fitting with zippers that were fashionably placed and not intrusive. . The soundtrack was a basic score, stamdard for the time, competent. . Would I see this movie again? Maybe. Review by Charles Ynfante.
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War of the Satellites was released on May 18, 1958.
War of the Satellites was directed by Roger Corman.
War of the Satellites has a runtime of 65m.
War of the Satellites was produced by Roger Corman, Jack Rabin, Irving Block.
An "unknown force" declares war against planet Earth when the United Nations disobeys warnings to cease and desist in its attempts at assembling the first satellite in the atmosphere.
The key characters in War of the Satellites are Dave Boyer (Dick Miller), Sybil Carrington (Susan Cabot), Dr. Pol Van Ponder (Richard Devon).
War of the Satellites is rated Approved.
War of the Satellites is a Science Fiction, Horror film.
War of the Satellites has an audience rating of 1.7 out of 10.
War of the Satellites had a budget of $70,000.