Conquest of Space Movie Review

Would you like a moon crater named after you? That honor was given to the late Chesley Bonestell for being this century's finest astronomical artist. His designs and constructions permeate this film – which is the only conceivable reason to see it. A space commander designs an orbital platform and helps build a moon rocket. When told the craft is to transport him, his son, and select crewman to Mars instead, our leader looks into the Bible and, finding no mention of a Mars expedition, has a nervous breakdown (that Scripture mentions no space platform or moon flight seems to elude this profound thinker!). Endure the melodrama for the stunning Bonestellian visuals; here is a Mars not as we found it but as it should have been. One scene should haunt you forever: the burial-at-space of the dead astronaut, encased in his space suit and floating off into the sun's zodiacal light. Inspired by a speculative nonfiction book The Mars Project by Wernher von Braun.

1955 81m/C Walter Brooke, Eric Fleming, Mickey Shaughnessy, Phil Foster, William Redfield, William Hopper, Benson Fong, Ross Martin; D: Byron Haskin; W: George O'Hanlon; C: Lionel Linden. VHS PAR