THE PARTY CRASHERS

Bobby Driscoll

THE PARTY CRASHERS (1958). Director: Bernard Girard.

Teenager Barbara (Connie Stevens) is torn between two boys: her nice, quiet steady Josh (Bobby Driscoll) and the sexy bad boy Twig (Mark Damon of Black Sabbath). Twig enjoys crashing parties and causing trouble, and his home life sucks, as his father (Walter Brooke of Conquest of Space) is a drunk and his mother (Doris Dowling) is always going off to "the movies" dressed to the nines. Everything comes to a head when Josh grudgingly agrees to crash a party at a motel lodge because Barbara insists she'll go with someone else, probably Twig, if he doesn't take her. The teens discover that grown-ups can be just as drunk and nasty as anyone. The Party Crashers is an interesting picture with good performances from the leads, as well as Brooke and Dowling. Frances Farmer [Son of Fury] is cast as Josh's sympathetic mother and Denver Pyle as his father, and Onslow Stevens and Cathy Lewis [The Devil at 4 O'Clock] play Barbara's parents; all are effective. Even with some more character development this low-budget Paramount flick might never have been an East of Eden, but it's not as trashy and dumb as some other "Juvenile delinquent" pictures of the era. Bobby Driscoll was a former child star who won a special Oscar and died tragically at age 31. This was the last film for him and Farmer, although both did TV work afterward. Bernard Girard also directed As Young As We Are and The Mad Room.

Verdict: B movie simmers but never quite comes to a boil. **1/2.

CONQUEST OF SPACE

effects of acceleration on astronaut Andre (Ross Martin)

CONQUEST OF SPACE (1955). Director: Byron Haskin. Produced by George Pal.

A giant space wheel has been erected above earth whose purpose is twofold -- as an observation post and as a platform to launch a ship to the moon. However, General Samuel Merritt (Walter Brooke) is informed by his superiors that there will be no test flight to the moon, but a direct trip to Mars where it is hoped they will find a way to replenish the earth's diminishing resources and find more land for a growing population. Merritt leads the expedition with his son, Barney (Eric Fleming), as second-in-command. The others on board include Andre (Ross Martin); the crude technical expert Sgt. Siegle (Phil Foster); the Japanese Sgt. Imoto (Benson Fong); and a stowaway, Sgt. Mahoney (Mickey Shaughnessy), who was told he was too old to go along. Trouble begins when the elder Merritt starts wondering if Man has any right to "invade" space, which, in his opinion, is the province of God. Conquest of Space is a more "serious" science fiction film with character-based melodrama substituting for sexy space-babes, giant spiders, and other far-out elements of fifties outer space epics. Although the human drama is not always convincing in this, it does make the picture more entertaining than it might have been. The special effects are quite good considering this was made in a pre-CGI time period, and the science itself, while far from perfect, is more reasonable than in the more outlandish sci fi flicks made around the same time. There are some good actors in this even if it has what might be called a C level cast. Walter Brooke is fine as the general; he was actually only ten years older than Eric Fleming [Queen of Outer Space], who plays his son. As the dead-common Siegle, Phil Foster isn't terrible, but his character and style of acting make him less comedy relief than extreme irritant. Fong and Shaughnessy are pretty much the same as always, and Ross Martin [The Twilight Zone: "Death Ship"], always a very good actor, isn't given enough to do. The best scenes have to do with a humongous asteroid that almost smashes into the spaceship, and the grim sequence when a dead astronaut's body, still attached to the end of its lifeline, floats outside the porthole. Filmed in technicolor,  the Martian landscape is striking. This ambitious picture led the way to the better -- and more macabre -- Forbidden Planet the following year.

Verdict: Highly interesting and well-done early science fiction film. ***.