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War of the Satellites (1958)

War of the Satellites poster
Directed by
Roger Corman
Genre
science fiction film
Country
United States
Runtime
1h 06m
Rated
12
Rating
5.2 of 10 from 40 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb

How it feels

When the United Nations ignores warnings from an unknown force and launches the first satellite into space, the force declares war on Earth. The movie is a quick, low-budget sci-fi drama made to capitalize on the real-life excitement over the Sputnik satellite launch.

cold-war-anxietylow-budgetdatedclunkysoberearnestperiod-piece

What happens

War of the Satellites is a 1958 independently made American black-and-white science fiction drama film produced and directed by Roger Corman and starring Richard Devon, Dick Miller, and Susan Cabot. It was distributed in the U.S. and the U.K. by Allied Artists. In the U.S., it was released on May 18, 1958 as a double feature with Attack of the 50 Foot Woman. The low-budget feature was rapidly conceived, filmed and released to exploit the international media frenzy around the launch of the Russian Sputnik satellite, the first in space. In the film, an "unknown force" declares war against Earth when the United Nations disobeys its warnings against assembling and launching the first satellite into space. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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