Main Cast: George Nader, Claudia Barrett, Selena Royle, Gregory Moffett, John Mylong
Release Year: 1953
Country: US
Run Time: 62 minutes
Plot
A young boy named Johnny (Gregory Moffett) is on a picnic with his widowed mother (Selena Royle) and sister (Claudia Barrett, ($Pamela Paulsen}), when he meets a pair of archeologists (John Mylong, George Nader) exploring a nearby cave. Later, while napping, he has a dream -- that the Earth has been attacked by an alien named Ro-Man (played by George Barrows in a gorilla suit with a diving helmet), using the "calcinator death ray," and that he and his family (with Mylong and his mother now married) and scientist Nader are the only survivors. They try to elude capture by Ro-Man, who turns out to have some very human failings despite his mechanized mentality, including a desire to experience human emotions, which greatly complicates his efforts to destroy the family. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Review
Phil Tucker's Robot Monster has a reputation as an unmitigated cinematic mess, a train-wreck of a movie that was so severely maligned in its own time that it supposedly sent its director into confinement for a time in a hospital. And in the main, that reputation is deserved -- the dreadful acting, the continuity problems, and the amateurish editing and special effects do, to a large degree, speak for themselves. And yet this reviewer, across the decades, has found a basis for looking at Robot Monster in a slightly more favorable light -- an angle of approach that makes it, if nowhere near good, then at least not quite the incomprehensible mess that it is usually dismissed as being; and a way of looking at the movie that even gives it a certain internal consistency, a "logic" (though that is an extreme term to use with this script) that works and explains a great deal about a few of its seeming "flaws." Essential in appreciating what director/producer Phil Tucker was trying to do with Robot Monster -- and trying to do with a total budget of $16,000 and four days of shooting time -- is to keep in mind that the main body of the movie consists of an eight-year-old boy's nightmare. Indeed, Robot Monster is the most impoverished member a small group of fantasy movies (which also includes The Wizard of Oz, The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, Curse of the Cat People, The Boy With Green Hair, Invaders From Mars and Godzilla's Revenge) that deal with childhood dreams, fantasies, and nightmares. It lacks some finesse, any polish, and even some basic competency in its execution, but it does -- in its editing, pacing, and structure -- capture the irrational, uncontrolled nature of dreams and nightmares better than any of those more respected movies (with the possible exception of The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, which is a glorious and unique film). Indeed, Robot Monster closely parallels aspects of the plot of William Cameron Menzies' Invaders From Mars, and those parallels are sufficient to raise suspicions about the precise origins of Tucker's movie -- Invaders From Mars was released just a few weeks before Robot Monster; both movies promised 3-D that wasn't delivered; both are about boy heroes battling aliens from outer space, both include parents and surrogate parents for the boy, and both feature young girls who are killed by the aliens. One does wonder if the producers, having gotten wind of Menzies' film either in pre-production or through previews, rushed their movie into production and into theaters. Both films are very disquieting in their depiction of dreams, though -- surprisingly -- the budgetarily emaciated Robot Monster comes closer to the mark. The way that the action unfolds, suddenly and with huge leaps in logic and thought, are seen the way a child sees the world. The threadbare sets, which are missing what we know to be vital pieces, also resemble the settings of dreams. The serious yet cavalier manner in which the marriage of Roy (George Nader) and Alice (Claudia Barrett) is depicted mixes the boy's love of his older sister and respect for the young scientist with his abhorrence of what would have been called "gooey love stuff" in movies. The whole notion of a brave young boy facing down a space invader hangs together beautifully once one accepts the setting as a dream (or nightmare). And if one can get that far, then Robot Monster actually begins to take on the characteristics of a somewhat enchanting film, for all of its mistakes and holes. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
Pamela Paulson - Carla; George Barrows - RoMan; John Brown
Credit
Phil Tucker - Director, Bruce Schoengarth - Editor, Merrill White - Editor, Al Zimbalist - Executive Producer, Elmer Bernstein - Composer (Music Score), Stanley Campbell - Makeup, John H. Greenhalgh, Jr. - Cinematographer, Clarence Eurist - Production Manager, Phil Tucker - Producer, Alan Winston - Producer, David Commons - Special Effects, Jack R. Rabin - Special Effects, Wyott Ordung - Screenwriter
Robot Monster is a 1953 science fictionB-movie made in 3-D by Phil Tucker. Like the more famous Plan 9 from Outer Space it is known in bad-film fandom for being "so bad, it's good" and has the dubious honor of being considered one of the "worst films ever". Its cliched storyline and cheesy special effects has helped it attain status as a cult film.
The evil alien "Ro-Man" has destroyed all but eight humans on Earth with his death ray, the "Calcinator". Survivors include a family of five, a scientist, and two unseen assistants to the scientist in a spacecraft bound for an orbiting space platform carrying a garrison of human soldiers. All eight have developed an immunity to the death ray as a side effect of an antibiotic serum developed by the scientist. Ro-Man must destroy these survivors before his invasion of Earth is complete. He is waylaid in his mission after developing an attraction towards Alice (Earth babe), the eldest daughter of the family. He refuses to eliminate her, forcing "The Great Guidance", leader of the aliens, to personally finish the unsavory task. Finally the young boy apparently wakes up, revealing the entire film was presumably a dream.
Production
Twenty-five-year-old writer/director Phil Tucker made Robot Monster in four days for an estimated $16,000. The film is similar in plot to Invaders from Mars, released a month earlier by Fox. Both pictures contain a young boy stumbling upon an alien invasion who is captured as he struggles to save his family and himself. As the alien commences the final destruction of earth the boy awakens to find it was all a dream. Despite rumors to the contrary, the film did receive some decent reviews and grossed $1,000,000 in its initial release, more than sixty times its original investment.[1]. It was filmed in Bronson Canyon, the site of innumerable motion pictures and TV settings.[2]. The soundtrack was composed by Elmer Bernstein, who also composed the music for Cat Women of the Moon the same year, and, more famously The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven.[3] The film's special effects include stock footage from the 1940 picture One Million B.C., 1951's Lost Continent, and Flight to Mars spliced into the film.[1]
Ro-Man and the Billion Bubble Machine
The film was shot and projected in dual-strip, polarized 3-D. The stereoscopic photography in the film is considered by many critics to be of a high quality, and is an extra honor in favor to the crew, who had no experience with the previously unused camera rig.[4]
In the film's opening credits, "N. A. Fischer Chemical Products" is given prominent credit for the "Billion Bubble Machine", used in the film as part of Ro-Man's communication device for reporting to his superior.
Robot Monster was originally released with the 3 Dimensional Pictures short Stardust in Your Eyes, starring nightclub comedian Trustin Howard as Slick Slaven.[4]
Aftermath
The poor quality of the movie gave rise to a long-lived rumor within the film industry that the poor reception from audiences caused director Phil Tucker to attempt suicide, with a gun, but missed. According to Keep Watching the Skies!, a comprehensive history of 1950s American science fiction films, author Bill Warren claims Tucker's attempted suicide was actually due to depression and a dispute with the film's distributor, who had allegedly refused to pay Tucker his contracted percentage of the film's profits.
George Nader won the Golden Globe award in 1954 as most promising male newcomer of the year (although his award was not tied to his Robot Monster performance). He signed with Universal Studios where he starred in secondary features while other male stars like Tony Curtis and Rock Hudson were assigned the major film roles.
Selena Royle, MGM stock player, had a durable film career starting 1941 until 1951 when she was branded a Communist sympathizer. She refused to appear before the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities and eventually cleared her name but the damage had already been done. She made only two additional films - Robot Monster was her last.
Monkey tales
The budget didn't allow for a robot costume as intended so director Phil Tucker used his friend George Barrows who had his own gorilla suit to play Ro-Man. Phil Tucker added the helmet. George Barrows had a long run in films and television playing simians. Among his gorilla credits are:
