ROBOT
MONSTER (1953)Director: Phil Tucker
Image Entertainment
ROBOT
MONSTER (1953)Newcomers to this hilarious cult classic will know what they're in for when they hear that director Phil Tucker tried to kill himself after it got slammed upon its 1953 release. If you love the totally amateurish "bad" pictures by the notorious and inept Ed Wood, you'll love this good time trash as well.
A beefy alien called Ro-Man (an actor in a gorilla suit with a diving helmet for a head) has settled in the spacious Bronson Canyon with a goal to find the last small group of "hu-man's" still left alive after he's destroyed the rest of Earth's population. He tunes into his video screen, complete with those old "rabbit ears" for an antenna, and contacts his commander, The Great Guidance, amidst a barrage of bubbles that would make Lawrence Welk jealous. His boss urges him to continue his mission, even though Ro-Man is prone to becoming sensitive and misty at times. The Great Guidance scolds him: "you're behaving like a hu-man instead of a Ro-Man!"
Atrocious acting and hysterically awful dialogue beautifully accents the stupid proceedings in this Golden Turkey Award Winner. You owe it to yourself to have a good bad time with this one, another fabulous 50s hoot from the Wade Williams library.
I have never seen the old laserdisc for ROBOT MONSTER, but I'm told that the new DVD blows it away. Despite an occasional speck now and then, which can't be helped with films of this vintage, the black & white picture is clean and striking indeed. The sound is in mono, but is robust and satisfactory.
ROBOT MONSTER was originally filmed in the then-popular 3D process, but there aren't any of those "in-your-face" tricks in the movie to warrant it anyway, so this "intriguing 2-D" rendition is adequate enough.
A slightly faded trailer is added for a bonus, but curiously we don't get the usual extensive liner notes on the inside jacket that we're getting to take for granted. It's enough to make me sulk (uh-oh, there go my hu-man weaknesses again!). (Joe Lozowsky)