Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

In the world of camp cinema, some directors, such as Herschell Gordon Lewis and Edward D. Wood, Jr., were presented with many an opportunity to make a quality film on a low budget. For the most part, they failed miserably, especially Wood. Phil Tucker (1927-1985) had his most notorious camp moment with his debut film, "Robot Monster," in 1953. No other film of his has garnered the notoriety of "Robot Monster," though Tucker made several more films during that decade. It's been said that Tucker was so devastated by the film's initial negative reviews, he attempted suicide. This is a film that has obviously cheap production values, and was shot in four days on a budget of about $20,000. Even though the main story involves a struggle between man and a superior race, only eight people are in the entire cast.

The movie starts innocently enough, with a mother (Selena Royle) taking her three children out for a picnic. Her son, Johnny (Gregory Moffett), wanders by a nearby cave, where he sees a professor (John Mylong) and his assistant, Roy (George Nader), doing some work. He's interested in what they're doing, and even suggests that Roy might be a good boyfriend for his big sister, Alice (Claudia Barrett). His mother interrupts the scintillating conversation by reminding Johnny it's time for his nap. Johnny, ever the obedient boy, takes his nap - right on the rocks by the cave. "Robot Monster" goes from bad to worse when Johnny goes off to Dreamland. The segue to Dreamland is provided by stock footage of a dinosaur fight from "One Million, B. C.," which had been released thirteen years earlier.

Johnny has a dream where the world's been wiped out a race of extraterrestrial robots called ro-men, save for him, his mother, Alice, his little sister Carla (Pamela Paulson), and the two cave explorers. In the dream, the professor is now his father, and Roy is Alice's boyfriend. They have survived the devastation, thanks to a serum the professor has developed that protects them from a weapon of the ro-men called the calcinator death ray. They also have electric fortification around their property that helps to protect their location. One of the ro-men, simply called Ro-Man (body by George Barrows, voice by John Brown), has been left on earth by his leader, Great Guidance (also done by Barrows and Brown) to eliminate this family. When he learns that the death ray, which looks a lot like a bubble blowing machine, will not kill them, Ro-Man decides to track them down and strangle them. However, Ro-Man finds himself drawn to Alice, and debates sparing her with Great Guidance. Great Guidance demands the deaths of all of them, and adds that failure to complete the mission will result in the death of Ro-Man.

Tucker might have done better by his film if he had asked young Moffett to have a dream about a fight to the death between man and robot, or at least write him a story about such a struggle. It's not likely that the boy would have provided him a story where robots look like gorillas with diving helmets, or lumbering aliens the humans could have easily outrun. For all the talk of superiority, we are treated to stock footage of B-25 bombers, which the ro-men claimed to use to destroy almost all of humanity. Almost nothing in the screenplay by Wyott Ordung makes any sense at all. If the ro-men had the weapons to blow up mankind, why didn't they simply blow this family up in the process? The last time I checked, nobody had invented a serum that would prevent someone from being destroyed by an explosion. When the visuals don't create laughs, the actors do either by over-emoting or simply not caring. The funniest scene comes when the professor decides to perform a wedding ceremony for Roy and Alice. In the middle of the ceremony, he looks up to the heavens and screams he's not qualified to do that. That statement, for the most part, may be applied to anybody who may be involved with this production. The one notable exception is the film score, one of the early efforts of noted film composer Elmer Bernstein. His music sets the scene the way the scene was supposed to be. A film score, unfortunately, can only do so much to make any scene work.

On one level, I enjoy "Robot Monster" because it is so ludicrous. However, I would never consider this a film classic. It is, though, a classic of camp cinema. Many a film has done a good job with a short schedule and a low budget, such as Roger Corman's productions. To give "Robot Monster" a four or five star review, as other Epinionators have done, would simply be a disservice to Roger Corman and others who have worked within the confines of a low budget and delivered a movie that stays true to its intentions. "Robot Monster" delivers laughs in spite of itself. It was released to theaters in 3D. Eventually, video makers found a way to recreate that technique for home viewing. I have never seen the 3D home video, but I doubt that 3D offers any improvement to the finished film. I'm sure certain moments were created just for the effect, such as the final sequence, where Ro-Man emerges from a cave and walks toward the camera three times. "Robot Monster," at least, remains consistent in its awfulness from start to finish.

I would recommend "Robot Monster" to anyone who enjoys the genre of camp cinema. If unintentional hilarity is not for you, you will miss nothing by not getting a view of an extraterrestrial that claims to be a robot, but looks like a mammal with amphibious qualities.

This has been an entry in the "I'm Sorry, But You're Just Plain Wrong" write-off hosted by carl_lazarevic. For details and other entries, please go to this link:

http://www.epinions.com/content_3801522308

Thank you, Carl.

Related review - The Closet (Le Placard): http://www.epinions.com/content_49569173124

Recommended: No

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age