Robot Monster (1953)

Directed by Phil Tucker. Starring George Nader, Claudia Barrett, John Mylong, Gregory Moffett, Selena Royle, George Barrows, Pamela Paulson, (voice) John Brown.

Inane sci-fi silliness, photographed in “Tru-Sterio Three Dimension Process”, where some guy in a gorilla suit and antenna-equipped diving helmet portrays “Ro-Man”, the titular robot monster from the moon, who comes to Earth, and uses a death ray to wipe out all of humanity except for a half-dozen survivors: a professor, his family, and his assistant. Too funny to despise, but it surely ranks as one of the dopiest and most poorly-produced movies to ever turn a significant profit in theaters. Nader and Barrett’s mating rituals are visualized in ways that make Tarzan and Jane’s “courtship” look pulled from a Regency-era romance (their post-holocaust wedding ceremony is described by the professor as “the biggest social event of the year”); anytime a special effects sequence is needed, stock footage from One Million B.C. or Lost Continent (among others) is inserted; and just when you think the filmmakers “pulled a ‘St. Elsewhere’ twist” thirty-five years before the fact, watch out for Ro-Man charging the screen like six or seven times! Music by…Elmer Bernstein??

10/100