Robot Monster (1953)

The monstrous Ro-Man attempts to annihilate the last family alive on Earth, but finds himself falling for their beautiful daughter.

Director:

Phil Tucker

Writer:

Wyott Ordung (original screenplay)

Stars:

George Nader, Gregory Moffett, Claudia Barrett

Cast

Complete credited cast:
George Nader	...	Roy
Claudia Barrett	...	Alice
Selena Royle	...	Mother (as Selena Royale)
John Mylong	...	The Professor
Gregory Moffett	...	Johnny
Pamela Paulson	...	Carla
George Barrows	...	Ro-Man the Monster / Great Guidance
John Brown	...	Ro-Man / Great Guidance (voice)

Storyline

Ro-Man, an alien that looks remarkably like a gorilla in a diving helmet, has destroyed all but six people on the planet Earth. He spends the entire film trying to finish off these survivors, but complications arise when he falls for the young woman in the group. Love that bubble machine!

---

Plot Keywords:

cult film | stock footage | b movie | brontosaurus | woolly mammoth | 

---

Taglines:

Monsters Attack Earth !

---

Genres:

Comedy | Horror | Sci-Fi

---

Certificate:

Approved

Did You Know?

Trivia

The scenes on the viewscreen presented by Ro-Man come from a variety of sources. Shots of New York in apocalyptic ruins are matte paintings by Irving Block from Captive Women (1952). Shots of the headquarters of the Great Guidance (a rocket ship in launching position) was originally created for Rocketship X-M (1950), also painted by Block.

---

Goofs

Selena Royle's name is misspelled, in the opening credits, as "Selena Royale."

---

Quotes

Ro-Man: I cannot - yet I must. How do you calculate that? At what point on the graph do "must" and "cannot" meet? Yet I must - but I cannot!

---

Crazy Credits

Automatic Billion Bubble Machine by N.A. Fisher Chemical Products, Inc.

---

Alternate Versions

An edited down, colorized version of this movie exists.

---

Connections

Edited from Invasion USA - The Original 1952 Schlock Classic (1952)

User Reviews

A masterpiece!

Robot Monster is the Citizen Kane of abysmal 1950s science fiction. It has everything modern viewers have come to expect from movies of this genre: a laughable plot line, completely improbable situations, ludicrous acting, unbelievably awful special effects, cheapjack production values, gaffes galore, and examples of how to fail miserably at every major aspect of motion picture production. For good measure it also sports easily the most ridiculous "monster" in the history of film! The plot is so thin that it can't even be stretched comfortably over the film's 66-minute running time without generous padding. A family, headed by the requisite German-accented scientist and including a "hot" chick, a "manly" guy, and two cutesy-poo kids wander through the desert after Earth has been annihilated by a guy in a gorilla suit wearing a plastic diving helmet. That's basically it, except for some nonsensical pap about an immunity serum. When the guy in the monkey suit is far and away the best actor in the picture, you've got a MAJOR problem--but compared to John Mylong as "The Professor," Ro-Man is Laurence Olivier. You could drive a semi through the plot holes. The dialogue clangers pile up like horseshoes on George H.W. Bush's lawn. You feel embarrassed for director Phil Tucker, and almost ashamed to laugh at this movie when you learn that the bad reviews of the film drove him to attempt suicide. The experience of watching this film, even with its abnormally short running time, is so excruciating that it feels like you've wasted five hours of your life. It's so bad that after a while you begin to marvel at its very badness, and ultimately you come away awe-stricken.

I call it a masterpiece because under normal circumstances only a talented and determined genius could make a film that sinks as low and violates so many rules of film-making, storytelling and suspension of disbelief as this one does. It takes real talent to make Ed Wood look like Stanley Kubrick, but Phil Tucker pulled it off. For that alone he deserves a place in film history.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 June 1953 (USA)

Also Known As:

Monsters from the Moon

Filming Locations:

Bronson Caves, Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park - 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$16,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Three Dimension Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

66 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1