WEBVTT - Weirdhouse Cinema: Robot Monster 0:00:03.000 --> 0:00:05.400 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My 0:00:05.519 --> 0:00:15.560 Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:19.000 Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick, and I'm very 0:00:19.120 --> 0:00:21.959 thrilled to announce today's episode. Today we are going to 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:27.280 be talking about the nineteen fifty three love lorn alien 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:33.159 guerrilla borg attack movie Robot Monster, a film that absolutely 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:36.800 proves beyond any doubt that a movie does not have 0:00:36.920 --> 0:00:40.960 to be good to be unforgettable. Robot Monster is about 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:44.919 sixty two minutes long. It was made on a microscopic budget. 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:49.680 It makes very close to zero since whatsoever, and ever 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:52.440 since I first saw this movie about twenty years ago, 0:00:52.520 --> 0:00:55.400 now I have probably thought of it at least once 0:00:55.520 --> 0:01:00.000 every week of my life. It is a fascinating film 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:02.320 and I want to throw up. This is this is crazy. 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:05.280 We were not aware of this fact until later on 0:01:05.319 --> 0:01:08.200 in the day, but we both watched this on our 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:13.040 each on our own on January thirty one. January thirty one, 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:16.040 as it turns out, is a guerrilla suit day, like 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:18.840 national or international. I'm not sure. Maybe there's a different 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:23.240 international Guerilla Suit Day. I Either way, uh perfect that 0:01:23.280 --> 0:01:26.000 we should have watched this film because it does feature 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:29.240 most of a guerrilla suit. Uh. And is and it's ultimately, 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:32.800 I think an important page in the history of guerilla 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:36.920 suits in cinema. Who establishes that day, is that like 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:40.759 the National or the International Guerilla Suit Consortium or something 0:01:41.000 --> 0:01:44.839 or yeah, yeah, I can imagine their board meetings where everyone, 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:48.240 of course is wearing a guerrilla costume. Are you ready 0:01:48.280 --> 0:01:51.160 to go A four Robot Monster? I think you are, 0:01:51.280 --> 0:01:55.400 because everybody is, because everybody should be. Yeah. It's Um, 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:58.640 it's a nine film, and it's not just a bad 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:03.000 B movie. It's a it's legendary slice of American schlock cinema. 0:02:03.280 --> 0:02:07.600 The titular monster is essentially an icon of BT cinema. 0:02:07.680 --> 0:02:09.720 And I mean that in the fully religious sense of 0:02:09.720 --> 0:02:12.160 the world. Yeah, it is a It's an image that 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:16.440 may be venerated, that you may use an act of devotion. Um. 0:02:17.000 --> 0:02:19.120 All this is to say, this is a film so 0:02:19.200 --> 0:02:24.040 slapped together and yet unique that it transcends the original picture. 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:28.120 And and say what you will about the the Roman Monster, 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:33.000 the robot Monster of the movie. It's never boring, uh, 0:02:33.080 --> 0:02:37.919 and it certainly leaves an impression. Yes, Robot Monster is schlock, 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:41.359 but it is not hack, which I think is a 0:02:41.440 --> 0:02:45.280 very important distinction, one that this movie really forced me 0:02:45.360 --> 0:02:48.800 to meditate on. Uh. And, if you'll allow me to elaborate, 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:51.320 I would like to explain. Let's have it okay. So, 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:54.080 schlock is a term we've used on the show before, 0:02:54.120 --> 0:02:56.160 but we've never really defined it. I guess it's it's 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.520 kind of hard to define. It's a slang term that 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.600 just discovered is derived from a couple of Yiddish root words. 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:07.320 Apparently that has to do with the Yiddish words meaning 0:03:07.440 --> 0:03:11.880 like a stroke or meaning a person who is sort 0:03:11.919 --> 0:03:15.799 of unkempt. But it's often used to describe a certain 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:18.560 kind of B movie. I think more broadly, you could 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:22.440 use schlock to refer to cultural products in general, like 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:24.919 you could have a schlock comic book, or maybe even 0:03:24.919 --> 0:03:28.400 a schlock novel or a schlock sculpture. Uh. And, as 0:03:28.440 --> 0:03:30.560 I said, the definition is a little fuzzy, but you 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:32.720 can kind of build a word cloud around it, like 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:35.680 what are the associations? And in that word cloud, I 0:03:35.720 --> 0:03:40.600 would say you would find terms like cheap, messy, or clumsy, 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:46.600 weird and unsophisticated. So the exact opposite of a schlock 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:50.640 movie or cultural product would be one that is expensive 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:55.560 or high budget, very skillful, skillfully made down to earth 0:03:55.840 --> 0:04:01.160 and refined or tasteful sounds dreadful. Meanwhile, Hack, in its 0:04:01.320 --> 0:04:04.920 usage for cultural products like movies, refers more to things 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:09.240 that are executed with a certain baseline of professionalism or 0:04:09.280 --> 0:04:15.080 no how but are boring, unoriginal, uninspired, and forgettable. And 0:04:15.280 --> 0:04:18.880 the annals of monster movie dum especially of the nineteen fifties, 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:22.120 are full of both kinds of movies, and sometimes these 0:04:22.160 --> 0:04:25.800 things can overlap. But I think Robot Monster is special 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:29.240 because it is all one and none of the other. 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:32.120 This movie is a solid ten point oh on the 0:04:32.160 --> 0:04:35.760 Schlock scale and a zero point zero on the Hack scale, 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:38.760 which makes it, in a strange way, kind of a masterpiece. 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:41.360 I would put the Edwood movies like Plan nine from 0:04:41.360 --> 0:04:47.240 Outer Space in the same category. It is a bumbling, awkward, nonsensical, 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:52.880 almost improvisational hour of of guerrilla suit mayhem, and it's 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:58.120 never leaving my brain. This is the opposite of the boring, unoriginal, uninspired, 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:01.839 forgettable schlock monster movies that that came out around the 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:05.040 same time. I feel like if one day they upload 0:05:05.080 --> 0:05:08.880 my consciousness into a computer, and like my memories are 0:05:08.920 --> 0:05:12.000 lost in the transfer. Robot Monster is going to be 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:15.520 one of the few that survives wherever I go, whatever happens, 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:20.320 I am taking Roman with me. Yeah. Now, let me 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:23.240 describe Roman for anyone who still doesn't know who we're 0:05:23.240 --> 0:05:25.560 talking about here, um, and you probably just need to 0:05:25.560 --> 0:05:30.120 be reminded, because again, this is a famous figure from 0:05:30.160 --> 0:05:34.520 B movie history. It is essentially a gorilla, like a 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:38.120 guerrilla costume and uh, kind of chunky looking and in 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:42.039 appropriately long arms. But instead of a guerrilla's head, there's 0:05:42.120 --> 0:05:44.560 this kind of looks like a robot head, kind of 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:49.000 looks like a space helmet with very long, broad antennae 0:05:49.080 --> 0:05:53.960 on top. And there's this murky face plate through which 0:05:54.000 --> 0:05:59.000 you can see something like a featureless face or some 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.240 sort of amorphous mass, or if you're looking at it 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:04.760 in just the right way, you might think you see 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:08.280 something like a skull. We'll get into the into the 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:11.960 different interpretations of it later, but this is the Roman. 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:16.039 This is the Robot Monster, and it it's easy to 0:06:16.160 --> 0:06:17.920 just look at it. And I've seen, you know, I've 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:20.520 heard lots of jokes about how this is really thrown together. 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:22.960 Look at that they just they couldn't afford a monster, 0:06:23.040 --> 0:06:24.480 so they got a guerrilla suit and they just put 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:28.479 a robot um head on top of it. Yes, yes 0:06:29.160 --> 0:06:32.960 that's true, but it also you just can't dismiss how 0:06:33.000 --> 0:06:36.680 well this works on screen, Like, this creature is interesting. 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:39.640 Throughout the film, there's sometimes where there is I think 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:42.640 a legitimate feeling of menace to the creature, and it works. 0:06:43.040 --> 0:06:45.880 There are plenty of scenes in which it it does 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:49.719 feel goofy, but I don't know it, Uh, it works 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:53.280 in a weird way. Well, it's so odd. It's such 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:57.160 a perverse combination, like the space helmet with the with 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:01.800 the Google head inside, with the thick guerrilla body with 0:07:01.880 --> 0:07:04.919 like it's shaggy butt, but also the way that the 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:08.240 person has to walk inside the gorilla suit, because like 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:11.240 the suit is obviously much bigger than the person. So 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:13.960 when you see them walking there, it's this big, thick 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:19.040 guerrilla body taking these very dainty looking footsteps up the 0:07:19.080 --> 0:07:22.360 mountain pathways. It's you've never seen anything like it. It's 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:25.200 just perfect. Yeah, and it and and I do also 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:27.720 need to drive home, Like there's so many worse looking 0:07:27.760 --> 0:07:31.200 monsters in monster movie history, Like you can't even begin 0:07:31.320 --> 0:07:34.880 to list the monsters that look dumber or look more 0:07:34.960 --> 0:07:38.280 thrown together on the screen. And yet there is something 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:40.960 unique about the way this came together, Like there's just, 0:07:41.880 --> 0:07:44.280 like you said, there's something kind of perverse about it. 0:07:44.680 --> 0:07:47.400 You can't believe this is what the monster is. And 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:50.040 it's on screen for most of the movie. They're not 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:53.720 like obscuring it behind fog or in the dark or something. 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:57.080 It's just center frame. Half of the movie is the 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:01.680 roman doing zoom calls with another romance are just walking 0:08:01.720 --> 0:08:07.280 around probably open broad daylight. Yeah. So another thing that 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:10.760 I started thinking about with this movie is it's interesting 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:15.200 how early it comes in the the fifties uh space 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:18.440 invasion movie arc. I would have assumed it came out. 0:08:18.880 --> 0:08:20.440 I don't know, if you'd asked me, I would have 0:08:20.440 --> 0:08:24.000 assumed Robot Monster was nineteen fifties seven, you know, same 0:08:24.080 --> 0:08:26.960 year as uh like Attack of the Crab Monsters or 0:08:26.960 --> 0:08:28.760 something or move was that fifty seven or fifty eight 0:08:28.760 --> 0:08:30.760 and I know somewhere in there. But instead it was 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:32.840 sort of an early runner in this arc. So to 0:08:33.040 --> 0:08:36.480 situate it within the history of sci fi movies, alien 0:08:36.559 --> 0:08:40.320 invasion movies or alien attack movies, I think really hit 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:43.360 their peak in the in the like mid to late 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:47.040 nineteen fifties. Before that, if you look at the sci 0:08:47.040 --> 0:08:49.520 fi movies of the thirties and forties, there are actually 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:53.800 very few alien invasion films. There are a few, but 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:57.480 not not many. The most common theme of earlier science 0:08:57.520 --> 0:09:02.160 fiction films seems to be mad scientists. Like many of 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:04.280 the sci fi movies from this period that we've covered 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:06.760 on the show fit into that category. So we talked 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:10.440 about Doctor X that's the one with synthetic flesh, mad 0:09:10.480 --> 0:09:14.120 science movie. There's Doctor Cyclops that's the guy who shrinks 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:18.280 people and then menaces them with various animals and stuff. 0:09:18.679 --> 0:09:22.480 There's Mad Love that's about a hand transplant gone horribly wrong. 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:26.360 There is Things to Come, which addresses all kinds of 0:09:26.400 --> 0:09:30.040 general scientific progress for good and for ill. Yeah. Yeah, 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:33.200 we haven't actually covered Things to Come yet properly on 0:09:33.240 --> 0:09:35.240 Weird House Cinema, but I believe we talked about it, 0:09:35.280 --> 0:09:37.480 you know, the Time after Time episode, because it's the 0:09:37.520 --> 0:09:40.840 only H. G. Wells adaptation that Wells actually wrote a 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:44.520 screenplay for. Uh. And in fact, you can even think 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:47.880 about the big universal monster movies that included science fiction 0:09:47.920 --> 0:09:51.360 elements from the thirties and forties. You've got Frankenstein, Bride 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:54.400 of Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, and so forth. They're all 0:09:54.480 --> 0:09:57.600 mad scientist movies. Pretty much all of them involve a 0:09:57.720 --> 0:10:01.280 scientist breaking the boundaries of nature. You're in ordinary life 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.960 with some kind of experiment or maybe experimental procedure or 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:08.440 surgery or something. Everything goes horribly wrong and it leads 0:10:08.480 --> 0:10:11.400 to murder. And those kind of movies don't go away. 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:15.360 Like the mad science breaks nature theme continues in the fifties, 0:10:15.400 --> 0:10:18.800 but almost always with atomic themes. Now, so you you know, 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:23.360 somebody creates giant bugs with atomic radiation for obvious reasons, 0:10:23.360 --> 0:10:25.679 And there are a lot of hack movies in this category. 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:28.520 But I think it's in the early nineteen fifties that 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:31.320 a new type of science fiction movie takes over, and 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:35.840 that is the alien invasion or alien intervention film. Now, 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:39.199 this type of story had already existed for many decades. 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:44.040 I'd say probably the first big alien invasion story was H. G. 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:48.280 Wells War The World's in eight. Yeah, Yeah, that's definitely 0:10:48.360 --> 0:10:51.640 the big one, and it's it That novel is sort 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:54.720 of the prototype for most of the alien invasion stories 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:57.480 that followed, of which there were many in written fiction 0:10:57.600 --> 0:11:00.680 throughout the early twentieth century, but it wasn't until the 0:11:00.720 --> 0:11:03.960 early fifties that this became such a common plot structure 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:06.800 for sci fi movies. And I think there were some 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:10.839 big early and influential examples. One would be The Thing 0:11:10.880 --> 0:11:14.520 from Another World, which we have an episode on. Another 0:11:14.559 --> 0:11:17.120 would be The Day the Earth Stood Still, both of 0:11:17.120 --> 0:11:20.120 those movies from nineteen fifty one. Though The Day the 0:11:20.160 --> 0:11:23.320 Earth Stood Still is more of an alien intervention than invasion. 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:25.200 That's the one where the alien shut up and they say, 0:11:25.200 --> 0:11:27.880 now you're you're doing war. You need to stop that 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:30.760 or we're going to endue all. There was, of course, 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:33.800 a nineteen fifty three film adaptation of War the World's 0:11:34.200 --> 0:11:37.160 the famous Mercury Theater radio broadcast. I wasn't sure when 0:11:37.200 --> 0:11:39.280 that was. I looked it up the orson Wells one 0:11:39.320 --> 0:11:41.440 and that was in nineteen thirty eight, but that was 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:44.560 on the radio. Uh. And there would of course go 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:47.760 on to be a million more alien invasion movies throughout 0:11:47.800 --> 0:11:50.120 the decade where aliens, you know, they come to either 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:54.599 one destroy us and take our planet for themselves, to 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:58.560 threaten to destroy us if we don't stop doing something, 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:02.360 usually war or some times nuclear experiments or something like that. 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:05.079 And then I'd say the third big category is they 0:12:05.080 --> 0:12:08.960 come here to infiltrate us and indoctrinate us in some way, 0:12:09.080 --> 0:12:12.800 maybe to serve them. So examples there would be invasion 0:12:12.840 --> 0:12:15.280 of the Body Snatchers that was in fifty six. It 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:19.480 conquered the world on the lower budget side, also fifty six. 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:24.360 And so the thing is Robot Monster actually comes earlier 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:26.680 in the decade than I would have guessed. Nineteen fifty 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:29.160 three is a little ahead of the curve here, And 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:31.560 I wonder Rob where you think it fits into this 0:12:31.640 --> 0:12:34.720 broader arc. I think the basic idea is that the 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:39.000 Romans want to destroy all humans and take Earth for themselves. 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:41.240 But there's also a little bit of that Day the 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:44.080 Earth Stood Still playing nine from Outer Space kind of 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:47.439 preachiness about how like the oh the Earthlings, you are 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:51.520 stupid and you are destroying yourselves. Yeah, yeah, I agree 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:56.360 this the Roman, the Roman, if you will here, the 0:12:56.480 --> 0:13:01.559 Roman civilization has essentially wiped out all of humanity. And 0:13:01.640 --> 0:13:04.680 then they explain that they have done this because we're 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:07.680 basically we're getting too technologically advanced, too much of the 0:13:07.720 --> 0:13:10.880 threat to them, and and so we see category one 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:14.000 and two. Their Category three is not really in play, 0:13:14.160 --> 0:13:18.120 but it does have some connections to this film, as 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:22.360 we'll discuss, because so much of this infiltration and indoctrinization 0:13:22.840 --> 0:13:26.160 UH fiction of this era, the invasion of the Body Snatchers, 0:13:26.200 --> 0:13:28.760 it conquered the world. A lot of this route lines 0:13:28.880 --> 0:13:33.520 up with UM the UH the Hollywood black List with 0:13:33.800 --> 0:13:37.720 McCarthy is UM and the fear of communism in the 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:40.839 United States, which I do not detect really as a 0:13:40.960 --> 0:13:44.440 theme in in Robot Monster at all. But no, no, 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:46.920 I don't think so. But it does have connections to 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:52.160 several of the individuals involved in the making of the picture. Yeah, Now, 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:54.319 before we get into the film a bit more here, 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:56.200 I want to stress that this is a film that 0:13:56.240 --> 0:13:59.040 I've been seeing clips of since I was a child. 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:01.840 I I I had at least some version of it 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:04.680 came from Hollywood on a VHS tape, and I would 0:14:04.800 --> 0:14:06.840 see all these clips of monster movies, and they of 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:09.480 course poked fun of it in that I'd watched the 0:14:09.679 --> 0:14:13.000 season one MST three K episode before, probably more than once, 0:14:13.600 --> 0:14:15.959 but this was the first time that I'd really sat 0:14:16.040 --> 0:14:19.040 down and gave this film a proper viewing, and I 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:21.520 have to say it's kind of a challenge to make 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:27.080 sense of everything. Kind of it's like a puzzle box. Um, 0:14:27.120 --> 0:14:30.400 It's like you have to concentrate. It's like in Dungeons 0:14:30.400 --> 0:14:32.640 and Dragons, it's like some sort of concentration spell that 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:34.920 if someone were to bump into you, you would just 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:38.640 lose everything and the spell would collapse. Your understanding of 0:14:38.640 --> 0:14:41.520 the film will completely collapse if you're not paying attention 0:14:41.560 --> 0:14:45.360 to it um at all times. And and it can 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:47.280 also be difficult to because the tone of the movie 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:50.880 will just turn on a dime. The dialogue is often absurd, 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:55.960 and the plot at once feels awesomely inspired by you know, 0:14:56.040 --> 0:14:59.480 classic sci fi pulp but also just goofy is all 0:14:59.520 --> 0:15:03.960 get out. Yes, it's a wonderful combination of Like the 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:08.640 dialogue is for the most part hilarious, but also it 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:11.360 has a harder edge than a lot of the sci 0:15:11.400 --> 0:15:14.160 fi movies of the time. Like just the kind of 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:18.720 unforgivingness of the romance plan for Earth and their cruelty 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:23.960 is is somewhat shocking. Yeah, there's there's something gloriously miscalculated 0:15:24.120 --> 0:15:27.640 and miscalibrated about so much of the film. It's it's 0:15:27.640 --> 0:15:30.440 a mess, but I was thinking it's a lovable mess, 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:33.400 Like you can't help but feel protective of it. You 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:35.520 want to wrap a blanket around it and take it 0:15:35.600 --> 0:15:39.920 home with you. Yes, So, um elevator pitch for this film, 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:44.360 I just had to invoke mad love and say Roman 0:15:44.480 --> 0:15:48.000 has conquered earth, why can't he conquered love? That's it, 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:51.640 that's it. He and he basically asked that question at 0:15:51.640 --> 0:15:54.560 the end. He's like, why can't the Roman have what 0:15:54.680 --> 0:15:59.960 the human has? Love, feelings, emotions. Yeah, though this kind 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:02.960 of like this this plot element pokes its head. What 0:16:03.120 --> 0:16:05.800 maybe um, halfway through the film, maybe in the last 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:07.840 third of the film, and it kind of comes out 0:16:07.840 --> 0:16:10.760 of nowhere as a complication. Yes, when it shows up, 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:14.800 it is mighty unexpected and uh and a very welcome 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:18.000 turn because it happens right when the movie starts getting 0:16:18.080 --> 0:16:21.160 kind of repetitive with like these calls back and forth 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:24.720 with Roman where he just keeps threatening the human's But 0:16:24.800 --> 0:16:27.080 then suddenly he looks on the view screen and he 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:30.200 just sees Alice, the the young lady in the movie, 0:16:30.600 --> 0:16:33.440 and he's like, Oh, I am in love. What is 0:16:33.520 --> 0:16:36.880 this feeling for a Roman. Yeah, because up to that 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:42.000 point they've been considering negotiating with with the Roman. They 0:16:42.120 --> 0:16:44.720 have tried and like the most they can get is 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.600 like he's He's like, if you surrender, um, you'll get 0:16:47.640 --> 0:16:50.680 a quick death, and if you don't, unimaginable death. Like 0:16:50.720 --> 0:16:52.160 there's no. It doesn't seem to be all out of 0:16:52.160 --> 0:16:56.640 wiggle room with him, until suddenly he becomes smitten with 0:16:56.760 --> 0:17:00.520 Alice and he's like, wait, I should negotiate with her. Yeah, 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:02.440 he wants to do the face to face with her. 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:05.440 All right, but we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's go 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:22.960 ahead and listen to some trailer audio. Here, with the 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:26.320 swiftness of a deadly cosmic ray, the Earth is invaded 0:17:26.400 --> 0:17:32.600 by indestructible moon monsters, their ghastly mission death for all humans. 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:47.760 What astounding technical developments are being made to protect mankind? 0:17:48.440 --> 0:17:52.160 Robot Monster brings you an actual preview of the devastating 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:57.119 forces of our future, unsuspected revelations of incredible horrors that 0:17:57.240 --> 0:18:01.280 will terrify you with their brutal reality. There is no 0:18:01.600 --> 0:18:34.040 escape from me, oh, humans, there is nor escape all right. Now, 0:18:34.280 --> 0:18:36.959 you might be wondering at this point, where can you 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:40.399 watch Robot Monster, if you want to go ahead and 0:18:40.400 --> 0:18:43.800 pause the episode, watch the movie and come back, or 0:18:44.080 --> 0:18:46.440 you're inspired after you listen to the full episode to 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:49.879 watch it again. Well, fortunately it is widely available. We 0:18:49.920 --> 0:18:54.480 should note, however, that um Bob Fermanac, a three D 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:58.280 film archivist, has been heading up a restoration for a 0:18:58.440 --> 0:19:02.840 three D Blu Ray release, so re release of Robot Monster, 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:05.359 though as of this recording, I don't think they have 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:07.920 a distributor or a date yet. I could be wrong 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:09.640 on that, but I don't. I don't think anything's lined 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:13.400 up officially, but it's still pretty exciting for romance fans 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:16.920 out there. All that being said, the available film quality 0:19:17.080 --> 0:19:19.200 as of this recording is still very watchable, so I 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:22.240 don't think you should You shouldn't put off watching Robot Monster. 0:19:22.320 --> 0:19:25.639 Who knows what tomorrow will bring. But once this gets released, 0:19:25.640 --> 0:19:27.560 I think this will be worth checking out because it 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:30.080 will be in three D uh for those of you 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:32.240 with the ability to to power up the three D 0:19:32.600 --> 0:19:35.879 and it was originally a three D picture. Gorgeous And 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:40.640 this makes me realize what the automatic billion bubble machine 0:19:40.760 --> 0:19:43.800 must have been in the movie for, because otherwise I 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:47.840 was unclear on why Romance cave, his Cave of Slaughter 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:50.920 has just a bubble machine in it. But that's got 0:19:50.920 --> 0:19:53.840 to give some three D texture, right, I guess. I mean, 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:56.920 otherwise you've got to wonder, Well, maybe this technology in 0:19:57.119 --> 0:20:01.240 Earth's atmosphere just generates soap bubbles as a byproduct of 0:20:01.280 --> 0:20:05.280 its functionality, or bubbles are key, like somehow it's those 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:08.320 bubbles all contain nuggets of information then then float up 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:12.879 through the atmosphere to some sort of Roman satellite. And no, 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:15.960 it's probably just there because it looks neat, because otherwise 0:20:16.000 --> 0:20:18.679 it's just like, Okay, so Roman just has a fad 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:22.040 toy of the nineteen fifties in his cave, Like does 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:24.719 he also have a Mr. Potato Head or a Lincoln 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:36.960 Logs or something? Yeah? All right, Well let's get into 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:40.640 the people involved here. Starting at the top, we have 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:45.440 Phil Tucker, the director of Robot Monster of n Through. 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:49.800 Now I think right at the top, I'm gonna have 0:20:49.880 --> 0:20:55.119 to say I heard some rumors that about this about 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:59.240 Phil Tucker, that like he the critics savage to this movie, 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:02.560 and Phil Tucker was so upset by that that it 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:05.640 destroyed him. But it sounds like you found out maybe 0:21:05.680 --> 0:21:09.680 that's not really true, correct. Yeah, there's an excellent book 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:13.120 out there titled I Cannot Yet I Must. Let's quote 0:21:13.119 --> 0:21:15.560 from the film The True Story of the Best Bad 0:21:15.640 --> 0:21:19.680 Monster Movie of All Time, Robot Monster, by Anders Runstadt, 0:21:20.119 --> 0:21:22.320 which you can get as a digital book or or 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:27.760 physical book. And it's a really great, well cited, um 0:21:27.800 --> 0:21:31.800 but very readable and entertaining exploration of this entire film, 0:21:31.840 --> 0:21:34.200 like what it comes out of, who was involved in it, 0:21:34.200 --> 0:21:37.359 its legacy, has a lot of clips from interviews with 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:40.080 various people involved in the bios of all the people involved. 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:43.159 So if you leave this episode wanting a much deeper 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:47.679 dive into uh, into into what Robot Monster is in 0:21:47.720 --> 0:21:51.800 the world it emerged from, highly recommend that book. But yeah, 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:55.119 Runstad does a great job of of sort of dispelling 0:21:55.200 --> 0:21:58.640 some of the urban legends surrounding this film, because yeah, 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:00.720 for I think I had heard this as well, but 0:22:00.920 --> 0:22:03.479 like this idea that this was a film that the 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:05.960 creator held up as a masterpiece and then was just 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:09.840 broken when he, uh he found out the critics didn't 0:22:09.920 --> 0:22:13.320 like it. So yeah, I'm gonna incorporate some of what 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:16.720 Romstad has to say, uh into this brief bio of 0:22:16.720 --> 0:22:22.480 Tucker Okay, so American director, former marine, former radio and 0:22:22.560 --> 0:22:27.159 TV guy who had two films out in nine Robot 0:22:27.200 --> 0:22:31.320 Monster obviously, but also a film called Dance Hall Racket, 0:22:31.400 --> 0:22:35.239 a crime movie starring and written by legendary stand up 0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:41.080 comedian Lenny Bruce. What yes, Okay, I I did not 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:46.320 know this existed. Wow, that's an interesting crossover. Yeah. Bruce's 0:22:46.359 --> 0:22:49.640 wife at the time, dancer Honey Harlow, also acted in it. 0:22:50.040 --> 0:22:52.280 I've not seen it. I have no reason to believe 0:22:52.320 --> 0:22:54.600 it's any good or even worth checking out unless year, 0:22:54.600 --> 0:22:57.560 I guess, like a Lenny Bruce completest. But um but yeah, 0:22:57.560 --> 0:22:59.760 I came out with the same year Robot Monster on 0:22:59.840 --> 0:23:03.600 the and of course would come to define him. And 0:23:03.800 --> 0:23:06.760 uh yeah, the stories you'll find out there are mixed. 0:23:07.000 --> 0:23:09.720 But it does seem like there were issues with the 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:14.000 studio and he battled depression a bit over all of that. Uh. 0:23:14.040 --> 0:23:17.840 And also he didn't really work anywhere near mainstream Hollywood 0:23:17.880 --> 0:23:20.320 for a long time. Uh. He did a string of 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:23.280 low budget um l a bur less comedies during the 0:23:23.320 --> 0:23:29.080 mid nineteen fifties, followed by Broadway Jungle about how slimy 0:23:29.119 --> 0:23:32.400 Hollywood uh is from the viewpoint of a young director, 0:23:33.359 --> 0:23:36.359 and then a TV movie, The Cape Caniveral Monsters in 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:39.800 nineteen sixty which is a bad alien invasion film but 0:23:39.880 --> 0:23:45.919 apparently without the lovable um aspects of Robot Monster. And 0:23:45.960 --> 0:23:48.880 that was his last directing credit. But he worked as 0:23:48.880 --> 0:23:52.119 a post production manager on n six is King Kong, 0:23:53.520 --> 0:23:58.200 seven Orca and five episodes of Night The Next Step 0:23:58.240 --> 0:24:01.359 Beyond TV series. He also worked as an editor on 0:24:01.400 --> 0:24:04.520 several episodes of Wonder to Wonder Woman TV series and 0:24:04.640 --> 0:24:08.040 nine eighties The Nude Bomb, which was a Maxwell Smart movie. 0:24:08.440 --> 0:24:11.080 Now in that book, I cannot yet I must by 0:24:11.160 --> 0:24:14.040 Runstad Yeah he he, He points out yet the the 0:24:14.160 --> 0:24:16.400 urban legend of Tucker as a director, we saw himself 0:24:16.440 --> 0:24:19.080 as a genius uh in this film as a master work. 0:24:19.160 --> 0:24:21.399 That that is for the most part false and that 0:24:21.520 --> 0:24:24.120 more or less he was he was shooting for pure 0:24:24.200 --> 0:24:26.280 entertainment on this one. He did not think he was 0:24:26.359 --> 0:24:30.520