Robot Monster (1953)

Fool humans! There is no escape!"

I’ve seen Plan 9 from Outer Space. I’ve seen Teenagers from Outer Space. Surely ‘50s sci-fi B movies has nothing more that can compete with these?

Oh.

Doctor Who fans may find this film something of a blatant influence on The Sontaran Experiment, with Ro-Man a cheaper and more crappy named version of Styre. In both cases we have the last handful of humans running around an Earth almost bereft of humans as an alien baddie runs around trying to catch them using the power of robotic strength. Meanwhile, he makes regular video calls to an increasingly exasperated boss who starts to doubt his competence- in 1953, of course, video calls were the future.

I think you’re already expecting me to put this into so-bad-it’s-good territory and, well, yes. Why does the imaginatively named Ro-Man wear a gorilla costume with a vaguely robotic helmet, for example? And antibiotics can do anything: not only have two of the goodies made an antibiotic serum that can cure all disease, it can also protect people from death rays. I’m sure this is entirely scientifically accurate.

The goodies won, sort of, because plot convenience makes Ro-Man fall in love with one of the female humans. There’s some vague attempt at drama and even a wedding. But Ro-Man’s failure causes his boss to take over and, er, shoot rays that cause stock footage of stop motion dinosaurs to rampage across the Earth and “smash the planet Earth out of the Universe.” All seemed doomed. But it was all a dream... or was it?

And yes, that’s all literal. One does not “recommend” this film- let us not pretend it’s anything other than crap. It’s worth watching for a good laugh, but this film should on no account be watched while sober.