107-Robot Monster

Film Year:  1953
Genre:  Fantasy, Science Fiction
Director:  Phil Tucker
Starring:  George Nader, Claudia Barrett, George Barrows
MST Season:  1
Featured Shorts:  "Radar Men from the Moon:  Chapter Four - Flight to Destruction," "Radar Men from the Moon:  Chapter Five - Murder Car"

The Shorts

For the first time ever our show tackles two shorts in a single episode.  This rare practice would only be duplicated three more times, with Project Moon Base, Teenage Cave Man, and The Beast of Yucca Flats.

Jumping just in time from his car in footage that was conveniently left out of the previous chapter, Commando Cody lives!  However thugs working for the moon men kidnap his Girl Friday Joan, and take her for a plane ride.  Cody pursues only to have the pilot bail out…

INTERMISSION

Of course just like last time Cody gets Joan to bail out at the last minute.  But we trade in a murder plane for a MURDER CAR in this instalment.  The thugs execute another heist and make a getaway.  That’s pretty much all there is to this one.

Two Cody shorts is twice as hard to swallow as one.  Neither of these are exciting and both are padded beyond belief.  The first short however is clearly the better of the two because it at least has a “chase to save the girl” storyline and more action.  The second one is all road chase and not much else.

We really paid a nickel for each of these?  I could have saved that money for a soda instead.

The Movie

One of the most infamously bad movies of all time hits our favorite puppet show.  Robot Monster is the tale of Ro-Man, a member of the Ro-Man race of planet Ro-Man (this is way before the Smurfs started pulling this crap), coming down to Earth to destroy the human race before they can kill the Ro-Mans (Ro-Men?) even though we never heard of them.  His death ray hits our planet and kills all but eight people, who are immune to it.  Ro-Man seeks to kill the remaining humans however he can, yet learns to LOVE (but only the sexy young women, everyone else must die).  Mostly though he just kind of wanders around aimlessly and plays with a bubble machine.

I love bad movies, and while Robot Monster lives up to its reputation I feel it just might be a bit too hollow to fully embrace.  The movie is padded as all hell, with so much dead air scenes of Ro-Man walking around going nowhere in particular.

And yet, it's a charming film despite this.  Ro-Man of course is that infamous bad movie monster icon, the gorilla suit with a space helmet.  The logicless plot is delightfully stupid, as the surviving humans all just seem to reside right next to Ro-Man’s cave yet trying to move somewhere else doesn’t seem to be an option.  Ro-Man’s invasion, while you can’t argue with the results, seems rather aimless.  He doesn’t really have a plan, nor does he really seem to know what he’s doing.  The only efficient thing he does in the film is strangle a little girl to death.

And DA BUBBLES!

The film is also with interest value based on how audaciously bad it is.  There’s a definite attempt at an actual movie being made, it just doesn’t really seem to know how.  The movie tries to shock at some points by killing off children and Ro-Man’s curious sexual interest in a young woman, though it’s so silly that even at these points it’s hard to take seriously.  Robot Monster is pretty fun in the end, and is worth a look to anybody who likes films like Plan 9 from Outer Space and the like.

The Episode

Two Commando Cody shorts means we’re in for some hurting today.  And yet while I anticipated these to be more tiresome as they went on, I actually found that the riffing improved a lot in the second short over the first.  They start out with par for the course “we’ve seen this all before” riffs but it somewhat evolves into something more playful, like mistaking an ambulance for an ice cream truck or an amusing intro where the Bots try to escape the theater (which is repeated many years later in Hobgoblins).  I’d dare say that Murder Car might be the funniest of the Commando Cody shorts.

Given the iconic bad movie stature of Robot Monster, I would have hoped this movie would have churned out a better episode.  Even adjusting for first season expectations, this one doesn’t quite live up as there’s a lot of commenting on the film without wit or joke.  When they do riff the film it comes off as weak, such as Ro-Man’s lengthy walking scenes proving to be problematic as we find Joel just saying something attune to “dum-dee-doh-doh-doh” over and over again.  But like the second Commando Cody short there are a few bright spots, my favorite being Joel’s dub of the nonsensical pantomime love scene.

It seems the theme of the host segments this week is understanding the crazy things they’re watching, as we’re presented two segments devoted to dissecting both the serials and the movie.  They’re both pretty good, though I give the slight edge to trying to figure out the logistics of Commando Cody, though the surrealism discussion of Robot Monster is fun.  They also offer a Tribute to Ro-Man and Servo and Crow playing Robot Monster, while the Invention Exchange delights with a Self Inflating Methane Whoopie Cushion and the Cumber Bubble Bund.

“Champagne goes right through me!”

Robot Monster is considered something of a gem from the first season.  I’m inclined to disagree.  The riffing doesn’t even live up to first season standards and two Commando Codies can wear you down.  There are however good host segments and a handful of riffing highlights keeping it afloat, and the likeable goofy movie doesn’t hurt either.

Average

The DVD

This episode was brought to us hoo-mans by Shout Factory’s Volume XIX collection.  Video and audio were exceptional, and the episode features an intro by J. Elvis Weinstein.  Josh talks about reluctance to riffing movie, yet reaping the rewards of doing so.  He also discusses growing pains of the series as well as Tom Servo’s infamous sneeze in the theater.

Up next is an interview with filmmaker Larry Blamire called “Larry Blamire Geeks Out,” in which Larry gushes about his love for Robot Monster.  He defends some of the creative choices, arguing that whether they’re intentional or unintentional they add to the film, meanwhile picks apart logic flaws with glee.

Concluding this package is a trailer for the film that hilariously describes it as “baffling.”