From: py1djf@sunlab1.bath.ac.uk (D J Ford)
Newsgroups: alt.cult-movies
Subject: Re: MST3K and Film Threat [was Re: Plan 9!]
Date: 4 Jan 93 15:33:39 GMT
Organization: School of Physics, University of Bath, UK

In the referenced article, tonyz@hpwrce.mayfield.hp.com (Tony Zugates) writes:
>Robot Monsters from outer Space?...  is this the one with the gorilla 
>suits??  If if is, I think the story went (from another source who 
>creates FX for movies down in LA) that the budget was so restricted
>they ran out of money for the costume making those ridiculous helmets..
>
>Can you imagine? The helmet must have cost them 10 or 15 bucks to make!
>
>The story goes that they then had to rent the gorilla suit instead of
>creating the rest.
>

	Ill just put you straight on a couple of points...

	The film is called "ROBOT MONSTER" (1953)

	Director/Producer - Phil Tucker.

	Cast George Nader, Gregoery Moffett, Claudia Barrett, John Mylong, 
		Pamella Paulson and Robot Monster was played by George Barrows.

	Plot Synopsis:-

	The Earths population has been wiped out by the awesome Ro-Man, a
	robot alien from outer space. Equipped with his amazing Calcinator Death
	Ray, the creature has razed cities and murdered millions. But in a 
	small desert corner of California, a group of six people has miraculously
	escaped the Armageddon. They are a German Professor (Mylong), his wife
	wife (Barrett) and Children and a muscle bound research assistant 
	named Roy ( Nader).
	
	Ro-man makes his base in a cave in near the survivors ( Bronson Canyon
	nr. Hollywood was where it was filmed) and reports back to his leader n 
	Space (same actor,same costume) known as the great one, and they contact
	each other by means of a machine which produces bubbles ( The automatic
	Billion Bubble machine, supplied by N.A. Fisher Chemical Products is
	in the credits).

	Gradually the murderous Ro-man  works his way down the cast list.
	The professors young child Carla is first to go; then beefy Roy
	gets clobbered. And then Ro-man makes abducts with Alice. And then they 
	fall in love.

	    ------------

	The thing that makes this movie SO bad is Ro-man himself.
	Producer/Director Tucker found that even standard B-feature
	creature suits were too expensive for his budget. So he resorted
	to a lamentable improvisation. He hired overweight bit-part actor
	George Barrows, a specialist in gorilla parts, who came at a mere
	$40 a day - with his ape outfit thrown in. For robotic garnish, 
	Barrows dispensed with the gorilla's head and wore a deep-sea diver's
	helmet fitted with twin antennae, on top of his shaggy suit.

	As for the slaughter of the millions and destruction of the species
	Tucker simulated these early on in the film by slipping in bits
	of old stock footage of Axis bombing from WWII. Additionally, old
	snip pits are plundered from FLIGHT TO MARS(1951) and a totally 
	irrelevant sequence of warring dinosaurs and volcanos is lifted
	from that b-movies lending library, ONE MILLION BC (1940).

	At 26, however, Phil Tucker had made his reputation in soft core
	skin flicks and was rather proud of his first essay in science
	fiction. 'I still do not believe that there is a person alive who
	could not have done as well for as little money as I was able to do',
	he told the brothers Medved years later. Critical derision 
	drove him to nervous breakdown and a suicide attempt. But by the 1960's
	he had regained sufficient confidence to attempt a new sci-fi venture,
	CAPE CANAVERAL MONSTERS, a dire alien invasion/ Reds-under-the-beds 
	zombierama).

	Eventually, Phil Tucker abandoned his directorial ambitions and made	
	a successful career in TV and film production. Fittingly - for a man
	immortalised by an ape-suited atrocity - he worked on the 1976
	remake of KING KONG.

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	|  // /||\/| | / ` /| ||       Dave Ford.	  |
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