BLACK & WHITE & SHINY ALL OVER: Robots in Classic Sci-Fi Films

Robots (or “iron men” or “mechanical men”) occupy one of the most important positions in science fiction film history.

Some great classic robots appeared in color, like Robby from Forbidden Planet, 1956, or Gog and Magog from Gog, 1954.

But since most robots are silver and gray anyway, they rarely suffer from appearing in black and white.

Depending on how you define “robot” you might mention the mechanical “statue” from The Mechanical Statue and the Ingenious Servant (a 1907 short, apparently lost) or the mechanical “dummy” from A Clever Dummy (a 1917 short), both of which make very brief appearances.  If androids count as robots, then you might mention “Frank” from Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster (1965).

I’m going to list “real” robots in feature films – the ones everyone would recognize as robots.

The earliest robots were super tough and super strong.  Most were silent, even when appearing in sound films.  Not until the 1950s did robots attain beam weapons, computer brains, or other special abilities.

It’s notable that almost every robot is evil, or put to an evil purpose, until Gort in 1951.  And even Gort’s purpose is debatable.

So here is a rundown of robots in black and white sci-fi films, going back to the very beginning.

THE MASTER MYSTERY (USA, 1919)

Also known as “The Houdini Serial,” this slow-moving 15-chapter detective story features the famous Harry Houdini on the trail of an evil businessman who employs ruthless thugs.  An “automaton” that looks like a robot is the chief thug.  The automaton looks like a kid’s puppet, and a wide waist gives the weird effect of a robot diaper.

Also – here comes a spoiler – it’s really a metal suit with a man inside.  But it sure looks mechanical, and it even shoots sparks from its fingers, so many film scholars think this is the first real robot in film history.  Several episodes of the serial are lost, but four total hours remain.

THE MECHANICAL MAN (Italy, 1921)

Twenty-five minutes of footage survive from this silent Italian sci-fi crime film, and 10 of the 25 minutes feature an evil robot sent by a female crimelord to pillage a helpless village.  The climax is a duel between a good robot and the evil one.

Unlike with the Houdini serial, there is no doubt that these are purely mechanical men.  Both robots are clunky and ugly, but they are the first cinematic robots with the classic boxy humanoid design.  In one hilarious scene, the evil robot disrupts a masquerade ball, and everyone thinks he’s just another guest!

METROPOLIS (Germany, 1927)

Fritz Lang’s famous Expressionist film features the first sexy robot in sci-fi film history.  The robot projects the illusion of being a beautiful woman, but even without the illusion, in its natural appearance, it’s still pretty sexy.  The robot creation scene anticipates the more famous creation from Frankenstein a few years later.

MASTER OF THE WORLD (“Der Herr der Welt,” Germany, 1934).  

Here’s the most obscure movie on our list.  It played in the US in 1935, but I’ve been unable to locate a translated print.  A mad scientist creates war robots and work robots.  Here the robots are not humanoid; they are like big moving platforms.  But perhaps their shape makes them more realistic.

The raving scientist recalls Rotwang from Metropolis, but the film looks much more modern.  The work robots turn out to be useful at the conclusion – not inherently evil.  Here’s the climax on YouTube.

THE PHANTOM EMPIRE (USA, 1935) 

This serial is most famous for (1) using science fiction in a Western setting and (2) starring real-life singing cowboy Gene Autry. But all the scenes in the giant underground “Muranian” city feature weird machines, such as an atom-smashing disintegrator or a 25,000-foot elevator.

Robots aren’t the main appeal, but the evil Muranians employ several humanoid robot guards who look like they are wearing thin metal cowboy hats!  The evil Muranian queen is somewhat sympathetic.  The robot costumes  are ugly, but they were re-used in some early episodes of the Captain Video serial (1951).

FLASH GORDON (USA, 1936, 1940)

Fans enjoy debating whether Ming’s “Annihilants” are robots or men in armor.  I vote for robots, though I admit you can glimpse what appear to be long johns underneath the metal plates.

The Annihilants appear several times in Flash Gordon: Space Soldiers (1936) and Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe (1940), though in both serials the main appeals are strange alien peoples and monsters.  You’ll first meet the Annihilants at the end of Space Soldiers, Chapter 1.

UNDERSEA KINGDOM (USA, 1936)

This action-packed serial features some very exciting-looking “Volkite” robots who attack the Sacred City of Atlantis.   Robots are evil here, as usual.  They have scary pincer claws.  Nothing ever looks like it’s under the sea, but the serial has a lot of action and battle scenes.  Lon Chaney Jr. plays an evil general.

One of the robot suits was re-used first in Mysterious Doctor Satan (1940) and later in Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952).  In Zombies of the Stratosphere, the hero takes control of the robot and shoots sparks in the faces of evil thugs to knock them off a cliff!  Chapter 4 of Undersea Kingdom is “Revenge of the Volkites.”

THE PHANTOM CREEPS (USA, 1939)

An evil scientist played by Bela Lugosi creates an “iron man” with a scowling sculpted head.

Paradoxically, the recognizably human head makes the robot look very weird.  The serial isn’t great, but the robot appears prominently in the later episodes.  The robot’s main power is super strength.

THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL (USA, 1951)

At last we get a “good guy” robot, or at least a neutral one.  Gort, with a smoother and more cylindrical design than earlier robots, has a super beam disintegrator weapon, though he only uses it defensively.  It’s lucky he’s defensive since he is virtually indestructible.  Gort helps heal his master Klaatu after hearing the phrase “Klaatu barada nikto!”

Inside the Gort suit was a 7-foot-7-inch actor named Lock Martin who died young in 1959.

MY SON THE VAMPIRE (“Vampire Over London,” England, 1952)

I hesitate to mention this dumb British comedy, but it features an elderly Bela Lugosi in one of his last roles and it features… a decent looking robot.

Watch the attack that starts at 26:00.

ROBOT MONSTER (USA, 1953)

Not sure if this one counts, since the titular villain is really an alien gorilla with a space helmet for a head, but apparently he’s at least a cyborg and maybe a full-on robot who just looks like a gorilla, so what the heck let’s mention it.

After Plan 9 from Outer Space, it’s the most famous camp classic of the 1950s, being “so bad it’s good” in so many ways.  Dialogue includes the villain’s alien boss scolding him for pitying the poor Earthlings: “You sound like a Hu-man, not a Ro-man!”

TARGET EARTH (USA, 1954)

This sci-fi Noir depicts an invasion of Earth by Venusian robots.  The robots aren’t beautiful, but they are powerful enough, and they become scary due to the film’s unusual minimalist cinematography.

Everything feels empty and bleak, with small bands of surviving humans hiding from hordes of robots.  We hear about the hordes rather than see them, but at least the budget allowed for the construction of several decent robot suits.

TOBOR THE GREAT (USA, 1954)

Though structured as a spy movie with communist villains, Tobor the Great is the first feature film centered around a robot character.  At last, the robot (not the commander or creator) is the main focus.

Tobor is a big, tall, strong robot with lightbulb eyes.  He has a few odd powers, like a telepathic link to his controller.  But he’s the most likeable robot in a sci-fi film to date.  The movie as a whole is too slow and talky, particularly for its intended audience of children.  But the main scenes with the robot are great.

DEVIL GIRL FROM MARS (England, 1954)

Everyone remembers the Devil Girl in her black leather dominatrix outfit, all the more entertaining when she appears at a quaint country pub and demands men for mating.

But let’s also remember the Devil Girl’s super robot and its disintegrator beam, akin to Gort’s beam from Day the Earth Stood Still.  An animation effect makes the beam look surprisingly realistic.  The robot has a huge chest and tiny head.

KRONOS (USA, 1957)

Here’s the biggest, baddest, scariest robot of the 50s: the 100-foot-tall alien robot Kronos, seemingly indestructible because energy from our weapons, explosions, etc, only makes it stronger.  Its geometric appearance is cold and unfeeling.

The movie is very exciting, although some special effects are inconsistent.  Kronos can shoot beams to defend itself, but mostly it’s content to absorb energy whenever we attack it.

THE INVISIBLE BOY (USA, 1957)

A boy activates a super robot who mixes an invisibility potion.  But an evil supercomputer wants to commandeer the robot, and the supercomputer is not above capturing and torturing the boy if he gets in the way.

It’s the same robot – Robby – from Forbidden Planet, so it’s funny to see Robby in b&w here after appearing in color a year earlier.  But Robby is mostly black and shiny anyway, so he looks just fine.  Because it is complex and unusual, The Invisible Boy is not widely known.  But it is excellent – a standout of 50s science fiction.

THE SHIP OF MONSTERS (Mexico, 1959)

Yeah, it looks like drain spouts, wires, and flashlights glued to a tin trash bin.  But who needs a handsome robot when you have nutty space monsters, hot alien babes in swimsuits, and a moustached Mexican cowboy singing with his little cowboy son?

It’s a rare foreign-language film indeed that becomes more fun if you watch it without subtitles.  The robot is powerful, and is alternately controlled by the good space babe or the evil one.  It never stops beeping.

VOYAGE TO THE END OF THE UNIVERSE (Czechoslovakia, 1963)

A brief appearance from a robot that resembles Robby from Forbidden Planet is one of the few highlights in this slow, talky, Soviet-era sci-fi film.  The main point is depicting life on a long spaceship voyage, the way space colonists pass the time. 

THE EARTH DIES SCREAMING (England, 1965)

More calm, more serious, and more bleak than its title is this hour-long alien invasion (or robot invasion) flick from England.  It resembles Target Earth in focusing on a small band of survivors wandering across abandoned cities and villages.

The robots are slow and scary, like space zombies.  They seem to be wearing spacesuits or helmets.  It’s uncertain if they really conquer the Earth at the end.