Tobor the Great

I'm sure surprised to see that this film only has an overall IMDb score of 4.7--talk about a tough audience! Sure, by today's standards the film might seem dated or even quaint, but in its day it was a dandy little sci-fi yarn--and is still pretty entertaining today.

The film is about a really cool elderly scientist. His home is an amazing compound complete with traps and high-tech gadgets and he is working on a robot (named 'TOBOR' in his hidden basement lab--a place even Batman would be proud to own). Charles Drake is a younger scientist of like mind who comes to work with him on TOBOR. The idea is to have a robot that can be controlled from Earth and used to safely explore space. Unfortunately, the evil Commies (though they are never explicitly called 'Communists' in the film) want the plans for TOBOR and will do anything to get it--anything.

The film was obviously meant to appeal to children as well, with young Billy Chapin playing the scientist's precocious grandson--a kid who is as smart as many adult scientists. But I never found the kid as annoying or cloying as precocious kids in some movies. Oh, and by the way, Billy is Lauren Chapin's real-life brother. Fans of "Father Knows Best" may remember her as the youngest in the family, 'Kitten'.

Overall, highly entertaining and fun despite some limitations imposed by a lower budget. Yes, the Earth does NOT revolve the wrong direction in space nor is it surrounded by space clouds! And, the stars look fake because they are all the same brightness. But, even with these minor problems, the film is well worth seeing and is among the better sci-fi films of the day. Clever and cool.

I have to admit having a soft spot for TOBOR THE GREAT, but not for the reasons one might expect. Oh sure, the robot is great, a towering behemoth of tin cans and toasters welded together into a clattering, somewhat clunky suit. He doesn't have much of a personality but he's cool. The scenes where Tobor goes postal and sets off to right wrongs are the best, especially when little Timmy is threatened by the bad Slavic accented spies who want to force his kindly scientist grandpa into spilling his state secrets for them.

And it's here where my interest in the film kicks in. It's a very subtle bit of indoctrination for young viewers into the wonders of America's cold war military industrial complex disguised as a giant rampaging robot movie. The heroes are all sharply uniformed military men or scientists working to further America's dominance in the space race, and the bad guys are all thugs who work for a foreign power with a vested interest in disrupting their progress. They probably don't even celebrate Christmas.

The film is rife with military lingo, helpful Air Force officers, well intentioned grandfatherly politicians who understand the need to keep secrets from the public, and little Timmy eagerly helping things along by his own deft contributions to ensuring for the common defense. It's a great little study about how national security really begins with each of us and our need for vigilance (sound familiar, War On Terror veterans?), hard work, and personal sacrifice. The biggest laugh comes in the opening monologue's passage regarding congress supposedly granting unlimited funding to the Tobor project -- those were the days!

The most interesting character in the film is actually the reporter, absurdly named Gilligan. He's a hard working leathershoe journalist who is determined to break his big story but is sympathetic to the government quashing his efforts when it comes to keeping the marvel of Tobor's development a secret from our enemies, and our friends. Everybody pitches in, including the shapely mom with her fresh, clean, good looks, representing that which we fight to protect back at home, which looks like Ward Cleaver's house. And just like the Beaver's mom I bet she'd be an animal in bed.

The big robot and his flashing lights & funky metallic shoes are just window dressing to keep the kids' interest -- and make no mistake, this film was aimed squarely at the bright 6 to 12 year old future defense industry workers in the audience. The lesson being that if you do well in school, mind your manners at home, and take an active role in the community you too might one day get to build friendly robotic soldiers who are immune to human weaknesses. It's a pretty fun little movie too and a harmless diversion for 9 year olds of all ages.

6/10

"Tobor the Great" is lightly amusing, engaging sci-fi, which could well be described as the tale of "a boy and his robot". People such as Dr. Ralph Harrison (Charles Drake, "It Came from Outer Space") and the eminent Professor Arnold Nordstrom (Taylor Holmes, "Kiss of Death" '47) don't believe that human beings should be subjected to the unknown perils of space travel. So Nordstrom has hit upon the answer: the title robot, which has been designed to be a sentient being which people can communicate with telepathically. When enemy agents kidnap Nordstrom and his grandson "Gadge" (Billy Chapin, "The Night of the Hunter"), to force the old man to divulge his secrets, Tobor swings (so to speak) into action.

There's a lot of set-up to get to the pay-off in this minor but diverting, and mostly harmless, story. Tobor may be no Robby the Robot, but "he" is a fairly cool character nonetheless. The movie is always fun when Tobor is stomping around, breaking things, offering a hand in friendship, foiling the bad guys...and, in the movies' most priceless sequence, driving a jeep.

Some of the human characters take some time getting used to. Harrison comes off as a volatile jerk at first, and "Gadge" is the perfect stereotype of a kid of that era, given to proclamations such as "Gosh!" and "Gee willikers!" But the cast delivers amiable performances (they're NOT terrible). Also co-starring are Karin Booth ("Jungle Man-Eaters"), Steven Geray ("Spellbound"), Hal Baylor ("A Boy and His Dog"), Peter Brocco ("Johnny Got His Gun"), Alan Reynolds ("Cape Fear" '62), William Schallert ('The Patty Duke Show'), Robert Shayne ('Adventures of Superman'), and Lyle Talbot ("Plan 9 from Outer Space"). Holmes has a warm, wise presence as the egghead who sets the story in motion.

As was said, it's not completely harmless. People may wince at the fact that the bad guys are prepared to torture young Gadge to get the old man to spill the beans.

Fortunately, "Tobor the Great" never dwells too long on unpleasantness, and heads towards a rousing conclusion where our hero robot saves the day. Fans of 1950s sci-fi may find it charming.

Six out of 10.

Watch this one with child-like eyes and you'll have a great time. Tobor ('robot' spelled backwards) is the invention of an elderly scientific genius who develops a robot to serve as the pilot for dangerous space flights in place of human astronauts. The inventor's grandson (Billy Chapin) befriends the robot during the development of its complex brain and artificial personality. Commie spies kidnap the inventor and the boy, attempting to get their hands on the valuable robot.

Tobor is incapable of speech, which gives the robot an interesting quality of mystery and strangeness. But he does have the ability to sense human thoughts and emotions. In other words, he can tell when someone is up to no good!

In the climax, Tobor has to break out of his own lab to rescue the boy from the evil commies who kidnapped the youth to gain control of the robot. Although Tobor is less agile that a human being, he moves around much better than Robby or Gort -- which comes in handy when Tobor has to lift the back end of the bad guy's car and prevent them from escaping!

Tobor's physical design is pretty impressive. Although it doesn't have the aesthetic appeal of Robby or Gort, he is solidly constructed and a pleasure to watch in action. The movie includes a scene in which the inventor opens up Tobor's chest to show his interior to a group of reporters at a press conferences when Tobor is presented to the public. Obviously the reason for the scene is show the audience that this is no mere suit with a man inside. It's a real robot!

It's a nice little touch in a movie designed to inspire younger viewers . . . and to entertain older ones.

'Tobor the Great' is a terrific kid's-fantasy-come-true story. Admitttedly, the direction by Lee Sholem is decidedly unskilled, and young Chapin is a mediocre actor at best (he's no Michel Ray of 'The Space Children', I'm sorry to say), but Charles Drake ('It Came from Outer Space') holds his own as the boy's father. William Shallert ('The Monolith Monsters' and several other 1950s classics) plays one of the reporters in the scene mentioned earlier.

A prerecorded tape was available a few years ago, but you'll have trouble finding it now. If a DVD comes out, it's worth the money if you have a soft spot in your heart for the sincere and unique efforts the 1950s sci-fi films.

First, let me say that I am very, very sorry if this movie is not up to some reviewers' standards for 50-year-old movies. I don't really think we need to compare this to "Bicentennial Man" (what a hunk of junk and an embarrassment for Robin Williams!) or "The Iron Giant" (an animated film made 45 years later with the aid of computer graphics).

Second, let me say that I'm also sorry that this film may occasionally give the impression that there might be some negative or dangerous aspects to space travel or the space program. Other than three Apollo crew members perishing in a fire on the pad, and the near-tragedy of Apollo 13, and two space shuttle crews...but I digress.

This movie is about a robot and some bad guys. There's a kid, too. The bad guys lose and the kid and robot win. Plus, the robot has a neat name.

The end.

(BTW, this movie has what is by far my favorite "robot driving a jeep" scene of all time. This is not quite as impressive as a mad snowman driving a car, but it's pretty darn close.) Enjoy it!