And the winner for the Homeliest Robot award is...
THE PHANTOM CREEPS
From 1939, this was a 12 chapter Universal serial. The theme for the chapter openings and some of the incidental music were lifted from earlier Frankenstein movies, giving this chapterplay a suitably ominous feel. I sometimes had a feeling I was watching an especially lowbudget Universal B-picture. It was a nice little thrill to see Edward Van Sloan show up as a sinister foreign spy, since he's indelibly imprinted on my mind from FRANKENSTEIN, DRACULA and THE MUMMY.
Bela Lugosi makes his final serial appearance here, as the extremely mad Dr Zorka, and he certainly gives the role both barrels, getting the most out every syllable. Now I have to admit again that I've always disliked Lugosi, not as an actor but just because he gives the strong impression of having been a very unpleasant man. The guy was creepy, and not in a good way. So, since he has so much screen time in THE PHANTOM CREEPS and because there is no really memorable hero to oppose him, I didn't enjoy this serial as much as someone who likes Lugosi would. But that's just my own preference (I've never found Roger Moore likeable or amusing in the slightest, either; so I felt all the 007 films between DIAMOND ARE FOREVER and THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS to be uninteresting.)
Be that as it may, Zorka is an archetypal villain, perfectly willing to destroy the world if he can't rule it. In addition to a lab absolutely jammed with sliding panels and secret doors, Zorka has enough cool gizmos to keep three or four masterminds active. There's an unknown element with explosive properties that he extracted from a meteorite; there's his windup little mechanical spiders* which blow up when they reach their target; there's his invisibility belt, which explains why he's called the Phantom as it leaves him just a vague blur of light.
And then there's his robot. The robot from THE PHANTOM CREEPS is instantly recognizable. Not because it towers over everyone, but because its oversized head is sculpted to look like a bad-tempered goon with fangs. What the heck. If a seven foot tall robot isn't scary enough, giving it a fright mask might help. Although Lugosi rants about how an army of these automatons will be an invincible killing force, he never gets around to constructing them and his sole robot seems oddly ineffective. In the exciting finale, the scowling machine strides past half a dozen soldiers; they open fire and he obligingly explodes into little scraps.
There isn't as much pugilism as in the classic Republic serials; Lugosi wasn't one to swap punches and do cartwheels, and slugging the robot would be a painful waste of time. Instead, Zorka and his discoveries (particularly the meteorite) are being sought by two opposing groups of spies, one from the US Army Inelligence and one from an unnamed foreign government (pssst! Germany). Throw in a sassy reporter named Jean Drew and Zorka's unwilling accomplice Monk (who does look a bit like the neurotic TV detective) and you have a lively mix. It's too bad that Lugosi overshadows his opposition so thoroughly, but his style of full blast acting just makes the other actors look like they're sleepwalking in comparison.
As a whole, THE PHANTOM CREEPS is good cheesy fun but I thought it was in questionable taste to show actual footage of the Hindenburg going down in flames, especially so soon after the event, just to show how far amok Zorka was running.
Dir: Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind
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*The repeated shot in the opening credits of the little mechanicial critter had a strange charm. For some reason, I felt like cheering the gadget on: Brave little spider! Go get 'em!
From 1939, this was a 12 chapter Universal serial. The theme for the chapter openings and some of the incidental music were lifted from earlier Frankenstein movies, giving this chapterplay a suitably ominous feel. I sometimes had a feeling I was watching an especially lowbudget Universal B-picture. It was a nice little thrill to see Edward Van Sloan show up as a sinister foreign spy, since he's indelibly imprinted on my mind from FRANKENSTEIN, DRACULA and THE MUMMY.
Bela Lugosi makes his final serial appearance here, as the extremely mad Dr Zorka, and he certainly gives the role both barrels, getting the most out every syllable. Now I have to admit again that I've always disliked Lugosi, not as an actor but just because he gives the strong impression of having been a very unpleasant man. The guy was creepy, and not in a good way. So, since he has so much screen time in THE PHANTOM CREEPS and because there is no really memorable hero to oppose him, I didn't enjoy this serial as much as someone who likes Lugosi would. But that's just my own preference (I've never found Roger Moore likeable or amusing in the slightest, either; so I felt all the 007 films between DIAMOND ARE FOREVER and THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS to be uninteresting.)
Be that as it may, Zorka is an archetypal villain, perfectly willing to destroy the world if he can't rule it. In addition to a lab absolutely jammed with sliding panels and secret doors, Zorka has enough cool gizmos to keep three or four masterminds active. There's an unknown element with explosive properties that he extracted from a meteorite; there's his windup little mechanical spiders* which blow up when they reach their target; there's his invisibility belt, which explains why he's called the Phantom as it leaves him just a vague blur of light.
And then there's his robot. The robot from THE PHANTOM CREEPS is instantly recognizable. Not because it towers over everyone, but because its oversized head is sculpted to look like a bad-tempered goon with fangs. What the heck. If a seven foot tall robot isn't scary enough, giving it a fright mask might help. Although Lugosi rants about how an army of these automatons will be an invincible killing force, he never gets around to constructing them and his sole robot seems oddly ineffective. In the exciting finale, the scowling machine strides past half a dozen soldiers; they open fire and he obligingly explodes into little scraps.
There isn't as much pugilism as in the classic Republic serials; Lugosi wasn't one to swap punches and do cartwheels, and slugging the robot would be a painful waste of time. Instead, Zorka and his discoveries (particularly the meteorite) are being sought by two opposing groups of spies, one from the US Army Inelligence and one from an unnamed foreign government (pssst! Germany). Throw in a sassy reporter named Jean Drew and Zorka's unwilling accomplice Monk (who does look a bit like the neurotic TV detective) and you have a lively mix. It's too bad that Lugosi overshadows his opposition so thoroughly, but his style of full blast acting just makes the other actors look like they're sleepwalking in comparison.
As a whole, THE PHANTOM CREEPS is good cheesy fun but I thought it was in questionable taste to show actual footage of the Hindenburg going down in flames, especially so soon after the event, just to show how far amok Zorka was running.
Dir: Ford Beebe and Saul A. Goodkind
________________________
*The repeated shot in the opening credits of the little mechanicial critter had a strange charm. For some reason, I felt like cheering the gadget on: Brave little spider! Go get 'em!