EDITOR’S NOTE: Robot Monster was on Chiller Theater on Saturday, January 28, 1967 at 11:20 p.m. 

Phil Tucker invented a rotary engine known as the CT Surge Turbine, which he successfully patented but unsuccessfully attempted to sell to the automobile industry as a more efficient alternative to the internal combustion engine. Years after directing movies like this and The Cape Canaveral Monsters, he did actually contribute to some movies as an editor, including Orca and King Kong.

Yet we’re all going to remember him for this movie, and to be honest, whenever life gets me down, I remember that at some point, people got together and decided to make a movie about the end of the world, and they threw a monkey suit with a TV set for a head in it. I think about the startling ridiculousness of that, and you know, it’s all better.

That monster is known as Ro-Man Extension XJ-2. He’s played by George Barrows, who made his own gorilla suit to get roles in movies. He’s already used his Calcinator death ray to kill everyone on Earth except for the eight people we meet in this movie.

I mean, that’s pretty through. There were 2.6 billion people alive in 1953, so to wipe out that many people, much less be able to find the eight you missed, is pretty good work, if I can commend the outright annihilation of a planet.

This movie outright rips off the ending of Invaders from Mars and recycles footage from One Million B.C., Lost Continent, Rocketship X-M, and Captive Women. Still, it’s in 3D, shot all over Bronson Canyon and was made in four days for $16,000. That is also worth celebrating.

It also features a score by Elmer Bernstein, who was currently being held back from major movies due to his liberal views. He also composed a score for Cat Women of the Moon that year, but would soon become one of the biggest names in movie music.

Look, this is a movie that has a Billion Bubble Machine with an antenna being used for Ro-Man to communicate with the Great Guidance, the supreme leader of his face, who finally gets fed up and blasts not only that gorilla robot but the child hero before he causes dinosaurs to come back and then uses psychotronic vibrations to smash Earth out of the universe. If you can’t find something to love there, you are beyond hope.

You can watch the Mystery Science Theater and the original version of this movie on Tubi.