Probably the best thing about the old Republic serials of the 30's, 40's, and 50's -- apart from their sheer goofy bombastic fun -- was their generally positive view of scientific progress. While other studios were putting out grim, pessimistic, science-run-amok films full of giant bugs and condescending aliens warning us about the dangers of nuclear power, Republic was releasing fun, gosh-wow flicks featuring scientists and adventurers and superheroes using science and technology to explore space and save the universe and stuff. The old serials had their share of mad scientists and radioactive monsters, to be sure, but they were just as likely to feature friendly, benevolent scientists as mad ones, and usually it was some science-powered hero who ended up punching out the radioactive monster. (This was, no doubt, largely because Republic's serials were aimed mainly at kids. Kids, understandably, are apt to be much more keen on the exciting stuff -- the jetpacks, the laser guns, the robots -- than on the boring high-brow moralizing found in films like The Day the Earth Stood Still).





Tobor the Great, a full-length Republic feature from 1954, is a good example of this sort of optimistic mindset. Tobor, the giant, clunky robot of the film's title, turns out to be the good guy in this film, and his grandfatherly inventor is a gadget-loving professor who has a house full of amazing (for the 50's, anyway) contraptions. At no point in the film is there any sort of worried grousing about the potential dangers of the professor's new technologies -- in fact, the only real worry anyone seems to have about all the advanced science on display is that the Soviets might steal it. Dirty Reds!

The film begins at some government laboratory somewhere, where a bunch of labcoat-wearing researchers are subjecting a man to a battery of tests (to determine whether human beings are capable of withstanding the rigors of space travel -- the film having been released in 1954, no one was quite sure yet how dangerous space travel might be). Dr. Harrison, apparently some kind of eminent scientist, barges in and accuses them all of callously risking the man's life; later, he visits his boss and gives him a similar talking-to before finally quitting in disgust. He soon meets up with Professor Nordstrom, an affable old guy who shares his views and who invites him to come to his house and to help him work on a project that, if successful, will eliminate the need for the sort of risky human trials Harrison is so dead-set against. The project turns out to be Tobor, a huge, awkward, silvery robot powered by ESP which Nordstrom believes will make a swell test pilot. (Nordstrom must be a pretty prosaic fellow if the only thing he can think to do with his discovery that ESP is in fact real is to make silly glorified autopilots for the space program. Also, I fail to see how using Tobor as a spaceflight guinea pig is any different than using an ordinary human, since he's apparently completely sentient and capable of feeling "every human emotion").





Anyway, Harrison and Nordstrom spend a good chunk of the movie working on Tobor and demonstrating how great he is to the press. Meanwhile, we're introduced to Gadge (short for Gadget), Nordstrom's annoying scamp of a grandson, who gets to bond with Tobor and to play with all of Nordstrom's wacky household inventions ("infravision" and keyless entry systems and whatnot). The film's climax comes when Gadge and Nordstrom are both kidnapped by a Soviet spy ring and saved by the lumbering Tobor (hilariously, the Reds attempt to grapple with Tobor, who is about eight feet tall and covered in metal plating; no wonder they lost the Cold War).





There are some boring stretches, but on the whole, it's a pretty entertaining little B-movie. The short running time gives it a feeling similar to Republic's serials, and I'm sure the kids who originally saw it in the theaters got a kick out of Tobor (there's also a sort of wish-fulfillment thing going on here with the character of Gadge: what kid wouldn't want to live in house full of crazy high-tech inventions and have adventures with their own pet robot?). The script isn't all that great (story-wise, Tobor doesn't really get to do very much, and the actors are all given really stilted lines -- everyone in the film, even the kid, speaks impeccably in complete sentences), and the acting is sometimes eye-rolling, but for a slightly silly 50's kiddie flick they're both more than adequate.

Recommended.

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