Must See Movie...

good back-story, and good acting

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I saw this in the theater as a kid and in true fifties style the guy in the robot suit made an appearance in the lobby of the theater! How cool was that!!?? Even after all these years I still find this film charming. In my opinion the robot is spectacular! (especially for this low budget) You can just tell he was designed in the 50s. I even found a guy on the internet who is selling "TOBAR" full sized and it looks like an excellent reproduction! I find the "bad guys" very amusing and everybody has those cool 1950s cars! The scene of the robot driving a Jeep is not to be missed! Now fess up, don't you wish you had a robot like TOBAR to play with? Several reviewers downplayed this as a kiddy movie, but I find the effects and cold war sub plot pretty entertaining!

This movie was rubbish. There was very little plot and almost no point. I am prejudice in one way, and that is boring rubbish should not be released. Anyway, this movie seemed little more that a scientific spiel about the new age of atomic energy and rockets, a press conference where a robot was displayed and a pointless action sequence at the end which I slept through. All I remember is the kid crying out "I love you Tobor!" which is pathetic.There are some interesting themes raised in the movie, but the movie itself destroyed them. The major one is the entrance to the atomic age -- an age of new discovery. We now have the power to go into space and to survive there, but one of the serious situations that are raised is how should we test it out. The debate is over sending men into space and whether that is morale or not. Thus a scientist creates a robot to go into space to check it out.What we have is the headlong rush into a new era where all of the new technology that the war gave us, atomic energy and rocketry, is being put to use. We create the jet fighter and the nuclear powered submarine. But space is still unconquered (and it still is) so we are questioning how we should go about conquering it. The movie puts forward the idea that a robot could do the job, but it is science fiction and the technology put forward by it did not exist at the time. Now we have the technology, and have had it for some time, to send probes deep into space, now all we need is to find water on the moon and that planet becomes ours as well.

To the genre buffs - I'm watching a movie called "The Invisible Boy" that was included as an extra on the Blu-ray of "Forbidden Planet" that I bought recently. I knew in the past about the "Tobor the Great" movie (Robot spelled backwards) that used the "Robby" robot prop because I saw it on WGN-Chicago as a kid. And I know that a "Robby" variant was used in the original "Lost in Space" TV series, which is detailed in the "Forbidden Planet" extras disk that I'm watching. But its been roughly 40 years since I saw the "Tobor" film, and there is no mention of it in the extras on the Blu-ray that I'm watching. My WIKI/IMDb search mentions the "Tobor" movie and gives a plot synopsis that is vaguely similar to the movie I'm watching, but the character names have changed. Is this a case of studio manipulation, or are the movies distinct? BTW, the Blu-Ray version of "Forbidden Planet" is beautifully done, as Ridley/Lucas/Spielberg/Cameron point out in the extras. I have a std. DVD and this is worth the upgrade. I wish that I'd seen it as a kid in a theater rather than just TV. The included extras are excellent, and you can understand how monumental this film was as an MGM classic that really was an inspiration for S.Kub's 2001. I've shown this film to XGens & Melms who aren't into SF and even they were blown away by effects that were done in the '50s. If you're into SF & haven't seen this the Blu-Ray is the best choice. I'd give it 10 if I'd gotten an answer to the above question.

Kindly Professor Arnold Nordstrom (the excellent Taylor Holmes) and humane, no-nonsense Dr. Ralph Harrison (a lively and engaging performance by Charles Drake) create a robot called Tobor (Lew Smith in a cool metallic suit) who can feel human emotions and has superhuman strength. Tobor develops a telepathic link with Professor Nordstrom's smart, mischievous grandson Gadge (an endearingly spunky portrayal by Billy Chapin). When Nordstrom and Gadge are kidnapped by a no-count gang of covert agents, Tobor comes to their rescue. Director Lee Sholem relates the neat story at a steady pace and does a solid job of maintaining an amiably lightweight tone throughout. This film further benefits from winningly sincere acting by a sturdy cast: Karin Booth as Nordstrom's fetching daughter Janice, Steven Geray as the nefarious foreign spy chief, William Shallert as folksy reporter Johnson, Franz Roehn as Nordstrom's grouchy assistant Karl, Henry Kulky as mean brute Paul, and Peter Brocco as the antsy Dr. Gustav. John L. Russell's stark black and white cinematography and Howard Jackson's robust, stirring score are both up to snuff. The warm relationship between Tobor and Gadge is genuinely charming and touching while the scenes of Tobor in action are very cool and exciting. But what really makes this film so special and appealing is its marvelous surplus of pure heart. A disarmingly sweet little treat.