TOBOR THE GREAT (1954)

TOBOR THE GREAT (1954)

Tagline: Man-Made monster with every human emotion

(Adventure, Action, Radiation) [G]

Note: This movie wasn’t given an MPAA rating, but I think it would be getting a G.

It's Gadge! I bet he's doing it .. he's bad. Very bad!

In this one mankind is exploring the idea of “manned nuclear rockets” and Dr. Ralph Harrison is just not having it. He decides to resign from his job and join Prof. Nordstrom in coming up with an alternative solution to space exploration. It doesn’t take long before foreign spies are checking on Nordstrom and decided to try and steal his work on a robot named Tobor, which leads to an unlikely showdown.  

First off, this movie is definitely more targeted at kids than anything. It involves a boy genius and lots of cool nerdy but light-hearted stuff. Really the only serious part of this entire film is the spies trying to get the robot's secrets. There seems to be a lot of speculation and bad information on the robot's designer which was Gabriel Scognamillo. It was built by Mel Arnold, who also worked on Gort for THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL. I do think the robot design is pretty fun and cool, but it’s not the best robot design out there from this era. 

I watched this movie in color so the vibrant sets and design work really stands out. Most movies from this era I think work far better in black and white, but this thing is actually pretty solid in color because there isn’t much in the way of crazy planet sets or distance shots where black and white would have helped the eye capture some depth. Script wise this one is pretty simplistic and the science in the science fiction is a bit jacked out, but overall they achieved the goal of making a fun sci-fi flick and throwing something in there for all ages. 

Acting wise it seems like kids were just able to pull off these roles pretty well and Billy Chapin nails it as Brian Roberts. They call him “Gadge” in this movie though. This was Billy Chapin’s only big sci-fi flick, he actually stopped acting at the age of 16. Karin Booth is pretty good but not great as Janice Roberts. This was also her only sci-fi flick and she never actually gets picked up by Tobor as shown in the movies posters and promotional material. Charles Drake plays an uneven Dr. Ralph Harrison. I say uneven because in parts of this movie he seems like the most annoyed person on earth, and in other scenes he’s calm as a cucumber during far more distressing situations. It’s kind of odd. Drake was also in the sci-fi classic IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE. Taylor Holmes is very good as Prof. Arnold Nordstrom and for me was one of the brighter spots in this thing acting-wise. That is saying a lot because none of the acting in this movie by anyone was what I would consider “bad”. 

TOBOR THE GREAT is not a big mysterious bombastic sci-fi romp. There are parts that are slow moving and the entire middle of the movie just feels like it drags a bit. We do get plenty of stuff going on in the last 20 minutes or so though which makes up for some of the slower stuff and the ending is satisfying even as abrupt as it is.

I would probably have enjoyed this a lot more if I saw it when I was 10. As it is, this gets a 4 out of 7 which falls in line with most of the reviews I’ve seen. It didn’t blow my mind, but it’s still a fun little film. 

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