The Creation of the Humanoids

This one is enjoyable IF the viewer is prepared for the movie's distinctly odd nature and low budget. According to the story, World War III has depleted the Earth's population, but reconstruction efforts are progressing rapidly with the help of a newly developed race of `humanoids' (hairless, green-skinned androids who possess high intelligence and who serve with total faithfulness).

In fact, the androids are so intelligent and sensitive that many people want to have them destroyed, because they fear the androids will overthrow mankind. A few sympathetic humans have sided with the androids -- including the sister of the most outspoken anti-android activist. She actual MARRIES one of the androids. One rebel scientist conspires with the android members of a secret group who strives to perfect the androids and make them even more human.

Shot on a shoestring budget, the sets are fairly simple (although reasonably imaginative), and the acting is sometimes pretty bad. The soundtrack music is a kind o low-rent version of the `Forbidden Planet' tonalities. Oddly enough, all these apparent flaws somehow endear it to the more forgiving viewers, perhaps because the film works so hard to put across some very strange and imaginative concepts, including a nifty little surprise ending.

Watch for several recognizable props and costumes from classic science fiction movies, such as the glass tubes and the gray, one-piece uniforms from `This Island Earth'. One of the `early prototype robots' seen during the film's opening prologue is actually one of the armored alien space suits from `Earth versus the Flying Saucers' -- and it was spray painted silver!

There was, a few years ago, a prerecorded tape of this little gem available for rent at video stores. It you can find one, you're lucky. It's a nutty little cult classic from a by-gone age.

I just purchased "Creation Of The Humanoids" as part of a double feature released by Dark Sky(The other movie is War Of The Planets).I was hoping for a better print(I'd give it a 7.5 out of ten)but compared to what was available I can live with it.I remember watching this movie on Creature Features(here in N.Y. on Metromedia 5),and I've tried to locate a decent copy(I've bought several VHS tapes on ebay but they have a 6.5 quality at best).I always like this movie--given it's limited budget I think its still a cult classic.The acting is stilted at times(budget again),the script and direction is good(and not to mention the Jack Pierce make-up).With Hollywood remaking classics(The Omen,Starsky and Hutch,et al)how about putting together a decent budget and remaking this ?

I hadn't seen this movie since the early 1960's when I was about 12. It made an impression on me then and, after renting this through Netflix as part of a "Double Feature", it still does!

The plot revolves around earth in the future (or is it the past?), with the human population ravaged through nuclear war. Only a remnant population of human beings remain and are dwindling, thanks to the effect of radiation on reproduction. Most tasks are handled by robots of varying degrees of sophistication, and who are taking on more and more responsibility in the running of earth, including becoming romantically involved partners with humans. At the core of the film is "The Order of Flesh and Blood", a group who is very wary of the robots and their activities, and who constantly monitor the robots' activities.

Without giving away too much of the plot, suffice to say that some of the robots have been entrusted to save man from himself, and the ending offers some interesting thoughts about what makes a human a human, and if robots are actually better at being human beings than human beings themselves.

You can definitely see the inspiration this movie provided to later films such as Bladerunner, Terminator, and many others.

The acting and many of the lines are cheesy, and the budget is minimal, but it's still a thought-provoking and entertaining film that gets the maximum out of the minimum. Recommended!

Sixty years after it was originally shot this unique movie continues to divide the still tiny number of people that have actually seen it from Susan Sontag to Andy Warhol - the latter quoted by David Bourdon in the 5 December 1964 edition of 'The Village Voice as calling it "the best movie he has ever seen" - to Leonard Maltin, who gives it a 'BOMB' rating.

Obviously screenwriter Jay Simms knew his sci-fi, and it remains one of the very few sci-fi movies accurately to reflect fifties magazine fiction and visually to evoke the cover art of the era. With expressionistic sets stylishly lit by veteran cameraman Hal Mohr, it resembles one of the preachier episodes of 'The Twilight Zone' or 'Out of the Unknown' with it's allegory of bigotry (which anticipates later more prestigious productions like 'Guess Whose Coming to Dinner' and 'Blade Runner'), and manages to compress an enormous ammount of allusion into just an hour and a quarter. The League of Flesh & Blood, for example, wear Confederate-style uniforms and are pointedly dismissed by the sister "in rapport with a Clicker" in language that could easily apply to the Klan ("You hold meetings. Wear ridiculous clothes. You tell each other how superior you are to the robots. Because you know we're not!"). Meanwhile accusations of electoral fraud are still arousing passion sixty years after Kennedy's highly questionable election victory over Nixon in 1960.

The wonderful dialogue is regularly remarked upon, my personal favourite being "the only crime that can be committed against a robot is vandalism"!

Maybe I just like robots too much, but having only just seen this, I happen to quite like it. The ideas are familiar by now, the production values make Star Trek look extremely flashy, and the characters tend towards wooden, but somehow it's better than all the expensive monster movies that pass for sci-fi lately. Fans of Blade Runner might appreciate this one. There are lots of little dialogue details worth paying attention to, which add a lot of context. Some older comments suggested this was one of the worst films the viewer had ever seen. I don't think it's even in that contest. It stands head and shoulders above dozens of sci-fi movies I've seen, some of them old and some of them new. Watch it if you can find it. :)