The Creation of the Humanoids |
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USA • 1962 • 75m •
  • Directed by: Wesley Barry. • Starring: Don Megowan, Erica Elliott, Frances McCann, Don Doolittle, David Cross, Richard Vath, Reid Hammond, Malcolm Smith, George Milan, Dudley Manlove, Pat Bradley, Gil Frye, William Hunter. • Music by: Edward J. Kay.     The survivors of a nuclear holocaust fuse man with machine, creating cyborgs to assist in the rebuilding of civilization. However, the blue-skinned androids rebel against their masters and go to war with the remnants of humanity.
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Review:
There is an organization of Flesh and Blood that is prejudiced against robots, derisively referring to them as clickers, with obvious similarities to the Ku Klux Klan. The main character, Kenneth Cragis, who calls himself "the Cragis" for some reason, is a high-ranking member of Flesh and Blood. He doesn't hate the robots exactly, but he sure doesn't want his sister to marry one. As a result, he is appalled to find out that his sister is "in rapport" with one of them, and you can guess what that means. When he went to confront her, I almost expected him to call her a clicker-lover.
The robots are secretly trying to develop more advanced models, which are electronic duplicates of humans that have recently died, with all their memories implanted in them. They do this not because they are evil, but because they have been programmed to serve man, and they know what is best for man, even if the law actually forbids the development of robots beyond a certain level. These advanced models think they are human, except at special times, when they realize they are robots and report back to the robot temple.
Cragis falls in love with Maxine, and they plan to enter into a contract, which is what they call marriage in the future. But then the special moment arrives, and they are taken to the temple, where they find out that they are robots. Cragis realizes that he has all the advantages of being human, with the robotic advantage of living for two hundred years, after which he can be replaced with another duplicate that will have all his memories. It is almost as if, in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1956), Becky and Miles found out that they had already been replaced by a couple of pods, only the pods were an improved variety that also duplicated emotions, making them just like humans, only better, because, being plants, they can live longer.
As for Maxine, when they duplicated her, the robots decided that she was getting a little fat, so they slimmed her down in the duplication process, which is just one more way in which Cragis benefits from this robotic duplication process. They are duplicates of humans in every way, except for being able to reproduce. When Maxine says she wants the fulfillment of having a baby, Dr. Raven, the scientist who is behind these duplications, says he thinks that form of producing new robots is a bit crude, but he agrees to take her and Cragis to the last phase of duplication, which will allow her to get pregnant.
In the final shot, Dr. Raven turns to the camera and suggests that as a result of having taken robots to this final stage, we in the audience are robots too.
Review by disinterested_spectator from the Internet Movie Database.
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