The Invisible Boy (1957)

Too much of everything

Lack of good storyline.

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

The Stoneman Institute of Mathematics under the military is developing a Supercomputer. The military is launching a secret satellite. Timmie Merinoe is an average ten year old. His father tries to improve his intelligence by bring him to the Supercomputer. Timmie improves to such an extent that he is able to reassemble Robbie the Robot which arrived from over 300 years in the future. Robbi helps turn him invisible. Meanwhile, the Supercomputer intends to take over the world using the military satellite.There is a lot of nonchalant going on in this movie. None of the adults seem affected by a time-traveling robot especially the father. He treats the invisibility like an inconvenient prank. At times, it's laughable. This was probably strictly directed at kids. Reasoning is rudimentary and so is the acting. This is nowhere near the classic Forbidden Planet. There is a limited connection to the iconic movie which is more than simply reusing Robbie the Robot. It's cool to see this for a fan of Forbidden Planet but it's a weak movie on its own.

At every turn the extraordinary is dismissed with casual abandon. I think a formula was used to determine the dialog in this film, especially where interaction between the boy and his parents are concerned. What would a normal person be to expected to say in a given situation, use an opposite response. I focus on dialog because dialog is what I have the most trouble with in this film. The few times I have seen this I have wondered at what seems to be totally disconnected reactions to strikingly bizarre situations, and I have come to the conclusion that it was done on purpose. I have no insight into the minds of writers or directors, but considering the weak story, something needed to be done to make a potentially really boring plot engender at least a little interest. Even at the risk of making a silly movie. Another possibility is that everyone came to work loaded every day. I don't know how to rate it. I will need a time machine to go into the past and become invisible so that I can sit in on the planning of this one.

In 1956 Cyril Hume, wrote a fabulous Science Fiction story called 'Forbidden Planet. It featured a marvelous machine called Robby The Robot' (Marvin Miller). It was an instant Hollywood hit. Indeed, when another interesting Hume script arrived the follow year, producers saw an immediate opportunity to recuperate their original investment by using their fantastic Robot once again. In this story, the military (Harold J. Stone) minds at the pentagon have come to the special labs to re-check their mathematical finding for their special rocket program. In this, they need the help of Dr.Tom Merrinoe (Philip Abbott) and his super mechanical brain. Unknown to the military, that super-brain has developed its own plans to dominate the world. Enter Dr.Merrinoe's mischievous son Timmy. (Richard Eyer). With his friend Robby, they hope to try and stop the great machine from carrying out it's plans. This is a good movie and ever so child-like in it's innocence. Over-looking it's mono-tone scenes, primitive script, cardboard actors and Black and White background, it nevertheless easily qualifies and maintains it celebrity status over fifty years and marks it's special place as a Sci/Fi Classic. Recommended to anyone interested in watching a timeless movie. ****

Human players take a rightful backseat to incredible Robby the Robot, first introduced in 1956's "Forbidden Planet". Scene-stealing Robby is cast as a mechanical playmate to Richard Eyer's young Timmie, but soon begins receiving diabolical orders from a power-crazed computer. Long outdated science-fiction nonsense will astound contemporary viewers with its naiveté. Some see it as camp, some give it cult value. Production values just OK, dialogue and scenario wooden. If it weren't for Robby (and the film's dynamic advertising campaign--which matches nothing in the finished product), the film would not be remembered fondly today--if at all. *1/2 from ****