For any MST fan, I must say that this classic B grade movie doesn't even need MSTing (although it makes it even funnier) to enjoy. It is one bizzare acid trip which leaves you wondering about everything in the movie. I think I saw mold acting better than anyone in this film.

My new idol is Roman and his quest to be hew-man.

Fave quote:

Boy: "I think you're just a big bully who likes picking on people smaller than you are."

Roman: "Now, I will kill you."

It gets even better, Perplexed. Apparently, director Phil Tucker was under the impression he'd created a deep, meaningful epic for the ages...and was so crushed when the public didn't agree (to put it mildly) that he actually tried to commit suicide.
Yeah, it's pathetic...but I'm thinking, you put a gorilla in a diving helmet in front of a bubble machine and have him soliloquize on becoming a 'hu-man'...that's gotta be genius on some level. (Not a level that most normal humans would understand, mind you, but still...)

Kerri, I definitely agree. Shame though, i don't think a failed film should warrant suicide. I guess Tucker just had a different vision that translated really badly on film. Plus, strangling little girl and boy is twisted and bizarre (though I didn't mind that Roy got offed). Can you imagine how the audience reacted back then?

"Is this the end of the film Joel?"
"I think it is"
"Ever have a deja vu Joel?"
"Huh? What?"

The funniest scene is when Ro-Man is fawning over the girl in his cave and Joel says

"He's been using the viewscreen..."

and

"Now cut that out! I don't like it when you alien types touch our women folk!"

To be like the HU-MAN! To think like the HU-MAN! To love like the HU-MAN! Why are these things not in the plan??

Check with the folks that gave you a bubble machine instead of a PalmPilot, fella.

This movie is in every way a match for Plan Nine. An alien robot who looks like a gorilla? Whose chief piece of equipment is a bubble machine? Who callously kills off the rest of the world's population yet balks at finishing off this one family on a picnic? And what's the deal with the dinosaurs and that ridiculous "it was all a dream no wait it wasn't" ending???

One of the Medved brothers' 'Golden Turkey Awards' books contains a lengthy interview with P.Tucker, wannabe auteur. Among other insights, he describes the creation of Ro-Man: "Hey, I know George [Barrows, the guy who owned the gorilla suit] will work for me for nothing. I'll put him in the suit, put a diving helmet on him, and it'll work!"

Well. I repeat my contention that Mr. Tucker was, way down deep, some sort of genius. At the very least...can you imagine what he would have come up with on a James Cameron-sized budget?!

An orangutan in a space helmet most likely.

Strictly speaking, the public didn't reject it, as it grossed a million bucks, which is pretty good for a $16,000 movie. Tucker's suicide attempt was provoked by the hostile critical reception combined with the backers reneging on his cut of the profits, as well as some fairly gloomy employment prospects.

Hard to believe that the score was composed by Elmer Bernstein.

You haven't lived until you've seen this gem, IMO.