The
Invisible Boy
Atom age
weirdness wrapped up as a kid's adventure
Here is
a weird, almost inexplicable, little film: part children's
fantasy, part science fiction horror (a computer plots to
take over the world) part seeming satire about the relative
cluelessness of scientists who study something so closely
that they can't really see it.
About the time this film was made, Robert E. Heinlein was
writing his celebrated series of science fiction juveniles,
and films featuring young protagonists were also more
prevalent than they are today so this could be just a weird
attempt to cram the darker "conquering computer" story into
the kid's adventure story genre.
Timmie is a 10-year-old boy who is bored and practically
starved for attention from his scientist dad who is
obsessed with his work with a supercomputer. Dad,
disappointed with Timmie's intellectual development, puts
Timmie with the computer with instructions that the
computer teach Timmie a few things. The computer does more
than that. For decades, it has been hiding the fact that it
is, in reality, not just a machine but a sentient being.
The computer boosts Timmie's intelligence and instructs him
to repair a robot that has been lying around the lab. A
computer "from the future" that was retrieved in an earlier
time-travel experiment.
That robot is Robby the Robot, a star of MGM's earlier film
"Forbidden Planet." Robby becomes the boy's boon companion
and can do any number of miraculous things, including
turning the boy invisible.
But the computer has larger plans for Robby; on the eve of
a space launch, the computer is plotting to hijack the
flight for its own purpose: it wants to be sent into space
so that it can rule the world from a platform in space.
Bwahahaha!
The film really is rather creaky, but it does at least have
a nice performance by the charismatic Robby the Robot.
Robby became something of a star following his debut in
"Forbidden Planet," so that weird fact alone might make the
film worth watching. Think about it: in a time when many of
the most talented actors, writers and directors were still
fighting a blacklist, a robot finds a place in the hearts
of audiences.