Robot Monster (1953)

[AllosaurHell]

I recently watched Robot Monster on YouTube and wow... It was bad, but at least I liked the monster's design despite the cheapness of it all, it was initially intended to look completely robotic but due to budgetary reasons, director Phil Tucker got his friend George Barrows to play the lead monster with a gorilla suit he already had made and stuck a diving helmet atop of it. Barrows later used this same gorilla suit to play gorillas in film and TV and the suit was borrowed from him in the 1961 film Konga.

Ro-Man as seen in Robot Monster.


The gorilla suit made and used by Barrows throughout most of his career, the suit is currently on display at Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.


Here's Robot Monster in case any of you want to see it, it appears the film is in the public domain since there's no copyright protection over it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqV2RQCtSf8&t

[tbeasley]

Rick Baker did a really cool Ro-Man redesign for Men in Black 3 -


And here's an equally cool Art Adams illustration -

[AllosaurHell]

Rick Baker did a really cool Ro-Man redesign for Men in Black 3 -


And here's an equally cool Art Adams illustration -

Glad you posted these because they are very neat! And I love MIB 3 so it's cool that the legend Rick Baker included a nod to Ro-Man as a background alien.

[tbeasley]

Here's a better pic from Baker's Instagram -
https://www.instagram.com/p/BUzXyj5Bcv_/

[edgaguirus]

Robot Monster is the kind of movie so bad it's funny. The flaws are numerous, but it can be forgiven as it makes it amusing.

[Shhh! The Octopus]

Here's the pic that tbeasley linked

[Dino-Mario]

Oh i'd sure love to see Baker's redesign in action. What a shame it didn't show up in MIB 3, not even as a background character in the past scenes.

[AllosaurHell]

Thanks for showing me that picture guys! It is a very awesome suit and Rick Baker definitely should redesign Ro-Man if a remake were to be made that is actually good.

[kingkevzilla88]

The movie is pretty bleak now that I think about it.

[mikelcho]

I think I remember seeing or hearing somewhere that a robot suit was planned to be made for this film, but the budget forced them to use what eventually appeared in it.

[Jetty_Jags]

I like to think the minion character in megamind is visually inspired by this suit