The Creation of the Humanoids (1962)

The Creation of the Humanoids: Directed by Wesley Barry. With Don Megowan, Erica Elliott, Frances McCann, Don Doolittle. In a post holocaust society, robots take it on their own to help the dying human race by giving them android bodies.

“Sixty years after it was originally shot this unique movie continues to divide the still tiny number of people that have actually seen it, from Susan Sontag u0026amp; Andy Warhol – the latter quoted by David Bourdon in the 5 December 1964 edition of u0026#39;The Village Voice as calling it u0026quot;the best movie he has ever seenu0026quot; – to Leonard Maltin, who gives it a u0026#39;BOMBu0026#39; rating.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eObviously screenwriter Jay Simms knew his sci-fi, and it remains one of the very few sci-fi movies accurately to reflect fifties magazine fiction and visually to evoke the cover art of the era. With expressionistic sets stylishly lit by veteran cameraman Hal Mohr, it resembles one of the preachier episodes of u0026#39;The Twilight Zoneu0026#39; or u0026#39;Out of the Unknownu0026#39; with itu0026#39;s allegory of bigotry (which anticipates later more prestigious productions like u0026#39;Guess Whose Coming to Dinneru0026#39; and u0026#39;Blade Runneru0026#39;), and manages to compress an enormous ammount of allusion into just an hour and a quarter. The League of Flesh u0026amp; Blood, for example, wear Confederate-style uniforms and are pointedly dismissed by the sister u0026quot;in rapport with a Clickeru0026quot; in language that could easily apply to the Klan (u0026quot;You hold meetings. Wear ridiculous clothes. You tell each other how superior you are to the robots. Because you know weu0026#39;re not!u0026quot;). Meanwhile accusations of electoral fraud are still arousing passion sixty years after Kennedyu0026#39;s highly questionable election victory over Nixon in 1960.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe wonderful dialogue is regularly remarked upon, my personal favourite being u0026quot;the only crime that can be committed against a robot is vandalismu0026quot;!”