Scott LeBrun "Tobor the Great" is lightly amusing, engaging sci-fi, which could well be described as the tale of "a boy and his robot". People such as Dr. Ralph Harrison (Charles Drake, "It Came from Outer Space") and the eminent Professor Arnold Nordstrom (Taylor Holmes, "Kiss of Death" '47) don't believe that human beings should be subjected to the unknown perils of space travel. So Nordstrom has hit upon the answer: the title robot, which has been designed to be a sentient being which people can communicate with telepathically. When enemy agents kidnap Nordstrom and his grandson "Gadge" (Billy Chapin, "The Night of the Hunter"), to force the old man to divulge his secrets, Tobor swings (so to speak) into action.There's a lot of set-up to get to the pay-off in this minor but diverting, and mostly harmless, story. Tobor may be no Robby the Robot, but "he" is a fairly cool character nonetheless. The movie is always fun when Tobor is stomping around, breaking things, offering a hand in friendship, foiling the bad guys...and, in the movies' most priceless sequence, driving a jeep.Some of the human characters take some time getting used to. Harrison comes off as a volatile jerk at first, and "Gadge" is the perfect stereotype of a kid of that era, given to proclamations such as "Gosh!" and "Gee willikers!" But the cast delivers amiable performances (they're NOT terrible). Also co-starring are Karin Booth ("Jungle Man-Eaters"), Steven Geray ("Spellbound"), Hal Baylor ("A Boy and His Dog"), Peter Brocco ("Johnny Got His Gun"), Alan Reynolds ("Cape Fear" '62), William Schallert ('The Patty Duke Show'), Robert Shayne ('Adventures of Superman'), and Lyle Talbot ("Plan 9 from Outer Space"). Holmes has a warm, wise presence as the egghead who sets the story in motion.As was said, it's not completely harmless. People may wince at the fact that the bad guys are prepared to torture young Gadge to get the old man to spill the beans.Fortunately, "Tobor the Great" never dwells too long on unpleasantness, and heads towards a rousing conclusion where our hero robot saves the day. Fans of 1950s sci-fi may find it charming.Six out of 10.

poe-48833 As of late, I've been spending my time watching vintage Horror and Sci-Fi movies and one of the most surprising things I've discovered is that many of these movies- often low budget, Poverty Row productions- are Light Years ahead of Contemporary movies when it comes to sheer Entertainment Value; movies like TOBOR, THE GREAT, for instance. The movie is well-written AND well directed and it deserves to be much better known than it is. With all due respect to Robby the Robot, I'd much rather have a Tobor action figure/model on my shelf (Gort's a different story, however...). (In the short story upon which THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL is based, the robot is called Trog- "Gort," spelled backwards... or is that sideways...? TOBOR is, of course, Robot spelled backward. Coincidence...?) Tobor tears through doors and walls and electrified fences in impressive fashion, but his greatest feat may be commandeering a jeep to take off in pursuit of the villains. TOBOR, THE GREAT is Great Fun, no two ways about it.

david-sarkies This movie was rubbish. There was very little plot and almost no point. I am prejudice in one way, and that is boring rubbish should not be released. Anyway, this movie seemed little more that a scientific spiel about the new age of atomic energy and rockets, a press conference where a robot was displayed and a pointless action sequence at the end which I slept through. All I remember is the kid crying out "I love you Tobor!" which is pathetic.There are some interesting themes raised in the movie, but the movie itself destroyed them. The major one is the entrance to the atomic age -- an age of new discovery. We now have the power to go into space and to survive there, but one of the serious situations that are raised is how should we test it out. The debate is over sending men into space and whether that is morale or not. Thus a scientist creates a robot to go into space to check it out.What we have is the headlong rush into a new era where all of the new technology that the war gave us, atomic energy and rocketry, is being put to use. We create the jet fighter and the nuclear powered submarine. But space is still unconquered (and it still is) so we are questioning how we should go about conquering it. The movie puts forward the idea that a robot could do the job, but it is science fiction and the technology put forward by it did not exist at the time. Now we have the technology, and have had it for some time, to send probes deep into space, now all we need is to find water on the moon and that planet becomes ours as well.

cornjob-2 Made during the 1950s, Tobor the Great tries to deal with many of the decade's hot topics. Space travel is represented as evil for humans in several scenes (though for no apparent reason), science is given the chance to go wrong, and those evil Russians are trying to steal Tobor (roboT spelled backwards). Forgettable.