Cold Steel: Enemy Robots in Early Film Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. According to our time and space travel guide the infallible H-A-L 9000, we begin in 1921 Italy. We're watching a silent movie by the Italian comedy director Andre Deed. A villainous femme fatale named Mado has let loose a diabolical robot in a super-speed, super-strength crime spree. Name the first movie depicting remote-controlled metal titans.

Answer: The Mechanical Man

"The Mechanical Man" is lost for the most part to history, though pieces were restored. We see a massive, boxy, golden monster stagger heavily after a car, shooting from his electric hands, remote-controlled by the lady criminal Mado. Our mechanical being dons human costume so he can enter the Opera House in disguise, where he and a like machine stiffly zap one another.

It's a funny, spooky delight. Robota means labor or drudgery and was first used in 1921 by Czechoslovakian playwright Karel Capek.

2. HAL 9000 moves us forward to 1926 so we can watch the first feature length science fiction film. Set in 2026, humans are divided into workers and elites in a highly industrial city. Underground, workers toil and die, until havoc is wrought by a deadly seductive robot, False Maria. Which stunning visual film is dystopian, the opposite of utopia?

Answer: Metropolis

"Metropolis" remains an incredible visual and social achievement. The beautiful Brigitte Helm plays both a worker and the evil robot made in her image. The actress was cut and bruised by the robot costume but director Fritz Lang insisted she play the robot, even though no one could see her.

The surprisingly risque robot, False Maria, is eventually captured and burned at the stake, where a melted exterior reveals the mechanical monster. Adolf Hitler was so impressed with this film he asked Fritz Lang to do Nazi propaganda films, but Lang left the country immediately.

3. Speaking of mechanical monsters, HAL says, we will now view a short, "The Mechanical Monsters" released in 1941. Our hero battles a mad scientist who rules flying, fire-emitting robots bent on stuffing their inner compartments with money and jewels. Fearless Lois leaps onto a robot and is flown straight into the mad scientist's lair! Which man not-literally-of-steel must save her?

Answer: Superman

"The Mechanical Monsters" was a "Superman" short produced by Fleischer Studios and released by Paramount Pictures. The theme of witless and coldly obedient robots controlled by diabolical humans is common in early robot film. In this short, bullets bounce off the robots, they can fly and they shoot fire, but nothing stops Superman, the "man of steel", who is pledged to repeatedly rescue Lois Lane. "The Mechanical Monsters" is often referenced in later animations and short films.

4. Detecting a theme, HAL suggests we view another early serial film, "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe". Produced in 1940, our debonair hero battles a horde of metal walking bombs. They are remote-controlled by Emperor Ming the Merciless of the planet Mongo. What are these soldier robots called? Hint: Their mission is to destroy humans.

Answer: Annihilations

Annihilations are designed to annihilate, obliterate and otherwise eradicate human beings, enabling Ming the Merciless to take over the Earth! Annihilations adapt to any environment but as Flash Gordon points out, they are "simple machines". In the hands of our hero, the remote-control device blows them up, making our world safe once more.

This was the last of the "Flash Gordon" 12-episode serial film series, but it was later shown on television. In Australia, Flash was called "Speed Gordon".

5. HAL offers an intriguing cult movie, next. Billed as "The Fantastic Night of Terror that Menaced the Fate of the World!" this favorite from Britain, 1954, featured a sexy Mars alien named Nyah and her menacing nine foot, box-shaped, bulb-headed robot. It vaporizes items and people when its head lights up. What's the name of this strangely fascinating if terrible movie?

Answer: Devil Girl From Mars

"Devil Girl from Mars" features a silent, ominous robot that imitates Gort from the 1951, "The Day the Earth Stood Still". Though Nyah's robot resembles a giant child wearing a box more than the promised terror, the robot is weirdly compelling. The plot where a gorgeous she-devil seeks human male breeding stock adds to cult status and enjoyment. Nyah's robot can make a tree, car, barn or person instantly incinerate, which is sobering power, no matter how the thing looks. HAL, who is visually just a big lens, agrees.

6. HAL 9000 states dryly that we should expedite, so we'll skip to 1940. This movie made the "worst robots in film" lists several times. The intended lead actor Henry Brandon was asked to wear a red suit and horns. Which movie features a steel killer robot out to destroy humankind for his power-hungry, mad scientist creator?

Answer: The Mysterious Dr. Satan

"The Mysterious Dr. Satan" (aka "Doctor Satan's Robot") is directed by William Witney. Dr. Satan did not wear a red suit and horns, but took on a gangster persona. Throughout early film poorly constructed robots threaten to destroy, death-deal and otherwise demolish defenseless humans.

Some resemble walking boxes, goofy water boilers or clumsy gorilla suits. Still, HAL says, whatever the exterior, any robot programmed for vile eradication can easily disassemble a human head from the cervical. Or shut down a life support system, perhaps. "The Mysterious Dr. Satan" was re-released in 1966.

7. Much to HAL's relief our next movie robot is in the Robot Hall of Fame. First filmed in 1956, Robby the Robot resides on the planet Altair IV, wherein lurks a forbidden evil force. Some suspect Robby. Starring Leslie Nielsen and Anne Francis, which film opens with a spaceship's handsome crew moving at light speed toward their destination, and quite possibly, their fate?

Answer: The Forbidden Planet

"The Forbidden Planet" is the first movie set entirely in deep space. Robby the Robot, unlike previous robots, has some personality and wry wit, and he's a protector of humans, programmed to obey Issac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. If ordered to harm a person, Robby freezes into lock-down. Yet he helps hide a terrible secret which leads to the death of all but two on Altair IV. HAL says he can affirm just how detrimental secrecy can be.

8. HAL is busy helping crew with a spacewalk, so let's go to 1966. A cyborg named Garth travels back in time, pursued by two other cyborgs called Tracers. If his mission is a success, he will wipe out his own existence in the future. What movie is this?

Answer: Cyborg 2087

"Cyborg 2087" presents the fascinating robot called a cyborg, part human and part machine. Coined in 1960 by M. Clynes and Nathan Kline the term "cyborg" was predated by the concept, described by Edgar Allan Poe in 1843. In "Cyborg 2087" human thought is controlled by the government.

A few free thinkers send the cyborg Garth into the past, to convince a scientist to withhold the secrets of mind control. The future government orders cyborg Tracers to stop Garth from his task.

9. "Westworld" is a 1973 film about a themed amusement park where you pay to interact up-close-and-personal with androids that resemble human beings. It sounds fun, but things go very wrong. Who plays the chilling and magnificent Gunslinger android that hunts and kills vacationers?

Answer: Yul Brynner

Yul Brynner, a star in "The Magnificent Seven" (I hope you got that hint), plays the terrifying android whose programming goes on the fritz. "Westworld" was the first feature film to use digital image processing, so they could show the android's point of view. Systemic computer failure was blamed for the misfire of the androids. Arnold Schwarzenegger was at one point slated to star in a new release of "Westworld". HAL is meanwhile pleased to interject here that unlike "Westworld" systems, the HAL 9000 series is incapable of error.

10. We're now on a special mission to the moon, an odyssey of wonder, though our ship the Discovery One is acting strangely. Three of the crew are dead. I've asked our computer host HAL to let me control this viewing but it replies calmly, "I'm afraid I can't do that, godwit." It seems we're actually in a 1968 Stanley Kubrick film, where all save one are quietly machine-murdered. Which epic film is this?

Answer: 2001: A Space Odyssey

"2001: A Space Odyssey" was nominated for four Academy Awards, won for Special Effects and is named among the greatest movies ever created. The plot includes the HAL 9000 Pentium computer you have met. In charge of ship and crew, the 9000 was considered a perfect machine. Yet HAL is disturbed by a secret he must keep, as well as a small error he made, which leads him to methodical murder. Speaking of breakdown, HAL, the viewers must disconnect. "But I feel much better now," HAL says, "I really do."

Source: Author Godwit

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor Nannanut before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

A malevolent if hokey-looking force, robots in film from 1921 to the early '70s were a criminal bunch. We give hints, but you need to know early science fiction film to ace this quiz. The infallible and infamous computer HAL 9000 is our host.

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