The Colossus Of New York

Cast: John Baragrey, Mala Powers, and Otto Kruger

Director: Eugene Lourie

70 minutes (PG) 1958

101 Films Blu-ray region B

Rating: 6/10

Review by Christopher Geary

Creaky B&W sci-fi rarely looks good 60 years later but some, like this, are ripe for critical re-evaluation. Clunky old robot movie The Colossus Of New York is actually all about a cyborg, a huge mechanical walking support created by a family of scientists to house the salvaged brain of their dead genius, Jeremy (Ross Martin). Part Frankenstein’s monster, part superhero movie like Tobor The Great (1954), its post-human morality themes of immortality via cybernetics eagerly anticipate such modern classics as RoboCop (1987, remade very well 2014).

Lacking many conventional human senses, robo-Jerry gains ESP, while he’s working on a solution to the problems of world hunger. It’s no wonder that he stumbles on his fraught widow Anne’s growing attachment to his brother Henry. Stomping about in a jealous rage with blazing electric eyes, robo-Jerry becomes homicidal for a new genocidal campaign of inhumanity that echoes traits of wartime fascism. Only the cyber-giant’s relationship with Jeremy’s young son Billy offers much hope for survival in this routinely melodramatic tale of ‘hubris clobbered by nemesis’.

Some charming design elements and lighting set-ups for pivotal scenes grant this overtly tragic story many of the best gothic style visuals found in any sci-fi productions of its era, and the minimalist piano score deserves attention for a subtle evocation of silent movies. This movie’s dramatic finale, with a violent rampage in the UN building, where an antiwar inscription on a wall delivers a backdrop message of peace for all mankind, ably supports a still positively compelling techno cult fable about disarmament.

Restored to superb hi-def quality, this Blu-ray release is another splendid offering by the reliable 101 Films label. The disc’s bonus material is an expert commentary track.