ALL SCI-FI

[Bud Brewster]

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[Also release as: "Beauty and the Robot"]

You might laugh at it more than with it, but this comedy by producer-director Albert Zugsmith certainly deserves credit for trying some wild ideas.

Mamie Van Doren is a genius (!) who possesses numerous college degrees, speaks several languages, and qualifies as the ideal head of a college science department. "Thinko" the robot picks her for the job. Evidently there's more to Mamie than meets the eye.

Actually, it turns out she's an ex-stripper! If you think that's wild, wait until you see the cast list: Mijanou Bardot (Brigitte's sister), Jackie Coogan ("The Addams Family"), Mickey Shaughnessy ("The Conquest of Space"), Charles Chaplin, Jr., Harold Lloyd, Jr., John Carradine, Louis Nye, Marty Milner, Norman "Woo Woo" Grabowski, Tuesday Weld, Conway Twitty (playing the leader of jazz combo?), and an intelligent chimp that types with its feet. What a cast! What a movie!
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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I still haven't found a way to see this movie yet, but here's the trailer. And gentlemen, this movie looks hysterical! (And very sexy.)


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Here's a clip of Mamie Van Doren in a silver lamé dress, singing and dancing for four minutes in a highly intellectual excerpt from this lost sci-fi classic. (I really want to see this movie someday before I die — or at least not long afterwards!)


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And finally, I found this rather shocking 16:30 minute video that contains a montage of weird scenes from this movie and several others. It's bizarre, psychedelic, and surprisingly pornographic! From the three-minute mark to the twelve-minute mark there's a series of striptease dancers who each perform in front of Thinko the robot — and it appears to have actually been filmed for Sex Kittens Go to College in 1960!

The Youtube user who uploaded the video, Sinclair Cole, provides a long comment in which he said, "This footage is from the uncensored French version, colorized and psychedelicized with effects and referenced with Kubrick associated imagery or connections."
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WARNING: The striptease dancers are topless, and the costumes cover damn little of the hips!

Thinko and Hal 9000, Sex Kittens, Kubrick's Cryptoslapstick Influences? The Thinko Dream scene


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Ah, to hell with it! I'm ordering this one right now!


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Robert (Butch) Day]

[orzel-w]

[bulldogtrekker]

[Robert (Butch) Day]

Oooops!!!

That's what I get for posting in the middle of taking my anti-pain meds. (My left arm just below the shoulder ball and the middle of the left shoulder blade are cracked.)

Corrected Thinko:



Easy to see what I did wrong. The two pics are next to each other on Google Images:



I guess we'll have to wait and see the movie to translate the sign:



Apparently "THINKO" is the name of the college computer. If the robot has a name we'll have to wait on the movie.
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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Custer]

I'm not sure that the robot is the main attraction here...

[scotpens]

[Bud Brewster]

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I remember seeing him at the Southeastern Fair in Atlanta in the middle 1950s, along with the robot dog.

He would say, on command, You can be sure . . . if it's Westinghouse!

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_______Westinghouse Elektro and the Time Capsule


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_ Elektro the Robot at the 1939 New York World's Fair


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Robert (Butch) Day]

See? Robby, TOBOR and B-9 weren't the only robots with a film career before The Droids of Star Wars!
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Common Sense ISN'T Common

[Eadie]

According to the synopsis at TCM (http://www.tcm.turner.com/tcmdb/title/89690/Sex-Kittens-Go-to-College/) the S. A. M. THINKO stands for Sequential Auxiliary Modulator.

TCM msynopsis:

The Collins College's state-of-the-art computer, Sequential Auxiliary Modulator (S.A.M.) or Thinko, has searched databases for the perfect new science department head. With a photographic memory, thirteen college degrees and fluency in eighteen languages, Dr. Mathilda West sounds like the perfect candidate; however, when the welcoming committee meet her at the train station, they are shocked by her buxom figure and platinum blonde hair, having expected a studious professional. Dr. West is so stunning that football team captain Woo Woo Grabowski faints, while college dean Dr. Myrtle Carter believes West's inappropriate appearance will jeopardize their research support from the McPherson family. Much to Carter's chagrin, her boyfriend, public relations director George Barton, and Thinko's creator, Dr. Ernest Zorch, are both smitten with the young woman. Meanwhile, French exchange student and aspiring researcher Suzanne spots gangster Legs Raffertino and his oafish sidekick Boomie exit the train and insists that she interview them for her book on the sex lives of American men. Although their interest is piqued, the men are on a mission to find "Sam Thinko," whom they assume to be a bookie who has been stealing from their boss. Later, college student Jody cuts her bra strap to convince Woo Woo, with whom she is in love, to loan her his fraternity pin to mend it. Although he consents, Woo Woo almost faints when she asks for a kiss and then tells her that she is only his "buddy." Just before West's first class, a jealous Carter sets loose chimpanzee Abraham Q. Voltaire onstage to ensure his antics distract from the lecture. West easily wins the students' attention, though, as she shoots pistols on stage to demonstrate the applied psychology notion of fear. Later, Woo Woo has a therapy session with West to resolve his fear of women, but when she asks about his fantasies, he warns her that his thoughts involve an affair with her. Soon after, science professors Towers and Watts, anxious to flirt with West, invite her to a "meeting" at the Passion Pit nightclub that evening. Meanwhile, Legs and Boomie, disguised in college letter sweaters, find Zorch at the computer lab, accuse him of being "Sam" and "muscling in" on their boss's operation, then knock him out. Later on the football field, West's presence as a spectator is such a distraction that Woo Woo misses a pass and Barton suggests that West stay away from the players for the sake of the game. Meanwhile, Jody jealously calls West a menace and tells her that she loves Woo Woo, but cannot compete with the sexy professor. That night at the Passion Pit, while Watts and Towers are entertaining West, Suzanne, the club's photographer, loans Carter her sexy work clothes as a disguise so that the dean can spy on benefactor Adm. Wildcat McPherson and Barton, who are also meeting there. As Suzanne pursues Legs for a rendezvous to report, Carter becomes entangled with the camera straps and accidentally ties herself up with Boomie. Meanwhile, Zorch tells Barton about Thinko's latest confusing printouts showing the next three winners of the Kentucky Derby. Soon after, Barton brings McPherson to the club, where the boisterous man mistakes West for Watt's wife. Having researched West's past, Barton secretly confronts her about her previous life as the "Tallahassee Tassle Tosser," a striptease dancer. Angered by Barton's insinuation that she cannot teach because of her past, West introduces herself to the rest of the men as the Tallahassee Tassle Tosser, a title McPherson eagerly recognizes. Using one of her old stage tricks, West then hypnotizes Watts, Towers, McPherson and Zorch with a pocket watch and orders them to mimic her as she performs a striptease dance for the club crowd and then hits Barton over the head with a conga drum. Meanwhile, Carter accidentally fires Boomie's machine gun, alerting the police, who arrest McPherson for exhibitionism. Later at the Thinko lab, West apologizes to Barton and explains that she used her photographic memory, a gift she discovered while performing a mind-reading act, to become a teacher, the noblest of professions. Her good intentions only serve to intensify Barton's crush on West, who demurely returns his loving gaze. Suddenly, Legs and Boomie enter the lab looking for the gambling mastermind. Zorch remembers that he tested Thinko on gambling, but still cannot explain the bets. As Thinko prints out his latest wins in horse racing, the Mexican national lottery and Pan Arab bingo games, a Mexican bookie, an Arab bookie and Bullets, a Mafia bookie, arrive to stop "Sam's" racket. Chaos ensues as a fistfight breaks out between the bookies, professors and students. Woo Woo, having been prescribed monitored sleep by West, enters the room sleepwalking and flips Thinko's switches until the machine smokes and begins to break down. After waking, Woo Woo explains that he was subconsciously placing bets while sleepwalking, resulting in a series of wins disrupting the other bookie's operations. After using her ingenious skills to help repair Thinko, West resigns herself to returning to her dancing profession. In the meantime, Woo Woo and Jody decide to marry and leave town in a new convertible, purchased with his huge gambling wins. Carter dyes her blonde and exchanges her suits for a sexy wardrobe to snare McPherson, who asks her to marry him. Freed from Carter, Barton steals a fire engine and rushes to the train station, where he proposes to West, who eagerly accepts.

Complete cast

Mamie Van Doren as Dr. Mathilda West - aka Tassels Monclair
uesday Weld as Jody
Mijanou Bardot as Suzanne
Mickey Shaughnessy as Boomie
Louis Nye as Dr. Ernest Zorch
Pamela Mason as Dr. Myrtle Carter
Martin Milner as George Barton (as Marty Milner)
Conway Twitty as himself
Jackie Coogan as Wildcat MacPherson
John Carradine as Prof. Harvey Watts
Maila Nurmi as Etta Toodie (as Vampira)
Allan Drake as Legs Raffertino
Jody Fair as Bartender
Norman Grabowski as Woo Woo Grabowski
Charles Chaplin, Jr. as Fire Chief
Arline Hunter as Nurse
Irwin Berke as Prof. Towers
Harold Lloyd, Jr. as Policeman
Buni Bacon as Night Club Hostess
Babe London as Miss Amanda Cadwallader
Jack Carr as Policeman (uncredited)
Larry Chance as Bullets (uncredited)
Noel De Souza as Arab (uncredited)
Buddy Douglas as Midget (uncredited)
Elektro as S. A. THINKO (uncredited)
Beverly Englander as Shoeshine Girl (uncredited)
Jose Gonzales-Gonzales as Mexican (uncredited)
Cheerio Meredith as Miss Everleigh (uncredited)
Barbara Pepper as Circe [Big Woman with Ripped Dress] (uncredited)
Ed Randolph as Railroad Conductor (uncredited)
Arthur Tovey as Train Station Attendant (uncredited)

Additional info at IMDb https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054298/
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Art Should Comfort the Disturbed and Disturb the Comfortable.

[Bud Brewster]

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Thanks for the synopsis, Eadie! I watched this movies years a few years ago on TCM (I think) with Bulldogtrekker, but I don't remember much about it.

I might DVR it if it comes on TCM again, and then watch it while reading the synopsis along with the movie so that the complex and intellectually challenging plot doesn't overwhelm my mental faculties.

So to speak . . .
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Eadie]