Tobor the Great 1954

A young boy-genius befriends his grandfather's robot, designed as a test pilot for space travel and coveted by foreign spies.

The Cast

Charles Drake-Dr. Ralph Harrison
Karin Booth-Janice Roberts
Billy Chapin-Brian 'Gadge' Roberts
Taylor Holmes-Prof. Arnold Nordstrom
Steven Geray-The Foreign Spy-Chief
Henry Kulky-Paul - Spy-Henchman
Franz Roehn-Karl
Hal Baylor-Max - Spy-Henchman

The Director: Lee Sholem
The Writers: Philip MacDonald, Carl Dudley
Music by: Howard Jackson
Certificate : U

Film Trivia

The film inspired a Tobor the Great comic book story series, written by Denis Gifford and with artwork by James Bleach; it appeared in Star Comics #1-2 (1954), from D Publications.
Principal photography for Tobor the Great took place from early to mid-January 1954 on location at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, California.
Tobor's design was the brainchild of Robert Kinoshita, the television and film effects man and prop designer. The designer would go on to design Robby the Robot for the classic 1956 film Forbidden Planet, as well as the B-9 Environmental Control Robot for the mid-1960s hit sci-fi television series Lost In Space.
The original Tobor prop and remote control device is still in existence, having been stored away safely in a private collection for more than 50 years.
Here Comes Tobor was a proposed American science-fiction TV series. Produced for the 1956 to 1957 season, the project was never picked up and only a pilot episode was filmed but never aired.
Tobor the Great was released on DVD on May 13, 2008 by Lionsgate Home Entertainment. The standard DVD, containing the film only, had an incorrect open matte transfer; it was originally shot for theatrical exhibition using the 1.66:1 widescreen aspect ratio. In December 2016, the film was announced for both DVD and Blu-ray reissue by Kino Lorber.
A new film company, Diamond World Pictures, announced in 2011 that a sequel to Tobor the Great was to be the first film from the company. Plans were to star Patrick Dempsey and Christopher Plummer, and use the classic combination of live-action and stop-motion animation. To date, no film has been released.