by Terrence Aym

Created on: November 23, 2009

The history of robots in film from 1888 to 2000

Bring up the subject of robots and some people will think of Star Wars. Others might recall the classic robots of film such as Robby from "Forbidden Planet" or Gort from "The Day the Earth Stood Still." They might even think of Rosie from the "Jetsons."

Robots have a long history in film and have been in movies almost since Thomas Edison invented the moving picture Kinetoscope back in 1888.

The first film to showcase a robot was also a love story! Back in 1896, the French movie "L'Eve Futur" ("The Future Eve") featured a storyline revolving around a brilliant scientist. After he constructs a female robot a British lord falls in love with her. What follows is a Pygmalion story with a robot as the protagonist. [Scene from movie]

The 1920s

Another of the early examples of a robot in film was "The Golem" released in 1920. A spin on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein story, it follows the efforts of one Rabbi Lowe of Prague who, desiring a servant, creates a robot using clay. Of course as in Frankenstein, things go terribly wrong. There's more on this early landmark film here.

"The Mechanical Man," an Italian film directed by Andre Deed was released a year later.

The master magician and escape artist Houdini starred in a few silent films. His "The Master Mystery" movie featured a robot in a prominent role. [Houdini's "The Master Mystery" movie robot]

Fritz Lang's 1927 silent masterpiece, "Metropolis, " introduced the female robot Futura. As the movie progressed the robot was transformed into a lookalike android of the story's heroine.

1930s

"Flash Gordon" brought robots to the screen with the Annilihants - Ming the Merciless's army of emotionless mechanical soldiers.

1940s

"The Undersea Kingdom," serial starred Gene Autry the popular Hollywood cowboy. Its basic storyline had to do with survivors of Atlantis. There weren't many survivors so they built robots to do all the heavy lifting. [Click here]

During 1939, Bela Lugosi's fifteen reel serial, "The Phantom Creeps" (the robot's name was "Killer") scared children into weeks of nightmares. It was often voted the scariest-looking robot ever made.

"King of the Rocketmen" featured a famous bullet-shaped robot design. This awkward tubular design went on to capture the fancy of second-rate producers and later dominated the low-budget movie and television shows of the Fifties. When the script called for a robot, one of these invariably made an appearance. [Tube robot]

1950s

As the technology

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