The Questor Tapes (1974)

Wonderful character development!

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

It was a very well done project for it's time and Robert Foxworth did a splendid job. Any criticism of his performance is totally unwarranted and it was a touching performance. His interpretation of the Android was touching and the humanity and feeling he brought to the character was memorable.The end of the movie is heartwarming and it has stayed a cult classic for us fans for decades. I remember being mesmerized by the special effects at the time even though they would seem dated by today's standards. The most important thing is the feeling brought to the characters and the relationship between Questor and humans.It is sad that it has not been made available sooner on DVD so that fans of today can enjoy it with hindsight.Hopefully the DVD I ordered will arrive soon and bring back all the fond memories. Lew Ayers did a find job also as did Mike Farell.

On one occasion I found a large movie collector that would put this movie on a disc in a common format and send to the buyer without guarantee. The cost was I recall about twenty dollars. I will add more information if I can again find it. This is a moderate movie but interesting. There are a number of large movie collectors that have most of the old movies that are not generally available. I am always looking for a few that are hard to find. Most of these movies were not well respected and hence are not in production due to economics. I think in some cases a major actor made a bad movie and wishes to suppress the release of it.

Questor was the latest in a line of androids, his predecessor being the scientist who built him as a replacement (his own existence being finite). He was one of a long line of androids put on earth ages ago to "help us along". He escapes the center in which he is built in order to find his creator and complete his programming. John Vernon (best known as Dean Wormer from Animal House) played government agent Darro, who's mission was to find and facilitate the destruction of the "dangerous" Questor. Questor succeeds in finding Vaslovik, who is too far gone to be of assistance. Close behind, Darro learns the truth, and fools the government into thinking that Questor has been destroyed.

This is one of my favorite films of all times.An android is assembled from the instructions left behind by its designer. The team assembling it is made up of his assistant and a group of other cybernetics experts. The technology is highly advanced and no one is greatly surprised when the android fails to "activate" - just disappointed.Later on in the film more comes out about the origins of the android and its "purpose" as defined by its creator. The conflict of the film is between man and machine, and man versus man. Perhaps the standard motivations apply. There is a very large-scale allegory as a backdrop to the main story that is eventually revealed. The android and its creator are not all that they seem. They are more than they appear to be.The assistant is loyal, dutiful, and moral. Almost all the other people are not.There is plenty of action as the assistant and his eventual partner struggle to do the right thing, and just survive.There is nothing camp about the film and it is in no way a spoof of anything. It does have a lot of futuristic technology, at least in the lab. Pretty much what we would expect of the 21st century. Except maybe for magnetic "computer tapes": too old-fashioned today! They are already becoming an anachronism.If you liked any of these films you will probably also like this one: Westworld, Futureworld, The Stepford Wives, or The Terminator - then you will probably like this one.