Attack of the Robots (1966)

Absolutely Brilliant!

A Disappointing Continuation

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

For some reason the synopsis of this movie on many cites and some of the reviews is wrong talking about things like mechanical monsters to kill people with Type O blood. It's like they write the review from the synopsis and haven't seen the movie or can't remember it. The movie is about Interpol recruiting a retired spy to investigate crimes committed by strange dark skinned men and women. The plot thickens as he learns these crimes are committed by kidnapped men and women with Rhesis Zero blood (Neither - or +) who have been turned into Robots. The movie is slow at times but has it's good points. Overall I enjoy it and have seen it many times. Most of the prints out there are washed out and edited, but Gaumont in France sells a pristine copy (in French with subtitles called Cartes Sur Table the original French name. I have a copy of that one as well as older copies. The film was supposedly shot in color and released in B&W, I would like to see the color version.

One of the better Jess Franco films stars Eddie Constantine sending up his tough guy image as a detective chasing the source of mind controlled people carrying out the whims of a mad man. Constantine is clearly having a good time and it carries over to the audience. To be certain the film isn't super spectacular, its limited of budget but often dated, but at the same time there is a certain charm. Its an amusing way to spend an hour and a half if you should run across it.6 out of 10.(Though try and find a letter boxed version the one I saw was a terrible pan and scan one that chopped off all sorts of things on the sides of the picture.)

Attack of the Robots (1966) ** (out of 4) Spanish sci-fi/spoof about a mad scientist who creates some robots to kill off those with Type-O blood. Like many early films from director Jess Franco, this one here is technically well made but, as with the others, it offers nothing original and in the end it comes off rather slow and boring. We've seen this type of film so many times that this one here really doesn't have a single thing going for it.Also, to be fair, I must admit that I prefer Franco's work from the 1970s, which is another reason why I didn't care for this one as much as others.

I happened to catch this foreign-made film by accident, many years ago, when I was just a kid. It came on TBS some time after midnight, and I started watching since it had something to do with secret agents. Later on, the old man asked me what I was watching, and I told him that I wasn't sure but that "this guy" was pretty good."This guy" that was referred to was Eddie Constantine. At the time, I thought he was just some minor European actor appearing for probably the first or only time in this minor spy caper. What came across was a certain attitude behind the coarsened, roughhewn character, which let you know that the actor did not take himself or the material too seriously. Constantine's hero stolidly made his way through the plot, doggedly determined to get the job done while showing as little emotion or concern as possible, and winning the viewer over in the process.In the years since, I was surprised to learn that Eddie Constantine was born in the US, and eventually became a singing star in France during the late 1940s-early 1950s, before becoming a film star in 1953. Until the close of the 1960s, he played numerous detectives, secret agents, gangsters, etc., in a string of European (mostly French) action-adventures that were often shot in the fast-moving style of American B-pictures.ATTACK OF THE ROBOTS was made in 1966, when Constantine's stardom was coming to an end (he would still have a long career ahead of him as mostly a supporting player, until his death in 1993). If his mere presence could raise the level of this material, it would be interesting to see some of the other action films from his heyday. Unfortunately, with the advent of infomercials, and scarcity of old European-made films such as these, you won't be finding them on the late, late show any longer.In any event, it's a lesser spy film to be sure, but if you're a true fan of the genre you will find some entertainment value even with this. There is the usual fantastic plot, here a nefarious scheme in which the evil organization seeks to control people of a certain blood type. Hence, Interpol is called in and agent Al Pereira (Constantine) is on the case. Also, included in the plot are the requisite megalomaniacal villain (played by Fernando Rey, five years away from FRENCH CONNECTION), and a not-so-innocent heroine (played by sexy Sophie Hardy).All in all, ATTACK OF THE ROBOTS is reasonably enjoyable on its own terms, taken for nothing more than what it was meant to be. But it is also a good introduction to the unique persona of Eddie Constantine, who managed to make the film a good deal more enjoyable.