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Tobor the Great | 
 enlarge | Director: Lee Sholem
Actors: Charles Drake, Karin Booth, Billy Chapin, Taylor Holmes, Steven Geray
Studio: Lions Gate
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy New: $7.81
You Save: $7.17 (48%)
New (40) Used (12) from $7.81
Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 24368
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Dolby, Dvd-video, Full Screen, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: Unrated
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 1
Running Time: 77 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.3 x 0.6
MPN: 23283
UPC: 031398232834
EAN: 0031398232834
ASIN: B0014Y4VQ0
Theatrical Release Date: September 1, 1954
Release Date: May 13, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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Product Description
Two brilliant scientists create a robot for the purpose of exploring deep space but the mechanical marvel is stolen by enemy agents . Only the scientists' psychic link with the robot can save it from being reprogrammed for evil purposes.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY/FANTASY Rating: NR UPC: 031398232834 Manufacturer No: 23283
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 Tobor the Great August 22, 2008
G.Wells (Northern Ohio)
Excellent 1950's B&W sci-fi. I haven't seen "TOBOR the GREAT" since I was a child. What a classic!
 Definitely a kid's flick August 21, 2008
Timothy P. Scanlon (Hyattsville, MDUSA)
Believe it or not, I saw this film when it was almost new. Yeah, that long ago. But I always remembered it as I thought the "robot spelled backward" thing was clever. So, after all these years, I needed to get it.
First, expect to see some familiar faces. Charles Drake played the sherrif in "It Came from Outer Space. He's the star of this one.
William Shallert was the bad guy in "Man from Planet X" and a diplomat of sorts in Star Trek's "The Trouble with Tribbles."
Henry Kulky went on to bigger roles (!) in Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea after this gem.
And Lyle Talbot you may remember from some Ed Wood classics.
Taylor Holmes (Professor Nordstrom), probably NOT a familiar face, was among the least articulate of any actor I've ever heard. Anyway...
As to the robot costume, I never cease to be amazed as to how unimaginative we were back then. All robots were anthropoid. Later, in "2001: A Space Odyssey," the robot WAS the ship. THAT was creativity.
In short, I wish we'd have been more creative.
On the other hand, I'd love to have that costume for a party!
And there was a mixture of sci fi and the occult: Professor Nordstrom who'd created Tobor made him ESP sensitive. I could have done without that.
In any case, it was pretty far from realistic. In Nordstrom's house, he had a Tobor preview. The press and everyone there was to have security clearance to enter. Afterwards, Ralph Harrison (Drake) noticed that, golly gee, there were 13 chairs but only 12 had been invited.
Everyone had a security clearance, and no one noticed until they had all left that someone was there who shouldn't have been?
Then the bad guys decided to break into Nordstrom's house to get the secret of the robot. They just had to wait until it got dark. Then, when they were attempting entry, they made more noise than the 4th of July fireworks! Then Nordstrom, Drake and the others there--he had a staff member who kept on referring to "gadgetses" who had a kind of Sam Jaffe aura--treated catching them almost like it was a Halloween stunt.
And Tobor "him"self was more warm and cuddly than Lassie!
In any case, no, it wasn't a really well done script. I guess it may have seemed that way when, what, was I in a stroller?
Then every rocket scene was done with some stock V2 footage. V2? Couldn't they even have faked something better than that?
Well, like I said. It's a kid's flick. In that sense, it was a letdown after upwards of a half century.
 Tobor the Average May 24, 2008
A. Gammill (West Point, MS United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
My friend and fellow sci-fi fanatic have our own personal "wish lists" of films we've always wanted to see. Well, Tobor has topped my list for the past 20 years or so. It's almost never shown on t.v., and even the VHS tape of the film has been out-of-print for years. So it was with great enthusiasm that I greeted this long-overdue DVD release.
Unfortunately, like so many things that we build up in our minds to be great, the reality is that Tobor isn't really the "lost classic" I'd hoped it would be. Oh, it's hardly a bad film. The production values are first-rate, especially the expansive lab set wherein the title character is created. And I was impressed that there was some real SCIENCE in this science-fiction: The idea of using artificial beings to test the dangers of space travel is a fine idea.
Where Tobor misses the mark is with the ludicrous plot device of the robot creating an ESP-based link with its inventor's grandson, which then proves useful when the boy is kidnapped by criminals intent on stealing the mechanical man. It's as if the writers couldn't decide if their story was a kid's movie, or serious sci-fi. With about equal amounts of both, the result is not that satisfying.
But if you like 50's sci-fi, you may still find this a worthwhile purchase. It does retain much of the "gee whiz" innocence of the era, and I'm sure the nostalgia factor is high for anyone growing up during that time.
For a much better boy-and-his-robot picture, check out THE INVISIBLE BOY, available as a bonus feature with Forbidden Planet (Two-Disc Special Edition).
Tobor flies again. September 10, 2007
afroice (Chicago,IL)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
the movie is excellent and I look forward to enjoying it for many years,and I hope to keep it around for posterity.
One of the best kids robot b-movies. October 15, 2006
R. Christenson (Pine, CO USA)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Tobor is Robot spelled backwards. Invented by a scientist (Taylor Holmes) for the space program, Tobor is befriended by the scientist's grandson, played by Billy Chapin (who appeared in the Christmas episode of Dragnet, the one in which someone stole a statue of Jesus from the church, and is the brother of Lauren Chapin, who played Kathy on Father Knows Best). But foreign spies are after Tobor to turn his technology to evil uses.
This is one of the best Robot movies for kids from the 1950s, though not quite as entertaining as the Disney movie The Invisible Boy, which featured Robby The Robot from Forbidden Planet. The name Tobor was used again for a robot in a more recent movie - Sharkboy and Lavagirl.
The cast includes some of the most familiar and prolific B-move character actors including Robert Shayne, who portrayed Inspector Henderson on the Superman TV series; William Schallert, best known as Patty Duke's dad on The Patty Duke Show, with 300 film & TV credits - and still appearing in films today, like Sweetzer (2006); and Lyle Talbot, who appeared in everything from The Clyde Mystery (1931) to Newhart, including Plan Nine From Outer Space, Batman and Robin, and 42nd Street.
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