The Invisible Boy Movie Review

A mathematically challenged little boy (“Three? Seventeen? Forty four? A hundred?” he responds to his father's quizzing him on how many 24ths there are in one quarter) is a disappointment to his father, keeper of the super-computer at the Stoneman Mathematical Institute. Dad takes the problem to the massive computer (“He's ten and can't even play a decent game of chess.”); said computer hypnotizes ten-year-old Timmy and teaches him the ins and outs of the game, so Timmy subsequently sandbags Dad at chess and wrangles a wish – he wants to play with Robby (Forbidden Planet) the Robot. Timmy quickly finds many uses for his new-found friend, including ordering the Robot to build him the biggest kite ever – which Timmy climbs upon for a flight above the trees. When Mom objects to this play, Timmy complains to Robby: “I wish there was some way she couldn't see me when I was having fun.” And the fun really begins when Robby makes it so. Timmy plays childish pranks on the adults (giggling while his parents smooch in bed, giving himself away) and whacking “that nasty Sidney,” a bigger boy who'd socked Timmy. The whole adventure turns devious when the super-computer uses Robby for evil purposes, with Timmy as a hostage. Charming boy-and-his-robot story with amusing dialogue and campy ‘50s computer plot; anything with Robby in it has to be a winner. Based on a story by Edmund Cooper.

1957 (G) 89m/C Richard Eyer, Diane Brewster, Philip Abbott, Harold J. Stone, Robert Harris; D: Herman Hoffman; W: Cyril Hume; M: Les Baxter. VHS MGM, FCT