The Creation of the Humanoids

The Creation of the Humanoids
Directed by	Wesley Barry (billed as Wesley E. Barry)
Produced by	Wesley Barry Edward J. Kay
Written by	Jay Simms
Starring	Don Megowan Erica Elliot Frances McCann Don Doolittle George Milan Dudley Manlove
Cinematography	Hal Mohr
Editing by	Ace Herman (as Leonard W. Herman)
Distributed by	Emerson Film Enterprises
Release date(s)	3 July 1962
Running time	84 min
Country	USA
Language	English

The Creation of the Humanoids is a 1962 American science fiction film directed by Wesley Barry and starring Don Megowan, Erica Elliot, Frances McCann, Don Doolittle and Dudley Manlove. The film has no relation to Jack Williamson's novel The Humanoids but is based on an original screenplay written by Jay Simms.^[1]

In a post nuclear war society, robots have become a common sight as humanity suffers from a decreasing birthrate and is dependant on their everyday assistance. A fanatical organization of humans tries to prevent the robots from becoming citizens with equal rights. Meanwhile, a scientist experiments on human replicas with genuine emotions and memories.

Plot

The Earth is suffering the after-effects of nuclear war; the human birthrate has fallen so much that the population is declining. The "humanoids" of the title are advanced robots created to serve human beings. These humanoids are built with artificial, ultra-logical personalities. A quasi-racist human organization called the "Order of Flesh and Blood" opposes the robots, whom the order disparagingly refers to as "clickers". The order doesn't even stop at illegal violent actions, including bomb attacks.

Scientist Dr. Raven (Doolittle) has developed a technique called the "Thalamic Transplant", which transfers the memories and personality of a recently deceased human to a robotic replica of that person. The human-humanoid hybrids that result awake from the process unaware of their own transformation, although their human personalities are shut off between 4 and 5 A.M. when they report back to the humanoids. As Dr. Raven describes the transformation, "We perform a 'thalamic transplant', but that's a misnomer. We draw off everything that makes a man peculiar to himself. His learning, his memory: these, inter-reacting, constitute his personality, his philosophy, capability and attitude. The human brain is merely the vault in which the man is stored." With the help of Dr. Raven, the humanoids are secretly replacing humans who recently died with these replicas.

One of the leaders of the "Order of Flesh and Blood", Capt. Kenneth Cragis (Megowan), meets Maxine, and although she opposes to the order, they both fall in love. In the end they discover that they too are humanoids with minds of deceased persons – ironically, the "real" Maxine had died in an bomb attack which the order had intended to harm the robots with. Dr. Raven, a once-human duplicate himself, explains that Cragis and Maxine are humanoids of the next generation: They are able to reproduce and thereby replace infertile humanity.

Production

The titles give no information on the composer of the music score which consists mainly of spherical singing female voices. Instead, a title reading "Electronic Harmonics by I.F.M." is shown.

Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide^[2], Phil Hardy's The Aurum Film Encyclopedia – Science Fiction^[3] and Michael Weldon's The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film^[4] state 75 minutes as the film's original running time. The US DVD release by Dark Sky runs 84 minutes (as did the now unavailable VHS release by Something Weird Video). If this difference is due to an error, or if shorter versions with footage missing were released, is not known.

The film is often described as Andy Warhol's favorite, though it is unknown whether Warhol said this or even saw the movie.^[5]

The film is mentioned in Susan Sontag's 1965 essay on science fiction films entitled The Imagination of Disaster.^[6]

Reception

"Slow, stagy cheapie" – Leonard Maltin.^[2]

"This interesting film […] is badly let down by Simms' over-talkative script." – The Aurum Film Encyclopedia – Science Fiction.^[3]

"Incredible little film" – Michael Weldon, The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film.^[4]

"[…] a highly underrated gem of considerable worth [and] a perfect illustration of how science-fiction should work as a literature of ideas rather than of special effects." – Richard Scheib, Moria – The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review.^[7]

"Yes, it is ham-handedly, painfully un-subtle, but making a film with this message in the early 1960s, with the storms of the civil rights movement still raging, required considerable courage on the part of the filmmakers." – Erick Harper, DVD Verdict.^[8]

"Undeniably sophisticated as science fiction, The Creation of the Humanoids is one weird movie." – Glenn Erickson, DVD Savant.^[9]

See also

• Mind uploading
• Mind uploading in fiction

References

1. ^ The opening credits read: "Story and screenplay by Jay Simms".
2. ^ ^{a b} Leonard Maltin's 2008 Movie Guide, Signet/New American Library, New York, 2007.
3. ^ ^{a b} Phil Hardy (ed.), The Aurum Film Encyclopedia – Science Fiction, Aurum Press, London, 1991.
4. ^ ^{a b} Michael Weldon: The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film, Plexus, London 1989.
5. ^ Fujiwara, Chris (2004-05-01). "Intonation Please: The Creation of the Humanoids". In Rickman, Gregg. The Science Fiction Film Reader. Limelight. p. 153. ISBN 9780879109943. http://my.fit.edu/~rosiene/fujiwara.pdf. Retrieved 2010-08-30. "No source, as far as I can determine, is known for this tidbit, but whether or not Warhol made such a statement is less important than what it means as a characterization of the film." 
6. ^ Susan Sontag: The Imagination of Disaster, in Commentary magazine, October 1965, New York.
7. ^ Online review at Moria – The Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review.
8. ^ Online review at DVD Verdict.
9. ^ Online review at DVD Savant.

External links

• The Creation of the Humanoids at the Internet Movie Database