 Ro-Man and the Billion Bubble Machine Robot Monster (1953) was a science fiction film made on a low budget, that has since become a defining example of "bad" movies. This film often vies with Plan 9 from Outer Space in science fiction fandom for the title of "worst science fiction movie" (or any other film genre); it is known for being so unbelievably awful, it is seen by audiences as one of the funniest bad movies ever made.
The plot centers around a single family of five human beings who happen to be the sole survivors of a disaster that wipes out the entire human race. An evil, indestructible alien called "Ro-Man" (whose costume, a gorilla costume with a sea-diving helmet, has become legendary in itself), has used his "Calcinator" death ray to destroy humanity, but because one single human family survived the holocaust (they happen to have developed a miraculous immunity to the death ray), Ro-Man's invasion of the world is not successful. He spends the entire movie wandering around the wilderness trying to find the last human family; but he finds himself developing a sexual attraction towards the nubile teenage girl (who looks somewhat older than most teenagers) among the survivors.
 Ro-Man with a human survivor The film's poor special effects include stock footage from the silent movie One Million B.C. spliced into the film. The famous "Billion Bubble Machine" (used in the film as Ro-Man's communication device for reporting to his superior) is given prominent notice in the film's opening credits.
Filmed on a low budget (estimated at $50,000), the film takes place in famous Bronson Canyon, the site of innumerable motion pictures and TV settings. The soundtrack was composed by none other than Elmer Bernstein.
The poor quality of the movie gave rise to a long-lived rumor within the film industry that the poor reception from audiences caused director Phil Tucker to attempt suicide. His attempted suicide was actually due to depression and a dispute with the film's distributor, who had alledgedly refused to pay Tucker his contracted percentage of the film's profits. There are further claims that Tucker was blacklisted within the film industry, though he did go on to direct a number of other productions, including the 1960 film The Cape Canaveral Monsters.
Dissenting opinions
A small but vocal minority of film buffs and movie critics have suggested that rather than scorn and ridicule, films like Robot Monster are deserving of respect and sympathy. They note that in the case of this film, the director and producer honestly believed they were creating a terrifying tale of science fiction to entertain their audiences. At the time of the film's release, science fiction films had not yet been relegated to the status of "kiddie entertainment" (as was the case a decade later when Santa Claus Conquers the Martians was produced), and the production crew of Robot Monster did not abandon their project, even though they had to work with ultra-low budget props and effects. One sympathetic review of the film notes:
- "Ro-man's agonizing identity crisis is of course hilarious. 'I cannot, but I must' he wails. But it's also fairly unique among movie monsters. When he cries out to heaven, searching for the justice in his existence, he's not simply one modest monster expressing his angst. He represents all misunderstood movie monsters, the hated, hunted, and unreasonably feared. Ro-man is pretty much Monsterus Basicus, as basicus as they get — he fights the hero, carries off the girl, and packs a death ray. We viewers tend to project all kinds of motivations and attitudes onto our favorite uncommunicative monsters — the best, like Christopher Lee's Mummy reward us with expressive behavior we understand. When Ro-man moans his lot in life, he's pretty symbolic of his other monster brethren throughout the genre. If Antonioni can express the essences of human existence through minimalist anti-dramas, why can't Phil Tucker? Robot Monster is about as minimal as you can get. Perhaps this is why ol' Ro-man is such a beloved character." — Glenn Erickson, DVD Savant (Web-based magazine) article on Robot Monster
However, these minority opinions are not widely shared among the majority of movie audiences who seek simple thrills and entertainment, and who leap at the chance to laugh at a hilariously bad movie. As a tribute to this more common opinion of the movie, Mystery Science Theater 3000 featured it as one of its early movie-mocking episodes. In this aspect, Robot Monster is likely to remain one of the cornerstones of the standard by which "bad movies" are measured.
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