Hitchcoc Review of The Colossus of New York

The Colossus of New York (1958)

Engaging, Though a Bit Out of the Formula

[7/10 · 25 June 2015]

This movie has some very intriguing implications. Of course, we have to take the medical advances and the technology as possible. Ross Martin is one of the world's greatest hopes for finding a way to feed the exploding population. On his way to accept what is probably the Nobel Prize (they change the name) he chases a little toy airplane, blown out of his son's hands by the wind, and is run over by a truck. His father, one of the foremost brain experts, working in tandem with his brother, manages to remove his brain and hook it up to machinery and ultimately to a robot that gives it mobility. He is a zealot and harsh, self-centered character, who feels that he gets to make the rules. He has never respected the other son and treats him like a small child. This man is himself an engineering genius who has contributed greatly to his late brother's success with little credit. What the "mad scientist" (which isn't really an accurate term) forgets is that the brain now lies in the head of an unfeeling machine. This leads to depression and thoughts of revenge. There is still a connection to the wife and the little boy, and when the brother begins to try to make his way into the family (with little success), jealousy gets the best of him and he commits fratricide. Instead of seeing himself as the salvation of the world, he begins to see humans as inferiors who need to be eliminated. He develops two abilities. One is the ability to connect with people (to locate them through ESP) and the second is a death ray which allows him to kill innocent people. He becomes overwhelmed with anger at the drop of a hat. His connection to the little boy is a serious factor.