Matrixston
Wow! Such a good movie.
Solemplex
To me, this movie is perfection.
Raymond Sierra
The film may be flawed, but its message is not.
JohnHowardReid
Forrest Tucker (Jerry Barton), Carol Hughes (Betty Lambert), Evelyn Brent (Maude Lambert), Emmett Vogan (Doc Hughes), William Halligan (George P. Lambert), George Sherwood (Jones), Thornton Edwards (Pedro), I. Stanford Jolley (Karl), Stanley Price (Otto), Budd Buster (Pappy Clayton), Paul Scott (Colonel Lemon), Jack Lescoulie (Captain North), Billy Curtis (Judge Gildersleeve), Joe Hartman (would-be helper).Director: WILLIAM BEAUDINE. Original screenplay: Martin Mooney. Photography: Jack Greenhalgh. Film editor: Robert Crandall. Production manager: Peter Jones. Assistant director: Edward Montford. Sound recording: Buddy Myers. Producer: Jed Buell. Executive producer: George R. Batcheller.Copyright 23 May 1941 by Producers Releasing Corp. No recorded New York opening. U.S. release: 9 May 1941. 7 reels. 64 minutes. Television title: ROBOT PILOT.SYNOPSIS: The inventor of a remote-controlled airplane tries to sell his device to a big manufacturer. COMMENT: Aside from a long and extremely boring scene with Thornton Edwards giving exhaustively stupid directions to our hapless heroines, this little "B" emerges as a surprisingly pleasant romantic comedy (leavened by an extraneous bit of action drama right near the end). Martin Mooney has concocted a reasonably novel, clever story-line, peopled by attractive characters (including the inventor — a pleasingly sizable role for Emmett Vogan) who can handle dialogue with a bit of sparkle. By P.R.C. standards, production values are high. Beaudine's direction is at his most competent level. He draws interesting performances from all his players (except over-hammy Mr. Edwards) and makes good use of real locations.
talisencrw
Though I greatly dislike dogs (I'm a cat person), I have always admired their loyalty--definitely an underrated trait in the fickle, Johnny-come-lately environment of 2016 society. This film (which was titled 'Robot Pilot' in my Mill Creek 50-pack called 'Nightmare Worlds') started rather slowly, and I didn't think I was going to end up liking it. Though director Beaudine had made a ton of films (he has over 370 directing credits on IMDb), I had only previously seen his 'The Old Fashioned Way', from 1934 and starring W.C. Fields, which I had absolutely loved. So I was patient with it, even though Thornton Edwards' character 'Pedro' was crassly demeaning to Mexicans, and many early sequences that featured him were glaringly awful. I had also loved Evelyn Brent, who had IMHO been an outstandingly sexy and provocative presence in two of Josef von Sternberg's silent masterpieces ('Underworld' and 'The Last Command'), and it intrigued me to see her this much after those glory days.I am glad that I stuck with the film. The last two-thirds more than made up for the picture's slow start, and ended up combining a then-topical plot line of enemy foreign agents stealing an experimental plane with a fun, enjoyable and entertainingly comical subplot 'morality tale' of the airplane manufacturer's spoiled daughter being made a prisoner for stealing gasoline and getting her comeuppance. Beaudine's taut direction cleverly brought together the disparate threads into a satisfying whole--and the hilarious ending made my belly ache from laughter. If you can handle B-pictures from the 30's and 40's and the aforementioned slow start, it's well worth your time and you won't be disappointed.
classicsoncall
"Robot Pilot" starts out like it might be positioning itself as an espionage thriller, but unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your disposition), never even comes close. There are probably more comic elements present than might have been originally intended, so if you approach the flick as a romantic comedy, you might be more pleasantly surprised. Even so, you'll have to endure some pretty stiff acting from then newcomer Forrest Tucker in the lead role of Jerry Barton, a pilot who's half of a team that's developed a remote control device for guiding aircraft. The first attempt at showcasing the new technology for the Lambert Aircraft Company ends in a nosedive, so with Jerry and Doc Williams (Emmett Vogan) sent off packing, they arrive at their desert cabin to start all over again.Most of the rest of the story consists of Barton teaching the women a lesson after catching them with some gasoline taken from a government fuel shed. Make that teaching Betty Lambert (Carol Hughes) a lesson, as her Aunt Maude (Evelyn Brent) eventually learns that Barton is in cahoots with Betty's father to take the wind out of her sails. Throughout the story, it appears that Aunt Maude is having the best time of it all, while casting a romantic eye in the direction of good old Doc.The espionage angle is brought back to the forefront when a Lambert test bomber is hijacked by veteran character actor I. Stanford Jolley. That plane crashes, but it brings Jolley hobbling along until he arrives at Doc's remote cabin. Think about it for a moment, and I know these old films relied on this kind of coincidence, but how is it that Betty and Maude, and then Lambert employee Karl (Jolley), make their way clear across the country from 'back East', and wind up virtually within a mile or two of a remote cabin in a desert, which just happens to be where former Lambert employee Barton is holed up with his partner. Sort of defies all the laws of probability, yet it happens all the time in flicks of the era.I guess that's why the presence of Billy Curtis in the finale is so surprising and bewildering. As the traveling midget circuit Judge, Curtis slaps the girls with a twenty dollar fine for 'stealing' twenty gallons of gasoline, prompting Aunt Maude to directly deadpan the camera - "Did you see what I saw?" I think it might have been just another way of asking the viewer what they thought of the picture.
Leslie Howard Adams
Because of a back-log of war orders, the Lambert Airplane factory is unable to try-out the robot-controlled plane developed by test pilot Jerry Barton (Forrest Tucker) and weather bureau observer, "Doc" Williams (Emmett Vogan). The pair lie in wait for factory owner George B. Lambert (William Halligan)while he is playing golf with his spoiled débutant daughter, Betty (Carol Hughes), and send up their radio-controlled model where Lambert cannot fail to notice it. But Jerry sets the model down in a pool of water and douses Betty, in a P.R.C. version of a "cute meeting." Hey, M-G-M has some cute meetings worse than this one, none which provided a lobby card showing skin-up-past the skivvies. In the scene, Carol Hughes is playing golf wearing a short white skirt---real, real short---and Forrest Tucker has picked her up...and the skirt has risen and there is a shot showing most of the bottom half of Miss Hughes' fancy panties and very shapely rear end. The still photographer caught it, and it was used as in inset on the one-sheet poster, the press book cover and on the Title Card of the 12x14 lobby card set, and also as a full scene on the 8th card of the set. The Breen Office also caught it, and P.R.C. had to hire an artist to come in and draw a white skirt extending well past Miss Hughes knees, and that is what is currently shown on the one-sheet, the press book cover and the 12x14 title card. But the Breen censor must have missed seeing lobby card number eight in the set, and Miss Hughes is still shown on it in all of her well-dimpled glory. And a mighty nice card it is. No, of course it's not for sale.Anyway, old dad Lambert authorizes Jerry and Doc to test their remote-controlled robot pilot on one of his planes for the Army. Jerry flies the plane up, bails out and Doc is to land the plane using his remote control box. But foreign agents, wishing to hamper the development of the robot pilot, have tampered with the controls, and Doc is unable to pull the plane out of a spin, and it crashes. Lambert fires Jerry and he and Doc return to the remote weather outpost to do more work on their invention.Cute Meeting number Two occurs when Betty, on her way to Hollywood to be a movie star, is driving across the desert with her Aunt Maude (Evelyn Brent) and runs out of gas,and Betty borrows some gas belonging to the U.S. government, and is caught by Jerry. He decides to place her under arrest, pending the arrival, in a week's time, of the U.S. Marshal. But, alas, nothing happens in this scene to incur the wrath of the Breen office, unless they made Martin Mooney write in Aunt Maude to ensure Betty and Jerry would have a full-time chaperon for the week, although Evelyn Brent is not the run-of-the-mill chaperon type. Patsy Kelly or Mary Treen must have been unavailable...thank goodness.Anyway, Jerry makes Betty and Aunt Maude do housework and chores, and seeing any character played by Evelyn Brent doing housework is, if not cute, unique. And the spies steal a plane, crash in the desert, show up and make some trouble, and try to get away in a car in which Betty and Aunt Maude are hiding in the trunk and some more stuff.
