THE HUMAN DUPLICATORS (1964)

The humanoid (and very tall) alien Kolos approaches Earth on a mission to start a colony there in order to expand the Intergalactic Council's “galaxy domination” program. He teleports from his spaceship to Earth and visits Prof. Dornheimer at his isolated mansion where the scientist has been working in cybernetics to fix human deficiencies such as his niece Lisa’s blindness. Kolos forces him (and his two busty but silent female assistants) to turn his work to creating androids which could replicate any living being (now we would use the word "clone"). Meanwhile, police are stymied by a series of robberies of high-tech equipment by highly placed scientists. The latest incident involves Dr. Munson who arrives at work in what seems like a trance state, breaks into a room to steal material, and despite being shot at close range, escapes unharmed, his body found in a canyon miles away; it's discovered he was actually dead before the robbery. Glenn Martin of the National Intelligence Agency investigates. He talks to Dornheimer and meets Lisa, who has become suspicious of Kolos's presence. Later Glenn finds a way into Dornheimer's basement labs through a cave system and finds android figures of various scientists. Soon, not only have Dornheimer and his assistant Thor been duplicated, so has Glenn. Glenn's android is caught in a robbery attempt by fellow agent Gale Wilson, and his artificial arm is ripped off by a sliding door. The real Glenn is held prisoner with the real Dornheimer, and Thor has been duplicated over a dozen times to produce a small group of thugs under Kolos's command. When the duplicate Dornheimer starts ranting about building a master race, Kolos begins to question his assignment, especially when he realizes that he himself is an android.

Though this film does not have a good reputation—it's cheap looking and indifferently acted—the ideas behind it are interesting enough. It was influenced by Invasion of the Body Snatchers, though that movie's paranoid atmosphere isn't duplicated here, and includes spaceships, crime investigation, Nazi philosophy, and fisticuffs. Richard Kiel (pictured) is Kolos; we all know him as the tall alien in the classic Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man," as the tall caveman in EEGAH, and the tall villain Jaws in a couple of James Bond movies. His ability to act beyond being a hulking threat is often questioned by critics. Here, he reads his lines like a sleepy amateur, but he has said that he was following the dictates of the director, Hugo Grimaldi, sounding casually robotic. At any rate, it's his physical presence that is more important here and he's fine. The lead, George Nader, was a B-movie slice of beefcake who started acting in the early 1950s, and by this time his looks, if not his physique, were fading, as was any talent he had. He makes his character uninteresting and uninspiring. Years later, he came out as gay and wrote the first major gay SF novel, Chrome. Barbara Nichols, who specialized in blonde floozies with strong Brooklyn accents, is Gale; she's not a floozy here but she does have that Brooklyn accent, and her character is pleasingly different for a sidekick role like this. Dolores Faith is Lisa, George Macready is Dornheimer, and Hugh Beaumont (Ward Cleaver in Leave It to Beaver) has a small role as the NIA boss. The doc's mansion has the look of a TV movie version of a Hammer mansion; the caves beneath have a bit of a gothic look what with androids being kept in coffins. The small army of Thor duplicates is very effective, as is the ceramic shattering of some of the android faces. Released on a double bill with MUTINY IN OUTER SPACE (both featuring Dolores Faith and directed by Hugo Grimaldi). Not really recommended but painless matinee viewing with beer and popcorn. [YouTube]