The Human Duplicators (1965)

Captivating movie !

The acting in this movie is really good.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

I saw this film as an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and it is a movie that had potential, but just executed in a rather lame manner. However, considering this film was done in 1965, they probably did as good as they could with a low budget. Richard Kiel also gets to actually be on screen and not be in a costume like he was in, "The Phantom Planet", which is funny seeing as how during one portion of the film they actually played music from, "The Phantom Planet"! Another problem with the film is that it does not seem to know what it is as it is kind of all over the place. The film plays out like a spy movie, a science fiction film and there is a dash of horror too! They try action sequences, a bit of romance and other genres pop up and the story just never seems to know what it wants to do.The story has an alien dude getting his final instructions from his superiors as they instruct him to take over the earth and that if he fails that he will be destroyed. His first task on the planet is to go to this scientist that lives in an isolated mansion complete with a dungeon, to get help in his plans. The next thing we see is a man going to what looks like a motel, but is being played off as some sort of research facility and he steals some vital components from the place. The man is shot point blank, but with no effect! A mediocre agent starts investigating along with an annoying blond agent and he soon will learn that there is something strange going on at the mansion! Turns out the alien is manufacturing duplicates of humans and they are how he is going to take over the world! This made for a funny episode of MST3K as with a film of this type is going to have a lot of stuff to riff; however, that being said, the film's run time is listed at 100 minutes. That means a good deal was cut to fit the time constraints for the show as the movie's run time is actually longer than the show! That means it is really kind of hard to judge how much of the confusion comes from the film and how much comes from the fact that a lot of the film was left out. I mentioned earlier that the story did not really seem to know where it was going, but it could be clearer if I were to watch an unedited version. Still, it would not change the fact that the blond was annoying, the androids could take bullets, but their heads shattered like glass and Richard Kiel wore some rather corny outfits!So, I would actually be willing to watch this one without MST3K to see if some of my complaints with the plot would be cleared up in an uncut version. Besides, I like watching Richard Kiel being able to actually act rather than being covered up in a bulky monster costume or being dubbed and his real voice covered up. He was a pretty good actor and an all around nice guy from what I have heard so it is nice they let him actually perform here. There was also potential with the plot as it is a bit of a take on, "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", I actually think this one could have been a lot better had they actually added more horror to it. So not all bad, it had potential, but a lot of the time it played out rather lame. It almost seemed at times as if the agent in this film was in other films and that this just one in a series of films he had been featured in.

This movie actually came off as better to me than most people here think. It might be because there is this one line that's actually really clever. A character says, "Say something" and the guy literally says, "Something". It was nice to have a recognizable actor, Richard Kiel here. The film is still for the most part bad. The bad special effects are particularly noticeable. It really is funny to see these androids lose their body parts and see their faces literally fall apart. It managed to entertain me like that.Everyone acts like a robot in this. It ends up making more sense than most examples. It's still fairly poorly acted, particularly with how ALL the characters/actors do that. It probably could have been shorter too. When there's not much plot going on, it always drags on. This movie is about an alien who tries to replace people on Earth. There's not much motivation, so it's still skippable. *1/2

When a film's best special effect is the casting of a 7 foot tall giant (with a thick, inexpressive voice) as the main villain, the film is in trouble. And when the film's best actor is Hugh Beaumont, and it wastes him in a small supporting role, it has no choice but a destiny for eternal "B" movie status. Still "Human Duplicators" isn't really a "bad" movie. It's just kind of under-powered and under-budgeted. And compared to toxic wastes of film like "Pod People", "Beast Of Yucca Flats" or "Cave Dwellers", "Human Duplicators" is like spending an afternoon at the Louvre. It's typical of many of the movies that "Mystery Science Theater 3000" riffed on in Season 5 and 6 - mediocre, cheesy, 2nd rate, but presentable and at least mildly entertaining.Give the film creators credit for trying to put a novel spin on the old "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers"/"Colossus" themes by incorporating Cold War paranoia with the concept of a 'fifth column' of android impersonators. They took Kiel's stiff, inexpressive persona and tried to work with it by framing him as an cold, impassive alien and having all the actors playing the "android replacements" act the same way. (It's high school level theater technique of course, but at least it's a deliberate choice). They set most of the proceedings in and on the grounds of an elaborate old mansion (complete with secret passage and a dungeon) and loaded the sets with all the elaborate bric-a-brac, flocked wallpaper and ornate furniture they could stuff in it to keep the settings visually interesting. They tried to work in some 007 style suaveness and romance with a smug,smarmy hero (who actually seems to have some brains) and his Girl Friday type. There's even a fairly hot "blind" brunette running around the mansion and she's pleasant to look at (once you get past her clown outfits). The trouble is, of course, that none of this is enough. You can't pull off romantic scenes and witty war-between-the-sexes by-play when the Girl Friday has a nasal Jersey voice that hits the viewer like nails on a chalkboard. Kiel tries hard, but he doesn't have any charisma to back up his startling size and his lines sound like they've been wrung out of a wash cloth. The way the scenes are shot inside the mansion are dull and interesting - as Joel remarks in the MST coverage, "it's like a slow motion British bedroom farce" only without the humor, or the sex, or the comic timing. Most of the special effects are silly and unconvincing , especially in the "climactic" battle at the end of the movie where Kiel does battle with a bunch of android duplicates while the hero shines a "pulse lah-zer" on them to screw up their mechanical brains. The deus-ex-machina, er, sorry, "pulse lah-zer" looks like a Klieg light on wheels...you can tell that they just didn't have room in the budget or time in the schedule to make something credible looking or stage its use in a compelling way. Still, it's more professional looking and less cheesy than anything from the Corman factory or from Ed Wood, Larry Buchanan or Herschel Gordon Lewis. You could put this on during a 'science fiction' themed evening of movie watching and get a nostalgic chuckle out of it before you went on to the "hard stuff" with Boris Karloff and Lon Chaney. In spite of my complaints, no one involved with "Human Duplicators" has anything to be overly ashamed of. (As far as I know!) 4 stars out of 10

Richard Kiel really has to stop his testosterone injections. His mega bass voice still can't hide his acting skills or lack thereof.This one definitely falls into scifi B movie genre, but comes off really really cheap. I guess that gives it its charm. C'mon, someone hooked them up with a lot of dummy mannequins! Also, if you think Kolos frog voice is bad, George Nader's floozy's accent will haunt you in your sleep. She seems really far from Brooklyn. George Nader plays your typical hero with one liners always ready. Whenever he gets hurt in the film, I hope you cheer as loud as I did. Lisa (RAWRRR!) is one of the hottest blind babes in B movie history; well except for Mrs. Ellis (What a fiend you are!) in "Tormented". Hugh sure was cranky during this one; I'm guessing 'Beaver' was ending and he used that for motivation."Ah, Beaver. How's Beaver? What about HUGH? No one EVER asks how Hugh is!!"Watch this movie several times and is it just me, or is this one weird mamajama of a film? Also, Best Brains listed this as episode #420. 420, HMMMMMM????