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Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine
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| Year: |
1965
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Director: |
Norman Taurog
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| Stars: |
Vincent Price, Frankie Avalon, Dwayne Hickman, Susan Hart, Jack Mullaney, Fred Clark, Patti Chandler, Mary Hughes, Salli Sachse, Luree Holmes, Sue Hamilton, Laura Nicholson, Marianne Gaba, China Lee, Issa Arnal, Deanna Lund, Leslie Summers, Sally Frei
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| Genre: |
Comedy, Science Fiction |
| Rating: |
  6 (from 2 votes) |
| Review: |
There is a young woman (Susan Hart) walking along the street causing no small amount of consternation. She is hit by a car, but the car is worse off than she is as she walks on without a scratch, then she knocks over a couple of bank robbers who take shots at her, but the bullets simply bounce off and she goes on her way. Eventually, she enters a cafeteria where would-be secret agent Craig Gamble (Frankie Avalon) has just had his date walk out on him - well, what did he expect taking her for a cheese sandwich instead of a restaurant meal? But this mystery woman is very interested in getting to know him...
A.I.P. comedies were not best known for their wit and sophistication, witness the Beach Party series if you don't believe me, but that doesn't mean they could not be entertaining. Based on a story by A.I.P. studio boss James H. Nicholson, who was also the lucky chap who was Susan Hart's husband at the time, the first Dr Goldfoot film was a spoof on both the James Bond spy series and the kind of science fiction and horror movies that this company were churning out as well, so who better to play the scheming doctor than their regular bad guy, Vincent Price?
Price could be a lot of fun in horrors, but roles which gave him a chance to show off his sense of humour were just as amusing, and here he sends up his customary villainous turns with undisguised relish. We're none too sure about why Goldfoot - who wears golden Aladdin slippers with bells on their toes - wants to create a line of robot women other than it will give him the chance to be richer than he already is when he marries them off to the world's millionaires, but how much more rich does he need to be? He lives in a mansion and has enough cash to build a complex of computers and contraptions, after all.
Craig is not the actual target of the fembot, known both as Number 11 and Diane, as she has made a mistake and hitched up with the wrong person. Her real target is millionaire Todd Armstrong (played not by Todd Armstrong as you might expect, but by Dwayne Hickman), and soon she has seduced and married him as per Goldfoot's instructions, so she can get all his money. Meanwhile, Craig is determined to win her back, or he is until he attempts to drag her home and her hand comes off in his - that's right, Craig, your dream girl is one hundred percent android.
Funnily enough, the ladies get pretty short shrift here, with the knockout Hart the only actress with more than a couple of lines. The rest of the fembots say nothing, and Number 11 is frequently punished in a too-harsh manner for her mistakes. The only other one who speaks is a malfunction, which in a gag typical of this film's ludicrousness, has accidentally been made a lesbian, complete with short hair, sensible clothes and a man's voice. Not that the men are any better portrayed, Goldfoot aside they are dunderheads each and every one, with some laughter-inducing goofing around not only from Avalon and Hickman, but the elsewhere-underused Jack Mullaney as Igor the blundering sidekick as well. It's relentlessly stupid stuff, but carried out with such verve that it's easy to be won over. All this and a catchy title song by The Supremes too. Music by Les Baxter.
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| Reviewer: |
Graeme Clark
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