From: jack.bohn64@gmail.com   
      
   On Wednesday, October 5, 2022 at 12:03:59 PM UTC-4, Paul S Person wrote:   
   > On Tue, 4 Oct 2022 09:41:01 -0700 (PDT), Jack Bohn    
   >  wrote:    
   >    
   > >We begin with "Metropolis," and the robot Maria, or, as some pedants say,   
   "false Maria." Some call her Hel, after the idea (cut in some shorter   
   versions) that she is modeled after the dead woman of that name whom the   
   scientist loved, but who had    
   married the industrialist instead. (Other names include the german   
   "Maschinemensch," in the '70s some used the term "robotrix," probably now   
   deprecated.) TCM points out that in modern terms this is a sexbot; I suppose   
   the concept of that goes back at    
   least to the Greek myth of Pygmalion and Galatea. In between then and now was   
   the 19th Century "Tales of Hoffman", where a man mistook a dancing automaton   
   of the time for a real woman.   
      
   > IIRC, the Mad Scientist Rotwang explicitly states that the robot is    
   > "Hel reborn" or something similar.   
      
   There are some questions his boss is choosing not to ask to maintain their   
   working relationship.   
      
   > >Then we come to robots that only approximate the shape of a human. This is   
   where I put Maria, about 0.3, a bit below her "grandson," C-3P0. Those   
   exterior pistons on his arms really do a lot, plus, in her movie, Maria is   
   magically given the appearance    
   of "real Maria," allowing her to be played by Brigitte Helm out of the suit,   
   and somehow in physical interactions with her no one notices she is hundreds   
   of pounds of unyielding metal. (I almost wrote "cold, unyielding metal," but I   
   realized she excited    
   a crowd of men to carry her off on their shoulder with a dance the gyrations   
   of which would have taxed her motors, and may have heated her to be warm or   
   even hot to the touch. It takes a lot of engineering to stay within the narrow   
   range of human body    
   temperature.)   
      
   > She is transformed in a scene which some have tagged as the granddaddy    
   > of all Mad Scientist Laboratory Scenes. No magic involved, just really    
   > advanced science. And, for its day, some impressive effects work.   
      
   Well, he's not averse to a pentagram or two...   
      
   > >Robby is the first I heard of a designer disguising the shape of the human   
   operator. The operators' heads (there were two in alternating shifts, not   
   counting Marvin Miller who supplied the voice, although effects technician   
   Eddie Fisher (not that one)    
   wore the suit in building it, the Screen Actors Guild decided that since Robby   
   had lines, it had to have a member play it, Frankie Carpenter and Frankie   
   Darrow got the job) the operators' head was just above Robby's chest plate,   
   and they looked out from    
   between the voice light tubes. (Argon and mercury vapor? Check. With high   
   voltage electricity? Check. In fragile glass tubes? Check. Inches from your   
   operator's face? CHECK!) I want to set this at the midpoint. Well, just below   
   the midpoint, with his "   
   brother" the Robot from "Lost in Space" just above. Either Robby at 0.49 and   
   the Robot at 0.51 or make the difference between them a round 10 milliislands,   
   and take us to three digits 0.495 and 0.505.   
      
   > Who says actors can't be brave? Or stupid, depending on your point of    
   > view.   
      
   I'm not normally into personalities, but I decided to try to gracefully   
   namecheck the all actors in the tin suits.   
   Oops, excuse me while I rewrite the next post...   
      
   --    
   -Jack   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)