1950s Sci-Fi Hysteria | Robot Monster (1953)

In December 1953, it was reported that Tucker tried to commit suicide at the Hollywood Knickerbocker Hotel. He was only saved because he had written a suicide letter and sent it to a newspaper, which sent a reporter and some detectives to the hotel. He was discovered with a pass in his pocket from the psychopathic ward of a veteran's hospital. In the letter, Tucker said he had not been paid for Robot Monster and was unable to get a job. Robot Monster's music score was composed by Elmer Bernstein, who also composed Cat Women of the Moon the same year, and later, the more prestigious The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven, The Ten Commandments, Michael Jackson's Thriller music video, and Ghostbusters. Bernstein recalled he was stuck in a period where he was "greylisted" because of his left-wing politics and only offered minor films, but said he enjoyed the challenge of trying to help a film. Ordung stated that Bernstein scored the film with an eight-piece orchestra, and Capitol Records expressed interest in producing an album. One critic told how he had watched the film as a teenager when it was first shown on television in 1954 and said it was "one of Elmer Bernstein's best very early scores." Robot Monster's special effects include stock footage from One Million B.C. (1940), Lost Continent (1951), and Flight to Mars (1951); a brief appearance of the Rocketship X-M (1950) spaceship boarding; and a matte painting of the ruins of New York City from Captive Women (1952).