Attack of the Robots

Attack of the Robots (1966)

Cartes sur table

Al Pereira, a wise-cracking superspy, investigates a series of assassinations being performed by ruthless killers with bronze skin and horn-rimmed glasses. The trail of these mindless automata leads him to the lair of a seductive villainess who has formulated a computer-powered plot to overthrow the governments of Europe. 'Cartes sur table' is at once an homage to classical Hollywood thrillers and a playful riff on the newly-popular James Bond films.

Date of release
1966-04-27
TMDB
5.4 / 10 (15)
Runtime
1h 32m
Genres
Comedy, Thriller, Science Fiction
Director
Jesús Franco

Casting

Interesting facts

Attack of the Robots is a 1966 spy film directed by Jesús Franco. The film stars Eddie Constantine as Al Pereira, a spy brought out of retirement to investigate a series of murders conducted by a robot-like army of people with black-framed glasses and strange darkened skin.

Production

Attack of the Robots was a co-production between the Madrid-based Hesperia Film and the Paris-based Cine Alliance and Spéva Films, the same companies that had previously signed to finance director Jesus Franco's film The Diabolical Dr. Z (1966). On February 23, 1965, the film companies signed to develop the film with actor Eddie Constantine.

Constantine was an American singer who moved to France in the 1950s and embarked on a career in acting, becoming a popular actor through his role as the secret agent Lemmy Caution in a series of spy films starting with La môme vert-de-gris (1953). Director Jesús Franco was not a fan of Constantine's acting or his films, stating the actor had "one of the world's most expressionless faces".

The film had a higher budget than the previous co-production, initially being budgeted at 24 million Spanish pesetas, the budget was eventually reduced to 19,860,000. In a document dated August 5, the cast was listed differently compared to the final product. Along with Constantine and actor Fernando Rey, two French actresses were included: Geneviève Cluny as Cynthia and Françoise Prévost as Lady Cecilia.

Filming began on October 18, 1965, in Alicante. It would continue into November with a 12-day shoot in Alicante, six days for filming in Estudios Ballesteros and 24 days of exteriors in Madrid. During filming in November, Sophie Hardy was driving back to Madrid from Alicante when her car went off-road and turned over leaving the actress unconscious off the road.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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