Very outdated in the special effects department but very up to date in the timeless debate of faith and theology versus science and technology. “Colossus of New York” brings up the questions about the human soul, for those billions of us who believe it exists, that goes well beyond modern science. Can a brain as advanced and dedicated that it is to the ending of suffering in the world and human as it was in life be the same in death? Or in the case of being without a body and soul a brain will only think logically without feeling and without the soul’s goodness and humanity. that in many cases is not logical and will only respect the law of the jungle: survival of the fittest and destruction of the lame sick and unproductive.
Brilliant scientist Dr. Jaremy Spensser, Ross Martin, who just came back to New York from Stockholm after receiving the International Peace Prize for his work in growing frost resistant plants that is to provide the world with an unlimited food supply. Getting off the plane and meeting his family Jaremy is suddenly killed by a runaway truck at the airport.
Jaremy’s father the imminent brain surgeon Dr. William Spensser, Otto Kruger, can’t accept his son’s death. With the help of his other son automotive engineer Dr. Henry Spensser, John Baragary, Dr. Spensser has Jaremy’s brain removed and puts it into a tropical fish tank for the time being. Henry construct a eight foot Colossus for the brain to work out of but what both William & Henry totally forgot was that for the brain to be as effective, as the good kind and feeling person that Jaremy was, in death as it was in life it would need what only God can provide for it: A SOUL.
Even though Henry was hesitant in going along with it,saving Jeramy’s brain, he gave into his fathers William’s mad. In the end it led to him being killed by the mad Colossus. The movie has been compared to “Frankenstein” but unlike the Frankenstein monster which had the brain of a murder the Colossus in the movie had the brain of a brilliant and kind human being, Jaremy Spensser. Like in both stories they didn’t have a soul and that’s what made all the difference.
The ending of the movie the Colossus went to the UN and killed about a dozen scientists and policemen, with some kind of killer ray, at a conference for peace in the world. Later with the Colossus, who was really Jaremy, was shut down by his son Billy, Charles Herbert, and thus being destroyed was a bit ridicules. Even the Colossus’ ability to see into the future, when he saw in a vision a sea disaster, wasn’t all that convincing. Later we see both William and Henry watching the TV where they see stock footage of the sinking of the Andrea Doria after it collided with the US ship Stockholm. The Colossus calls the ship in his vision The Viking! That seen and the Colossus’ fortune telling ability was never really explained and was totally unnecessary to be put in the story.
The main plot of the movie about the human soul as well as the heart and how it makes the difference in all of us when it comes to being a good kind and understanding human beings, instead of a cold calculating and unfeeling machine, was right on target. Like the song says, with a few minor changes, “Without a Soul You Don’t Have Anything”.
