Vincent Price plays the eponymous dastardly scientific master criminal who creates a legion of voluptuous bikini-clad female robots so they can marry the world’s wealthiest men and line his coffers.
Fresh from AIP’s popular “beach movie” series, Frankie Avalon is Craig Gamble, a bumbling agent with SIC (Special Intelligence Command), a cut-rate investigative unit run by his hardheaded – and baldheaded – uncle (Fred Clark).
Susan Hart plays the female lead – an alluring robot named Diane (her real name is Robot #11) that easily gets the attention of Gamble, but it turns out that she was supposed to go after billionaire playboy Todd Armstrong (Dwayne Hickman). It seems that Goldfoot’s clumsy assistant Igor (Jack Mullaney) goofed – so Diane is re-assigned to pursue Armstrong.
Diane lifts the back of her raincoat to reveal her bikini-bottomed bottom and long legs, causing Armstrong to crash his car. He immediately falls in love with Diane and marries her, but Gamble intervenes, convincing the new groom that he married a robot and that she’s out to swindle his fortune.
When her detached hand proves to be enough evidence, Gamble and Armstrong team up to match wits with the evil Dr Goldfoot at his medieval castle (equipped with a 1960s-style high-tech lab), giving us a glimpse at a lot of leftover sets and props from other AIP horror movies.
The film ends with a zany automobile chase through the streets of San Francisco, and even Annette Funicello drops in.
Released in the UK as Dr G and The Bikini Machine, it’s all a little daft, but was enough of a success for AIP that a sequel – Dr Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs – followed in 1966.
Dr Goldfoot
Vincent Price Craig Gamble
Frankie Avalon Todd Armstrong
Dwayne Hickman Diane
Susan Hart Igor
Jack Mullaney D J Pevney
Fred Clark Reject No 12
Alberta Nelson Girl in the Stock
Annette Funicello
The title song was performed by The Supremes.
