Tobor the Great (1954) on Netflix

Plot summary

Professor Arnold Nordstrom works in an underground laboratory in Los Angeles, convinced that sending crews into space is too dangerous. He enlists Dr. Ralph Harrison, who has left the government's Civil Interplanetary Flight Commission after protesting the treatment of spaceship pilots, and the two begin a project to build a robot that can fly in a human's place. The robot, named Tobor, carries a telepathic device that lets it read and feel emotions. Nordstrom's daughter Janice and her son Brian, called Gadge, take an interest in the work. At a press conference the reporters are shown Tobor, and among them a foreign spy chief draws up a plan to steal it. Gadge slips into the laboratory and switches the robot on.