Forbidden Planet (1956)

A starship crew goes to investigate the silence of a planet's colony only to find two survivors and a deadly secret that one of them has.

Director:

Fred M. Wilcox (as Fred McLeod Wilcox)

Writers:

Cyril Hume (screen play), Irving Block (based on a story by)

Stars:

Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Walter Pidgeon	...	Dr. Morbius
Anne Francis	...	Altaira Morbius
Leslie Nielsen	...	Commander Adams
Warren Stevens	...	Lt. 'Doc' Ostrow
Jack Kelly	...	Lt. Farman
Richard Anderson	...	Chief Quinn
Earl Holliman	...	Cook
George Wallace	...	Bosun
Robert Dix	...	Crewman Grey (as Bob Dix)
Jimmy Thompson	...	Crewman Youngerford
James Drury	...	Crewman Strong
Harry Harvey Jr.	...	Crewman Randall
Roger McGee	...	Crewman Lindstrom
Peter Miller	...	Crewman Moran
Morgan Jones	...	Crewman Nichols

Storyline

When Adams and his crew are sent to investigate the silence from a planet inhabited by scientists, he finds all but two have died. Dr. Morbius and his daughter Altaira have somehow survived a hideous monster which roams the planet. Unknown to Adams, Morbius has made a discovery, and has no intention of sharing it (or his daughter!) with anyone.

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Plot Keywords:

alien civilization | invisible monster | alien technology | spacecraft | father daughter relationship | 

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Taglines:

The year is 2200 A.D. and you are aboard Space Cruiser C-57-D traveling faster than the speed of light toward a speck in the firmament - Altair4, the "Forbidden Planet". Your objective is to seek survivors of a previous disastrous interplanetary flight. DIsregarding radar warnings, you land on Altair-4 armed with atomic weapons - and prepared for any eventuality. Your first sight of the new world is awesome...green skies...two moons...and endless eerie desert. Out of it appears an electronic monster - to welcome you. You go to the fantastic habitation of a secretive, hostile scientist - creator of the robot. You meet his daughter, a fascinating beauty who has never met an earthman before. You are invited to see the strange chasms of a lost super-race which attained the zenith of civilization 2,000,000 years ago. You are told of a strange force, invisible, unconquerable, that has the evil power to destroy the planet and all life on it. And then this terrifying menace manifests itself, sabotaging the space ship, resisting even disintegrator weapons, melting steel barricades, hurling humans to destruction. Your interstellar adventure comes to its climax - and it is an experience of such visual and emotional excitement as you have never before known within the walls of a motion picture theatre. Imagine it, in the wonder of Color and CinemaScope!

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 August 1956 (France)

Also Known As:

Fatal Planet

Filming Locations:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios - 10202 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,900,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$3,000,000

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$3,250,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Perspecta Sound encoding) (Western Electric Sound System) 4-Track Stereo (4 channels)

Color:

Color (photographed in) (Eastman Color)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The screenplay by Irving Block and Allen Adler, written in 1952, was originally titled Fatal Planet. The later screenplay draft by Cyril Hume renamed the film Forbidden Planet, because this was believed to have greater box-office appeal.

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Goofs

When Robby takes Doc's lifeless body to the tractor, we see Robby is really carrying a dummy.

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Quotes

Robby the Robot: 480 pints, as you requested. Total ,60 gallons.
Cook: Genuine Kansas City bourbon.
[Takes a swig and coughs twice]
Cook: And it's smooth, too. Robby, I ain't never gonna forget this. Any time you're hard up for a couple of gallons of lube oil, you just let me know.

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Alternate Versions

In Australia, however, that kissing scene was screened, uncut, in the early 1960's in the children's Saturday matinée called the Kine Club, at Hoyts Cinema, in Port Adelaide.

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Connections

Remade as Forbidden Planet

User Reviews

Sorry "Star Wars"--the greatest Science Fiction film ever

Sure Star Wars (a movie I have seen at least fifty times) beats all the others in special effects, but this film has every thing else!

It has horror(non-graphical), romance, robots, witty repartee, intelligence, (surprisingly good) special effects, and drama.

I saw this film a couple of years ago in a revival with a newly struck print, and I was amazed at how well it held up today. I thought the old 40's style electronics would look hokey, but they somehow looked futuristic and moderne.

Ann Francis in here (mostly) short skirts and bare feet with a girlish innocence that is hard to beat still gets a rise out of me.

The Krell monster appearing in the ray beams still scares the bejebees out of me.

Of course we all know that the "Great Bird of the Galaxy" probably modeled much of "Star Trek" from this movie.

No one has yet to beat Robby, the Robot, in terms of personality

(sorry, R2D2 and C3PO).

This movie, overall, is the standard that all other Science Fiction films will have to measure up to!

Honorable mention for the haunting electronic score which kept us all on pins and needles.