Forbidden Planet (1956)

Director:

Fred M. Wilcox

Writers:

Cyril Hume (screenplay)
Irving Block (story) ...

Release Date:

15 March 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Romance | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

IT'S OUT OF THIS WORLD! (original print ad - all caps)

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Planet | Monster | Philologist | Space | Genius

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 nomination

Cast

Walter Pidgeon	...	Dr. Edward Morbius
Anne Francis	...	Altaira 'Alta' Morbius
Leslie Nielsen	...	Commander J. J. Adams
Warren Stevens	...	Lt. 'Doc' Ostrow M.D.
Jack Kelly	...	Lt. Jerry Farman
Richard Anderson	...	Chief Quinn
Earl Holliman	...	Cook
Robby the Robot	...	Himself
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

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor) (as Eastman Color)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Perspecta Sound encoding) (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Iceland:L | USA:Approved (certificate #17605) | USA:G (re-rating) (1972) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Sweden:15 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | UK:U | Argentina:Atp | West Germany:12

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

The "electronic tonalities" created by Louis Barron and Bebe Barron were reused several years later in another science fiction film From the Earth to the Moon (1958) that was produced by RKO.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: In the scene where the monster approaches the house from the southwest and Morbius commands Robby to destroy it, with Robby short circuiting due to logic conflict between obeying Morbius and knowing that destroying the monster (id of Morbius) would destroy his master, just before the shot ends after Robby is supposedly immobile, his arms wiggle.

Quotes:

[Lt. Farman offers the brilliant but innocent Altaira some sugar for her coffee]
Altaira: But you keep helping me. After all, you're not Robby.
Lt. Farman: [chuckles] I wouldn't mind being Robby in certain ways. Uh, that's only in *certain* ways, of course.
Altaira: I can see that was probably very clever, but I don't seem to understand it.
Lt. Farman: There's no rush.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Daai chek liu (2003)

Brilliant: Undiluted Pulp Science Fiction on the big screen

This is the Roman Empire of Science Fiction films. All films before lead into it, and all films since flow out of it. It captures the romance, the spirit, and the nifty look of 1950's pulp science fiction. This is one science fiction movie with a theme, not just eye candy. No matter how high humanity climbs on the evolutionary scale, no matter how advanced our technology becomes, we must never forget the primal instincts of our darker nature.

This film is a masterpiece.