“Forbidden Planet” has stood the test of time, a science fiction classic that brought the genre into the modern era. Director Fred M. Wilcox (“Lassie Come Home” 1943) instilled this film with characteristics which scifi movies did not previously possess: High quality special effects, travel at light speed to other planets, a robot with his own personality, and the first electronic musical score of any type of motion picture (written by Bebe Barron and Lewis Barron).
The screenplay was written by Cyril Hume, from a story by Irving Block and Allen Adler, and based on Bill Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest,” published around 1610. The cast includes Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Jack Kelly, Warren Stevens, Richard Anderson, Earl Holliman, James Drury, Robert Dix, George Wallace, Morgan Jones, Roger McGee, and James Best, later famous as Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane of CBS’s “The Dukes of Hazard” (1979-1985).
A big star of the show is Robby the Robot, manned by Frankie Darro and voiced by Marvin Miller. Robby went on to appear in other films and television shows. The special effects team, headed by Joshua Meador, on loan to MGM from Walt Disney Pictures, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, the sole Oscar nominee for the film. The very watchable and entertaining “Forbidden Planet” was a big hit in theatrical release for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Forbidden Planet (1956)
cinema
My Review
“Forbidden Planet” has stood the test of time, a science fiction classic that brought the genre into the modern era. Director Fred M. Wilcox (“Lassie Come Home” 1943) instilled this film with characteristics which scifi movies did not previously possess: High quality special effects, travel at light speed to other planets, a robot with his own personality, and the first electronic musical score of any type of motion picture (written by Bebe Barron and Lewis Barron).
The screenplay was written by Cyril Hume, from a story by Irving Block and Allen Adler, and based on Bill Shakespeare’s play “The Tempest,” published around 1610. The cast includes Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Jack Kelly, Warren Stevens, Richard Anderson, Earl Holliman, James Drury, Robert Dix, George Wallace, Morgan Jones, Roger McGee, and James Best, later famous as Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrane of CBS’s “The Dukes of Hazard” (1979-1985).
A big star of the show is Robby the Robot, manned by Frankie Darro and voiced by Marvin Miller. Robby went on to appear in other films and television shows. The special effects team, headed by Joshua Meador, on loan to MGM from Walt Disney Pictures, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, the sole Oscar nominee for the film. The very watchable and entertaining “Forbidden Planet” was a big hit in theatrical release for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.