One of my favorite scary science fiction movies is on today. "Forbidden Planet"

Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Neilson, Anne Francis, and of course Robbie the Robot.

An uncredited part by William Boyett.

Break out the popcorn!

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Can open, worms everywhere.

You forgot Jack Kelly (of Maverick fame). Great movie!

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No good deed goes unpunished.

One of my favorites and a real classic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYFr3UyVpRA

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Keep on Chooglin'

...and Earl Holliman. Anyone remember the TV western he starred in? Hotel De Paree I believe.

Wasn't he in the one with Angie Dickinson also?

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I'm always amazed at just how well that movie has held up over the years. I'd put the special effects up against the last three emo "Star Wars" movies any day.

I first saw this movie on TV when I was in kindergarten in the '60s, and it's just as impressive today as the first time I saw it.

I'm surprised somebody hasn't made a lame remake of it the way they did with "The Day the Earth Stood Still".

Monsters from your mind.
I think this was a first for movies, at least SF movies.

The Day the Earth Stood Still....

An alien invades and he's benevolent??? Who wudda thunk it?

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Sure be nice to get one of those Kreel IQ boosting machines! I lost count of the people in that movie that would go on to become stars a few years down the line. It was certainly the best science fiction movie of that era and one of the best movies period. I had it on VCR for years and now on DVD and I watch it every couple of years or so.

What makes this movie hold up is that it is a take off of Shakespeare's last play The Tempest so you are getting a then modern day remake of a classic. And throw in the references to Freud and the movie was more than just your run of the mill scifi B movies.

I remember seeing that at the movies. It was a good movie.

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RudyN
NRA Patron Life Member

As I understand it, this was the first time a major studio (MGM) decided to do a sci-fi movie. With their name on it, they didn't want one of those cheap B movies that were common about that time. They wanted to do it right.
They did!


I guess now I'll have to break out my DVD and watch it again.
It your fault!

It broke ground for Star Trek, I think. The spacecraft was run more like a naval vessel instead of an aircraft.

Inspired by the Quad M-2 perhaps? And those crazy tracers!! Top it off with a semi-stealth space beast-Invisible yet detected by radar-
Now we are fielding laser systems !!

[QUOTE=Grayfox;138349123]As I understand it, this was the first time a major studio (MGM) decided to do a sci-fi movie. With their name on it, they didn't want one of those cheap B movies that were common about that time. They wanted to do it right.
They did!


True; also the first big-budget SF film ($1.968M), and the first time Disney did work for another studio. The MGM version of the Id monster wasn't good, and MGM eventually contracted with Disney (which is prominently featured in the credits). Joshua Meador was the animator; he was Director of Disney's Special Animated Effects, also known for his work in Fantasia, Cinderella, and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Also the first movie with an entirely electronically-created score. And the screen debut of Robby the Robot.

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50 Years of DSOTM

Its one of my favorites too. Nice to see Leslie Neilsen in a non-comedy role. I THINK Jack Kelly was the crews Crew Chief?/ Also, Richard Anderson and Warren Stevens:oc:: were in it.

Until "Airplane" Neilsen was usually cast in dramatic roles. He played against type in Airplane and his comedy career was born.

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I remember him as the ships Captain in: The Poseiden Adventure-as well as a bad guy in an episode or two of Daniel Boone. When I first heard of him---was when Airplane came out and thought he was great. The first time I saw him in a dramatic role--was the first time I saw Forbidden Planet.

Lt. Drebbin rocks.....

We can't forget Anne Francis! Yum,what a dish!

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Regards, Ron
USASA 1965/69

and one of the "Sons of Katie Elder".

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Slim, U.S. Army, Ret.

I think i've seen it every year since it came out, must be one of my favorites

Your dating yourself

I've always wanted a robot that could manufacture whiskey.....

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Even older, even crankier....

You can ave the Whiskey--ill take one that will manufacture bricks of twenty two caliber ammo.

I'll take one that can make 3rd generation parts!

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I'll take one that makes 4" and 6" Triple Locks.

Forbidden Planet is one of my favorites also. The special effects when they are in the Krell underground power plant were so far ahead of what anyone had done at that time. I don't know if they are still at it but for a while, there was pre-production work on a sequel or actually a prequel to Forbidden Planet. It was going to be the story of the Bolerathon crew and what happened to all the personnel from the ship. Supposedly the producer was a huge fan of the original movie and promised not to mess up the story. As for remaking the movie itself, it could be done today with just a very few changes in dialog which is a testament to how well it was written and done 58 years ago.

In the 1950's most "science fiction" movies were badly written B movies where the aliens came to earth to eat people's faces or some such nonsense. The other basis for scifi then was nuclear explosions creating monsters from insects or people. So Forbidden Planet and The Day The Earth Stood Still were such a huge departure from what people were used to which made them classics.

Oh, don't forget James "The Virginian" Drury and one of the crewmen in the background on landing was James "Roscoe P. Coltraine" Best. The voice of Robby was that of Michael Miller who played Michael Anthony on the Millionaire.

CW

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The original "The Day the Earth Stood Still" was and is a classic. I never watched the remake because everything I read said it was silly in premise and execution.

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I finally got to see it on a big screen a few years ago. I used to correspond with Anne Francis and I met Robert Dix-Crewman Grey-at Chiller Theatre a few years ago.

That scene was all wrong. The guys who were killed weren't wearing red shirts. Everyone knows it's always some poor chump in a red shirt who yells, "Captain, over here! I think I've found somethiAAAARRRRGHHH!"

I'm not sure when this was done in relation to "Airplane", but Nielsen was hilarious in the TV series "Police Squad", which was the inspiration for the "Naked Gun" movies.

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Oh well, what the hell.

Police Squad was a summer replacement series that came after "Airplane". It was funny, but apparently not funny enough. The movies were pretty popular, though.

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Don't bother watching the remake, you'll be wasting 2 hours of your life

Yeah, a series called "police story" IIRC.

I thin the series might have been a spin off from "Police Story". Which was an anthology series with no permanent stars, but some recurring characters.

Joseph Wambaugh was the creator of that series, I think.

I enjoyed it, but have never seen it since it's original airing. Which is strange as it was on for several years.

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"Forbidden Planet" is IMO one of the best hard sci-fi movies of all time. A personal favorite.
I especially like the way the energy weapons are almost silent, and reactionless - - more realistic than anything made since.

The scene in the Krell 'basement' ("Twenty miles... Twenty miles... twenty miles..." left my jaw hanging open as a kid. Totally drew me in.

At least a good twentyfive years between the two.

Airplane was made in 1980; Forbidden Planet, 1956.

Krell




Metropolis


Star Wars

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How about a remake starring Leslie Neilsen. Something on the order of "Airplane"............

"..........and don't call me Shirley!"

Would be difficult, Neilson passed away some years ago.

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Sadly,they cant because he passed away about a year ago.

Beat me to it by THAT much Chief.

I watched the movie again today. It's been a while since I've done that and I forgot that it had a fairly complex story line.

I also forgot how beautiful Anne Francis was. And how skimpy most of her outfits were, especially for the 1950s.

The DVD had bonus material. Deleted scenes and dialog, as well as cuts from "Workprints" which were edited lower resolution sections intended for use by the special effects guys, composer, and others who had to do post production work.

I also read somewhere that the "monster" was designed to look sort of like the MGM lion that appeared at the beginning of their movies. In on scene, it even had a goatee like Walter Pigeons as a hint. You have to look carefully.

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If you know this stuff already, just move on. I don't know your era or how you are on 50's/early 60s TV, but he was nothing but a serious actor for most of his career. He only became a comic actor around the time he made "Airplane" and the 'Naked Gun' movies. He was always in serious roles before and was a heart throb when he was young. Something exceedingly funny about the movie "Airplane" was that actors that played only serious roles came loose and spoofed their own images. Lloyd Bridges, Robert Stack. "The FAA. They're nothing but a bunch of cheats and liars.......Let's get outta here." ala Elliot Ness on "The Untouchables".

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Really love the old sci fi. In the days before cgi they actually had to figure out a way to do it. Reading about how some of the fx were done is very interesting. Also liked aunt Bea

Now, the only improvements you are going to see are in computer technology. Before, they had to be EXTREMELY clever and inventive to be able to pull off effects. I always thought the tornado in the Wizard Oz looked very realistic. They had ordered this rubber funnel that cost a fortune and when they got it, it didn't work. They went work with some muslin made into a tube and some fans, threw some various minerals in it for dust and ended up with a great effect.

For the Outer Limits they filmed sparks against a cloud of ink in water for an ominous mental storm and still looks good.

The underground in "Forbidden Planet" still looks awesome. They did great things with matting.

The skeletons and the Bronze man battles in Jason and the Argonauts. I took months to make the thousands of shots for just a few seconds of film time.

Moses parting the sea in The Ten Commandments

The Birds was too complicated for 'blue screen' so they used a
yellow screen that only Walt Disney studio had that uses a beam splitter to take two pictures simultaneously on regular film reel and and another reel where the film was only sensitive to sodium that photograph only certain parts of the light spectrum.

Jaws used shark mock ups.

Weightless in Apollo 13? They filmed the whole thing in the 'vomit comet' plane that they use to train astronauts. The plane had to do the climb and dive maneuvers many hundreds of times.

Star Wars attack on the Death Star. All models.

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea- The big squid.

I could make a lifetime study out of this stuff.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Ray Harryhausen
Nuff said.

Angie Dickinson. Someone else remembered her. She had her fans and there is no need to elaborate.

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I may know this stuff but--others may not.

2001:A Space Odyssey Jogging around the wheel was 'Dave' running like a gerbil in a rotating interior set that looked like a Ferris wheel That was pretty cool but having shots from the mounted and moving cameras really made it look like he was going up and over.

Blowing the pod hatch into the airlock, the airlock door was on the floor with a camera in a hole in the 'floor' looking up along with the camera looking down into the airlock, 'Dave' was lowered, swung around and raised by a circus roustabout holding a rope in gloved hands. I rate that scene top notch in special FX.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"