NFR Project: 'Forbidden Planet' (1956)

 

NFR Project: “Forbidden Planet”

Dir: Fred M. Wilcox

Scr: Cyril Hume

Pho: George J. Folsey

Ed: Ferris Webster

Premiere: March 2, 1956

98 min.

This is the first epic science-fiction film to be made since Things to Come in 1936, the first in color, the first in CinemaScope – one of the first in the genre to really to be conceived of as an A-list picture.

Read Ian Olney’s excellent essay on this film at the National Film Registry here.

No expense was spared to tell this outer-space tale. The sets were designed by Cedric Gibbons and Arthur Lonergan, who created a vast alien world for our protagonists to explore. A key character is Robby the Robot, who was created by industrial designer Robert Kintoshita at a then-astronomical cost of $125,000. Disney animator Joshua Meador created the at-times invisible monster of the film. All in all, every effort was expended to make this film look convincing.

It’s the story of a United Planets space expedition to the distant planet Altair IV, on which a ship crashed 20 years before. The crew seeks the survivors. There they find only a scientist, Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) and his grown daughter Altaira (Anne Francis). Morbius warns that an unknown power slaughtered everyone in his expedition save himself, his late wife, and his daughter. Soon an immense, invisible creature starts attacking the crew, killing them off one by one and damaging their spaceship.

Morbius explains to the ship’s captain (Leslie Nielsen) that the planet was the home of the late Krell, a civilization wiped out in one night 200,000 years ago. The Krell were incredibly advanced, and eventually they figured out how to make any thought in their minds real using their superior technology.

It turns out that the Krells, in creating their mind machines, unleashed the contents of their subconscious minds. These “monsters of the id” wrought havoc, destroying everything. Morbius had tinkered with the Krell’s technology, and Morbius’s subconscious created a monster that destroyed everyone around him save his daughter. Now the monster is out to kill off the rescue mission, and even Altaira, who falls for the captain and plans on leaving the planet with him.

Horribly, inexorably, the monster advances on the remaining individuals. Only the collapse of Morbius, who finally realizes it is he himself who is the monster, makes the monster disappear. Knowing that the power the Krells wielded is deadly, Morbius sets off a self-destruction device and urges the survivors to flee. They escape, and the planet is vaporized.

It’s intelligent and interesting stuff, to be sure, well thought out – not the usual juvenile content of most sci-fi films of the era. The top-notch production values sell the film, taking us into outer space and onto Altair IV. The suspense and thrills of the story are intense, leading to a satisfying conclusion. Forbidden Planet set the bar for the science-fiction genre, and was not equaled for many years.

The NFR Project is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Giant.