FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956)

A space ship with a crew led by Commander Adams (Leslie Nielsen) has been sent from Earth to the planet Altair IV to check on a colony of scientists that landed there some twenty years ago. As they approach, Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) contacts them by radio and warns them against landing, but Adams feels he must fulfill his mission. They discover that Morbius and his daughter Altaira (Anne Francis) are the only settlers left—aside from Robby, a robot built by Moribus as a butler, cook and assistant—the others having been killed by what Morbius describes as a "planetary force." Adams and his men decide they must stay until they get further instructions from Earth, so Morbius explains his research: he's discovered the science of a long extinct race called the Krell who reached a remarkably advanced stage in technology but were decimated by the same force that destroyed Morbius' fellow scientists. Altaira is fascinated by the men, as the men are by her, and soon she and Adams are something of an item. But some invisible being is slipping into Adams' ship at night, vandalizing and eventually killing a couple of crewmen. Does Morbius know more than he’s telling about the planet?

This is considered a sci-fi classic, and is one of the few big-budget science fiction films attempted by Hollywood until 1968 when the game-changing 2001: A Space Odyssey was released. The movie looks great, with intricate sets and colorful backgrounds, both on the exterior of the planet and in Morbius' house and lab. The ultimate explanation for the destructive force is interesting, and it's fun to find the similarities between this and Shakespeare's The Tempest (Moribus and Altaira = Prospero and Miranda, Robby the Robot = Ariel, etc.). But much of the movie is just plain boring; the middle third feels like particularly heavy padding until we get to the climax. The acting is lackluster; Nielsen isn't especially heroic and Pidgeon is wooden. The supporting players, including Richard Anderson and Earl Holliman, add little. But the lovely Anne Francis (pictured with Nielsen) does a nice job putting some life into her "naïve untouched girl" character. When the invisible force becomes visible, it looks disappointingly like a Disney cartoon character (at least one Disney animator was on the special effects crew). Instead of a conventional musical score, there are electronic bleeps and blops—it's effective for a while, but wears out its welcome by the end. Worth watching as a reminder of where later sci-fi came from, and for its visuals. [DVD]