Forbidden Planet (1956)
Dir. Fred M. Wilcox
Of course, not everyone likes it. Some folks balk at the old school FX and criticise the music. I'm not just referring to kids weaned on CGI. Adults that ought to know better, that ought to be able to place something in its time and judge it accordingly, are just as dismissive. I feel genuinely sorry for them; they're missing out on so much. The FX are amazing; the miniatures and matte paintings are a thing of real beauty, filmed and presented in stunning Eastman Colour.
The electronic score (composed by Bebe and Louis Barron) and sound effects work together as one entity and the result was literally years ahead of its time. If a theremin and a Moog made love, they'd make sounds not unlike the Forbidden Planet score, and yet neither of those instruments were used – one of them didn't even exist in 1954!
It has themes and characters that are analogous to Shakespeare's The Tempest (c.1610–11) - the remote island is changed for a distant planet; Prospero the magician replaced by Morbius the philologist, with futuristic parlour tricks that astound; the servile Caliban has become Robby the Robot, surely the second most iconic mechanical biped in early sci-fi cinema, denied the top spot, deservedly, by Maria from Fritz Lang's Metropolis (1927).
The threat, because every good story needs an antagonist, isn't any old 50s go-to creature (so no giant ants or big-brained aliens with tin foil hats), it's a powerful entity rooted in themes found in Jungian philosophy. And it has something real to say about the human condition.
The majority of the men may be well-educated types but they also each have a weakness that brings them down to the level of the common man. In short, even though they can pilot or fix a ship that travels light years across space, they're always relatable.
-Robby greets the crew of the starship C-57D.-
The current Blu-ray edition (with cover as pictured above) has a ton of extras, including deleted scenes from an existing work print and some 'Lost Footage'. The quality is nowhere near as good as the main feature, but they're still fun to see. There's even an entire second film that I'll do a quick review of below, a not-quite-sequel that used Robby but isn't of the same standard.
The Invisible Boy (1957)
Dir. Herman Hoffman
The Invisible Boy (aka S.O.S Spaceship) uses FP's Robby the Robot as a character in the modern era; i.e. the 1950s. He's the star of the show; his name is lettered larger than anyone else in the opening credits. A deeper connection to FP is implied, but that's as far as it dares push its luck. It'd like us to think of it as a 'sequel' to FP, but I'm not willing to swallow that.
It's an odd film. It starts out as a regular 1950s sci-fi. We're introduced to the titular boy's father — a mathematician at a Top Secret base, into which seemingly anyone can walk freely — and a talking computer that resembles a poor-man's Krell machine but is more of a cross between HAL and Deep Thought (the fictional one). Things genuinely seem promising...
Then ten-year-old Timmie (Richard Eyer) shows up and it transitions into a kid's movie with adults that are suddenly oblivious to 90% of what goes on around them. The kid, not the sharpest tool in the box and a little lazy, it must be said, does many of the things that any regular boy would do when given a fully functioning Robby to control, and then a few things that even a certified village idiot would be too savvy to attempt.
When the story (and part of the audience, if I'm any indication) grows tired of that it changes yet again, turning sinister, with socio-political interests that'll go over the head of most kids.
Meanwhile, regardless of whether it's being a kid-friendly sci-fi or a B+W invasion-esque public-scare flick, Timmie's mother does little other than humour/listen to her husband, worry about both males, or spend her day doing housework because it's the 1950s and that's what women did, right?~ I got the feeling she was there just to make her husband look good.
In addition to a second film, the disc also boasts a single episode of a TV Series named The Thin Man, a show based on the 1933 novel of the same name by author Dashiell Hammett.
The episode (Robot Client) features Robby, lasts approx 25 minutes, is B+W, and 4:3 ratio.
It's not a series that I'd ever seen before.
The show's leading duo, married couple Nick and Nora Charles (Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk), together investigate a murder-mystery scenario (with some comedy elements) in which the robot is involved. It's not groundbreaking stuff, but its entertaining in its own way, is less gender-imbalanced than a lot of the era's TV output, and overall is a nice addition to the package.
It's an odd film. It starts out as a regular 1950s sci-fi. We're introduced to the titular boy's father — a mathematician at a Top Secret base, into which seemingly anyone can walk freely — and a talking computer that resembles a poor-man's Krell machine but is more of a cross between HAL and Deep Thought (the fictional one). Things genuinely seem promising...
Then ten-year-old Timmie (Richard Eyer) shows up and it transitions into a kid's movie with adults that are suddenly oblivious to 90% of what goes on around them. The kid, not the sharpest tool in the box and a little lazy, it must be said, does many of the things that any regular boy would do when given a fully functioning Robby to control, and then a few things that even a certified village idiot would be too savvy to attempt.
When the story (and part of the audience, if I'm any indication) grows tired of that it changes yet again, turning sinister, with socio-political interests that'll go over the head of most kids.
Meanwhile, regardless of whether it's being a kid-friendly sci-fi or a B+W invasion-esque public-scare flick, Timmie's mother does little other than humour/listen to her husband, worry about both males, or spend her day doing housework because it's the 1950s and that's what women did, right?~ I got the feeling she was there just to make her husband look good.
The Thin Man: Robot Client (1958)
TV Series / Season 01 : Episode 23 / Dir: Oscar Rudolph
The episode (Robot Client) features Robby, lasts approx 25 minutes, is B+W, and 4:3 ratio.
It's not a series that I'd ever seen before.
The show's leading duo, married couple Nick and Nora Charles (Peter Lawford and Phyllis Kirk), together investigate a murder-mystery scenario (with some comedy elements) in which the robot is involved. It's not groundbreaking stuff, but its entertaining in its own way, is less gender-imbalanced than a lot of the era's TV output, and overall is a nice addition to the package.
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