November ’15 Movie of the Month: FORBIDDEN PLANET (1956)

Captain, as you know I've seen Forbidden Planet before but it's been like 10 years...so this time around I will watch it with a critical MoFo eye and ear and will then post back my thoughts on the moog sound effects. From what I recall it was just that, sound effects that were not used in a melody.

Just to clarify for others - a long time ago we had a conversation about a guy who was on a news program because he was a musical sound editor and he was re-scoring films.

He was creating new symphonic musical soundtracks for some older films. Most of the stuff he was re-scoring didn't really require new scores, but he said he was looking for more films to make new music for. This made me think Forbidden Planet would be a prime candidate for such a project.

And I think Rules might agree that The Third Man would also be an interesting choice to watch with a suspenseful, film-Noir, musical soundtrack added in some parts instead of the continuous happy zither music?

Yup!

Yeah I must say that it was the only effect that left me a little unimpressed, mainly because I thought that they could have done more with it instead of just using freeze-frames or whatever the term is to make the shudders appear. I don't know, I guess it wasn't too horrible, and the rest of the effects were stellar so I don't mind it as much.

Thank you Citizen! Yeah I do think people need to be reminded of that, it's a little unfair to go into Forbidden Planet and trying to compare to something like the upcoming Star Wars movie. I think that different times mean different perspectives.

Looking forward to your review!

Well... I guess you can make a case that there wasn't an actual soundtrack to it. I did think that in the opening credits there was some synth going on that didn't really belong to anything. So I would qualify that as a music part. I think it was like that in a few other parts but can't remember which ones exactly.

great movie !!!!

Really hoping a few more people check this out. It's definitely an interesting watch! Would like to hear more thoughts on it.

I remember hearing something about how this movie influenced Gene Roddenberry and the creation of the Star Trek TV series. Anyone have any info on that?

Yes, it's in Roddenberry's biography that he was influenced by Forbidden Planet. Here's a linlk to an article about it:

http://www.pjfarmer.com/secret/contr...ddenplanet.htm

I watched Forbidden Planet last night, I loved it!
What a great choice for Movie of the Month

You guys really should watch this one! It's a very intelligent and well made sci-fi that can be called an existential film. IMO it's the best sci-fi to be made in the 1950s. This is the third time I've seen it, but the last time was 10 years ago and I had forgotten much of it, so I'm glad I watched it again.

There was talk about the electronic Moog synthesizer music, which I had said earlier that I hated it. But after watching the movie last night I can say, I was wrong... the Moog soundtrack didn't bother me at all. It was, IMO, used judiciously and only at the right moments. The Moog sound had an alien and creepy feel to it, which to me added a heightened drama about something lurking in the shadows. I actually liked the Moog.

There was also mention that Gene Roddenberry was inspired to do Star Trek based on Forbidden Planet. I hadn't heard that before.

As soon as the movie started with a wide angle shot of a star field and one of the stars grew as it came closer and then came close enough to see it was a ship...I though Star Trek! which did the same shot in the opening title credits. There was much in the movie that Star Trek borrowed.

The entire story of mankind spreading out into space and exploring it, sounded like Star Trek's mission. In Forbidden Planet they travel to a distant planet to rescue a Earth ship that had crashed 20 years earlier. When they get there they find an old scientist who warns them away as the planet has a dangerous mystery. But they land anyway and find an aging scientist and his beautiful daughter who's highly educated but ignorant of men, as she's never seen one. This is very much like the original pilot for Star Trek, The Cage.

Each time I've watched this movie I've grown to like it even more! It's a special film and I hope you guys will spend 90 minutes to see it.

Thanks to Nope1172 for choosing this film! and Thanks to FalseWriter for coming up with the Movie of the Month idea





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I haven't been in much of a sci-fi mood recently, but I'm planning to re-watch Forbidden Planet tonight.

I agree that it's one of the best sci-fi movies of the 1950's, and it had the added bonuses of introducing us to Robby the Robot, and influencing Star Trek.

You know, I've always liked Forbidden Planet, but often when I rewatch an old favorite, I end up liking it less. Not this time, I really could see how well made this film was, especially for 1956.

When you watch it looked at 'Doc' when he's on the ship at his concil. He's doing communications and has something in his ear that looks a lot like what Lt Uhura had in her ear.

Instead of having a big window in the space ship so the crew (and us) can look at they have a large view screen, like the Enterprise did.

Remember in The Cage, there are personal viewing screens that Spock looks into? They have those in the movie. Their blasters look a lot like early phasers.

As they approach the planet the shot is: a portion of the planet is in the lower corner of the screen as the ship approaches from the upper opposite corner....Man! that shot was done a zillion times in Star Trek.

I haven't seen the movie recently. but as I recall, it has connections to both Star Trek and Lost in Space.

It's been eons since I watched Lost in Space so I can't remember it, except for the robot, Will, and Dr Smith.

Walter Pidgeon is excellent as the reclusive aging scientist and his house is really cool looking. I wish my house looked that.

It's been years since I've watched Lost in Space too, and I don't remember it nearly as well as I know Star Trek.

I agree about Walter Pidgeon. He was terrific in Forbidden Planet. It's kind of strange watching Leslie Nielsen in this movie though because he's so well know for spoof comedies, but this movie proves that he really was a good actor.

Ha...I know! I kept expecting Leslie Nielsen to go into a comic role Yes you're right, he was very good in this and he was serious too. Oh, when you watch it look for one alumni Star Trek guest star. You'll easily spot him as he has a large role. I think his character might have been an inspiration for Spock.

I know that the actor who plays Doc in the movie was in the Star Trek episode "By Any Other Name". I always remembered that because there's a scene in the episode that's similar to a scene in the movie when one of the men tries to kiss the girl and she doesn't understand anything about kissing.

That's right, you're good at remembering ST stuff I had forgotten the title and forgot about the girl who doesn't understand kissing, but yup that's very similar. I don't know how I could forget the girl though, she might just be the prettiest woman who guest stared on Star Trek, and that's saying a lot because they had a space babe every week.

Barbara Bouchet and Warren Stevens

I didn't love this, but I liked it much more than I thought I would. I don't generally like outer space movies and the type of story and action that goes with them. I did like this story though, and I liked the visual effects and the sound. The beginning does a good job of giving off a feeling of impending doom, but from there I mostly got into the love story aspect. I also thought it was rather humorous, especially in the first half. I can't look at Leslie Nielson without cracking up; I just have him typecast through no fault of his own. Robby the Robot was also a big plus. I think I'd grow to be even more fond of this movie with repeat viewings. I'm glad I watched it.

Amazing review Citizen, and thank you! After a hard and long and crappy day at work this made my day! And yeah thanks Nope for picking this!

Thanks for participating again Cricket! It's awesome that you enjoyed it even if you're not a huge sci-fi fan.

Only 2 more days left! Anyone else planning on giving this a watch? It's worth it!