BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet

Subject: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: olddude
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 03:25 AM

3 Am Can't sleep, dang back
wow turner movies is running the 1956 classic sci-fi forbidden planet
the best old sci-fi movie ever made. I even had my own Robbie the robot as a christmas gift one time when I was a kid

scared the heck out of me
boy the mix of animation was wonderful for that time frame
anyone remember it. It had Anne Francis and Leslie Neilson in it

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 04:08 AM

Monsters from the id!
And the story was Shakespearean.

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: Alec
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 04:26 AM

It was indeed. A reworking of The Tempest. A wonderful film.

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: Will Fly
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 05:15 AM

Surely you remember Leslie Neilson? Sorry for calling you Shirley, by the way...

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 07:38 AM

Somebody did a verion of "Darkies Sunday school" with a sci-fi/fantasy slant:

Morbius & Alterra were living all alone.
With half a world of generators just to power their home.
But when she loved a sailor (as the nice girls always do)
Daddy pushed a button and the whole kaboodle blew.

Cheers
Nigel
(erstwhile filker)

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: SINSULL
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 07:58 AM

This was also turned into an off Broadway musical. Very strange. All rock music from the 50s.

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: GUEST,mauvepink
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 08:15 AM

... an all time classic for sure.

I have also had the pleasure of seeing "Return to the Forbidden Planet" three times. Sung and acted by an energetic group of young musicians, each of whom can play at least 6 different instruments (at different times, obviously!) complete with Shakespearian phrases (mostly from the Tempest on which it is based). Well worth seeing if you ever get a chance or listening to the CD which is still available I think.

Alas: I always end up falling for the robot as he is so essential to the whole thing and is a real heart breaker ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: kendall
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 08:25 AM

My favorite sci fi flick.Number 2, The day the earth stood still.

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: GUEST,mauvepink
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 08:38 AM

Kedell: I suspect you mean the original version with Michael Rennie? Another classic for sure. I have not seen the new version but imagine it to be very different from the first? ... remakes can be entertaining but seldom do they get close to the original in most cases.

Gort being instructed "Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!".... great memories of nail nibbling!

No 3 (and possibly the one I would have as first) is "This Island Earth". Sadly, no robot of note in that one :-(

I think this thread may be about to go out in space :-)

mp

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: Fiolar
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 08:40 AM

Walter Pidgeon was in it and it also had the first appearance of Robbie the Robot. Anybody who wants any film info should try the website IMDB.com

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: Wesley S
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 08:55 AM

Speaking of remakes someone is filming a new version of "The Day of the Triffids".

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 10:10 AM

what? what is the world coming to - fancy remaking those classics!

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: DMcG
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 10:40 AM

I might disagree with you, Sandra. The BBC serialised version of "The Day of the Triffids" was excellent. The film was way off, making it into a story about monsters, rather than a story about people. In my opinion, of course.

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 10:50 AM

Whoa

day of the Triffids gave me nightmares.

A magnificent meteor shower gave the world a spectacular light show due to a form of radiation that caused people's retinas to atrophy two weeks later. For those who did not wee the meteoric light show and still had vision, they saw the growth of a mineral life form that grew into towers so tall they fell over and traveled exponentially by breaking into smaller pices as they fell and grew again. If you picked up one of the pieces it would begin to mineralize/fossilize soft tissue. If you weren't blind you were turning to stone. Crops began to mineralize.

The process was so insidious and without consciousness it was the epitomy of an ultimate natural disaster.

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: SINSULL
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 10:51 AM

I forgot - the whole musical was done on roller blades.

The Day Of The Triffids and the Day The Earth Caught Fire are among my favorites. I would love to see remakes. Somewhere I have the book "Day Of The Triffids". Have to look.

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: GUEST,mauvepink
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 11:22 AM

The musical was/is wonderous and the speed they went on their roller blades on a small stage quite remarkable. "I want a robotman" was a great song but watching his redition of all the ways to say "Sorry" was incredible...

I am listening to the album now as I have the tunes in my head! :-)

Must find some folk songs with robots mentioned lol

mp

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: Wesley S
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 11:30 AM

Here's a list of the cast. It looks like the Day of the Triffids will be a TV miniseries of some sort. Vanessa Redgrave AND Eddie Izzard?

IMDB profile

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: ClaireBear
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 11:46 AM

In another of life's quirky juxtapositions, I was explaining to my son only last weekend about Forbidden Planet's "Monsters of the id!" and how the movie used The Tempest for its themes.

Dang it all, the movie was halfway over last night before I noticed it was running -- too late to record it.

Looking on the bright side, I'm not sure my eight-year-old is ready for Anne Francis, anyway -- but he'd sure like Robbie.

C

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: Peter T.
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 11:51 AM

A complex exploration in visual terms of an amalgam of the Kantian noumena and the Freudian id, mediated by post-mechanical hapticities.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: GUEST, Sminky
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 12:09 PM

A complex exploration in visual terms of an amalgam of the Kantian noumena and the Freudian id, mediated by post-mechanical hapticities.

Not to mention that outfit of Ann Francis!

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: GUEST,winterbright
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 12:48 PM

My 2 cents... Klaatu beats Triffids any day.
This Island Earth scared the bejezus out of me when I saw it at the drive-in with my folks! But Aliens (2) is still the scariest ever!
Does anybody remember a TV series (late '50's?) called "Science Fiction Theater"?

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: GUEST,winterbright (again)
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 12:52 PM

Adendum... speaking of alegories.
Death and resurrection... Klaatu came to save us - and he chose the name Mr.Carpenter. How subtle is THAT?!

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: Wesley S
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 01:11 PM

I don't think that Klaatu would be able to stand up to the Triffids - but Gort? That's another story.

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: GUEST,JTS
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 03:42 PM

Forbidden Planet was a great science fiction movie. The effects still work compared to the best of today and the story was timeless.

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: robomatic
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 04:13 PM

I have the following useless comment:

Love the movie, love the thread, pretty much agree with EVRYBODY!

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 04:23 PM

Yikes, a blast from the past. After the movie came out, you could get your very own Robby Robot, and the ads were all over Saturday Morning cartoons. I must have been in kindergarten, and for show and tell, one little girl got up front to show us all her talking doll, and when she held it up to speak I piped up "I'm Robby the Robot, Mechanical Man!"
Not the last time my mouth got me in big trouble with teacher, but maybe the first.
I agree with Peter about the Kantian noumena. They just don't make Kantian noumena films like that anymore.

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: Jack Blandiver
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 05:30 PM

Forbidden Planet was the first film to have an all electronic score. Also features a young Leslie Nielsen... A fine film.

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: GUEST,Slag
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 06:46 PM

Old Dude. As I sit here at this machine it is graced by no less than two Robbies and a pantheon of other robots, some known and others, just a toy maker's nightmare. Absolute tops of its day and and unsurpassed until "2001: A Space Odyssey".

I saw it when I was seven and it scare the heck out of me. Those metal stairs bending under the weight of the ID-iot were terrifying.

Do you recall the navigating mechanism? Not electronic but supposedly a highly sophisticated SLIDE RULE! So cool. Thanks for the post!

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: olddude
Date: 01 Apr 09 - 10:46 PM

Slag
the stairs bending gave me nightmares for a week. gosh I like that movie. It was just awesome. It was a delight to be able to see it on TV. I never get tired of it. i wish I had my robbie the robot again. That was the greatest toy ever

Dan

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: DMcG
Date: 02 Apr 09 - 02:23 AM

I like my SCI-FI to be intelligent. Scary is just an added extra. "Forbidden Planet" scores pretty highly there, since there are the themes of the two societies overreaching themselves and the consequences of dabbling in things you don't fully understand while simultaneously needing to do so because it is part of your nature. A second theme is the flawed nature of humanity ...

Similarly, "Day of the Triffids". In the book, the walking plants are significant, certainly, but they are really the background to the main story, which is full of questions like how do you educate the next generation when it is taking all your resources simply to survive in this? What is worth passing on anyway? Eg, what to you do about medical knowledge that is useless without the drugs to support them when you have no means of creating the drugs? If rationality says the best survival strategy is that every sighted man should have several blind wives (because they can have sighted children) but that you cannot afford to support any blind men can you overcome your existing conventions and thinking enough to form a society like that?

That's the interesting stuff. "Oh, there's a scary plant" has its place, but has little connection to the heart of the book.

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: GUEST,mauvepink
Date: 02 Apr 09 - 05:07 AM

You can see the headlines back in 1610-ish: "Shakespeare writes science fiction classic that teaches forgiveness!"... or not, maybe. But when you come to think of it the taking of The Tempest and bringing it into such a modern arena in the 1950's really was quite forward looking. It's ageless. Written in the past and converted into something that will not be outdated for many a time to come. The more I think about the whole film and play the more I notice.

Thanks for raising so many thoughts and memories

Great thread!

:-)

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: DMcG
Date: 02 Apr 09 - 07:02 AM

Whoa

day of the Triffids gave me nightmares.

A magnificent meteor shower gave the world a spectacular light show due to a form of radiation that caused people's retinas to atrophy two weeks later ... it was the epitomy of an ultimate natural disaster.
Missed this one earlier. There is a paragraph or two in the book where is says one of the unproven rumours that went around after people went blind was that it was actually a space-based weapon of some kind that had failed and the owners were unable to stop it. That would be in keeping with the idea of us being too clever by half (Also, you remember, we bred the triffids because they were a great source of vegetable oil...)

I'm not really a triffid-obsessive, you know. Though I would recommend ALL the books John Wyndham published under that name. Some of the ones he published under other names are not so good.

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: DMcG
Date: 02 Apr 09 - 07:03 AM

Sorry about the italics.

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: Will Fly
Date: 02 Apr 09 - 07:37 AM

Loved The Forbidden Planet, The Day The Earth Stood Still, and The Day The Earth Caught Fire.

But also - Silent Running, with Bruce Dern. Great film.

There was also a very black-humoured sci-fi film about hippy astronauts in space - anyone remember the title?

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 02 Apr 09 - 07:57 AM

"Spaceballs"

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: A Wandering Minstrel
Date: 02 Apr 09 - 08:12 AM

"Dark Star" perhaps? with the sentient bomb and the beachball alien.

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: Will Fly
Date: 02 Apr 09 - 08:18 AM

Dark Star it is! Thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: SINSULL
Date: 02 Apr 09 - 08:35 AM

Robbie Robot - my brother had one.
I am Robbie Robot, mechanical man. Drive me and turn me where ever you can. BEEP BEEP I am Robbie Robot...

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 02 Apr 09 - 09:06 AM

Dark Star.
One of the crew dreamed of surfing again.
He ended by surfing a piece of wreckage into re entry.

And they had to persuade a bomb not to detonate itslef, by making it question its existance.

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: Wesley S
Date: 02 Apr 09 - 09:09 AM

You can still buy a Robbie the Robot:

This one is 7 feet tall....

This one is not....

Here's one with a link to a Gort too...

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: JJ
Date: 02 Apr 09 - 10:27 AM

Science Fiction Theatre...

"I'm your host, Truman Bradley..."

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Apr 09 - 02:24 PM

'Return to Forbidden Planet' became something of an obsession in our family.

By the way, I heard this week of an experiment whereby tomato plants are having 'Day of the Triffids' read to them. I find that a bit weird. Am I alone in this??

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: kendall
Date: 02 Apr 09 - 04:49 PM

Return to Forbidden planet? Never saw it. Didn't the planet blow up?

Subject: RE: BS: 1956 Sci-fi Forbidden Planet
From: GUEST,Slag
Date: 02 Apr 09 - 05:54 PM

Yes, my sister bought a "Forbidden Planet" marquis CD in a decorative tin for one of my birthdays. It included a little Robbie the Robot wind-up toy, a poster and an opportunity to buy the 7' tall Robbie. Thrown in for good measure was "Tobor the Great" starring who less, but Robbie, recast. I could have used the real Robbie when I was a kid! (Couldn't we all?)

I'd also like to get my hands on some of that Krell metal!

Altair is an easy Summer star to spot. It's constellation, Aquila, the Eagle, is one that tends to resemble what it is purported to be. By June it is getting to be just east of zenith around 9 PM, if memory serves me. In fact, there is a whole flock of celestial birds there. Cygnus, the Swan (magnificent), and Corvus, the Crow. Flying in their midst is Sagitta, the Arrow. I guess one of the gods took a shot at one of them but so far it's missed them all!

Altair is a really massive star with a high rate of rotation and is therefore significantly flattened at the polar regions. Recent measurements have shown that it is about 30+% wider than it is tall. Maybe we could get George Lucas to digitally correct the images of Altair in the movie.

Oh, by the way, it lies about 17 ly (light years) from Earth so if it went nova as the story relates, Earth would most likely be irradiated into a lifeless piece of slag (ahem!) in the first day of the arrival of the first shock wave, even if it was just a type II nova.

Yes, I love Dark Star! Another favorite! what a great spoof. A philosophical star buster. I really appreciate that ground control duties were assigned to a one stripe Airman (just one notch above Airman Basic, the lowest grade). Talk about budgetary nightmares, and here these poor guys were out saving the Earth from unstable star systems. Was their President named Obama? oops, almost sorry about the injection of political opinion in a strictly fun thread!