Forbidden Planet

This article is about the film. For the retail chain, see Forbidden Planet. For the episode of the British television series Fireball XL5, see Fireball XL5 ยง Episodes.

Forbidden Planet
Theatrical release poster
Directed byFred M. Wilcox
Screenplay byCyril Hume
Story by
Produced byNicholas Nayfack
Starring
Narrated byLes Tremayne
CinematographyGeorge J. Folsey
Edited byFerris Webster
Music byBebe and Louis Barron
Production
company
Distributed byMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release dates
  • March 3, 1956 (1956-03-03) (Charlotte, North Carolina)[1]
Running time
98 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1,968,000[3]
Box office$2,765,000[3]

Forbidden Planet is a 1956 American science fiction film from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, produced by Nicholas Nayfack, and directed by Fred M. Wilcox from a script by Cyril Hume that was based on an original film story by Allen Adler and Irving Block. It stars Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, and Leslie Nielsen. Shot in Eastmancolor and CinemaScope, it is considered one of the great science fiction films of the 1950s,[4] a precursor of contemporary science fiction cinema. The characters and isolated setting have been compared to those in William Shakespeare's The Tempest,[5] and the plot contains certain happenings analogous to the play, leading many to consider it a loose adaptation.

Forbidden Planet pioneered several aspects of science fiction cinema. It was the first science fiction film to depict humans traveling in a man-made faster-than-light starship.[6] It was also the first to be set entirely on a planet orbiting another star, far away from Earth and the Solar System.[7][8] The Robby the Robot character is one of the first film robots that was more than just a mechanical "tin can" on legs; Robby displays a distinct personality and is an integral supporting character in the film.[9] Outside science fiction, the film was groundbreaking as the first of any genre to use an entirely electronic musical score, courtesy of Bebe and Louis Barron.

Forbidden Planet's effects team was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects at the 29th Academy Awards. Tony Magistrale describes it as one of the best examples of early techno-horror.[10] In 2013, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[11][12]

  1. ^ Warren, Bill (2010). Keep Watching the Skies!: American Science Fiction Movies of the Fifties. McFarland and Company, Inc. ISBN 978-1476625058.
  2. ^ "'Forbidden Planet' (1956)" Archived July 13, 2018, at the Wayback Machine. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved: January 16, 2015.
  3. ^ a b "The Eddie Mannix Ledger". Margaret Herrick Library, Center for Motion Picture Study, Los Angeles. Retrieved: January 16, 2015.
  4. ^ Booker 2010, p. 126.
  5. ^ Wilson 2010, p. 10.
  6. ^ Imagining Faster-Than-Light Travel
  7. ^ Ring 2011, p. 22.
  8. ^ Sydney Finkelstein. Superbosses. Portfolio/Penguin. 2016. Chapter 4.
  9. ^ "Robby, the Robot" Archived June 29, 2011, at the Wayback Machine. The Robot Hall of Fame (Carnegie Mellon University). Retrieved: January 16, 2015.
  10. ^ Tony Magistrale, Abject Terrors: Surveying the Modern and Postmodern Horror Film, 2005 p. 82
  11. ^ "Library of Congress announces 2013 National Film Registry selection" Archived December 18, 2013, at the Wayback Machine. The Washington Post, December 18, 2013. Retrieved: January 16, 2015.
  12. ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on March 21, 2021. Retrieved June 16, 2020.