The Monday Interview

THE STORY: 

In the 23rd century, cruiser C57D is on a routine mission to check on survivors of the Bellerophon expedition that landed on Altair 4. It’s led by Doctor Morbius, who warns the C-57’s Captain JJ Adams not to land.

After a change of mind, the doctor shows his hospitality to Adams, the ship’s Doctor Ostrow, and his first officer Farman, and also the wonders of a long dead civilization, the Krell, starting with an amazing robot named Robby. The Krell were on the verge of a great discovery when they mysteriously disappeared. To complicate matters, the doctor’s daughter Altaira is introduced to human males for the first time in her young life.

THE CAST

Featured former leading man from Canada, Walter Pidgeon as Doctor Edward Morbius. Anne Francis was Altaira “Alta” Morbius.

Eventually Ms Francis would have her own television series in Honey West. Leslie Nielsen is Commander JJ Adams. Of course, he is known more these days for his comedic roles in Airplane and the Naked Gun series.

Warren Stevens is Doctor “Doc” Ostrow, an actor in the Star Trek episode By Any Other Name.

 Jack Kelly is Lieutenant Jerry Farman, who was of course in the classic Western, Maverick.

And Richard Anderson is Chief Quinn, the communications officer known to us as Oscar Goldman in the $6 Million Man and Bionic Woman.

Earl Holloman is Cookie.  The Cook, a great career in westerns, and of course he was in Twilight Zone’s debut episode Where Is Everybody. (Plus Police Woman) 

Speaking of Westerns, James Drury is crewman Strong. Then of course he went on to be in the Virginian.

Robbie the robot was himself. Now Frankie Darrow and Frankie Carpenter played Robbie the robot inside of him, of course.

Marvin Miller was the iconic voice of Robbie the robot.

The narrator was Les Tremaine , veteran actor who appeared in War of the Worlds as General Mann.

And James Best is a crewman, and he went on to have a career in westerns and also the 
Twilight Zone.

THE PRODUCTION: 

The story was originally written by Alan Adler and Irving Block in 1952 called Fatal Planet.

Cyril Hume wrote the finished screenplay and renamed it Forbidden Planet. Some interesting differences from the Adler block script, including the location.

The planet was actually Mercury and the time 1976. Morbius was Doctor Adams and his daughter Dori Anne. The captain of the cruiser was John Grant.

A huge change was there is no Krell or monster from the ID. Instead, the creature was a native to Mercury. Hume fleshed out the story we all know now.

The film was directed by Fred M. Wilcox.

There were comparisons to Shakespeare’s The Tempest. There are similarities which have labeled the film a loose adaptation.

The sets were built on MGM’s Culver City Lot with production designed by Cedric Gibbins and Arthur Larnigan. Lonergan built larger than expected sets that were half done.

When the budget department until discovered the high cost, it was too late.

The full-size mockup of the roughly 3 quarters of the starship C57D was built to suggest the full width 170 ft. It was filmed on the same stage as the Wizard of Oz. The set of Altaira’s garden is a reuse of the Munchkin village set.

Of note, the starship was surrounded by a huge painted cyclorama by George Gibson. It features the desert landscape of Altair 4. This one set took up all the available space in one of the Culver City sound stages.

Principal photography took place from April 18th to late May of 1955.

One of the most expensive characters to build was Robby the robot, which cost $125,000 which tapped 7% of the film’s budget of $1.9 million. He was designed by Robert Kinoshita, who was eventually art director for Lost in Space.