Say, I wonder if he plays poker? Those spinners in his head are his tell, I’ll bet.
A few nights ago we saw the classic SF movie Forbidden Planet (1956) for the first time in decades. This is the story of a space mission to a planet that had been recorded as visited some 15-20 years prior by a scientific mission, and never heard from again.
As they approach, they receive a warn-off from someone, but choose to land anyways. Met by Robby the Robot, three men of the all male crew are conveyed to the residence of Dr. Morbius, where he once again urges them to leave. Why? The other members of his expedition were torn limb from limb within months of landing, excepting three, who died when trying to escape on the expedition spaceship, Morbius himself, his wife, and their daughter. The daughter, incidentally, makes an appearance, demonstrating nubility that stirs up this crews from 1950s American morality.
That evening, something slips into the ship and vandalizes it.
The next evening, the Executive Officer is murdered while on the ship. As a defensive force field had been emplaced but burned out during the night, there’s some confusion.
On another visit to Dr. Morbius, they discover his secret: he’s discovered the remains of an ancient, powerful, and extinct civilization. One of the machines has doubled Morbius’ own IQ. As a philologist, he’s qualified to deduce their language, and he’s partway into it. This excites the Commander.
But then comes the third night. A reinforced defensive field holds the creature back, and the crew attempts to kill it, but to no avail; three crew are dead. In the face of no known effective defense, the Commander chooses to leave. But he’s under obligation to save all civilians, so off he and the ship’s doctor troop to Dr. Morbius’. There, while the Commander is trying to collect the civilians, including the nubile daughter, the doctor scurries off and tries to double his own IQ, a fatal excursion. But with his dying breaths, all is revealed, much to the dismay of Dr. Morbius.
There’s a lot to like about this movie. There’s a recognition that space travel isn’t easy, as it turns out that supra-light travel requires the crew to go into stasis in order to survive it; even better, supra-light communications requires them to jury-rig equipment and use the space-drive to power the rig. It’s a nod to the realities we might really face.
Technically speaking, the special effects, for the era, were superb, and my Arts Editor was exclaiming over the cinematography and the beautifully wrought tableaus.
However, the characters are somewhat static, and the all-male crew and their 1950s-era (im)morality felt both quaint and patronizing. Worse yet, the pacing dragged between incidents, but the exciting incidents themselves are well done.
This is possibly the best specimen of the 1950s SF horror offerings, but it has its limitations. But who can argue with a movie in which the polyglot robot is rescued?
