Fred McLeod Wilcox's (1907-1964)

F O R B I D D E N

P L A N E T

(1956)

Starring

The Morbius Household on Altair 4:

Walter Pidgeon .... Dr. Edward Morbius

Anne Francis .... Altaira Morbius

Robby the Robot .... Itself, with voice provided by Marvin Miller and performed by Frankie Darro in the suit

Crew of United Planets Cruiser 57D:

Leslie Nielsen .... Commander John J. Adams

Warren Stevens .... Lt. 'Doc' Ostrow

Jack Kelly .... Lt. Jerry Farman

Richard Anderson .... Chief Engineer Quinn

Earl Holliman .... Cookie

George Wallace .... Bosun

Robert Dix .... Grey

Jimmy Thompson .... Youngerford

James Drury .... Joe Strong

Harry Harvey Jr. .... Randall

Roger McGee .... Lindstrom

Peter Miller .... Moran

Morgan Jones .... Nichols

Richard Grant .... Silvers

James Best .... Crewman

William Boyett .... Crewman

Intro narrated by Les Tremayne

Screenplay by Cyril Hume from an original story by Irving Block and Allen Adler, based on The Tempest by William Shakespeare

Electronic music by Bebe and Louis Barron

Production designed by Irving Block and Mentor Huebner

Filmed in CinemaScope and Eastmancolor by George J. Folsey and edited by Ferris Webster

Produced for MGM by Nicholas Nayfack

Widely regarded as one of the best science fiction films of the 1950s, Forbidden Planet is in a class by itself. The films of its era with to which it is most often compared are George Pal's films (Destination Moon, When Worlds Collide, War of the Worlds, and The Conquest of Space) and Universal's This Island Earth. These were all big-budget spectaculars in Technicolor, though except for Forbidden Planet, none were in widescreen. Science fiction films were generally more serious and better produced early in the decade. As the fifties wore on, color and widescreen became more common for other genres, but at the same time science fiction lost most of the little cachet it initially enjoyed, so relatively few science fiction films were in widescreen and/or color, and fewer of those were particularly well-produced. Kurt Neumann's The Fly, in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color was an exception, as was the now-forgotten Satellite in the Sky. More typical were the few black and white widescreen efforts like The Land Unknown and Kronos, and two black and white films in Superscope, Don Siegel's Invasion of the Bodysnatchers and Roger Corman's The Day the World Ended. Like Forbidden Planet, World Without End was in color and CinemaScope.

Forbidden Planet originated in the fertile minds of freelance special effects wizard Irving Block and his collaborator Allen Adler. Block had worked on special effects for an impressive number of B movies, including Kurt Neumann's Rocketship XM, Kronos, Flight to Mars, It the Terror from Beyond Space, and World Without End (the last three of which share the same Block-designed rocket miniature). Their original treatment, loosely based on The Tempest, was originally intended for the kind of poverty row studio they normally worked with, but it was so good they decided to pitch it first to MGM. The studio recognized the quality of the treatment, with both Shakespearean and Freudian overtones, and wanted to make a mark in the only genre in which, in their minds, they were not already recognized leaders.

Plot Synopsis

United Planets Cruiser C57D, captained by J.J. Adams (Leslie Nielsen) approaches Altair 4 on a rescue mission, but is warned away by the only survivor of the Bellerophon, lost on an exploration mission about twenty years earlier. In spite of the warning from the forbidden planet, the cruiser lands and is greeted by Robby the Robot. Robby brings the ship's three ranking officers to the comfortable residence of Dr. Morbius (Walter Pidgeon). Morbius explains the loss of the Bellerophon, but his explanations raise more questions than they answer.

There is some mysterious, deadly, and invisible force loose on Altair 4, which twenty years earlier, dismembered or vaporized every member of the expedition except for Morbius and his wife. Mrs. Morbius has died of natural causes in the meantime, but Morbius lives with his daughter Altaira (Anne Francis), called Alta for short. Alta is beautiful and intelligent, but naive. Her father is the only man she has ever known, and she is particularly attracted to Captain Adams and the somewhat more predatory Lt. Farman (Jack Kelly).

Morbius reveals that the ancient inhabitants of Altair 4, the Krell, constructed a giant underground machine powered by fusion reactors, which gave them the ability to physically materialize anything they could imagine, but were suddenly and mysteriously wiped out. His researches into their culture, language, and technology have significantly improved his intellect, but he recognizes that the Krell discoveries are potentially dangerous to a primitive civilization like humankind. That was why he tried to warn off the C57D. The mysterious planetary force which destroyed the Bellerophon and her crew starts to attack the C57D. These attacks become increasingly vicious and deadly, until Captain Adams confronts Morbius with their true nature.

Forbidden Planet was filmed in CinemaScope, which MGM licensed from Fox. Because the CinemaScope image is twice as wide as conventional 35 mm, it requires twice the set area to be brightly lit for filming. Forbidden Planet was filmed almost entirely indoors on sound stages and with special effect miniatures. Virtually all the outdoor establishing shots are still paintings. The only outdoor shot in the film is a long shot of characters walking across backlot pavement which was matted into an image of giant underground machinery.

Forbidden Planet and The Tempest

In The Tempest, the hero Prospero, the deposed Duke of Milan, lives on a desert island with his daughter Miranda. The island is described as between Italy and Africa, but is also referred to once as “the still-vexed Bermoothes,” that is, Bermuda. The island is sometimes taken as a metaphor for England. Prospero and Miranda were set adrift by Prospero's evil brother Antonio, who usurped the throne with the assistance of Alonzo the King of Naples. Prospero and Miranda have only survived through the kindness of Gonzalo, a loyal councilor who hid supplies and some of Prospero's prized books of ritual magic in the small open boat in which they were set adrift. Prospero and Miranda clearly correspond to Morbius and Alta, and Morbius the philologist delights in the newly-rediscovered Krell technology much like Prospero delights in his magic. His attention to arcane learning contributed to the loss of his kingdom. The island had been the domain of the evil witch Sycorax, who has recently died, corresponding to the extinct Krell, and perhaps also to the deceased Mrs. Morbius. Sycorax had summoned numerous evil spirits who roam wild until Prospero takes charge of them with his magic spells. The evil spirits are led by the son of Sycorax, the horrible and unformed Caliban, who serves Prospero and is taught speech by him. Caliban is the monster from the Id, though in The Tempest, he has actual characterization, being more tragic than fearsome. Because they refused to serve her, Sycorax also imprisoned numerous virtuous spirits in trees and rocks, including the wind sprite Ariel, who corresponds to Robby. Prospero has already used his magic to free them. Ariel, like Robby, refuses to harm human beings, even when ordered to. Just as Ariel was discovered by Prospero as a legacy from the rule of Sycorax, Morbius tinkers Robby together using the first Krell knowledge he acquires.

The C57D travels to Altair 4 to rescue survivors of the Bellerophon expedition, but in The Tempest, Prospero lures the ship carrying Antonio and Alonzo, and calls up a tempest to wreck the ship, much like the Sea Venture was actually wrecked on Bermuda. Tender-hearted Miranda intercedes to spare the ship and the people on board, so Prospero ensures it is only stranded. Prospero’s intends to attain revenge against his enemies, whereas Morbius tries to warn the C57D away, and afterward to assist its departure. Miranda and Ferdinand the Prince of Naples fall in love under the influence of Prospero’s spell. Prospero considers Prince Ferdinand a desirable match for his daughter, and seems to intend their romantic involvement as part of his revenge against King Alonzo, he later puts some token difficulties in Ferdinand's way, compelling Ferdinand to prove his love for Miranda.

Prospero sends Ariel and Caliban on successive missions to terrify his enemies, but Ariel will not actually harm them. Robby’s acting out of Isaac Asimov’s three laws of robotics mirrors Ariel. Apparently Caliban will harm people but never receives the opportunity. When Gonzalo reports to Prospero that his brother Antonio and Alonzo the King of Naples are sincerely contrite over their crimes against him, Prospero ultimately forgives his enemies. Morbius cannot do this, because in Forbidden Planet he has no real enemies to forgive, and while The Tempest is a dark, intellectual comedy, in which no one dies, Forbidden Planet is a action-adventure story with horror elements, with carnage everywhere.

Shakespeare constructs a metaphor between the physical tempest Prospero creates from his magic, with the inner struggle with his conscience over whether to exact revenge from his helpless enemies, who have already cruelly injured him and his daughter with ten years exile. In Forbidden Planet, the inner tempest is only activated in Morbius through the intersection of his own scientific curiosity and the Krell “plastic educator,” which expands his intellect to superhuman capacities, though still far below that of normal Krell children. Morbius has no enemies, and he and Alta live together in an Eden-like paradise, which is only threatened by the arrival of Commander Adams, who becomes a rival with Morbius for Alta’s affection. Morbius is consciously affectionate toward and protective of the space cruiser crew, providing material assistance to speed their departure, but subconsciously, he is more like a typical 1950s father with a teenaged daughter—he wants to kill any boy who dates her. Like Prospero’s magic, the Krell technology is neither good nor evil, but can be used for either purpose. Unlike Sycorax, Prospero uses his magic for good, though he is tempted to use it to destroy his enemies. Morbius struggles to ensure the Krell technology cannot be used for evil, but he fails to see it acts through his own uncontrolled subconscious desires and instincts. At the end of The Tempest, Prospero frees the ship, and the whole party departs for Naples to celebrate the wedding of Miranda and Francisco. Prospero will return to Milan to resume his virtuous rule. Recognizing that his magic had tempted him to do evil, he buries his magic books in the deepest caverns of the island. Morbius similarly has to neutralize the dangers posed by the underground Krell technology.

Forbidden Planet and the Freudian Structure of the Mind

Freudian psychology posited three elements of the personality, the Id, the Ego, and the Superego or Conscience. The Id was the seat of our emotions, and most likely would have resided in the primitive limbic regions of the brain, where fear and hunger responses work, though we now understand that more evolved emotions, including romantic love, are extensively processed and mediated through the neo-mammalian brain. The limbic system controls primitive and powerful self-preservation instincts, such as would be triggered by severing a limb. This adaptation was among the earliest to emerge along with a central nervous system.

The Ego was unique to humans and was thought to house most of our basic personality traits. In Freud's view it was inherently selfish. The Superego restrained the primitive drives of the Id and the selfish desires of the Ego through shame, guilt, and embarrassment responses—Freud's view of the conscience was that it was primarily a fear of what other people—especially our parents—would think which restrained our behavior from becoming too self-serving. The Forbidden Planet script refers to the Id as an obsolete term, which it probably was by 1956 and certainly would be today, and much more so by the 23rd century. Commander Adams alludes to more sophisticated views of the origin of morality, when he says "we're all monsters in our subconscious. That's why we have to have laws and religion."

Freud describes the Id: "It is the dark, inaccessible part of our personality, what little we know of it we have learnt from our study of the dream-work and of the construction of neurotic symptoms, and most of this is of a negative character and can be described only as a contrast to the ego. We approach the id with analogies: we call it a chaos, a cauldron full of seething excitations ... It is filled with energy reaching it from the instincts, but it has no organization, produces no collective will, but only a striving to bring about the satisfaction of the instinctual needs subject to the observance of the pleasure principle." New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis (1933).

In contrast the Ego is organized and becomes reorganized through experience and learning. The lower portions of the Ego as well as repressed memories, which could not be consciously experienced or recalled, merge into the Id. The Ego conducts the mind's conscious activity, though much of its functioning is also subconscious and/or autonomous. "The super-ego retains the character of the father, while the more powerful the Oedipus complex was and the more rapidly it succumbed to repression (under the influence of authority, religious teaching, schooling and reading), the stricter will be the domination of the super-ego over the ego later on — in the form of conscience or perhaps of an unconscious sense of guilt." The Ego and the Id (1923).

Forbidden Planet and The Twilight Zone

Anytime you see a flying saucer on The Twilight Zone, it is the C57D. Sometimes actual footage from the movie was used, often printed upside down and run backwards to mask its origin. The model prop was also used for original special effects for several episodes for the television show. Three sizes of models were used for various scenes: 22, 44, and 88 inches in diameter. Uniforms and other props were also used frequently. Because MGM made so few science fiction movies, there was not a lot of use for these otherwise. Props and costumes were also recycled for The Queen of Outer Space and World Without End. MGM reprised the Robby the Robot character in The Invisible Boy, and he also appeared on various episodes of The Twighlight Zone, Lost in Space, and even an episode of Columbo.

Forbidden Planet and Star Trek

Star Trek's unsold original pilot, "The Cage," which was eventually recycled as the first-season two-part episode "The Menagerie," had marked similarities to Forbidden Planet. The Enterprise (which has a crew of several hundred and is much larger than the C57D) encounters a distress signal which lures them to Talos 4. They encounter the survivors of a crashed exploration party, but it is only an illusion used to take Captain Pike (Jeffrey Hunter) captive. Unlike the Krell, the Talosians were not wiped out, and they have only developed the power of illusion, not of physical transmutation and telekinesis.

Although their power of illusion was not immediately fatal to the Talosians, over millennia it has made them indolent, apathetic, and uncaring. They could imagine killing each other, but they couldn't actually do it -- that would require too much effort. They put so much of their weakening mental and moral energies into their illusions they are dying out as a race, and they abduct Captain Pike as part of a scheme to breed a race of human slaves who will keep their society functioning through providing the physical labor the Talosians can no longer tolerate. The human slaves will be rewarded with illusory, though highly satisfying, pleasures.

A large part of both Forbidden Planet and "The Cage" is devoted to displaying the special powers of the alien civilization, and to solving the mystery of how to escape from it. The Talosians are not murderous like the planetary force of the deceased Krell on Altair 4, but they are morally flawed enough to enslave other sentient life forms. In Forbidden Planet, the danger comes from the physical realization of forbidden sexual desire, repressed in evolved humankind but inherited from lower life forms. In "The Cage," illusion is such a seductive employment, it warps and finally destroys a whole race, almost as if the more physical and final destruction of the Krell was drawn out immeasurably by being made primarily psychological.

A notable difference between Forbidden Planet and "The Cage," is that in Forbidden Planet, the whole crew is trapped on Altair 4 and is literally in a fight for their lives, whereas in "The Cage," only the captain is kidnapped and the crew struggles to rescue him. "The Cage" was too cerebral for NBC, and they commissioned a second, more conventionally action-oriented pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before." In "The Cage," Talos 4 is not forbidden but unknown, but when "The Cage" was recycled into "The Menagerie," which covers the same action in flashback but is set many years later, contact with Talos 4 was forbidden by Starfleet regulation, and violating this prohibition was the only death penalty offense in twenty-fifth century Federation law.