Michael Rennie was ill
The Day the Earth Stood Still
But he told us where we stand
And Flash Gordon was there
In silver underwear
Claude Rains was The Invisible Man
Then something went wrong
For Fay Wray and King Kong
They got caught in a celluloid jam
Then at a deadly pace
It Came From Outer Space
And this is how the message ran…
Science fiction (ooh ooh ooh) double feature
Doctor X (ooh ooh ooh) will build a creature
See androids fighting (ooh ooh ooh) Brad and Janet
Anne Francis stars in (ooh ooh ooh) Forbidden Planet
Wo oh oh oh oh oh
At the late night, double feature, picture show
I came here to say that! It’s currently making the classic films tour with The Alloy Orchestra. Saw it last night at the Plaza Classic Festival and was floored.
Standing ovation at the end. This version has 25 extra minutes from a 16mm copy found in Argentina, so it’s almost complete. If it comes to a festival near you GO!
Of course remember that anything done before the '60s would have been Hayes Code compliant: no gore, no sex, no moral ambiguity. For example, if Forbidden Planet were redone today, it would probably be a lot more explicit that Dr. Morbius was extremely jealous of his nubile daughter’s attraction to the handsome stranger.
I’ve heard about the Lost Argentinean Footage™ and would love to check it out.
If you all aren’t familiar - here’s a clip (birth of Maria the Robot)and here’s another (modern city). This was made in the 1920’s and looks like it would fit in today’s films…so stylized - every frame is so well laid out.
Great movie. Arness and Whitmore as the two hard-nosed cops who pull off a subtle mix of humanity, pathos and humor entertain me every time.
I respectfully disagree.
One of the best SF movies ever made, and in the year I was born!
One of my favorite unknown gems. Took me years to find a copy. I watch it all the time. It’s hard to believe that it was made about the same year as Jason & The Argonauts.
Well, it’s an assessment of whether the film stands up on its own as a film; and it’s not just the presence of a mad scientist/beautiful daughter, but the way the subplot was handled; the acting & dialogue dealing with that element of the plot were not very convincing, IMO.
I haven’t seen basically any of the other classics mentioned on this thread, apart from a few minutes of outtakes from METROPOLIS, so I can’t say whether FP was heads and shoulders above them or not; parts of it do hold up pretty well.
I can’t believe no-one’s mentioned Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Two great actors stealing scenes from each other, lots of action, and the single greatest science-fiction vehicle design of all time.
