Hello, everybody, it’s Pam, finally back with a new review. This one is going to be a science-fiction classic that for some reason I never got around to watching until now: Forbidden Planet. Unlike most of the movies MMT reviews, this one received generally good reviews when it was released, and it continues to be well-regarded today. It influenced a number of later science fiction movies and television shows, and the more I think about it, the more I don’t understand why I never watched it. So here I go.
As the movie opens, it’s immediately obvious that this is not the usual cheaply-made production that MMT typically reviews. It was made by MGM, and although it wouldn’t be correct to say that no expense was spared, a fair amount of money and effort was spent on it. It has a number of good actors (Walter Pidgeon, Leslie Nielson, Warren Stevens, Anne Francis) and some very nice sets. Plus, it’s in color, which was fairly uncommon for science-fiction movies in the 1950s.
We start with a little exposition to let us know the background of the movie. It seems that men (and women! It says “women!”) landed on the moon at the end of the 21st century, and by 2200, humans had reached the other planets in the solar system. Shortly thereafter, “hyperdrive” was discovered. This made faster-than-light travel possible and allowed mankind to reach planets other than those in our solar system. And now we go to the control room of United Planets cruiser C-57D, which is on a special mission to one of the planets of Altair.
Nice control room. The big transparent sphere seems to be used to navigate the ship.
United Planets evidently can afford nice cruisers, which are the standard flying-saucer design and resemble the one shown in the big transparent sphere. Actually, the cruisers are more than nice – I see what looks like wood paneling in the control room. Check out the uniforms, they’ll be seen again a couple of years later in Queen of Outer Space.
But why is the C-57D going to Altair? It seems that 20 years ago, a spaceship carrying a group of scientists landed on the fourth planet of Altair, and the C-57D is here to search for survivors. It seems to me that 20 years seems like a long time to be out of touch with a party of researchers, but maybe it’s a big deal to travel so far, even with hyperdrive. Wikipedia says that Altair is a little more than 16 light-years away from Earth. The movie hasn’t said how long it took the cruiser to get to Altair, or how much the trip cost.
As the C-57D approaches Altair 4, the crew searches for radio signals but don’t find any. So they’re still using radio at least 200 years into the future? A visual scan shows that there are no cities, ports, dams, or even roads, although it seems a lot to expect that some scientists who came to do research would bother to build many roads, let alone any cities, ports, or dams. But it seems that whoever’s on the planet does have radar, as their instruments show that the cruiser is being scanned with it. This causes some perturbation, and the captain orders the crew to their combat stations. Why are they so excited? It seems reasonable enough for the inhabitants to have a system to detect any incoming ships. But now they do detect a radio signal, and it’s a male voice requesting that the ship identify itself. Again, this seems perfectly reasonable to me. The commander asks the voice who it is, and it turns out to be Edward Morbius, one of the scientists that was set down on the planet 20 years ago.
Dr. Morbius states emphatically that he doesn’t need any help and recommends that they turn back at once without landing on the planet. The captain isn’t having any of this, and he requests landing coordinates, even though Dr. Morbius says that he can’t be responsible for the safety of the ship and its crew. Dr. Morbius grudgingly supplies the coordinates, and the cruiser lands.
The Forbidden Planet itself
I suppose that now the cruiser has reached the planet, some introductions are in order. The crewmembers aren’t easy to tell apart, since their uniforms are identical and their haircuts are almost identical. They are, as far as I’ve seen, all dark-haired. The only member of the crew who really stands out is the ship’s cook, who wears an apron and a white sailor’s cap. But I know that the commander’s name is J.J. Adams, since he introduced himself to Dr. Morbius over the radio. He’s played by a young and almost unrecognizable Leslie Nielsen. Commander Adams is accompanied on his visit to Dr. Morbius by Dr. Ostrow, the ship’s physician. I know this is the doctor’s name, because he’s played by Warren Stevens, who I’ve seen before in other science-fiction movies, and because IMDb says that Dr. Ostrow is the name of this character. I’m not certain who the third person who calls on Dr. Morbius is, but I think it’s Lt. Farman (maybe somebody was having a little fun here), played by somebody I never heard of.
Dr. Morbius seems to be a courteous host, despite the fact that he wasn’t very welcoming at first. He sends a vehicle of some sort to escort his visitors to his house. It’s driven by someone I’m sure you’ll all recognize.
It's Robby the Robot!
Yes, it’s our old friend, making his acting debut. He bows politely, introduces himself as “Robby,” and tells the men that he’s here to take them to see Dr. Morbius. After Commander Adams tells his crew that he’ll give them a signal if he needs help, he, Dr. Ostrow, and Lt. Farman hop into the scooter, and off they go.
Dr. Morbius' humble abode
The three men are greeted by Dr. Morbius, played by veteran actor Walter Pidgeon. He greets them warmly and invites them to lunch. Robby turns out to be a robot of many talents – he not only cooked the lunch, he manufactured the “raw materials.” I wonder what that means? Does he grow fruits and vegetables and raise animals for meat? No, he literally makes it. You put a sample of food into his chest, an interior chemical laboratory analyzes it, then he reproduces identical molecules of whatever the sample was. This is interesting, but even more interesting is that the three men have never heard of such a thing, showing that this is unknown technology that Dr. Morbius must have developed himself. More discussion reveals that Robby himself is unknown technology to the three men. What kind of scientist is Dr. Morbius, anyway? He and his fellow scientists went to this planet to do research, which I took to mean observing plants and animals native to the planet. Why would he go to a faraway uninhabited planet to develop a robot?
Dr. Morbius now demonstrates to the men that Robby is incapable of harming sentient beings. He chooses the rather dramatic method of ordering Robby to shoot Commander Adams, thus letting the three men see that Robby can point a gun at a human but can’t pull the trigger. The Commander doesn’t seem to be disturbed by this, which makes him much more forgiving than I would be under these circumstances.
But where did Robby come from? The scientists couldn’t have brought him with them, since he clearly isn’t a product of Earth technology, or the three men would have been familiar with him. All Dr. Morbius says is that he “tinkered” Robby together, which is remarkable to say the least, especially as Commander Adams mentions that Dr. Morbius is a philologist. Commander Adams does in fact point this out to Dr. Morbius, but Dr. Morbius never really gives an explanation, he just says that Commander Adams is overestimating both Robby and himself (Dr. Morbius, that is).
Commander Adams doesn’t question Dr. Morbius any further, so I guess we’ll have to leave it at that. After all, Dr. Morbius’ house seems awfully fancy for temporary field quarters, and he doesn’t bother to explain how he managed to build it, either. And now we get to something else I was wondering about: Where are the other scientists? Dr. Morbius replies to Commander Adams’ query on this subject by saying that before the the first year was over, all of the other scientists had succumbed to a “dark, terrible, incomprehensible” planetary force. And why didn’t Dr. Morbius die, too? His explanation that he (and Mrs. Morbius, of whom there has been no sign) had a special love for the planet, which kept them alive when everybody else died. Except that Mrs. Morbius died “of natural causes” a few months after everybody else.
Personally, I think Dr. Morbius is lying through his teeth about what really happened to his wife and coworkers. Commander Adams also seems skeptical, and upon further questioning, Dr. Morbius states that all the other scientists, except for Mrs. Morbius, were somehow torn limb from limb by something that never showed itself. Also, the spaceship that transported them to the planet vaporized for some unknown reason when some of the scientists tried to take off in it. I’m looking suspiciously at Robby now, and also wondering why it took Earth 20 years to get around to checking on the scientists. Commander Adams is just asking Dr. Morbius how it is that the creature who tore apart the scientists has never made its presence known since, when in walks a major distraction.
A sight for sore eyes
It seems that before Mrs. Morbius perished from “natural causes,” she gave birth to a daughter, and here she is. She is Altaira Morbius, played by the beautiful Anne Francis. Anne Francis’ time as a leading lady in movies amounted to only a few years, but she had a long successful career in television.
Why did she wait until now to show up? Dr. Morbius reminds her that he asked her not to to join them for lunch, but she tells him that lunch is over, and he doesn’t seem angry. He introduces her to the three astronauts, and she seems quite interested in them. The three astronauts, particularly Lt. Farman, seem rather interested in her. Robby, ever the perfect servant, has prepared coffee for everyone.
The astronauts are somewhat concerned that Dr. Morbius may be keeping his daughter too confined – a concern which I’m sure is totally unselfish. He tells them that Altaira is free to visit Earth any time she wants, which brings up the question of how? Does he have a spaceship stashed away someplace? Altaira seems surprised that anybody would want to visit Earth, but when she assures the astronauts that she’s perfectly happy here on Altair 4, she reveals something Dr. Morbius hasn’t mentioned yet – she has friends here.
She cheerfully uses an inaudible whistle to summon her friends, one of which is rather unexpected.
Now how did this get here?
Dr. Morbius doesn’t deign to explain why the scientists chose to bring a tiger to an unexplored planet, but the astronauts don’t seem at all surprised to see it or the two deer Altaira also summoned, so maybe it will be standard practice in the far future to bring Earth animals along for company when exploring a new planet. Dr. Morbius does indicate that now the astronauts have seen that everything is hunky-dory on Altair 4, their room is preferable to their company, and don’t let the door hit them on their way out.
Commander Adams, however, is not fully satisfied with Dr. Morbius’ vague explanation for the death of everybody else from the expedition, and he tells the good doctor that they’ll be sticking around while he contacts his base for further instructions. I’m wondering if their ship’s communication system is capable of reaching so far, and in fact it seems that it isn’t. Commander Adams estimates that it will take about 10 days to jury-rig something capable of communicating with their base, and Dr. Morbius is none too happy to hear this. In order to speed the astronauts on their way, he offers to have Robby “run off” 100 square yards of two-inch lead shielding that are required for the transmitter.
Two questions here. Is Dr. Morbius just antisocial, or does he have something to hide? He hints that the mysterious force that killed everybody else is likely to get the astronauts too, but if that’s what he’s worried about, why doesn’t he tell the astronauts and let them decide if the risk is worth it? Second, is there nothing Robby can’t do? And why aren’t the astronauts even a little surprised at all of his unlikely powers? Okay, that’s three questions. Sue me. Back to the movie.
Once the three officers are back at the spaceship, the crew sets to and starts building the transmitter, with the ever-helpful Robby lugging thick lead plates as though they’re nothing. He says they weight 10 tons, but I don’t see how something his size can possibly carry that much weight – and with one hand, at that. Maybe he’s just lying. Somewhat to my surprise, Altaira’s there watching, as skimpily clad as she was before. Lt. Forman is neglecting his duties and chatting with her. The astronauts are cheerful, with some good-natured horseplay among the crew, and in no time, the transmitter is assembled.
I’ll take their word that this contraption will actually work
However, there are some cracks in the harmony. Lt. Forman decides to introduce Altaira to the concept of kissing, and she seems willing to learn, until Commander Adams appears and chases him off. Both men seem rather curt with each other, and it looks as though there’s there’s tension building up. Altaira is not grateful for the intervention, and Anne Francis is having a hard time portraying a naive young girl who has no idea that there’s anything wrong with hugging and kissing a man. It doesn’t help that she’s standing there wearing a sequined skin-tight micro-minidress.
Altaira runs home and fumes to her father about Commander Adams’ interference, and oddly he doesn’t seem at all upset, either with her or the two men. Dr. Morbius sends her off to bed, but before she goes, she summons Robby and orders him to make her a new dress, one that shows nothing at all, but does have lots of diamonds and emeralds on it.
I really want to see this dress, but I’ll have to wait. In the next scene, we’re back at the spaceship. Two of the crew members are standing outside, and one tells the other that he hears something, like loud breathing. The other one doesn’t hear it, but something odd is going on. Inside the spaceship, we see a piece of equipment swing around and – do something. We don’t see what it does, but it must have been something bad, because in the following scene, the Commander is chewing out the two crewmen, telling them that they let something in that sabotaged valuable government property. The Commander is very angry, with good reason, because it seems that whatever came in wrecked a key component of something vital to the spaceship’s function. The chief engineer calls it a “klystron frequency modulator,” but it looks like a coil of copper tubing to me, rather like what would be used in a still. Are the filmmakers having a little fun with us?
Does anybody know what this thing actually is?
The crew of the spaceship are hard at work, while back at Dr. Morbius’ house, Robby is arranging flowers in a vase, and another one of Altaira’s “friends,” a small monkey, is stealing fruit from a bowl. A beam of green light from Robby chases off the monkey, and just then the Commander and Dr. Ostrow show up, demanding to see Dr. Morbius. Dr. Morbius is holed up in his study, and Robby won’t let them disturb him, so the two spacemen are possessing their souls in patience when the Commander spots Altaira skinny-dipping in an outdoor pool.
You're welcome
He hotfoots it outside immediately. The movie is trying really hard to make it look as though Altaira is naked without showing anything naughty, but a very brief glimpse suggests that Anne Francis was in fact wearing a skin-tight flesh-colored swimsuit. The Commander turns his back like a gentleman while Altaira comes out of the pool and gets dressed (we don’t get to see anything either, because she’s doing this behind tall bushes), and when she comes out, she’s dressed in the dress Robby made for her.
Robby's talents don't seem to lie in the area of fashion design
Those strings of green stones around her neck are emeralds that Robby made to go with the dress.
The Commander likes what he sees, and after a little banter, Altaira “innocently” invites him to kiss her, which he promptly does. Both parties seem to be enjoying themselves, but they’re interrupted by a growl from Altaira’s pet tiger. Altaira assures the Commander that the tiger is her friend and won’t hurt them, but she’s wrong about that. The tiger leaps at them, but the Commander draws his sidearm and vaporizes the tiger just before it gets to them. The implication seems to be that now Altaira isn’t completely innocent, the animals don’t like her. Rather a harsh punishment for a kiss!
After this incident, the Commander returns to Dr. Morbius’ house. Shame on him for letting himself be distracted from something so important! He and Dr. Ostrow are in Dr. Morbius’ study, going through his papers, when Dr. Morbius walks in and catches them red-handed. Dr. Morbius is understandably not pleased, but neither are the Commander and the doctor, and they inform him that the night before, their “klystron monitor” was sabotaged. They are certain that Dr. Morbius was responsible, although since he’s been nothing but eager to see them leave the planet, you’d think they’d entertain the possibility that the saboteur might have been somebody or something other than him. Instead of ordering them out of his study, Dr. Morbius, who so far has been silent about everything on the planet, suddenly becomes chatty. And what a tale he has to tell.
Dr. Morbius informs them that ages ago, this plant was inhabited by a mighty people called the Krell. The Krell were in fact so mighty that they could do just about anything. As a matter of fact, they had gone to Earth aeons ago and brought back biological specimens, which accounts for the tiger and the deer we saw. Sadly, though, 2000 centuries ago, the Krell perished in a single night. Of course in 200,000 years, all of the aboveground Krell buildings have crumbled away to nothing, which explains the barren plain the spaceship landed on. But Dr. Morbius discovered that there’s a lot of Krell structures left underground.
The characteristic “Krell arch”
Dr. Morbius apparently built his house next to an entrance to the Krell underground complex, and he opens the conveniently-located door and takes the Commander and the Doctor for a little tour. I’m not even going to try to describe this tour, because this is something you really need to see for yourself. (The movie’s available on Internet Archive.) Suffice it to say, Krell technology is a wonderful thing. The aboveground buildings may be gone, but the underground machinery appears to be in as-new condition. Dr. Morbius has been able to puzzle out how some of it works, and this is how he was able to build Robby. Actually, the Krell were able to help on that, too, because they considerately left a machine that will boost the IQ of anyone who operates it.
Impressive, isn't it?
Meanwhile, back at the spaceship, work on the transmitter is proceeding. In light of the sabotage of the klystron frequency modulator, an electric fence has been set up. The cook requests to be allowed out to look for wild vegetables, and although there have been no signs that there’s anything edible to eat around the spaceship, Lt. Farman lets him go, although he seems suspicious.
The cook heads off at a run, as though he already knows where to go and is expecting to find something more interesting than vegetables. And he does – a big pile of bottles, 480, to be exact. All full of bourbon, produced by none other than Robby. Robby has even put labels on the bottles.
Manna from Heaven
While the cook is gathering up as many bottles as he can carry, the men back at the spaceship are perturbed to see sparks from the electric fence, as though someone is trying to get in. The sparks soon stop, and Lt. Farman decides that there’s nothing to worry about right now, and they can check the system in the morning. However, as the men disperse, we can see that he’s wrong. Large footprints appear on the ground, although the being making them is invisible. Spooky music suddenly starts, and the footsteps proceed across the ground and up the steps leading into the ship. Whatever’s making them is heavy enough to bend the steps. Then the music stops, and we hear a loud scream.
We’re not going to find out what the invisible being is right away, as the next scene opens with Dr. Morbius at his desk. He and Commander Adams are arguing about whether or not the Krell complex should be reported to the United Planets government. Commander Adams is for, Dr. Morbius is against, for the usual reason that he believes that the human race isn’t ready for the knowledge the Krell left. The fight is interrupted by a call from Lt. Farman, telling the Commander that the body of one of the men is “plastered all over the communications room.” The argument is tabled as Commander Adams and Dr. Ostrow return to the spaceship to investigate, but just after they leave, Dr. Morbius sinks into his chair and whispers, “It’s started again.”
Dr. Ostrow has made a cast of the footprint and points out some odd features. He says that the structure of the foot is typical of a four-footed animal, but the invisible creature left the tracks of a biped. The foot has a claw typical of a tree sloth. However, a more important matter is currently at hand. It seems that the cook sampled the fruits of Robby’s work a little too freely and got falling-down drunk. In view of that, it’s odd that the cook seems to be no worse for wear the morning after, and he points out that he drank four pints of bourbon and has no trace of a hangover. He claims that Robby talked him into drinking so much, which seems like an odd thing for a mechanical construct to do, but Commander Adams is unconcerned with Robby’s motivations and more interested in the fact that the cook is giving Robby an alibi for the time when the crew member was so messily killed.
After a brief funeral for the departed crew member, Dr. Morbius turns up at the ship and reminds Commander Adams that he warned him not to land on the planet, that these kinds of attacks are what killed off the scientists. With that, Dr. Morbius departs, leaving Commander Adams with the feeling that Dr. Morbius’ words were not so much a warning as a threat. The Commander responds by speeding up the construction of the transmitter plus a weapons system to fight off any attacker.
This should scare off any pesky monsters
The system is finished just in the nick of time, as the Commander gets a call that their radar system has detected something that is slowly approaching the spaceship. Radar? Is it still in use in the 23rd century? The Commander orders the weapons to be fired. Nothing appears to have been hit, and the Commander orders the men to keep watching the perimeter. Somebody spots a blip on the radar, and everybody is watching tensely, when an invisible Something steps into the beams of the perimeter detection system.
Monster!
The Something shows up as swirly red lines with no coherent shape, and the men start firing. (Their weapons are shooting beams of energy that look like a series of purple dashes.) The Something is roaring loudly and manages to engulf three men, including Lt. Farman, in its red lines and tear them apart, but it finally dissolves and disappears. Thankfully we’re spared the sight of the dead men.
Meanwhile, back at Dr. Morbius’ residence, he’s sitting at his desk and appears to be waking up from a nap, when Altaira runs in sobbing and tells him that she had a terrible dream. Guess what the dream was about. Yes, you’re right – she was dreaming about the monster. She begs her father to protect Commander Adams, but he tells her that he’s helpless as long as the Commander remains on the planet.
Back at the spaceship, the mood is somber as three more graves are being dug. The Commander announces to the crew that their guns stopped the monster, but neither he nor Dr. Ostrow believes that. They think the monster decided to go away from some reason best known to itself, and they have a discussion about how the weapon interacted with the monster which makes no sense at all. Their weapons seem to be based on atomic fission and produce neutron beams, but the output is measured in electron volts, and the doctor feels that anything that can stand up to the beams would have to be dense enough to sink to the center of the planet. As this didn’t happen, the doctor deduces that the monster must have been “renewing its molecular structure from one microsecond to the next.”
So there you have it, clear as day. The Commander puts together a plan, the first step of which is to detain Dr. Morbius and Altaira for questioning, whether they want to or not. Step Two is for somebody to make use of the Krell IQ-boosting machine to learn how to control the monster. Before the Commander and the doctor head off to Dr. Morbius’ house, the Commander orders that the ship take off at the first sign of the monster returning.
I’m curious to see how Robby will react to this plan, but when the Commander and the doctor arrive at Dr. Morbius’ house, it appears that nobody is home. The Commander decides to proceed directly to the lab, but on their way there, Robby appears and stops them, explaining that he’s been told not to admit anybody. They decide to shoot their way in, but to no avail, as Robby is able to neutralize the beams from their blaster. Things are getting tense when Altaira shows up and tells Robby to let them in. Once inside, the Commander tells Altaira about the monster’s attack, while Dr. Ostrow heads down the corridor that leads to the Krell complex. Dr. Morbius is nowhere to be seen.
The Commander is begging Altaira to leave the planet with him, but she says that she can’t leave her father, and he’ll never leave the planet. Altaira tells the Commander that she and her father are both immune to the monster, which is the first time this has ever been mentioned, although it does explain why all of Dr. Morbius’ expedition was killed except for him. But Altaira doesn’t expand on this, as she’s too busy kissing the Commander passionately and telling him to leave the planet as fast as possible.
Talk about a mixed message. The Commander finally breaks free and appeals to Dr. Ostrow to help him persuade Altaira, but when he gets no response, he looks around and notices that the doctor has left the room. But just then, Robby appears, carrying the unconscious doctor. The Commander and Altaira don’t seem to be as worried as I think they ought to be, what with all the mysterious monsters that have been turning up, but as it happens, once the doctor revives a little, he explains his state by saying that he took the brain booster.
Dr. Ostrow is very short of breath and appears to be in some pain, but he manages to tell the Commander what his newly-enhanced brain has learned. It seems that the Krell were working on a project that involved pure mind control with no instrumentation required, and it had one unexpected consequence: monsters were generated from the Id. The Commander demands to know what the Id is, but the brain booster must have been a little too powerful, and the doctor expires before he can elucidate.
Too smart for his own good
The stoic Commander Adams merely sighs regretfully as he looks at his now-deceased crewmember, and Altaira seems even less concerned. Dr. Morbius chooses this moment to reappear, and his response is to berate the late Dr. Ostrow for being conceited enough to think he could possibly comprehend the knowledge of the Krells. Neither the Commander nor Altaira appear to agree with Dr. Morbius’ opinion. In fact, this has apparently changed Altaira’s mind about needing to stay with her father, as she informs Commander Adams that she’ll be leaving with him after all and runs out of the room.
The Commander, ever the professional, takes this opportunity to ask Dr. Morbius what the Id is. Dr. Morbius defines it as “an obsolete term, once used to describe the basis of the subconscious mind.” This gives the Commander an idea as to what the vast Krell complex was built for: a device powered by brainpower that would project solid matter to any point of the planet. This seems rather a stretch to me, but at least it doesn’t contradict anything we’ve been shown before. Unfortunately, according to the Commander, the device has one drawback: the Krell subconscious produced monsters in addition to the desired materials.
However, Dr. Morbius is just asking why there are still monsters prowling around long after the Krell have vanished, when Robby appears and gives the glad tidings the something is approaching from the southwest. The Commander, Dr. Morbius, and Altaira run to the nearest window and see nothing, but a spooky whistling sound tells us that Something Bad is coming. We see trees toppling closer and closer to the house, and protective shutters snap closed over the windows. Something is hitting the windows, and the Commander yells that this monster is coming from Dr. Morbius’ own Id. Dr. Morbius rejects this and tells Altaira to tell the monster hat she doesn’t love Commander Adams, which Altaira refuses to do. Dr. Morbius then tells Robby to kill the monster, but all that happens is that Robby’s head is suffused with pink light and he starts making loud crackling sounds before he shuts down completely.
Poor confused Robby
One of the windows breaks open, and Dr. Morbius, the Commander, and Altaira run out of the house and into the Krell complex. Once inside, Commander Adams tells Dr. Morbius some things the doctor doesn’t want to hear – one of them being that it was Dr. Morbius’ own Id that murdered the other scientists and is now threatening Altaira, because she decided that she’s rather be with Commander Adams than her father. And as he says this, we can see that the monster is burning its way through the thick Krell doors between it and the three humans. Finally Dr. Morbius begs the Commander to kill him. The door is melting and crumbling to pieces (if you look closely you can see that there’s a person behind it knocking holes in it), and the Krell machinery is making ominous sounds. Commander Adams is holding his blaster but seems unwilling to shoot Dr. Morbius. Are all three people doomed? Dr. Morbius begins yelling at his Id to go away, the machinery sounds get louder and louder…then die away. Dr. Morbius collapses.
Altaira runs to her father. He can barely talk, but he tells Commander Adams what to do to the machinery. By the way, Dr. Morbius calls him “Son,” so I suppose he’s accepted the relationship. He gasps out that they must be 100 million miles out in space within 24 hours, as what the Commander did will initiate a chain reaction that can’t be reversed, and the Krell “furnaces” will explode.
In the next scene, we see the C-57D heading out into space, with Commander Adams and the crew in the control room. Altaira is with them, and also, to my relief, Robby. I thought that Robby might have been permanently damaged and/or that the Commander and Altaira might have been in too big a hurry to take him with them, but I’m happy to see that I was wrong. As everybody looks out the viewport, we see a bright light, indicating that the explosion of the Krell furnaces (did they mean reactors?) was powerful enough to destroy the whole planet and Dr. Morbius. And as the Commander hugs Altaira, the movie ends.
Inappropriate workplace PDA!
This movie is absolutely not typical MMT fare. MGM did a good job with this one, and it still holds up well after 68 years. True, there were a few minor lapses in the science, but the whole movie was so good, they can be overlooked. About the only thing I wasn't thrilled about was the selection of Anne Francis to play Altaira. Anne Francis did her best, but she always looked knowing and sophisticated no matter how she was dressed, and she just didn't look like an innocent sheltered girl who had never seen a man other than her father. The skimpy micro-miniskirts she usually wore didn't help, either. Still, she didn't do too bad a job, and it's possible that whoever at MGM picked her reasoned that Altaira had to be a real knockout to captivate the straitlaced Commander Adams. Anyway, if you haven't seen it, it's worth watching.
Now I want a Robby of my own.
Written by Pam Burda in September, 2024.
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