Forbidden Planet – 50th Anniversary Two-Disc Special Edition (DVD-Video) + HD-DVD Edition

 

Picture: B/B+     Sound: B     Extras: A+     Film: A+

 

 

Reviewers, the media, and company marketing campaigns often apply the “classic” label on films and features cavalierly, carelessly.  Watching this anniversary version of 1956’s Forbidden Planet reminds one just what the criteria of a classic truly are--dynamic casting, brilliant effects, sterling sets, and a story with themes so timeless that they evoke comparisons to Shakespeare as easily as they do Asimov.

 

Like straying into a dream from which one does not wish to awaken, watching Forbidden Planet captivates viewers and fills them with a wonder that lingers on the edge of consciousness.  It’s the wellspring from which so many other science fiction concepts and films have sprung.

 

Walter Pidgeon plays the brilliant and reclusive philologist Dr. Morbius, the last of the original alien colonists.  His nubile and naïve daughter is ably portrayed by the beautiful Anne Francis.  A young Leslie Nielsen headlines as the brave and capable Commander John Adams.  Special effects miracle Robbie the Robot steals the show as the essence of the good that the ancient alien technology of the planet Altair can produce, but the rage and darkness that also dwelled in the long-dead race’s culture also surfaces in the form of an amorphous beast which stalks and slays the intrepid crew sent to investigate the fate of planet’s first human colonists.

 

Fans of ambient music trailblazer Surface-10 will certainly recognize Walter Pidgeon’s powerful voice sampled through several tracks in the In Vitro Tide release, and in fact, samples from Forbidden Planet turn up quite often in electronic music, as well as other popular genres.  Through fifty years the film has seeped into the culture and become part of the zeitgeist.

 

The sound and picture on this Warner Home Video release both do not fail to impress.  The quality of the picture can be seen in the richness of the reds and greens that make up so much of Altair’s alien landscape and the cool environs Dr. Morbius’ fantastic abode.  In fact it is the richness of these colors that so embellishes the time and care exercised by the film’s set designers and effects crew.  Every detail of Morbius’ home fairly glows with rich color.  Ample evidence also exists in the nearly perfect alabaster whiteness of the skin of the lovely Anne Francis.  Perhaps most important is the widescreen presentation of the film, preserving the original panorama of CinemaScope.

 

That CinemaScope frame was 2.35 X 1 at this point and both the new DVD set (anamorphically enhanced) and terrific HD-DVD version (in 1080p digital High Definition) come from the same restored print as originally shot in EastmanColor.  It is said that the makers got their hands on a print of the 1950 Universal Science Fiction This Island Earth (reviewed elsewhere on this site) known for its terrific dye-transfer Technicolor.  Though this film was processed in a less complex system, MGM put the time and money into the film to make it look as spectacular.  They even issued AnscoColor and PathéColor prints in the early days, but this is the camera negative color and it looks great.  The DVD is a big surprise for a film so old, with solid and consistent performance throughout, while the HD-DVD improves on the color, depth and definition more.  However, it shows more of the limits of the source and of how the more complex lens arrangement of original CinemaScope was not as clear as later real scope lens successors like Panavision, ArriScope, Franscope, 2.35 Research PLC and J-D-C Scope.

 

Shot by Cinematographer George L. Fosley, who began his work in the silent era, he went on to shoot many classic Marx Brothers films and MGM Musical classics like The Harvey Girls, Meet Me In St. Louis and Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, the latter of which showed his early mastery of the wide scope frame.  This was his last major feature film work, also remaining one of the most influential and important visual works ever.  This was the biggest Sci-Fi production of the 1950s and can now be seen in its glory like never before in these versions, second only to a great film print.

 

The famous electronic sounds were created by Bebe Barron and Louis Barron, which was a departure from the Theremin in so many other films at the time, but very interesting, effective and one of the first times in cinema history that music (outside of instruments intentionally imitating noises of non-musical objects) was walking the line between music and sound effects.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on the standard DVD and Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 mix on the HD-DVD are impressively remastered from the original Perspecta Stereo Optical tracks and the music score itself has been issued on CD before.  The Dolby Plus on the HD-DVD version is slightly better than its standard DVD version, but not so much that it is a shocker.  They both use the same mix master and will remain one of the best sounding films of the 1950s for a long time to come.

 

Befitting a 50th anniversary edition, this box is loaded with extra features. Deleted scenes and lost footage, an additional feature film (The Invisible Boy) and TV episode (The Thin Man) featuring Robbie the Robot, three documentaries (a Turner Classic vehicle on the sci-fi genre called Watch The Skies!: Science Fiction, The 1950s & Us, a new piece on the movie called Amazing! Exploring the Far Reaches of Forbidden Planet, and Robbie the Robot: Engineering a Sci-Fi Icon), and excerpts from the MGM Parade TV series make this package a super value for fans and collectors.

 

Science-fiction fans now possess the best possible option for enjoyment of Forbidden Planet in the home theater setting.  People who haven’t seen this film in a while now have the perfect opportunity to reacquaint themselves with a classic.

 

 

-   Scott R. Pyle and Nicholas Sheffo