{"id":5922,"date":"2012-12-30T17:11:13","date_gmt":"2012-12-30T22:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5922"},"modified":"2012-12-30T18:47:38","modified_gmt":"2012-12-30T23:47:38","slug":"dvd-phantom-planet-the-1961","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=5922","title":{"rendered":"DVD: Phantom Planet, The (1961)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"\"<\/a>Film: So Bad, So Good\/ DVD Transfer: Very Good\/ DVD Extras: Standard<\/p>\n

Label: Legend Films\/ Region: 1 (NTSC) \/\u00a0Released: October 21, 2008<\/p>\n

Genre: Science-Fiction<\/p>\n

Synopsis: An astronauts on a rescue mission crash lands on a planetoid filled with little people.<\/p>\n

Special Features: DVD features original black & white and colorized versions.<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a strange earnestness that radiates from this clumsily made nonsense about a pilot who lands on an asteroid, only to shrink down to the same size as its Lilliputian inhabitants, and become enmeshed in a lover\u2019s quarrel between a manipulative blonde and her intended hubby.<\/p>\n

Everyone seems to be playing their role damn straight, even when the sets are wafer thin, the dialogue is amazingly dopey, and footage of marauding ships out to destroy the asteroid\/planetoid involved incendiary globs of kibble-like matter. No matter how much hack director William Marshall tries, he just can\u2019t transcend the poverty row budget \u2013 but watching him try is part of the fun, particularly when the seams of the effects (or the el cheap sets, for that matter) are glaringly obvious.<\/p>\n

American pilot Frank Chapman (bleach-blonde Dean Fredericks) isn\u2019t killed for landing on the planetoid, he\u2019s just told he can\u2019t leave, and must pick a wife \u2013 scheming Liara (Coleen Gray), or poor mute Zetha (Dolores Faith). Tough sell, eh? And when there\u2019s a quarrel with Liara\u2019s jealous fianc\u00e9e Herron (Anthony Dexter), they must fight to the death by pushing the loser onto a disintegrating square on the sand-covered set. (Note to audience: will this device prove handy in the film\u2019s final reel?)<\/p>\n

Ultimately the attention moves from jealousy to self-preservation, and Frank helps the planetoid\u2019s civilization (about ten from what one sees onscreen) defend themselves against a race of fiery rock creatures known as Solarites that resemble a ten year-old\u2019s attempt to replicate the Metalunan from This Island Earth<\/strong> (1955) using Silly Putty. The creature\u2019s designers even made sure the mask (worn by poor Richard Kiel) has a quivering lip to indicate when the thing is \u2018frightened.\u2019<\/p>\n

When Frank is given a chance to go back home, his choice is actually quite surprising, because the filmmakers built up some alien love between Frank and Zetha; as ridiculous as it sounds, you wished he\u2019d made the other choice instead.<\/p>\n

From a film music perspective, Phantom Planet<\/strong> is fascinating because much of the movie is tracked (very heavily, in fact) with Leith Stevens\u2019 score cuts from Destination Moon<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (1950). This may be the only el cheapo space flick whose filmmakers did not borrow helmets and space suits from George Pal\u2019s superior space epic. (In fact it\u2019s quite surprising the filmmakers opted to use real test pilot jumpsuits for the spacemen, although there\u2019s no way they could remain snug and cozy outside of their spaceship.)<\/p>\n

The filmmakers, though, used stock footage of a moon approach (looped in reverse) from Edward Bernds\u2019 World Without End<\/a><\/strong> [M<\/a>] (1956), which in turn reappeared in the director\u2019s Queen of Outer Space<\/a><\/strong> (1958), and in Ronald V. Ashcroft\u2019s gloriously inept The Astounding She-Monster<\/a><\/strong> (1957).<\/p>\n

Less amusing, though, is seeing perfectly good actors cashing a needed pay cheque: there\u2019s Francis X. Bushman (Messala in the 1925 version of Ben-Hur<\/strong>) searching for some dramatic meat in his scenes as leader Sessom, and Coleen Gray (co-star in Stanley Kubrick\u2019s The Killing<\/strong>) figuring she might as well play Sessom\u2019s daughter Liara with full gravitas because it\u2019ll make a good take, and make the production end on time.<\/p>\n

Director Marshall originally earned his keep as an actor, and Phantom Planet<\/strong> is one of a handful of directorial efforts that began with Errol Flynn (!), helming the 1951 diptych Hello God<\/strong>, and Adventures of Captain Fabian<\/strong>. Co-writer Fred Gebhardt had previously scripted 12 to the Moon<\/strong> (1960), which happened to co-star Bushman and Dexter. The film\u2019s production design \u2013 arguably a triumph of painted paper mache and cotton candy \u2013 was by Robert Kinoshita, the chief designer of Forbidden Planet<\/a><\/strong>\u2019s Robbie the Robot (which may explain the Solarite\u2019s quivering lip design).<\/p>\n

As late night B-movie fodder, The Phantom Planet<\/strong> is quite frankly perfect, but as a lost bad movie gem, it\u2019s a treasure to behold and cuddle.<\/p>\n

Legend Film\u2019s DVD sports a pretty decent print, with only the weak mono mix affected by some surface noise. As with other entries in the label\u2019s 2008 Halloween wave, the DVD contain the original black & white version, and a colorized version for those blind to the beauty of black & white.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2012 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References<\/em>:<\/p>\n

IMDB<\/a><\/p>\n

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