THE PHANTOM PLANET (1961)

THE PHANTOM PLANET (1961)

Tagline: Science Shocker of the Space Age.

(Sci-Fi, Adventure, Planets That Look An Awful Lot Like Chicken Nuggets) [G]

Note – This movie wasn’t given an MPAA rating, but if it was it would get a G. 

That's very interesting. Many people on Earth are beginning to face the same problem: too much free time, too little work.

In this one after losing a fellow astronaut to the dangers of space, Capt. Frank Chapman’s rocket ship is dragged by an invisible force towards an asteroid that has a population of very tiny people. Can Capt. Frank Chapman find his way back to the moon base he took off from, or will he forever be stuck on THE PHANTOM PLANET?

First off, this movie was meant to take place in the distant future year of 1980. Needless to say, at 7 years of age, I was pretty pissed that we had not built even 1 moon base. The 1960s produced a good number of goofy-looking aliens as far as I can tell, but I can only imagine the one in this movie has to be somewhere in the top 20 regarding the level of goofiness. 

I don’t want to give too much away regarding the plotline but this movie is actually a very enjoyable watch. I haven’t reviewed too many 60’s films just yet, so my frame of reference is pretty narrow for the decade, but I found the pace and action in this movie to be a pretty solid blend. We get everything from alien prisoners to an alien attack to a battle to the death. It’s pretty awesome. 

Acting-wise we get Dean Fredericks as the main actor playing Capt. Frank Chapman. Fredericks was in a lot of movies in the ’50s and ’60s and is good in this, but his only other sci-fi movie that I can see he was in was a brief appearance in THEM!. Coleen Gray plays Liara who basically spends most of the movie trying to get Chapman’s attention but puts in a solid performance. Coleen Gray was in a few sci-fi horror flicks in the ’60s, but her biggest movie is probably 1957’s sci-fi thriller, THE VAMPIRE. Additionally, Richard Kiel is also in this. I think this was his first credited movie (he plays The Solarite), prior to that he did an uncredited movie and a bunch of TV. Dolores Faith has a pretty big role in this as Zetha and is pretty great for this role. She ended up having a 10-year Hollywood career. One interesting thing about her life is that she actually lost her hearing completely at the age of 4 due to an accident. She gained it back at the age of 9. I am not familiar with any of her other work. Finally, we also get an Anthony Dexter performance. He plays Herron in this and is definitely better than adequate. Anthony is best known for 12 TO THE MOON and FIRE MAIDENS OF OUTER SPACE. 

The score is decent in this, but not the best I have heard. I will also say that the rocket ship looks pretty weak. It’s plainer looking than even some of the very early 50s sci-fi movies almost a decade earlier. There is also an alien attack sequence from a group of aliens that is not already on this chicken nugget-shaped planet, but the effects on their ships are pretty non-existent. I hardly ever complain about this type of stuff in older sci-fi flicks, but just a little more effort design-wise would have paid off and probably still allowed them to stay on budget. There are a few reviews complaining about one scene where one of the astronauts clearly has zero problems jumping in outer space from one rocket to another.  Normally I love this kind of stuff because it’s science fiction. We are taking a physics class here, however, this movie breaks its own rule from earlier in the movie where a dude just floats off into space “because” he isn’t tethered. In sci-fi, you can break all the rules you want in my book, but you can’t break your own movie's rules unless you just aren't paying attention. That is what we have going on here. 

Overall this is a really fun movie though, I actually liked it better than THIS ISLAND EARTH which had a far better alien design. For some creative risks and an action-packed storyline, I have to give this a 6 out of 7. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF FOUR CROWNS PRODUCTIONS INC. AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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