Review of Forbidden Planet (1956) by Allan C — 11 Apr 2014

Shakespeare's "The Tempest" in space (and with Leslie Nielsen). Nielsen is part of a crew of astronauts who land on a planet to investigate why it's colony has gone silent. They end up finding two survivors, Walter Pidgeon and his scantily clad daughter, Anne Francis.

And Pidgeon also has a faithful robot servant played by "Robby the Robot" who'd later gain fame on TV's "Lost in Space". This film was one of the first sci-fi films to receive a big budget.

Most sci-fi of this time was considered kids stuff and given meager budgets. After this film's critical and financial success, studios started looking differently at sci-fi. Gene Roddenberry said this film was a major influence on his creation of "Star Trek".

But the quality budget really shows in the special effects, which look terrific and far superior to other films of this era.