Alarm im Weltall (1956)

Alarm im Weltall: Directed by Fred M. Wilcox. With Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Warren Stevens. A starship crew goes to investigate the silence of a planet’s colony only to find two survivors and a deadly secret that one of them has.

“At a time when science fiction movies were invariably cheap rubber monsters attacking our cities and scaring our women, u0026quot;Forbidden Planetu0026quot; offered an usually thought-provoking plot that worked on a number of levels. Today, too many sci-fi movies are nothing but computer-generated special effects extravaganzas masking the lack of thoughtful plot and characterization. u0026quot;Forbidden Planetu0026quot; had awesome special effects for their time (many of which still hold up well today)–but these were used to effectively support the multifaceted plot and characterizations, not try to compensate for their lack.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe Shakespearean (u0026quot;The Tempestu0026quot;) and Freudian (u0026quot;Id-monsteru0026quot;) elements have been noted by many critics. In the 1950u0026#39;s, with the atomic and hydrogen bombs so new and terrifying, other sci-fi movies had asked whether man had the wisdom to use all the new science for good rather than evil. But they usually dealt with that solely on a surface level, by just having some monster created with the new science that comes out and kills a bunch of people. Only u0026quot;Forbidden Planetu0026quot; dared to actually delve into the depths of human psychology to see what our baser instincts are capable of when given full rein. It directly refuted the notion that all that new science and technology was somehow civilizing humanity. The Krell, a far more advanced race than we, are never seen on screen (only their artifacts are shown, leaving you to imagine what they looked like). But their disappearance is a warning that even a far more advanced race like they, couldnu0026#39;t escape the baser instincts and subconscious drives deep within their own brains–so what of man?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOne subplot that is less often discussed, but equally well thought out, is the scenes with Altaira and the tiger, an allusion to the myth of the virgin and the unicorn. Until Altaira meets the male crew of the C-57-D, she is virginal and the tiger is a tame beast in her presence. After she has her romantic interludes with Farman and the captain, the tiger attacks her. (Being the 1950u0026#39;s, the dialogue only subtly suggests what has happened.)u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003enFor u0026quot;Star Treku0026quot; fans, itu0026#39;s worth seeing u0026quot;Forbidden Planetu0026quot; just to list all the parallels between u0026quot;Forbidden Planetu0026quot; and u0026quot;Star Trek: The Original Seriesu0026quot;. The basic theme (a u0026quot;United Planetsu0026quot; spaceship explores a strange new world), the characters and characterizations, the weapons, and even the special effects all seem to have unconsciously inspired Gene Roddenberry to create his own vision.”