source: The Phantom Planet

Trailer—The Phantom Planet

The Phantom Planet

Astronott lands on mysterious planet, where he shrinks to the size of its tiny citizens and helps to combat some royally goofy aliens! Ultra-silly drive in sci-fi of the early 60's is pretty much what one would expect from a low-budget 'space age' movie of this era. The special FX are very silly looking - planets that look like flying fried chicken and big bug-eyed dog looking aliens for villains! Yet, through it all the films stars do decent performances. Dean Fredericks, Coleen Gray, and Anthony Dexter aren't bad actors for this kind of film. Silliness and cheese abounds, but the right viewer will enjoy this number. ** out of ****

THE PHANTOM PLANET is another low budget, endearingly cheap US science fiction movie of the early 1960s. This one could easily have been made a good decade previously because it feels very dated for its era. The story is about a ship of astronauts who find themselves on a miniature world in which the inhabitants are menaced by ugly alien creatures and the like. It's a film full of cliffhanger action, dated but effective special effects, and a cool-looking man-in-a-suit alien played by a youthful Richard Kiel. Sometimes, it's the dated films which are the most fun, and so it proves with this simple but effective slice of US sci-fi cheese.

This is the sort of Grade-Z "quickie" that can best be appreciated when seen at 1:00 a.m. on the Late Show while gnawing on a slice of cold pizza. Though undistinguished in most of the usual respects, it does offer something not often seen in the sci-fi films of its era -- "beefcake." Yes, leading man Dean Fredericks whips off his shirt for a rather-extended fight sequence with Tony Dexter. Though Dean was only about 36 when this movie was made, he's already showing a bit of middle-aged softness around his middle, but the hair across his pecs has been left gloriously unshaved and his physique clearly outranks that of his older, shorter opponent. (One other point of interest: Francis X. Bushman, looking sadly old and tired, pops up as the leader of the alien world on which our hero accidentally crashes.)

Low budget production but the script is visionary in regards to anti-gravity and magnetic fields. Nuclear physicist Robert Lazar who worked at Area 51 in Nevada during the 1990s, says his job was to back-engineer a spacecraft that apparently used anti-gravity for propulsion. While, he and other scientists could theorize about anti-gravity, they and nobody else had the knowledge to create or utilize such. Also, magnetic walls have long been studied and attempted by U.S. Department of Defense research scientists. So, while it is easy to dismiss this film due to hokey characters and cliché love story, the script is visionary for a 1961 movie. There are many other sci-fi films far worse than this such as Santa Claus Conquers the Martians with Pia Zadora. If you want bad, this is not bad. However, it is good for low-budget films but it is not good in the context of big budget sci-fi films.

A friend gave me a cheapie DVD of this movie and I left it around the house for months, figuring that it would be a dud, remembering a picture spread on the movie in SPACEMEN, a great pre-Starlog SF movie prozine, possibly the first of the genre. Anyway, I remembered Dean Fredericks for his great portrayal of STEVE CANYON back in the 1950s, so what the heck, I ran it and was suitably surprised. In fact I sat back for the entire 82 minutes and actually ENJOYED it! Forgetting the weird asteroid-planet and Richard 'JAWS' Kiel in the monster suit, the cast performed credibly via a sound and at times quite good, in fact intelligent, script. The tight direction and excellent B/W photography, coupled with a number of extremely attractive girls, made the viewing experience worthwhile. Not recommended for young viewers due to the less-than special effects but for old-timers brought up on 50s SF, good entertainment.