Trivia for
Forbidden Planet (1956) More at IMDbPro »

• First mainstream film to have the music performed entirely by electronic instruments.
  
  
• Louis Barron and Bebe Barron worked on the electronic soundtrack music "tonalities" for only three months, the length of time given them by Dore Schary, head of MGM. He authorized the studio to send them a complete workprint at Christmas 1955. They received the complete 35mm Eastmancolor workprint at New Year's 1956, a week later, still with many visual effects sequences missing and timed in with blank leader by editor Ferris Webster. From January 1, 1956 to April 1, 1956, they worked on the soundtrack score in their Greenwich Village studio in New York City while the film was in post-production in Culver City. The score was completed and delivered to MGM on April 1, 1956, and the film was released for a studio sneak preview soon afterward. The musician's union, however, objected to the soundtrack, and blocked the Barrons from being credited as "composers", hence the term "electronic tonalities".
  
  
• Apart from the electronic tonalities composed by Louis Barron and Bebe Barron, the music score known to many as "Forbidden Planet Fanfare - Parts 1 & 2" on the original 1956 theatrical trailer was composed by André Previn, and pieced together seamlessly by an MGM music editor. The music was originally written by Previn for the MGM films Scene of the Crime (1949) and Bad Day at Black Rock (1955).
  
  
• David Rose, composer of light orchestral music such as "Holiday For Strings", was originally hired to write the score. He was relieved of his contract by producer Dore Schary in December 1955 when Schary discovered avant-garde electronic music creators Louis and Bebe Barron in a nightclub in Greenwich Village, New York, and hired them on the spot. The only confirmed piece of music which still remains from Rose's discarded original score is his Main Title Theme, which he released as a single on MGM Records in 1956.
  
  
• Loosely based on "The Tempest" by William Shakespeare.
  
  
• The model of the "flying saucer" style Earth space cruiser was retained by the MGM prop department and subsequently used in a number of productions on the MGM lot, including the "To Serve Man" of the "The Twilight Zone" (1959). Robby the Robot, his ground transporter, and crew uniforms would be used on that show as well.
  
  
• MGM insisted on changes to Cyril Hume's script by adding comic relief scenes with the ship's cook (played in the final film by Earl Holliman). Among these scenes was one in which Robby the Robot responds to the cook's complaint about the lack of female companionship by bringing him a female chimp. The scene was reportedly not filmed.
  
  
• In preparing this film for production, MGM borrowed a print of This Island Earth (1955) from Universal-International.
  
  
• Film debut of Robby the Robot.
  
  
• This movie was filmed on the same sound-stage on which the movie The Wizard of Oz (1939) had been filmed seventeen years earlier; the set of Altaira's garden is a reuse of the Munchkin Village set from The Wizard of Oz.
  
  
• The reaction from the preview audience to this film was so positive that it was released as it was, with no further changes to the movie. The result is that there are several rapid takes toward the story's end.
  
  
• Robert Kinoshita, who is credited as building Robby the Robot, was also Art Director for the TV series "Lost in Space" (1965). Many of the Lost in Space Robot's features are similar to Robby's: glass "head" with animated elements; rotating antenna "ears" (although LiS Robot's ears rarely moved after the pilot episode); flashing light "mouth"; chest panel with more animated elements. For that matter, much of the layout of Forbidden Planet's spaceship is mirrored by LiS's Jupiter 2: saucer shape; integral landing gear/entry stairs; lower external dome with animated lights; central, plexi-domed navigation station; vertical hibernacula arranged along perimeter. In addition, Robby and the LiS Robot had a couple of "family reunions" in two LiS episodes: "Lost in Space: War of the Robots (#1.20)" (1966) and "Lost in Space: Condemned of Space (#3.1)" (1967).
  
  
• The trailer for this film was narrated by Marvin Miller, who also provided the voice for 'Robby The Robot'.
  
  
• The planet on which Edward and Altaira Morbius live is Altair IV, which according to "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" (1993) is also a Federation planet. Director Fred M. Wilcox consulted with scientists before making the decision that the planet's sky would be green.
  
  
• The special effects artists used split-screen traveling mattes to make images appear and disappear, such as the piece of fruit Morbius lobs at the "household disintegrator beam" and the tiger that Commander Adams vaporizes. See the "Goofs" section for problems caused by this process.
  
  
• The scene in which the image of Altaira appears in the Krell's "plastic educator" device was achieved with several special effects, including superimposed film footage of the charge from an electrical generator, hand-drawn animation, and a traveling matte cut from film footage of Anne Francis.
  
  
• The "electronic tonalities" created by Louis Barron and Bebe Barron were reused several years later in another science fiction film From the Earth to the Moon (1958) that was produced by RKO.
  
  
• Robby the Robot currently resides in the private collection of director William Malone
  
  
• To increase the sense of depth, the opening image of the spaceship approaching the camera is actually composed of two shots: the first of a small model, the second of a larger model travelling on the same track. The ship passes into and out of a shadow to conceal the cut.
  
  
• When the film was first released theatre goers were given special paper glasses with red lenses. The glasses were to be used during certain scenes involving the invisible monster ("Monster from the ID"). You were alerted that it was time to put on your special glasses by flashes on the screen. When you put on the special glasses the invisible monster was revealed.
  
  
• The movie's poster was as #5 of "The 25 Best Movie Posters Ever" by Premiere.
  
  
• The film was originally conceived and approved by MGM's Dore Schary, himself no fan of science fiction, as a B-picture. The studio's art department, still headed by veteran Cedric Gibbons pulled out all stops. The budget ballooned to $1.9 million and barely managed to break even amid a dismal year for the studio. The relative failure of the film was cited as a reason for Schary's ouster soon after.
  
  
• MGM had had a full animation department at one time but by 1956 it was largely dismantled. Critical animation effects (landing beam, weapons, Robby overloading, the Id Monster) were provided by Joshua Meador on loan to MGM from Disney. Meador's recognizable style can be readily discerned from that of the other three effects animators working on Alice in Wonderland (1951) and in other Disney releases.
  
  
• The Spaceship C57D, models and full-size prop was actually used in seven episodes of "The Twilight Zone" (1959). The list is as follows by season, "Third from the Sun", "The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street", "The Invaders", "To Serve Man", "Hocus-Pocus and Frisby", "Death Ship" and "On Thursday We Leave for Home". Robby's vehicle does appear in one episode. In "The Rip Van Winkle Caper", at the end when the final surviving gold thief is dying, a futuristic car stops and he begs for water. This is Robby's vehicle. The crew's outfits were used in a number of episodes, not to mention also in The Time Machine (1960) along with some props. The flickering force-field fence-posts appeared in Atlantis, the Lost Continent (1961) and were last seen being placed at the bottom of the ocean in Around the World Under the Sea (1966/I).
  
  
• "Star Trek" (1966) creator Gene Roddenberry has been quoted as saying that this film was a major inspiration for the series. Perhaps not coincidentally, Warren Stevens, who plays "Doc" here, would later be a guest star in the 1968 episode "By Any Other Name", where the true shape of the alien Kelvans, like the Krell in this movie, was implied to be extremely non-humanoid but never shown.
  
  
• The time aboard the C57D is stated as being 17:01 hours when the ship enters orbit around Altair IV. Gene Roddenberry, a fan of this movie, would later use 1701 as the naval construction contract number of the Starship Enterprise.
  
  
• Studio chief Dore Schary and producer Nicholas Nayfack were unsure about releasing the film with a solely electronic score by Louis Barron and Bebe Barron. A rough cut of the film was previewed with the electronic score. The audience reaction to the film overall was so favorable that Dore Schary ordered the rough cut to be released with the electronic score and no further editing.
  
  
• This is the first science film to succeed without having a "name" character in the cast such as Flash Gordon.
  
  
• Bellerophon is a hero from Greek mythology. His greatest feat was the destruction of the Chimera, a monster who breathed fire.
  
  

• SPOILER: It could be inferred that the physical shape of the ID monster vaguely resembles the never shown Krell aspect - it does seem to fit within the strangely shaped doors these species used. It would be more appropriate, though, to consider this shape as what Morbius thought they'd look like, given that it was produced by his higher-than-average subconscious mind.
  
  

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