Forbidden Planet
1956
****
Director: Fred M. Wilcox
Cast: Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis, Leslie Nielsen, Jack Kelly, Warren Stevens,
Richard Anderson, Earl Holliman, George Wallace
Like The Day the Earth Stood Still a few years earlier, this loose retelling of Shakespeare's The Tempest is one of the finest examples of thinking man's science fiction. Leslie Nielsen stars in one of his first film appearances as the captain of a 23rd century spaceship which travels to a distant planet to discover what happened to a lost expedition 20 years earlier. The special effects, including Robby the Robot, have obviously dated, but the story is still intriguing.
