The Phantom Planet (1961)

User Rating:

2.6/10   

Director:

William Marshall

Writers:

Fred Gebhardt (story)
William Telaak (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

13 December 1961 (USA)

Genre:

Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Captives of a power far, far out!

Plot:

After an invisible asteroid draws an astronaut and his ship to its surface, he is miniaturized by the phantom planet's exotic atmosphere.

Plot Keywords:

Planet | Miniature People | Asteroid | Moon | Space Station

Cast

Dean Fredericks	...	Capt. Frank Chapman
Coleen Gray	...	Liara
Anthony Dexter	...	Herron (as Tony Dexter)
Francis X. Bushman	...	Sessom
Richard Weber	...	Lt. Ray Makonnen
Al Jarvis	...	Eden, the judge
Dick Haynes	...	Col. Lansfield
Earl McDaniels	...	Capt. Leonard - pilot (as Earl McDaniel)
Mike Marshall	...	Lt. White (as Michael Marshall)
John Herrin	...	Capt. Beecher
Mel Curtis	...	Lt. Cutler
Jimmy Weldon	...	Lt. Webb - navigator
Akemi Tani	...	Communications Officer
Lori Lyons	...	Radar Officer
Richard Kiel	...	The Solarite
Susan Cembrowska	...	Juror
Marissa Mathes	...	Juror (as Merissa Mathes)
Gloria Moreland	...	Juror
Judy Erickson	...	Juror
Sally Carter-Ihnat	...	Juror (as Marya Carter)
Allyson Ames	...	Juror
Marian Thompson	...	Juror
Dolores Faith	...	Zetha
Marvin Miller	...	Introductory Narrator (voice)
Leon Selznick	...	Narrator (voice) (as Leon D. Selznick)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Warrene Ott	...	Ispalata (uncredited)

Directed by
William Marshall

Writing credits
Fred Gebhardt		(story)
William Telaak		(screenplay) &
Fred De Gorter		(screenplay) and
Fred Gebhardt		(screenplay)
William Marshall		(additional dialogue)

Produced by
Fred Gebhardt	....	producer
Hugo Grimaldi	....	assistant producer
Leo A. Handel	....	executive producer
Robert Kinoshita	....	associate producer

Cinematography by
Elwood J. Nicholson

Production Design by
Robert Kinoshita

Makeup Department
David Newell	....	makeup artist (as Dave Newell)
Mary Westmoreland	....	hair stylist

Production Management
Maurice Vaccarino	....	production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Lindsley Parsons Jr.	....	second assistant director
Maurice Vaccarino	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Walter Dick	....	interplanetary sound effects
Al Overton	....	sound mixer
Hayes Pagel	....	interplanetary sound effects

Special Effects by
Charles Duncan	....	special effects (as Charles R. Duncan)

Camera and Electrical Department
Ned Davenport	....	camera operator

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Marla Craig	....	costume supervisor
Oscar Rodriguez	....	wardrobe

Editorial Department
Hugo Grimaldi	....	supervising editor
Donald Wolfe	....	assistant editor (as Don Wolfe)

Music Department
Ted Roberts	....	music editor
Gordon Zahler	....	music supervisor
Leith Stevens	....	composer: stock music (uncredited)

Other crew
Ben Bard	....	dialogue director
Louis DeWitt	....	director of photographic effects

Production Companies

• Four Crown Productions Inc.

Distributors

• American International Pictures (AIP) (1961) (USA) (theatrical)
• Astral Films (1962) (Canada) (theatrical)
• Madacy Entertainment (1997) (USA) (VHS)
• Image Entertainment (2001) (USA) (DVD)
• Alpha Blue Archives (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Alpha Video Distributors (2003) (USA) (DVD)
• Brentwood Home Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• St. Clair Vision (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Rhino Home Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)
• Chapel Distribution (1997) (Australia) (theatrical) (35mm print)
• Englewood Entertainment (????) (USA) (VHS)
• Legend Films (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Mill Creek Entertainment (2007) (USA) (DVD)
• Something Weird Video (SWV) (199?) (USA) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Legend Films  colorization
• Legend Films  restoration
• Ryder Sound Services  sound post-production
• Sonic Interplanetary Sound  sound system
• Space Age Rental  electronic equipment
• Studio Film Services  special photographic effects

Runtime:

82 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Australia:PG | USA:Unrated (DVD) | USA:TV-G

Company:

Four Crown Productions Inc.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When the astronauts go out of their spaceship to make a repair, they are untethered by any restraint and freely walk on the spacecraft's wing, in defiance of the laws of physics.

Quotes:

Sessom: There are many things you will not understand here. Maybe in time you shall.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Svengoolie: The Phantom Planet" (2005)

Goofy low budget 60s sci fi schlock. Stupid but entertaining.

'The Phantom Planet' is almost your archetypal silly low budget 50s/60s sci fi movie. Set in 1980(!) the story concerns a couple of astronauts on a mission to search for some colleagues who have inexplicably vanished. The team is led by the fearless Captain Chapman (a wooden Dean Fredericks), who soon finds himself a prisoner on "the phantom planet", shrunk to miniature size, and forced to choose between two alien beauties (one of whom is played by 'The Killing's Coleen Gray), while clashing with suspicious planet person Herron (Anthony Dexter, who also appeared in the supremely silly 'Fire Maidens From Venus'), all the while plotting his escape. The acting is poor, the dialogue lame brained, the special effects as inept as you can imagine, all in all great fun if you dig this kind of moronic camp fun (and I do!). The cast also includes veteran Francis X. Bushman who already had a film career spanning fifty years(!!) when he made this, and an uncredited Richard Kiel (best known to most movie goers as "Jaws" in a couple of 1970s Bond films, but also fondly remembered by trash fans for the idiotic horror flick 'Eegah' made shortly after this) as the utterly ludicrous Solonite monster. This may not be the best bad movie I've ever seen, but fans of the genre will have a great time watching it.