13070 "The Phantom Planet" is well worth watching: not because it's a great movie, but because it's not a great movie. Unlike the great movies, it never steps out of its box, and as such it's an amazing piece of social, cultural and cinematic history. Watching the movie is like watching an undiscovered episode of the original "Star Trek." We have a rocket being pulled off course by a strange phenomenon; we have special effects of the most functional and basic kind; we have a strange planet populated by earthlike (albeit small) people, whose strengths and weaknesses are allegories of human strengths and weaknesses; we have a series of curvaceous women, a brash young man and an elderly wise leader in the alien society; we have a brawny hero who alternates between fighting, courting and moralizing. "Star Trek" has been hailed for its revolutionary mix of adventure and social commentary. While it fully deserves praise for its effort to bring high quality to that mix on a weekly basis, "The Phantom Planet" reminds us forcefully that "Star Trek" did not appear out of thin air. Many of its elements were part of the sci-fi/space travel genre, and were produced on a massive scale. And, in an eerie foreshadowing, we have an astronaut named "Frank," whose dead body is released into the void, much like Gary Lockwood in "2001." A fascinating piece of history. Strange New Worlds Grant Campbell 2004-05-13 05:40:07 2004-05-13 05:40:07 3 13090 I consider this to be a ROUGH DRAFT for a movie. A document that could be given to a writer and director with more talent and imagination.Admittedly, it was a low budget film ,but I doubt they would have done better with more money and better actors.There are good ideas, but so had Melies, 60 years earlier in his Trip to the Moon. I wonder if certain excellent scenes could be taken out and incorporated into a new film ,viz the lost in space sequence. could be better cashel 2004-05-13 15:07:13 2004-05-13 15:07:13 2 20332 In my many travels, I have been blessed with seeing some of the finest that film has to offer. Trufuat. Fellini. Fassbinder. This movie is in that league. The science is real, the characters human, and the story meaningful. This, in a word, is a must see film. Highly recommended. Excellent Film Ted Bell 2004-09-05 23:26:46 2004-09-05 23:26:46 5 24509 This is a great movie, just because it is so low budget. The aliens resemble those from 'Mars attacks' and did you notice that the attack from space has taken the shooting sounds from a western movie? Great stuff! This will be watched over and over because it is so good and relates to modern movie production, although the fact that sometimes on the Earth ships there is gravity, and sometimes not, does lend some discontinuity. The direct steals from all the cowboys films of the 50's re: girls, honour, etc are magic. They are still happening in movies today, nothing is new! Magic stuff bgs 2004-11-07 22:12:04 2004-11-07 22:12:04 4 24511 This is a great movie, just because it is so low budget. The aliens resemble those from 'Mars attacks' and did you notice that the attack from space has taken the shooting sounds from a western movie? Great stuff! This will be watched over and over because it is so good and relates to modern movie production, although the fact that sometimes on the Earth ships there is gravity, and sometimes not, does lend some discontinuity. The direct steals from all the cowboys films of the 50's re: girls, honour, etc are magic. They are still happening in movies today, nothing is new! Magic stuff bgs 2004-11-07 22:30:34 2004-11-07 22:30:34 4 34412 gmm gmm Jah Gussi 2005-03-10 03:06:10 2005-03-10 03:06:10 5 The only thing I liked about this movie was the fight scene. The fight 1 Lisa MW 2005-06-03 18:21:01 2005-06-03 18:21:01 This film is dreadful. The plot is thin, the dialogue is corny ("Almost... to quiet") or laboured, the science is laughable in almost every respect, the effects shots are crude and unconvincing. Everyone should see this film. Phantastic 5 theZephyr 2005-06-22 01:00:52 2005-06-22 01:00:52 How, may I ask...did everyone else watch this film? I tried VLC and the latest version of QuickTime. Neither would play the MPEG4 file(s) for The Phantom Planet. Very odd since both of those programs have always played any MPEG4/MP4 video files for me in the past. QuickTime gave me an error saying 'moov' was missing, or the file was corrupt. Did anybody else have this problem? Only 1 star was given my me since I was unable to view the film. At least I have the MST3K version to watch. :) MPEG4 playback? 1 JoeCinema 2005-09-02 15:02:06 2005-09-02 15:02:06 I downloaded both parts many times and couldn't get it to play nor could I get it to be reconized by nero or oss as a valid file (error message said: no video - no audio). I guess it may have worked when someone submitted it to the archive, but it appears to be corrupted now. What a waste of time imho... This site needs to set up some sort of plan to test their files for integrity from time to time to verify their content........ Corrupted?!? 1 Da'Judge 2005-10-19 17:30:23 2005-10-19 17:30:23 Just a few notes from and old grade d movie geek(the movies are grade d, not me) from someone who thinks this stuff is important. Dean Fredericks made several movies under several names, including Frederick Foote, Fred Foote, Norman Frederic, and Norman Fredric.In1955 he played Kaseem, on the “Jungle Jim” TV series for one season. He played Johnny Weissmuller’s Indian (I think) partner in the jungle. Dean mostly made a living portraying angry Native Americans, but he did have the title role in the 1958 TV series “Steve Canyon” Keep your eyes open for him as Detective Curtis in “Them!”, everyone’s favorite movie for playing the “Isn’t that so and so’ game. Francis X.. Bushman had over a hundred films to his credit, but is best remembered as Messala in the 1925 Classic, Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ. We don’t get to see Richard Kiel’s face in this picture, as he’s in the Solarite suit. At 7 foot 2 inches Richard could always find work. His most famous role was that of Jaws in two James bond films, making him, to my knowledge, the only reoccurring villain played by the same actor. Other things he did were the original “Longest Yard” as well as “Force 10 From Navarone”. Marvin Miller does the opening narration, as he did with other films of the ilk, one that comes to mind off the top of my pointed little head was “King Dinosaur”, that Bert I. Gordon classic from 1955. You also remember his voice as Robbie the Robot in “Forbidden Planet”, which he did in 1956 uncredited. One time you could see him on camera was in the TV series “The Millionaire” that started in 1955 and ran five years. Considering he spent most of his work in Hollywood as a disembodied voice, it was ironic that the only other regular actor on the show was Paul Free, the only film actor that was “an off screen voice” more often than Miller. Ironic because Paul was never seen on screen in the TV show. Someday I will write an in depth article on how many of the films of this period opened with an A Bomb explosion. This one is interesting because it has nothing to do with the plot, and don’t really do anything to enhance a mood Stock footage is cheap.. Notes 4 Buffalodavid 2005-11-13 14:59:16 2005-11-13 14:59:16 I couldn't get this to play audio either, until I tracked down this codec. - http://www.free-codecs.com/download/3ivx.htm Just go here, download & install codec and MPEG4 files will play very nicely in Windows Media Player. Codec also works with Power DVD and other players. Haven't watched the whole film yet but looks like good dumb fun. Help for MPEG4 Challenged 3 Elisha Cook III 2005-11-28 21:14:32 2005-11-28 21:14:32 A guy lands with his rocket on an asteroid and meets a tribe of Space Leprechaunes. Gets diminished himself and lives a Guliver adventure. I take away one star because of awful Aliens in their burning (in space??!!) assault spaceships. Guliver in Space 4 Gadomski 2006-02-05 03:20:10 2006-02-05 03:24:03 try video lan,it wlll play 90 percent of media files and its free!, here,s a tutorial on how to convert mp4 using vlc. http://tom.zickel.org/vlcmp4/ If You Have Trouble Playing Mp4 Files c harney 2007-09-30 01:41:36 2007-09-30 01:41:36 4 THE PHANTOM PLANET uses recycled music from DESTINATION MOON by Leith Stevens. Curiously enough, it was released in the 1960s to play as a double bill with ASSIGNMENT OUTER SPACE. Both films used the same music! THE SCORE IrvLipscomb 2009-04-07 16:20:27 2009-04-07 16:20:27 1 This movie is so absolutely ridiculous that it is a must see movie. It should be required viewing on every college campus. I wonder if those actors actually got paid to do this. If you have seen this, there is nothing left in life to see. Absolutely great!!!! Pure corn! Budro 2009-09-02 01:33:12 2009-09-02 01:33:12 5 16 3.25