A visit to the Forbidden Planet.
By Richard A. Coyle
This was one of the great Science Fiction
movies of all time, and one of my first films.
I saw Forbidden Planet as young boy and absolutely loved it.
In fact, I think I fell in love with Anne Francis, too, as she became
the model of a woman I sought most of my life.
And how I wished for Robby to be my big brother and chase the school
yard bullies away. This fantasy
became even more meaningful after Robby’s second adventure, “The 
Invisible
Boy,” came out, where a boy about my age (then) did indeed become owner
and friend of Robby.
My boyhood dream would finally come true decades later
after the advent of the personal computer, when I was able to combine a picture
of me taken with Gort from “The Day The Earth Stood Still” with a picture of
Robby and a shot of the C57D space ship standing on Altar Four.
By using Corel Photo Paint, I was able to take my photo with Gort, originally
taken in
a camera shop on Ventura Boulevard in North Hollywood where one of the real
stand-in fiberglass props was on display, and combined it to make my boyhood
fantasy complete.
It goes with out saying that I hunted down
all I could find and experience from Forbidden Planet over the years.
Without question, though, my two greatest discoveries were meeting the
film’s renowned collector, Mr. William Malone, and of course, my hero, Robby.
I must digress to point out that besides being Forbidden Planet's
number one fan, William Malone has also become a fine director.
His third film, “House on Haunted
Hill,” has just come out, and I can’t wait to see it.
I had the wonderful opportunity to work on his second film, “Creature,”
and thanks to his gracious support, I received my only film credit during that
production. Ironically, my work
on “Creature” included recreating the original Master Computer from “The Invisible
Boy” for use as the main computer panel in this film.
My enjoyment of “Creature”
was greatly enhanced when I realized Bill was making a subtle sequel to “Forbidden
Planet.” With his use of
many Krell Lab set parts from his
personal collection, he dressed the set of the alien specimen lab of this film
and paid further homage with various lines from FP.
One such reference was a line hinting
at the origins of this lab being from an alien collection that included
items from a visit to our solar system. “Ten thousand century's ago…” a line
right out of FP, when Doctor Morbius explained that the Krell had visited Earth
and brought back
specimens,
like the deer and the tiger.
With my early visit to Bill Malone's home, I
obtained a few shots of the FP props and went home to recreate my own copy of
the famed “simple” Blaster.
Here are a few shots of Bill’s original Blaster.
Unfortunately, I seem to have lost the full shot of the blaster together,
so all I have left are these two shots with the rear cap removed.
Bill was kind enough to give me a pair of blaster body vacuum-formed
shells from his own run of Blasters years ago, along with a casting of the rear
cap. From these parts I recreated
my own version of the Blaster, which some of you may have seen.
