ALL SCI-FI

[Maurice]

It's spoileriffic, but then it's a trades paper, not for the general public.

By the way, I see people saying the released version of Forbidden Planet is a "rough cut". I wish people would stop saying this because it's not true.

According to the trades, FP was planned for an April 11, 1956 release, but that was bumped up a month. A month is not enough time to go from a rough cut to a final cut on a film like this.

The typical sequence is more like:

* 1st Assembly (on a feature usually put together as the footage comes in)
* Rough Cut (sometimes what the 1st Assembly is called)
* First Cut aka the Director's Cut, unless the director has Final Cut in his contract
* Fine Cut (film gets locked here)
* Final Cut (film with all audio work, scoring and color grading)

If FP was hurried out it was probably at the First or Fine Cut state. It was certainly not a rough cut.

[Bud Brewster]

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Thanks for that great review from Variety! I enhanced a bit with paint.net and enlarge the image to make it easier to read.





Concerning the notion that the theatrical release print of Forbidden planet was a rough cut, I've never felt that Forbidden Planet was flawed because it was allegedly released before Ferris Webster had done all the editing he intended to do.

Actually, the only indication we have that it was a "rough cut" is the statement made in the Cinefantastique double issue which was devoted to Forbidden Planet. In that article, the author states that when Ferris Webster saw the theatrical release version he said, "They released my rough cut!"

I remember reading that statement when I bought the Cinefantastique issue when it first came out. It took me about two weeks to get through it (partly because I was making notes ), due to the fact that it's jam-packed with great information.

However, today I spent over an hour trying to find that item in All Sci-Fi's thread(< — LINK) in the Sci-Fi magazines and fanzines forum, which contains pristine high-resolution copies of every page. Unfortunately I wasn't able to locate the quote because there was just so much text to wade through.

However, IMDB has this trivia item.

[Gord Green]

I think the problem here is the use of the term "rough cut" by non-professionals. The movie as released was NOT a "final" cut, but a pasted together cut made to showcase the use of the Barrons' "tonalities".

Professionals may not technicaly refer to it as a "rough cut", but it IS a preliminary, unfinished edit as released.

Give it another designation if it is a bother to you as not technicaly correct but it still is an unfinished unpolished edit that lies somewhere between the professionaly designated terms !
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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Bud Brewster]

[Gord Green]

I think the key here is to look at the shooting script.

Obviously some key dialogues are missing in the film as finally presented. I'm of the opinion that the deletions were for the purpose of moving the action at the beginning faster into the story and cutting out the "cereberal" part (the part that the stupid, uneducated populous was too ignorant to comprehend!) in order to get to the "meat" of the action.

What was deleted was....

Why was there some animosity between Adams and Farman? Feelings that showed up in several of subsequent scenes?

Why did the ship make "Its' own eclipses? " (Because Farman, as astrogator brought the ship out of hyperspace too close to the star Altair therefore overheating the ship!) Adams , as Farmans' commanding officer was both training and evaluating his performance. And found it lacking.

These all were reflected in Farmans' actions at the luncheon at the residence and the conflict with Adams! He not only "cock blocked" Adams but showed his dereliction of his duty as second in command. This was further shown in the scene with Alta in the Altarian forest with the "kissing" scene.

The final reconciliation with Adams...just before the ID monster killed him, was reduced in significance.

These few deletions at the beginning of the film sloughed over a key part of the characterization of two major individuals in the triangle love story!

These were the major problems in the editing process. The other deleted scenes, although not insignificant, were not vital to the story, But these early ones set up the conflict between Adams and Farman that was present throughout the film....mostly in regard to Altaria.

Less than five minutes of the deleted material from the first section of the film would have made FP even more of the masterpiece it was to become!
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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[scotpens]

[Gord Green]

From August 1955 AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER

Click on each page here to see a large, easy-to-read version you can zoom in on. Click on the large version again, and then zoom in as close as you want!










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There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Gord Green]

The locking mechanism from FP re-used in Bill Malones; film CREATURE.
_________________
There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Bud Brewster]

[Pow]

One of the wonderful aspects to the remastered CGI for Star Trek: TOS was in regards to the planetary scenes from outer space.

On the original series the alien planets, and earth, rarely had any visible clouds as the Enterprise comes into orbit around a planet.

I don't know why the planets lacked clouds? Was it a budget, technical, or time issue of some kind? Perhaps the special effects artists did the best they could at that time with the limited resources they had available?

In any event, the remastered planets now looked terrific in general and now had clouds making it all look more realistic.

[Captain Starlight]

As a life-long fan of both Star Trek and Forbidden Planet, I was pleased when the aging FX of the original Star Trek series were improved by the new versions. The space scenes really do resemble some of the shots in Forbidden Planet.

[Bud Brewster]

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A while back, All Sci-Fi member filmdetective stated that he was reluctant to visit the longer threads on the board because they contained such a daunting amount information.

[Maurice]

I was looking through the vast number of FP screenshots on Movie-Screencaps and whilst looking at the Krell machine in this shot you can really tell where miniature ends and the painted extension is because there's a jog in the perspective line coming from center to the lower left.


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"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles

[Bud Brewster]

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Here's a brighter version of the shaft, but it's obviously not the same view you posted. Can you still see where the division between the shaft and painted extension is located?

I can't.





Here's your original image, brightened and sharpened a bit . . . but I still can't see the division.



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Maurice]

You have to look at how the perspective lines bend. The faintly yellow area with the red outline is the painted extension. Notice that how the angles change there. They didn't quite get camera X & Y axes perfectly lined up with the artwork.


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* * *
"The absence of limitations is the enemy of art."
― Orson Welles