Classic 1956 sci-fi flick deals with alien technology falling into human hands.
4/28/2000
Flying Saucers over Hollywood! by filmmaker Paul Davids offers a rare glimpse into the great Hollywood UFO films.
Even if you don't have $26,995 to spare, keep reading because you.re about to discover how Hollywood first sold Americans on the concept that alien technology could make humans wiser, smarter, and more adept at accomplishing dreams, while offering us a "Devil's bargain". It happened in 1956, nine years after the crash at Roswell, when MGM released what was, essentially, the STAR WARS of the 1950s. It was a blockbuster called FORBIDDEN PLANET, which is still the envy of every science-fiction writer and director in Hollywood.
The movie had both obvious and hidden messages. These messages helped prepare the public for a mind-boggling revelation. In his 1997 book, THE DAY AFTER ROSWELL (co-authored with William Birnes), Col. Philip Corso suggests that many of the goodies we play with in our daily lives are N.I.H. (meaning NOT INVENTED HERE).
In FORBIDDEN PLANET, Dr. Morbius (played by the great dramatic actor Walter Pidgeon) stumbles upon the advanced technology of the extinct super-race of Altair-4, known as THE KRELL. For those of you who accept the likelihood that the Roswell incident was the actual recovery of alien hardware from another world and not merely a downed balloon experiment, FORBIDDEN PLANET is an outstanding example of Hollywood "outing" the world's most closely guarded secret.
Like the military men who took control of the ET hardware at Roswell, Dr. Morbius had no intention of sharing his secret toys, or volunteering the fact that he had made a colossal discovery. Not until a rescue party from earth showed up and began asking tough questions did Dr. Morbius let on that he found a vast underground storehouse of ET technology, still existing on Altair-4. The incredible ROBBY, THE ROBOT was something Dr. Morbius tinkered together in his first few months on the planet, once he had undergone a "brain boost," and mastered the super-science of the Krell. Robby could duplicate the atomic structure of any sample material, thus manufacture massive quantities of anything. He also exhibited super-strength, a property Roswell fans have come to associate with certain alien metals.
When extraordinary UFO tales started pouring out of the UFO community in the late 1980s and early 1990s -- back when the MAJESTIC documents, MATRIX books, and the John Lear hypothesis about "secret treaties" between America and Grey aliens first became known -- documents called the KRLL papers showed up. These were supposedly revelations from an alien called KRLL on the secret history of human/alien relations. It doesn't take much research to figure out that whoever dreamed up the KRLL documents was not an alien, but more like an over-zealous fan of FORBIDDEN PLANET.
This leads us to something I mentioned last week, when I brought up the fact that there is a new store at Universal City Walk in Universal City Los Angeles, called THEM. I want to let AlienZoo fans know about the beautiful and inspiring sight that awaits you if you walk in the door of THEM. I hope you have $26,995 to spare, or if not, begin saving! The crown jewel of FORBIDDEN PLANET is there and is for sale. It's not the original ROBBY, THE ROBOT, but a life-size, accurate reproduction, designed from the original plans. This is a non-mobile reproduction. You can't put your girlfriend inside and let her walk Robby around. He's stuck in one position, like a statue, but the whistles and bells all operate.
First, picture the store. Filled with gill-men models of THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, Godzillas, replicas of famous movie spaceships, toys, and stylish replicas of anything that ever lurked or leaped across the silver screen in the days of the 1950s B-science-fiction movies. The paraphernalia takes us all the way up to STAR WARS.
In one corner of the store stands the reproduction of the greatest movie robot of the 1950s who starred in MGM's FORBIDDEN PLANET and THE INVISIBLE BOY, as well as making a guest appearance on TWILIGHT ZONE. At the base of the platform on which Robby stands, a plaque states that this Robby is number 18 of a group of 100 life-size Robby the Robots built by Fred Barton Productions, under license from Turner Entertainment (Ted's company took over MGM years ago). Since there are one hundred of them, some simple math will tell you that if you want to buy ALL of Fred Barton's Robbies, and corner the worldwide market, the price tag would be about two million seven hundred thousand dollars - plus tax.
My questions about this awesome Robby were quickly answered with a demonstration of his abilities. Unlike the one-of-a-kind Robby reproduction built more than two decades ago by Hollywood special-effects artist-turned-director William Malone, this Robby did not have moveable arms or legs, nor did the famous slot in his belly open - the slot which was used in the unforgettable scene where Robby gurgled down bourbon.
The Robby that THEM has for sale is a motionless knick-knack for the den or study of the person who has almost everything. However, using a remote control, Robby does seem to come to life, as all of his lights blink in just the right patterns, and of course he SPEAKS with Robby's original voice. Robby is programmed with 23 minutes of the soundtrack of FORBIDDEN PLANET, beginning with the opening weird and wonderful electronic music (which was the very FIRST time electronic music was used as a theme for a major Hollywood film). He is also programmed with every single one of Robby's lines from the original film, beginning with "Welcome to Altair-4, gentleman. For your convenience, I am monitored to respond to the name ROBBY!"
Now you might be thinking that for a few bucks you could rent a VHS of the whole movie, so why pay almost $27,000 to be able to hear only about a quarter of the film? Well, the reason is that you get to hear it out of Robby's, umm, mouth - except he doesn't exactly have a mouth. He has an internal speaker and a row of blue lights that look like neon tubes, which blink in rhythm to his every word.
It's not often that a film robot with an unforgettable personality comes along (and an incredibly commanding voice). C-3PO's squawky British accent and R2-D2's beeps and toots can't hold a candle to Robby's booming, authoritative diction. Robby is enjoying a resurgence now. If you have any doubt, look around in THEM, or any other model store. There are dozens of less exorbitantly priced Robby models, from mini-models about six inches tall, to one that stands about two feet tall and goes for $700 - but you have to assemble and paint it yourself.
FORBIDDEN PLANET, which has been a candidate for a major remake for years, was a cinematic masterpiece in 1956, a film which acclimated the worldwide public to the concept of human beings toying with advanced alien technology that is millions of years beyond our own paltry state of development. The theme of the movie (which loosely followed the plotline of Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST) prepared the world for extraordinary statements they would hear decades later. One example is Col. Philip Corso, who claimed that advanced alien technology, recovered in the Roswell Incident of 1947, was seeded to U.S. industry in secret by the U.S. Army, and provided a cornerstone for much of the technological explosion of our era.
Though Corso was dismissed recently by the Washington Establishment, we should remember that Washington also dismissed Corso when he claimed that North Korea had shipped some of our POW's off to Russia during the Korean War. His testimony on that subject before Congress later proved accurate. Corso, who once worked out of the White House as part of the National Security Council under President Eisenhower, had an impeccable career and reputation that was praised even by right-wing Senator Strom Thurmond. Thurmond later claimed that Corso blindsided him by releasing the laudatory preface Thurmond wrote about Corso in Corso's book about alien technology and the Roswell Incident.
Several weeks back, we discussed a book by Bruce Rux, titled HOLLYWOOD VERSUS THE ALIENS. The premise is that ET technology really was recovered at Roswell in 1947, however, a secret so big is not something a government would simply spring upon the masses. Blow a secret like that and you will blow more than a few minds. If you are the government, sitting on a secret that huge, you know you have to acclimate the public slowly, over a great deal of time.
An analogy I used to explain this in a keynote presentation to the White Sands Missile Range Pioneers (as seen in my video GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY UFO BRIEFING FOR THE WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE PIONEERS), is to compare the situation to that faced by Moses a few thousand years ago. Moses didn't have to spend 40 years wandering in the desert with the children of Israel who had escaped from Egypt. He could have led them to the land of Israel considerably quicker. But he knew better than to try to found a new nation with those who had been slaves. So he waited a generation or two until he had a new population to lead into the Promised Land, a more adaptable and open-minded generation that had not been slaves to the Pharaoh, and could adapt to the future with a fresh vision.
The World War II generation was not judged as being "ready" to receive the secret knowledge, if we can believe "the hidden history of the U.S.," as presented by Col. Philip Corso. They were like Moses's people recently freed from Egypt. The knowledge of the ETs was sequestered among the few who had a "need to know". Check out a document about Project Magnet by William Smith at the CSETI Web site. It is an historical document that shows the astonishment of those few who did glean the secret early -- who realized that the truth about the saucers was held at a level of secrecy higher than that assigned to the original development of atomic weapons. It's an incredible document for the UFO case. Given this extraordinary situation, as Bruce Rux explained, Hollywood has proved a useful "propaganda" tool for decades, through the use of "science-fiction," to ready the population for the future that has already secretly come to pass.
FORBIDDEN PLANET, bursting onto the scene in 1956 (a few years after George Pal's masterpiece, THE WAR OF THE WORLDS), began with the statement that "toward the end of the 21st century, mankind finally landed on the moon." Little did the creators of the film realize that it would not take us until the year 2100 to reach the moon, but that men would be walking on the moon a mere 13 years after the release of FORBIDDEN PLANET! The creators of FORBIDDEN PLANET could scarcely dream that would come to pass so quickly. But they did "dream" of many things that held a powerful lesson for our world, that would soon have to adjust to the fact of alien technology in human hands. If the writers of the story, Irving Block and Allen Adler, or the author of the screenplay, Cyril Hume, have discussed the origins of these story concepts and ideas, I am not aware of it and would appreciate a reference from readers.
The rescue party of humans that sets out for Altair-4 in FORBIDDEN PLANET travels in a classic flying saucer. The model is one of the most precise, most perfectly designed and conceived representations of a flying saucer ever shown in a film. In fact, it bears an incredible resemblance to the design of the so-called "scout craft" that physicist Bob Lazar would later claim was stored at Area 51 and was made into a Testor's model kit. Did Lazar get inspiration for his claim from FORBIDDEN PLANET, or did FORBIDDEN PLANET show us what "the real thing" looked like though it was still highly classified (much like a model kit of the Stealth bomber revealed its appearance while it was still secret.) FORBIDDEN PLANET doesn't tell us where the saucer came from - whether humans designed it or if it came into our hands by way of alien intervention. It leaves that to the imagination.
Next, FORBIDDEN PLANET takes us on a tour of the underground "base" that is the relic of remaining Krell technology. The underground city extends for twenty miles in all directions, constantly upgrading and repairing its own technology. Dr. Morbius is a philologist, an expert on the origin and meaning of words. This was an extraordinary choice of profession for the fictional character, but right in line with the fact that the men who first confront alien technology must be code-crackers. They'll have no Rosetta Stone to help them with the translation.
When two naïve crewmen of the rescue party barge into Dr. Morbius. study, they first come across a sample of alien writing. They comment that it seems to resemble hieroglyphics, but it's not ancient Egyptian or any other language they recognize. Once again, this was released nine years after Roswell, where quite a number of military men, beginning with Major Jesse A. Marcel, came face to face with written symbols in UFO wreckage, and they were convinced those symbols were "not of this earth". Almost four decades later, the government issued two reports trying to quash this idea, claiming that the "alien symbols" Marcel saw were very earthly designs on a sort of scotch tape used to keep balsa wood radar reflectors patched together for a high-altitude balloon research project called Project Mogul. In other words, they said that the distinguished Major Marcel, a trusted serviceman at an atomic bomb base, was prone to concocting absurd fantasies. There are those of us who think Major Marcel got it right and told us the truth, as did Col. Corso, and that the powers-that-be today are refusing to acknowledge it -- yet. They're still playing Moses, and we children haven't been wandering in the desert long enough, according to those who know the secrets.
In FORBIDDEN PLANET, Dr. Morbius tells his "rescuers" that mankind cannot be trusted with the secret knowledge of the Krell, and that he (in his infinite wisdom) will parcel out bits and pieces of it to earthmen from time to time, as he sees fit. In that process, he will be an absolute dictator.
According to John Lear, son of the inventor of the Lear Jet, that's exactly what happened here on earth. In the late 1980s he burst upon the UFO scene revealing what he claimed were the secrets of underground alien bases. He claimed that the military took control of the greatest discoveries on this planet -- alien technology - and that a secret group, in its infinite wisdom, parcels out bits and pieces of it, principally to private industry, to foster research and development projects. He took quite a lot of heat for writing "The John Lear Hypothesis," which evidently caused him problems in his career as a pilot. There was a lot of repair work to be done. But then less than a decade later, Col. Corso gave a blow by blow description of how alien technology was handled in absolute secrecy, with the origin of the technology that was to be reverse engineered kept hidden even from the recipients. This was technology from an IAC, not a UFO (that is, an Identified Alien Craft).
FORBIDDEN PLANET harbors yet another big lesson for us about alien technology. The secrets of the Krell contained the seed of the Krell's self-destruction. By empowering their minds to produce physically whatever they could conceive, the Krell set loose the chaos of their subconscious minds. The Krell, like humans, had an Id, Freud's term for that primitive part of our unconscious mind that lurks in realms of primordial passions and violent "survival instincts". Once again, a parallel is found with the message of John Lear, who stated that the technology of "the Grays" came to our government at a severe price. He hints that we (the human race) may no longer be in control of our own destiny, because we may have accepted "the Devil's bargain" by bartering away our independence for alien toys that may yet be a bit too much for us to handle.
Seeing Robby, the Robot in the THEM store reminded me of all of this, and that Robby was the first national symbol of it all. Little could I have imagined, when I first encountered that wonderful robot of the cinema, that I would some day be able to find so much significance, that applies to real life, in his existence in the world of fiction.
Robby made a re-appearance about a year after FORBIDDEN PLANET in a much smaller and far less ambitious film, THE INVISIBLE BOY, which presaged the power that computers would come to play in our lives. It's a black-and-white classic that belongs in your VHS or DVD collection, too, easily obtainable from Amazon.com. I got to know the childhood star of that movie, Richard Eyer, and even arranged a public reunion for him and his dad in that film, Philip Abbott, in which the real walking and talking Robby greeted them both at the Tiffany Theater in Hollywood. The fully functioning Robby we had that evening, many years ago, built by Bill Malone, was worth a lot more than a paltry $26,995. But the Robby built by Fred Barton that's for sale at THEM is a steal. Some lucky rich kid is going to take that prize home and play with it forever.
This is your AlienZoo correspondent in Hollywood, Paul Davids with Robby, the Robot, signing off from Universal City and the distant planet Altair-4. Join us again next Friday at AlienZoo, as we continue to search for THE TRUTH in the land of dreams, in our next installment of FLYING SAUCERS OVER HOLLYWOOD!
Site not to be missed:
Check out how Fred Barton's robots work at www.the-robotman.com.