The Phantom Planet
About The Phantom Planet
In 1980, Captain Frank Chapman and Lieutenant Ray Makonnen go looking for the lost ship Pegasus VI. Meteor damage kills Makonnen. An asteroid pulls Chapman's ship down. When he opens his visor he shrinks to the six-inch people of Rheton and is told he cannot leave. He refuses the ruler Sesom's daughter Liara, spares her suitor Herron in a gravity-plate duel, and falls in love with the mute Zetha. Solarites attack. Chapman and Herron wreck their fleet and kill a captured Solarite. Zetha finds her voice warning him. An Earth party arrives, Chapman grows back to his own size in his suit, and he leaves her behind.
Cast & crew
More about The Phantom Planet
William Marshall directed. Fred Gebhardt produced. American International Pictures released it in the United States on December 13, 1961, on a double bill with Assignment Outer Space. Leith Stevens wrote the music. Richard Kiel plays the Solarite, his first credited role, inside a mask and a padded suit.
Themes
Music
Leith Stevens composed the score.
Preservation
Prints survive, including the copy used on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Notes
- Dean Fredericks plays Chapman. Francis X. Bushman plays Sesom. Coleen Gray plays Liara. Dolores Faith plays Zetha. Anthony Dexter plays Herron.
- Sesom says the gravity beam that saved Chapman destroyed earlier Earth ships.
- Zetha is mute until she screams during the Solarite fight.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000 used the film as episode 902.
- A copy is on the Internet Archive as Phantom_Planet.
Scenes
- Chapman opens his visor and shrinks to the height of the Rheton people.
- He pushes the captured Solarite onto the gravity plate.
- Back in an Earth atmosphere he regains his size and leaves Zetha.
Also available
- Internet Archive (Phantom_Planet)