The Lost Planet
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The Lost Planet is a 1953 Columbia Pictures 15-chapter serial which has the distinction of being the last interplanetary-themed sound serial ever made. It was directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet with a screenplay by George H. Plympton and Arthur Hoerl (who also wrote for Rocky Jones, Space Ranger). It appears to have been planned as a sequel to the earlier chapterplay Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere and shares many plot-points, props and sets, as well as some of the same cast. However, the Video Rangers do not appear, and their uniforms are instead worn by "slaves" created electronically by Reckov, the dictator of the Lost Planet (Gene Roth) with the help of mad scientist Dr. Grood (Michael Fox) and enslaved "good" scientist Professor Dorn (Forrest Taylor).
The serial is interplanetary in name only, since while Dr. Grood has a "space projectile" identical to that seen in the Captain Video serial, the other characters fly to the Lost Planet in an ordinary light aircraft! As on the Rocky Jones, Space Ranger TV series, with which it shares a writer, the dialogue is often as unintentionally hilarious as that of an Ed Wood film. Typical: "How are we going to find it, it's the Lost Planet."
Unlike the Captain Video serial, The Lost Planet has a female character, Professor Dorn's daughter Ella (Vivian Mason) who strides about the Lost Planet (Bronson Canyon) in a fetching female version of the Video Ranger uniform. The hero is not Captain Video, but a newspaper reporter, Rex Barrow, played by Judd Holdren (who had previously played Captain Video and Commando Cody). Books on the sound serials generally conclude that this is one of the worst serials ever made, but it still has points of interest. The bizarre performance of Michael Fox (1921 - 1996) as the villainous Dr. Grood is particularly memorable. This is one of Fox's first screen roles. He went on to a long and distinguished career as a character actor in dozens of feature films and hundreds of TV series right up to his final illness and death. The Lost Planet is sometimes referred to under an alternate title, Planet Men. It should not be confused with Lost Planet Airmen (1951), a feature version of Republic Studios serial King of the Rocket Men (1949).
There is also an entirely different British "The Lost Planet" series (radio, book and tv) which might need its own page. For now, please see Angus MacVicar or Google "hesikos radio".
[edit] See also
[edit] References and External Links:
- The Great Movie Serials by Jim Harmon and Donald F. Glut (Doubleday, NY, 1972) LCCCN 70-171269
- Science Fiction Serials by Roy Kinnard (McFarland, NC, 1998). ISBN 0-7864-0545-7
- Roaring Rockets Serial Page
- The Lost Planet at imdb
- Lost Planet Airmen (1951), the feature version of King of the Rocketmen (1949)
- Gary Johnson, "The Serials"
- imdb entry on Michael Fox
