| The Lost Planet | |
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Poster of chapter 5 |
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| Directed by | Spencer Gordon Bennet |
| Produced by | Sam Katzman |
| Written by | Arthur Hoerl George H. Plympton |
| Starring | Judd Holdren Vivian Mason Michael Fox Forrest Taylor Gene Roth Ted Thorpe |
| Music by | Ross DiMaggio |
| Cinematography | William P. Whitley |
| Editing by | Earl Turner |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 4 June 1953 |
| Running time | 15 chapters |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
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."
Contents |
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 was the last of only three science fiction serials released by Columbia.[1]
This serial was, despite the characters' names, essentially a sequel to Captain Video, from which stock footage was taken for this serial.[1]
In the opinions of Harmon and Glut, The Lost Planet is a "rather shoddy, low budget space cliffhanger."[2]
Source:[3]
| Preceded by Son of Geronimo (1952) |
Columbia Serial The Lost Planet (1953) |
Succeeded by The Great Adventures of Captain Kidd (1953) |
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