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directed by William Marshall
USA 1961
| Snappy Video presents 'The Phantom
Planet' (1961) a fun and sometimes campy Sci-Fi film
from 1961. Captain Frank Chapman (Dean Fredericks) is
sent on a mission to discover a series of recent lost
ships in space, and finds himself shrunk to six inches
and on the asteroid planet of Rheton, put on trial by
its tiny inhabitants! Will Frank Chapman ever be able to
leave the planet? Will be fall for the beautiful Liara
(Coleen Gray) or the more plain but also beautiful mute
Zetha (Dolores Faith)? Will jealous Rheton inhabitant
Herron (Anthony Dexter) beat him in the Duel? Will he
help Sesom (Francis X. Bushman), the leader, battle the
Solarite invasion? All these questions will be answered
along the way! The Phantom Planet is
presented courtesy of Snappy Video in a new digital scan
from a rare 35mm print, digitally cleaned up for this
new edition. BDR disc. *** A strange science fiction film starring Fredericks as an astronaut forced to crash land on an asteroid and make repairs. When he breathes the air on the asteroid, he shrinks to six inches tall and discovers a whole race of little people who have made the asteroid their spaceship. Resigning himself to the fact that he's going to stay small for awhile, the astronaut makes friends with the tiny people and helps them in their battle against the evil "solarites" (ugly, cannibalistic monsters) led by Richard Kiel. After defeating the monsters, Fredericks once again dons his space suit, breathes Earth oxygen, and returns back to normal size. He leaves the asteroid and heads back to Earth. Believe it or not, a 79-year-old Francis X. Bushman (noted for romantic leads in silent films as well as playing Messala to Ramon Navarro's title part in BEN HUR, 1926) plays the leader of the little people. |
Posters and one comic book...
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Theatrical Release: December 13th, 1961
Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews
Review:
Snappy Video - Region FREE - Blu-ray|
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Distribution |
Snappy Video |
| Runtime |
1:22:19.601 |
| Video |
Disc Size: 19,498,495,428 bytes Feature Size: 19,447,873,536 bytes Average Bitrate: 28.31 MbpsSingle-layered Blu-ray MPEG-4 AVC Video |
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Bitrate:
Snappy Video Blu-ray
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| Audio |
LPCM Audio English 1536 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1536 kbps / 16-bit |
| Subtitles | Spanish, None |
| Features |
Release
Information: Studio: Snappy Video
Disc Size: 19,498,495,428 bytes Feature Size: 19,447,873,536 bytes Average Bitrate: 28.31 MbpsSingle-layered Blu-ray MPEG-4 AVC Video
Edition Details: Chapters: 15 |
| Comments |
NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.
ADDITION: Snappy Video - Region FREE - Blu-ray (March 2018): Snappy Video's 1080P BD-R presentation is actually quite decent claiming to be taken from a 'rare 35mm source'. Well, this sci-fi 'dog' from the early 60s is exported in HD in 1.78:1 - I'm unsure what about this Public Domain title is theatrically correct - even the title card/font. But this looks far better than all the SD versions I've seen in the past. Contrast has some nice layering in the higher resolution and detail, generally, pleasing with a few sequences below par.
Snappy Video use a linear PCM 2.0 channel mono track (16-bit) that supports the, lower grade, sci-fi effects - and there is an uncredited score with Caliban and Ariel by Desmond Leslie played frequently. The audio suffers a bit but is a step above the lossy treatments it's had on DVD to-date. There are optional Spanish subtitles on the Region FREE Blu-ray disc. The only extra is a stills gallery. Snappy Video have given us a BD-R Blu-ray of one of the most 'so-bad-it's-good' sci-fi gems from the early 60's - still very worthy of our listing. The Phantom Planet has one of the extravagantly obvious monsters of its era and it has one of my favorite Noir honies Coleen Gray. For fans of the 50s-60s, more innocent, campy-nostalgic, science-fiction memorables - this kinda amounts to a 'must-own' - even as a BD-R. Wouldn't it be marvelous of have this film get the Criterion-treatment? it's not as far-fetched as you might think - if we consider their Monsters and Madmen DVD set from 2007. We can hope. Gary Tooze |
Snappy Video - Region FREE - Blu-ray
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CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
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Gary Tooze
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