''The Lost Planet'' is a 1953 American horror

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

serial film A serial film, film serial (or just serial), movie serial, or chapter play, is a film, motion picture form popular during the first half of the 20th century, consisting of a series of short subjects exhibited in consecutive order at one theater ...

15-chapter serial which has the distinction of being the last interplanetary-themed sound serial ever made. It was directed by

Spencer Gordon Bennet Spencer Gordon Bennet (January 5, 1893 – October 8, 1987) was an American film producer and director. Known as the "King of Serial Directors", he directed more film serials than any other director. Biography Born in Brooklyn, New York, Benne ...

with a screenplay by

George H. Plympton George H. Plympton (September 2, 1889 – April 11, 1972) was an American screenwriter. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. A prolific screenwriter, Plympton collaborated in almost 300 films. His earliest known credits date back to 1912 a ...

and

Arthur Hoerl Arthur Hoerl (December 17, 1891 – February 6, 1968) was an American screenwriter and film director. Hoerl was born in New York, son of Louis Hoerl, a German immigrant silver polisher, and Teresa Hoerl. Arthur completed three years of hig ...

(who also wrote for ''

Rocky Jones, Space Ranger ''Rocky Jones, Space Ranger'' is an American science fiction television serial originally broadcast in syndication from February to November 1954. The show lasted for only two seasons and, though syndicated sporadically, dropped into obscurity. ...

''). 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).

Plotline

Dr. Ernst Grood has succeeded in winning control over the planet Ergro as the first step in his desired conquest of the Universe. Reporter Rex Barrow, his photographer Tim Johnson, Professor Edmund Dorn and his daughter Ella are all captured by Grood, who plans to make use of the professor's knowledge. With the help of the professor's inventions, Rex is able to free Ergro of Grood's domination, while Grood is sent on an endless voyage into space.

Cast

Judd Holdren Judd Clifton Holdren (October 16, 1915 – March 11, 1974) was an American film actor best known for his starring roles in the serials '' Captain Video: Master of the Stratosphere'' (1951), ''Zombies of the Stratosphere'' (1952), ''The Lost Plan ...

as Rex Barrow *

Vivian Mason Vivian Mason (July 12, 1918August 24, 2009) was an American actress who appeared in over 30 television shows and films between 1937 and 1955. Career Mason is familiar to modern viewers for roles in the Three Stooges films '' A Missed Fortune'' ...

as Ella Dorn * Ted Thorpe as Tim Johnson *

Forrest Taylor Edwin Forrest Taylor (December 29, 1883 – February 19, 1965) was an American character actor whose artistic career spanned six different decades, from silents through talkies to the advent of color films. Early years Taylor was born in Bl ...

as Prof. Edmund Dorn * Michael Fox as Dr. Ernst Grood *

Gene Roth Eugene Oliver Edgar Stutenroth (January 8, 1903 – July 19, 1976), known profesionally as Gene Roth, was an American film actor and film manager. Early years Roth was born in Redfield, South Dakota. He was the son of a German father and ...

as Reckov *

Karl Davis Karl Davis (January 17, 1962 – May 2, 1987) was an African-American fashion designer once called one of New York's most promising young designers. Davis had six major collections, the last shown at the Manhattan restaurant Caffe Roma. Beginn ...

as Karlo – aka Robot R-4 *

Leonard Penn Leonard Penn (13 November 1907 – 20 May 1975) was an American film, television and theatre actor. Early life and education Penn was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, to parents Marcus Penn and Eva Monson. He majored in drama at Columbia U ...

as Ken Wopler * John Cason as Hopper *

Nick Stuart Nick Stuart (April 10, 1904 – April 7, 1973) was an Austro-Hungarian-born American actor and bandleader. His career spanned five decades, during which he appeared in over 50 films, more than half of them features, as well as film shorts, ser ...

as Darl *

Joseph Mell Joseph Mell (June 23, 1915 – August 31, 1977) was an American film and television actor. He was known for starring as Burt Stone in the 1971 film ''The Ski Bum''. Mell died in August 1977 in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 62. Partia ...

as Lah *

Jack George John Edwin George, Jr. (November 13, 1928 – January 30, 1989) was an American professional basketball player. He was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of Swissvale, Pennsylvania. George attended St. John's College High School in Washington, D.C ...

as Jarva * Frederic Berest as Alden * I. Stanford Jolley as Robot No. 9 *

Pierre Watkin Pierre Frank Watkin (December 29, 1887 – February 3, 1960) was an American character actor best known for playing distinguished authority figures throughout the Golden Age of Hollywood. He is best remembered for his roles of Mr. Skinner the b ...

as Ned Hilton 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 Bronson Canyon, or Bronson Caves, is a section of Griffith Park in Los Angeles that has become known as a filming location for many films and television series, especially Westerns and science fiction, from the early days of motion pictures to the ...

) in a fetching female version of the Video Ranger uniform. The hero is not Captain Video, but a newspaper reporter, Rex Barrow, played by

(who had previously played

Captain Video ''Captain Video and His Video Rangers'' is an American science fiction television series that aired on the DuMont Television Network and was the first series of its genre on American television. The series aired between June 27, 1949, and Apri ...

and

Commando Cody Commando Cody is the hero in two 12-chapter science fiction serials made by Republic Pictures, played by George Wallace in ''Radar Men from the Moon'' (1952) and Judd Holdren in '' Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe'' (1953). ''Zom ...

Production

''The Lost Planet'' was the last of only three science fiction serials released by Columbia. This serial was, despite the characters' names, essentially a sequel to ''

'', from which

stock footage Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures, and file footage is film or video footage that can be used again in other films. Stock footage is beneficial to filmmakers as it saves shooting new material. A single piece of stock ...

was taken for this serial. It was originally known as ''The Planet Men''. Michael Fox recalled that writer

George Plympton George H. Plympton (September 2, 1889 – April 11, 1972) was an American screenwriter. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. A prolific screenwriter, Plympton collaborated in almost 300 films. His earliest known credits date back to 1912 a ...

would deliberately write lines that he thought the actors couldn't say such as "The atom propulse set up a radiation wall which cut off the neutron detonator impulse!"

Critical reception

In the opinions of Harmon and Glut, ''The Lost Planet'' is a "rather shoddy, low budget space cliffhanger."

Chapter titles

# Mystery of the Guided Missile # Trapped by the Axial Propeller # Blasted by the Thermic Disintegrator # The Mind Control Machine # The Atomic Plane # Disaster in the Stratosphere # Snared by the Prysmic Catapult # Astray in Space # The Hypnotic Ray Machine # To Free the Planet People # Dr. Grood Defies Gravity # Trapped in a Cosmo Jet # The Invisible Enemy # In the Grip of the De-Thermo Ray # Sentenced to Space _Source:

References

* ''Science Fiction Serials'' by Roy Kinnard (McFarland, North Carolina, 1998).

External links

* *
Roaring Rockets Serial Page

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lost Planet, The 1953 films 1950s English-language films 1950s science fiction horror films American black-and-white films Columbia Pictures film serials Films directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet Films set on fictional planets American aviation films American science fiction films Films with screenplays by George H. Plympton 1950s American films