The Phantom Planet is a 1961 independently made American black-and-white science fiction film, produced by Fred Gebhardt, directed by William Marshall, that stars Dean Fredericks, Coleen Gray, Anthony Dexter, and Francis X. Bushman. The film was released in the U.S. by American International Pictures as a double feature with Assignment Outer Space.
Director William Marshall, a former actor and bandleader, previously had made two films with Errol Flynn, Hello God and Adventures of Captain Fabian. His son Mike Marshall made his debut in The Phantom Planet. Screenwriter and co-producer Fred Gebhardt previously produced and wrote the screenplay for Columbia Pictures 1960 science fiction film 12 to the Moon. Star Dean Fredericks had just finished filming the lead in the NBC TV series Steve Canyon which was later cancelled after its first season of 34 episodes. Co-star Francis X. Bushman had been a major film star in silent films. This was actor Richard Kiel's first credited film role; he played the captured Solarite.
The Phantom Planet's interior spaceship sets, spacesuit helmets and oxygen backpacks, and special effects originally appeared in the Ziv Company's science fiction television series Men into Space, broadcast in 1959 on CBS TV.
Dean Fredericks (Steve Canyon) is a Space pilot looking for a lost spaceship that reported a Phantom Planet, but really an asteroid. He crashes on it and is miniaturized to the size of its inhabitants, about 6 inches tall. He is held on trial and judged by Francis X. Bushman with a jury of six beautiful women. This civilization is being attacked by another race called Solarites who attack in flaming spaceships that make a roaring sound similar to the Tie Fighters in STAR WARS. A captive Solarite played by Richard Kiel (Jaws from James Bond) escapes and Dean Fredericks has to fight it. Robert Kinoshita the Associate Producer and Production Designer is the same man who designed Robby the Robot in FORBIDDEN PLANET and the Robot from LOST IN SPACE, made some nice looking space ships but the production still looked cheap. Fun movie to watch.
Dean Fredericks as Capt. Frank Chapman
Coleen Gray as Liara
Anthony Dexter as Herron
Francis X. Bushman as Sessom
Jimmy Weldon as Lt. Webb
Dolores Faith as Zetha
Richard Weber as Lt. Ray Makonnen
Al Jarvis as Judge Eden
Dick Haynes as Col. Lansfield
Earl McDaniels as Capt. Leonard
Mike Marshall as Lt. White
Richard Kiel as The Solarite
Merissa Mathes as Juro
In 1980, the United States Air Force's Space Exploration Wing has bases on the Moon, and it is on the eve of a mission to Mars. When another of its two-member crew Pegasus spacecraft mysteriously disappears, rumors begin circulating of space monsters and phantom planets. Captain Frank Chapman and his navigator Lt. Ray Makonnen are ordered to investigate.
During the search, their spaceship suffers damage from a meteor shower, requiring that both men go outside to make repairs. A bullet-sized particle, however, pierces the air hose on Chapman's space suit, rendering him unconscious. Makonnen is able to repair the hose, but as he opens the airlock hatch, he is fatally struck by a similar particle. Makonnen's last act before being propelled into deep space is to push Chapman inside and close the airlock hatch. Chapman comes to and finds Makonnen gone and himself unable to communicate with the lunar base. He records a log entry about the preceding events, noting that he now must make a forced landing on an asteroid, that it is somehow pulling in his Pegasus spaceship.
Sesom, the aged and wise ruler of Rheton (the native name for the rocky and seemingly lifeless planetoid where Chapman has landed), explains that though his craft was brought down safely by their gravitational tractor beam, they had not been able to do same with the preceding Earth spaceships that came near, which were completely destroyed, along with their crews, when they crashed on Rheton's surface. He informs Chapman that he never can leave but will have all the rights of a citizen of Rheton. As he slept, Chapman's spaceship was sent into space to keep Rheton's existence a secret, and more importantly, their world's gravitational technology, which allows the Rhetonians to navigate their world through space
With Chapman's help, Sesom and Herron destroy the enemy fleet using a gravity beam. During the battle, a giant 7-inch tall Solarite prisoner, captured during a previous raid, escapes when the gravity barrier holding him fails. Stalking corridors, the creature captures Zetha, who previously had been traumatized into silence by a childhood encounter with the savage species. After Sesom is attacked by this bug-eyed monster, Chapman and Herron attempt to rescue Zetha. Chapman defeats the Solarite by pushing it onto a gravity plate.
