Forbidden Planet (1956)

No scene like this in movie...

Forbidden Planet (1956): very loosely adapted from Shakespeare's The Tempest by Cyril Hume, Irving Block, and Allen Adler; directed by Fred Wilcox; starring Leslie Nielsen (Commander Adams), Walter Pidgeon (Dr. Morbius), Anne Francis (Alataira Morbius), Warren Stevens (Doc), Jack Kelly (Lt. Farman), Richard Anderson (The Chief), Earl Holliman (Cook), and Marvin Miller (Voice of Robby the Robot):

Forbidden Planet is a great, flawed movie. But the flaws mostly relate to the sexist culture that created it, and are somewhat curbed by the mostly ahead-of-her-time female character of Altaira, who's clearly smarter than all the men but her artificially brain-boosted father, a magnificent Walter Pidgeon.

Jarring the viewer most is a young, brown-haired Leslie Nielsen in the straightest of straight leading-man roles. But he's good, along with Jack Kelly as his second-in-command, Richard 'Oscar Goldman' Anderson as the Chief of Engineering, Anne Baxter as the somewhat liberated for the time daughter of Morbius, and Warren Stevens as the ship's Doctor.

The character dynamics wil remind one of the original Star Trek. The visual effects, a combination of traditional animation, models, and matte paintings, are still extremely impressive today. Robby the Robot is a hoot. His interactions with the dopey ship's cook seem like a prehistoric ancestor of similar interactions (and robot belches) in the Transformers series. Everything old is new again. Also, the Transformers never made 60 gallons of bourbon for anyone free of charge. That we know of. Recommended.

Mrs. Miniver (1942)

Mrs. Miniver: based on the book by Jan Struther; written by Arthur Wimperis, George Froeschel, James Hilton, Claudine West, Paul Osborn, and R.C. Sheriff; directed by William Wyler; starring Greer Garson (Mrs. Miniver), Walter Pidgeon (Clem Miniver), Teresa Wright (Carol Beldon), Richard Ney (Vin Miniver), Henry Travers (Mr. Ballard) and Dame May Whitty (Lady Beldon) (1942): Multiple Oscar winner is almost a perfect example of Classic Hollywood Drama. Greer Garson became a big star thanks to her portrayal of middle-class British housewife Mrs. Miniver in a small town just outside of London during the first two years of World War Two for Great Britain. The movie itself was also a huge box-office hit and a rallying point for America as it entered World War Two.

This is Hollywood England, so we never find out why Miniver's husband, played by Canadian Walter Pidgeon, doesn't sound English, or how their son developed an almost parodic upper-class-twit accent, given that they're middle-class and neither of them sound remotely like him. American Teresa Wright also doesn't sound particularly English. Things never really change in Hollywood.

But anyway, much rallying of spirits occurs as Mrs. Miniver and the town endure war, Nazi bombing, fugitive Nazi airmen, Dunkirk (Mr. Miniver owns a boat and so is drafted into helping out with the evacuation), personal tragedy, a dogfight that seems to take place about three feet above the English countryside, and the annual Canterbury flower show.

That last is a major plot point, by the way. President Roosevelt loved the movie for its propaganda value as America itself finally entered the war. The final singing of "Onward, Christian Soldiers" may strike one as mildly disturbing -- the Nazis loved putting crosses on their military hardware, after all. Recommended.