This Week’s Movie Poster: Roger Soubie’s “Forbidden Planet”.

If a movie poster hasn’t stopped you in your tracks it’s failed at its first selling point to get you interested to see it. It’s like an ad, your first glimpse at what’s to come. Often the best posters use specific colour schemes and visuals to catch your eye. Sometimes they feature a character or illustrated film scene. Sometimes they are so plain, abstract or weird that in itself is intriguing enough to further more investigation.

The late great Roger Soubie (1898- 1984) created somewhere near 2,000 movie poster throughout his career from the 1930’s through to the 1960’s. His 1956 poster for Forbidden Planet is arguably one of my favourites drawn by him.

Forbidden Planet (1956) is one of the most influential classic sci-fi films of all time. It was directed by Fred McLeod Wilcox, and stars Walter Pidgeon, Anne Francis and Leslie Nielsen. It is also notable for its groundbreaking special effects, ingenious electronic musical score and Robby the robot. Based on a story written by Irving Block and Allen Adler, one which draws heavy comparisons to William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Forbidden Planet finds a starship and it’s all-male crew on their way to the distant planet Altair IV to investigate what happened to the scientific expedition stationed there decades earlier. Upon arrival they soon discover all that remains of the colony is a reclusive scientist and his adult daughter and her loyal mechanical servant. Soon after, the crew is troubled by a seemingly unstoppable entity, which sabotages their ship and starts killing them off.

When you look at the wonderfully vibrant coloured poster for the movie, none of this seems clear. There is no hint of danger, other than Robby the Robot carrying an unconscious maiden. This scene never takes place in the movie. It’s a clever marketing stunt sanctioned by MGM and designed by French poster artist Roger Soubie to entice audiences to the movie. The only character Robby carries in the movie is the starship’s Lt. “Doc” Ostrow, who is mortally wounded in the third act. Lets face it who wants to see a grown man in the arms of a robot. The mysterious maiden in the poster is obviously supposed to Altaira “Alta” Morbius played by the stunning Anne Francis. While her outfit in the poster is risqué by 1950s standards, she never actually wears it. But she does go through an assortment of costumes in the movie which all scream sex appeal.

Variations of this poster exist online and for purchase. But by all accounts this particular French poster is exceptionally rare and occasionally an original can fetch a very commanding price at auction. (Sotheby’s has it priced at an estimate 8,000-12,000 pounds.)