soulexpress Captain Frank Chapman (Dean Fredericks) is on a mission to look for two vanished spaceships. He encounters a mysterious planet named Rheton, which can freely travel through space. (As the MST3K gang noted, it also looks like a piece of extra crispy KFC.) Chapman's ship is drawn to the planet, whose people are about six inches tall. As soon he breathes the air, Chapman shrinks down to the Rhetons' height. (Atmosphere controls your size. Don't question it!) While on Rheton, he helps defeat their enemies, the Solarites (who resemble a dollar- store version of the "Star Wars" Tusken Raiders).THE PHANTOM PLANET strikes me as made by people who weren't just looking to turn a quick profit. I'm thinking the filmmakers wanted to tell a story that was not mere formula. Alas, the end result fell short of that laudable goal. While the premise is intriguing, it was severely underused; the characters don't even qualify as one-dimensional; to call the acting "wooden" is an insult to trees; the visual effects are as half-baked as any I've seen in this type of film; the costumes are uninspired to the point of seeming like an afterthought; the Solarite costume (worn by a young Richard Kiel) is just pathetic; and the errors in physics are too numerous to count.Item: When Chapman first appears on screen, he looks at his wrist as if checking the time; but he's not wearing a watch.Item: When the astronauts exit their spaceship to make a repair, they are untethered and walking freely on the ship's wing—a neat trick in zero gravity!Item: As Chapman's ship is pulled toward the asteroid, he is sitting in the left-hand seat; but once the ship has landed, he's in the right-hand seat.Item: The Rhetons are able to translate all languages with voice- tone waves. (Sure they are!)Item: A mute woman suddenly becomes vocal when she gets the crap scared out of her. Speech therapists, take note.

Greekguy This splendidly awful sci-fi flick was made in 1961 but looks decades older, with most of its sets and special effects less convincing than those from the first Flash Gordon serials. And then there's the acting, which seems to be taking place in shorthand, and the storyline, which is thinner than a supermodel's wrist.The Phantom Planet begins with the mysterious disappearances of moon-based space patrols; it seems there's a fleetingly visible object that looks like a planet involved in these incidents, and so our main protagonist, played with blissfully misplaced confidence by Dean Fredericks, is sent in to investigate. In 1961, Fredericks was straight out of a run as "Steve Canyon" in the television series of the same name, so he was familiar with the space-age hero role, and he makes an effort, but he's punching smoke, and not swinging too hard, either.Spoiler - The Phantom Planet, as it turns out, is an asteroid that is populated by a race capable of controlling its flight through space. This race is very small, and under the influence of the local atmosphere, our hero shrinks down to their size. He is then held on the asteroid against his will to guard their secret, a gravity control device that they use in their war against the Solarites, who strangely enough, are only attacking them to get the device. This is only one of the under-baked elements of this story. The conveniently located vaporising plates of justice( a Health and Safety nightmare), which finally put pay to an unrecognisable rampaging Richard Kiel, are another, and the love/lust triangle forced on our hero is yet another example of plot complication without any logical motivation (End Spoiler).Nothing gets enough time to develop in this film – perhaps it's the result of that rare space atmosphere, but everyone's motivations seem rather perfunctory. Whether it's lust, love or hatred, emotions swirl around Frederick's character with aimless or unexplained strength. In the end, The Phantom Planet is a two-dimensional exercise that brings absolutely nothing of weight to the genre of the marooned stranger. On the other hand, as a celebration of hokey effects, bad acting and atrocious dialogue, it's a blast. And keep your eye on that Solarite!

flapdoodle64 This is typical of the schlock era of scifi, the time when budgets, technology and expectations were all low, and drive-in theaters kept demand for product fairly high. The cheese will either put you off entirely, or you will find it mildly charming, as I do.One highlight of this film is the spaceship designs by Bob Kinoshita, who later designed the interior of Jupiter II and the Robot on Lost in Space. These designs aren't spectacular, but are fun and functional. Another highlight is the creative shrinking effect used to miniaturize our astronaut hero...it is not realistic per say, but not nearly as silly as most FX of this era.The script for this film is variously ingenious and silly, but the writer should be commended for creating rationalizations for the cheap sets weak action. For instance, you have a super-advanced race of people who possess hyperdrive spaceflight yet who nonetheless live in rock caves and eschew comfortable furnishings and conveniences...the incongruity is explained by stating that they have adopted a spartan philosophy regarding daily life.Our hero is a sort of low-rent Nick Adams type, but less likable. There is a lovely mute girl as the love interest, thus telling us something about the director's attitude toward women. There is a silly ceremonial fight. There is space battle against an alien race featuring primitive yet creative FX.This film contains no socio-political commentary or other food-stuff for the brain, the only value is for escapism, ridicule value, or curiosity. There are certainly worse schlock scifi, although perhaps this film would have been helped if the writer and director had taken a few more risks, put in something shocking, subversive, or bad taste...this one appears aimed more toward the 12-year-old's at a matinée than at teens at a drive-in.

Alex da Silva Dean Fredericks (Captain Frank Chapman) and Richard Weber (Lt Makonnen) are sent into space to search for the previous rocket and occupants that seems to have disappeared. They go into the unknown where they come across a meteor shower that damages their ship but only Fredericks survives the repair mission that they undergo, before he and his ship are sucked into the gravitational pull of a large meteorite. Or is it a planet inhabited by tiny people? The majority of the film plays out on this meteorite/planet before Fredericks is picked up by a rescue mission. Has it all been a dream? The cast are pretty wooden but so what. The film has a nice idea that leaves you thinking at the end. The effects are funny but still entertaining - watch as popcorn threatens the rockets and how about those flying, squeeling pigs? This is a story with a romance that lends itself to a sadness and it creates a romantic tragedy type of film. I thought that this film would be a heap of junk but I was pleasantly surprised. It's nothing great but it's a fantasy type film where everything is certainly real to Dean Fredericks.