Costume Design by:
Helen Rose ( notable efforts: The Harvey Girls (1946), The Merry Widow (1952), Love Me or Leave Me (1955), High Society (1956), Designing Woman (1957) )
Walter Plunkett ( notable efforts: Mary of Scotland (1936), Gone with the Wind (1939), The Three Musketeers (1948), Kiss Me Kate (1953), Athena (1954) )
Note: Walter Plunkett did all of the men's costumes, whilst Helen Rose did Anne Francis' dresses)
The classic science-fiction film that would influence all sorts of other science-fiction series, such as
Lost in Space,
Doctor Who and
Star Trek, and whose imagery would be the first to come into the minds of a lot of people when thinking of the phrase 'science fiction' for decades (until videogames and 'concept art' came along, anyway). This futuristic retelling of Shakespeare's
The Tempest mostly centres on the woman Altaira (Anne Francis), who lives with her reclusive father on an alien planet - Altaira is perhaps the 'glamour' of the film, and as such wears a host of very delightful dresses, but it is funny that in some promotional material they were going to go in a slightly different direction.
Forbidden Planet, unlike a lot of science-fiction films of the 50s (that usually did not have as much of a budget), does not go for cliched 'space age' design sense with its costumes, but these promotional images which show Anne Francis wearing a futuristic leather flightsuit and a shiny silvery foil and plastic dress show that perhaps it was going to!
Another dress that seems to have only made it to promotional material is this shiny 'mosaic starfield' dress, that (unlike most of Altaira's dresses in the film film!) goes down over the legs entirely - it's actually quite a shame this didn't get into the film!
As for dresses that actually did make it into the final film, there is this short tan dress with a large collar, coated in an array of metal studs all over, in a pattern that forms a triangle at the waist too - this particular dress would have a sort of afterlife past the film, as it would be reused (along with an array of other costumes)
in the infamous campfest Queen of Outer Space two years later.
This very striking black (or is it brown? the way old photography works makes discerning colours harders) dress has a 'starfield' pattern of sorts on its front, as well as a belt with three silver pointed bucklers on it - sadly, this wonderful dress is only very barely seen in the final film, in exactly one shot!
Towards the end of the film, Altaira wears this shiny silver dress, that feels a bit similar in design to the
more plain white dress she wears for the majority of the film, only this one has a hood fitted on
like her hooded blue dress.
Altair'a last dress of note is this pale blue deal with golden studs over the front, especially around the chest, in a similar manner to her famous golden dress.
Altaria's father is the scientist Morbius (Walter Pidgeon), who throughout the film sports a crisp silk buttonless suit that is fixed with a large bow-like shape around the neck - in some scenes it is worn with a plain gown, but according to this one production photo, there could have been a more colourful version of the gown, unless it is just the effect of old photography? This costume, along with Altaira's golden dress and the uniforms, would all be reused in the kitschy camp 'classic'
Queen of Outer Space.
Lastly are the uniforms worn by Commander Adams (Leslie Nielsen) and his military force, which are grey overalls with a v-shaped cut in the middle containing a panel of ridged fabric, as well as large padded shoulders as well - the shoulders also have a pair of discs in lieu of where epualettes would be on a contemporary uniform.
