Chapter One Hundred Twenty-Four

“The Lost Planet” (1953 Columbia) is without a doubt the wackiest, hokiest, goofiest, most convoluted, serial ever released—and very possibly the worst serial ever made. Overloaded with fantasmogoric sci-fi apparatus (see list below) and tedious technobabble, “The Lost Planet” is a bizarre effort utterly devoid of any suspense or action (there’s no fistfights, ray gun battles or chases).

For the record, here are some 65 sci-fi devices used in “Lost Planet”. Chapter numbers indicate where the contrivances were first introduced…many were used over and over.

Astro Radio	Ch. 1	Sonic Vibrator	Ch. 4
Hypnotic Ray	Ch. 1	Atomic Plane	Ch. 5
Cosmonium (ore)	Ch. 1	Quadro Oscillator	Ch. 5
Cosmo Jet	Ch. 1	Cosmic Devisor	Ch. 5
Flying Saucers	Ch. 1	Nullifer	Ch. 5
Cosmonium Ray	Ch. 1	Radar Electroscope	Ch. 5
Stellarscope	Ch. 1	Atomic Reactor	Ch. 5
Electronic Furnace	Ch. 1	Induction Receiver	Ch. 5
Radar Control for Cosmo Jet	Ch. 1	Cyclytron Case	Ch. 5
Reactor	Ch. 1	Neutron Detonators	Ch. 5
Thermic Disintegrator	Ch. 1	Atomic Propulsion Engenizer	Ch. 6
De-Hypnotizer	Ch. 1	Radiation Wall	Ch. 6
Axial Propeller	Ch. 2	Radar Telectoscope	Ch. 6
Electronic Decelorator	Ch. 2	Atomic Activity Alarm	Ch. 6
Cosmic Ray Gun	Ch. 2	Cosmic Canon	Ch. 6
Mind Monitor	Ch. 2	Prysmic Catapult	Ch. 7
Cosmonium Detector	Ch. 2	Gyro Electron	Ch. 7
Fluro Ray	Ch. 2	Celestial Gambit	Ch. 7
Cosmonium Power Booster	Ch. 2	Thoughtwave Machine	Ch. 7
Audion Circuit	Ch. 2	R F Interceptor	Ch. 8
Telectoscope	Ch. 2	Space Idler	Ch. 8
Mind Monitor Dispatch	Ch. 3	Hypnotic Ray Machine	Ch. 9
Cosmic Artillery	Ch. 3	Electonic Missile	Ch. 9
Infrangible Ray	Ch. 3	Negative Ray	Ch. 9
Dornite (metal)	Ch. 3	Solar Gun	Ch. 10
Fluroscope Transparency	Ch. 3	Solar Thermal Furnace	Ch. 10
Free Radioactive Atoms	Ch. 3	Destroying Heat Rays	Ch. 10
Automatic Pilot Gyro	Ch. 3	De-Gravitizer	Ch. 11
Telopticon	Ch. 3	Suspended Animation	Ch. 13
Electronic Guard	Ch. 4	Fractional Frequency Cycle	Ch. 13
Subconscious Mind Control Machine	Ch. 4	De-Thermo Ray	Ch. 14
Sonic Tunnel	Ch.  4	Electronic Induction Telephone	Ch. 14

Laughably, many of these devices look exactly the same, as in Ch.4 the Subconscious Mind Control Machine turns up as the Hypnotic Ray Machine in Ch. 9.

The entire 15 chapters consist of nothing more than a very extreme series of captures and escapes with our heroes…Judd Holdren as reporter Rex Barrow, Ted Thorpe as Rex’s very unfunny photographer and Vivian Mason as Ella Dorn—daughter of Forrest Taylor as Professor Dorn, an Ergo Planet scientist captive of the wildly over the top Michael Fox as constantly raving vehemently [“Follow My Orders!”] egomaniacal Dr. Grood who is seeking world domination.

Basically, when a Cosmo Jet from the planet Ergro unwillingly occupied by our heroes crashes on Earth, it sets off a series of running confrontations (notice I don’t use the words fights or battles) between Rex Barrow, his friends and evil Dr. Grood on the planet Ergro and his chief of operations on Ergro, Reckov (Gene Roth). You’ve seen the scientific prop gadgets in Dr. Grood’s lair on Ergro before in “Atom Man vs. Superman” and “Capt. Video”. As far as Grood’s Ergro laboratory, it’s the same old back-lot cave sets seen multiple times in prior Sam Katzman Columbia serials. Holding down the excitement is the fact our heroes are continually getting hypnotized into a trance by Grood, then breaking away somehow from his domination, usually with the help of Professor Dorn who actually outsmarts Grood more than Rex Barrow does.

As noted, the mock-up Cosmo Jet travels (it seems nearly at the speed of light) animatedly between Earth and Ergro, as does an Atomic Plane. Among the many absurd chapter endings are one in which Barrow suddenly encounters a train coming at him in the tunnels leading to Grood’s cave lair (left). (Spoiler—turns out it’s just an illusion) and another in which a cartoon version of Barrow is launched into the sky by the Prysmic catapult. The cartoon flying saucer from “Bruce Gentry” also puts in a stock footage appearance. Then there’s the wildest incident ever in any serial as the Cosmo Jet and the Atomic Plane pull up alongside one another in space, open the ‘windows’ and pass information from one ship to the other!!!

Supporting cast includes Lee Roberts as Robot 9—Wesley Bren (billed in the credits as I. Stanford Jolley, but he was replaced obviously at the last minute by Roberts). Earth gangsters are (and you know how all Columbia serials so often have characters change allegiances) Leonard Penn, Nick Stuart and John Cason (laughably, constantly looking bewildered at what he’s gotten into), Karl Davis as R-4, Karlo, Reckov’s assistant, Joseph Mell as the Planet People leader, Jack George as Grood’s scientific lacky Jarva on Earth, Frederick Berest as Aldon, Professor Dorn’s loyal assistant, Pierre Watkin as Holdren’s newspaper editor (doing an over the top Perry White) and even (look quick) Katzman regular Terry Frost as a Robot Guard in Ch. 15. It’s a credit to everyone involved that they could play it straight without breaking up for 15 chapters. Summing it up—The entire constipated serial is about as thrilling as Rex Barrow when he’s hypnotized!

Note: Vivian Mason (1918-2009), uncredited in nearly all of the 41 films she was in between 1937 and 1955, was also Ming the Merciless’ Gong Girl in Ch. 1-4 of “Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe” (‘40). “The Lost Planet” was her biggest role. Ted Thorpe (1918-1970) who was also in “Radar Men From the Moon” in Ch. 6, 7, 12 as chief bartender, was a location casting scout on over 70 films from ‘68-‘71. Of his 33 acting assignments “Lost Planet” and Doc McCloud on “Hawaii Five-O” were his biggest roles.

Michael Fox was Dr. Ernst Grood, the electronics genius who plots to conquer the world in collusion with Reckov (Gene Roth) evil ruler of planet Ergro in “The Lost Planet”. Fox told me, “In ‘The Lost Planet’ I played the evil Dr. Grood and I was in my mountain laboratory, looking into a periscope, and I had a line: ‘It worked! The atom propulse set up a radiation wall which cut off the neutron detonator impulse!’ Now that’s a tongue-twister. So we rehearsed it once, as you always did with Spencer (Laughs), then I went for a take. I dashed over to the periscope and I looked into it, and one of the prop men had lowered into the periscope a slide, a crotch shot—a young lady with no clothing on and her legs spread. I looked—but I didn’t break up! And I said, ‘It worked! The atom propulse set up a radiation wall which cut off the neutron detonator impulse!’ I turned (congratulating myself mentally), and I had forgotten Jack George, who played my assistant, had a line; his line was, ‘For every weapon, there is a counter-weapon.’ And when he said that I went right through the roof! (Laughs) I just broke up, and it took me nine takes before I could get the damned line out again! Frankly, in ‘The Lost Planet’, the only decent part was the heavy, my character, Dr. Grood. I could eat the scenery to my heart’s content! Generally in a serial, the writing for the hero is not very outstanding. Each of the 15 episodes was 30 reels of cut film, the equivalent of roughly four normal movies. We shot those in 17 days. Actors worked hard in those days. My call used to be 6am and I worked till 6pm. We didn’t have Saturday off till the late ‘50s, so we worked 72 hours a week. The serial was directed by Spencer Gordon Bennet, who had absolutely no sense of humor but was a wonderful chap and a very good action director. Spencer was then in his sixties and used to always come out wearing a short-sleeved silk polo shirt and a light gray turned-down-brim Stetson hat, with a thin band.”

In Ch. 14 of “Lost Planet”, Dr. Grood sends a Cosmo Jet with a Neutron Detonator aboard to ram the atomic plane in which Rex Barrow (Judd Holdren) and Darl (Nick Stuart) are returning to planet Ergro. They collide. However, in Ch. 15, Rex diverts the atomic plane before the Cosmo Jet explodes and they never collide.

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