An early preproduction sketch by Mentor Huebner of a rear view of Robby and his passing jeep as he transports Adams and his officers to the Morbius home, giving them a grand tour of the wonders of Altair IV. The jeep design reflects early ideas by art director Arthur Lonergan for an enclosed vehicle, somewhat more practical than Gillespie’s final open design. Sadly, the sequence for the most part was abandoned after money for construction of exterior sets for the full-size jeep to drive through was denied because production costs had escalated way over budget. The sets included this view of a mountain pass, complete with lush vegetation, waterfalls (upper right) and a pond with red lilly pads. Special effects supervisor “Buddy” Gillespie attempted a scaled-down version of the sequence by filming the jeep and actors in front of a process screen using rear projected shots and whip pans (far right) of the landscape miniature built on lot three, plus long shots of a miniature jeep (left) filmed on the same set. The quality of the process projection, a stop gap measure at best, didn’t pass muster during previews of the film and the shots ended up on the cutting room floor. Gillespie, one of the pioneers of the MGM special effects department who supervised work on The Wizard of Oz in 1938, posed with the jeep miniature in front of his California home in 1974 (middle left). He passed away in 1977. Far Left: Adams (Leslie Nielsen) and Morbius (Walter Pidgeon) next to the full-size robot jeep designed by Gillespie and constructed by the prop shop.

Frederick S. Clarke and Steve Rubin. “Making Forbidden Planet.” Cinefantastique, vol. 8, no.s 2-3 (Spring 1979): pp. 4-67. [caption on page 37 and photo on pages 36 and 37].