The Phantom Planet 1961

After an invisible asteroid draws an astronaut and his ship to its surface, he is miniaturized by the phantom planet's exotic atmosphere.

The Cast

Dean Fredericks-Capt. Frank Chapman
Coleen Gray-Liara
Anthony Dexter-Herron
Francis X. Bushman-Sessom
Richard Weber-Lt. Ray Makonnen
Al Jarvis-Judge Eden
Dick Haynes-Col. Lansfield
Earl McDaniel-Capt. Leonard

The Director: William Marshall
The Writers: William Telaak, Fred De Gorter, Fred Gebhardt, Fred Gebhardt, William Marshall

Certificate : A

Film Trivia

The big-screen debut of Richard Kiel.
The film was seen in season 10 episode 2 of Mystery Science Theater 3000.
The droning background sound on the planet is from the music library cue "Caliban [sometimes spelled Calibal] and Ariel' by Desmond Leslie' from "Vintage Sci-Fi" (JW 2073).
The film takes place in 1980.
In watching this classic sci-fi film, it appears that the interior lunar base set's metal structural supports closely resemble the sets for the internal support structure of the observation nose of the submarine Seaview in "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" (1961). Since both films were released in the same year (1961) and knowing Irwin Allen's talent for recycling movie and television sets, it's not unreasonable that Allen's production at 20th Century Fox was able to obtain and use these set pieces once production wrapped on "The Phantom Planet".

This is only a personal observation and theory. If anyone has documentation to support or dispute this theory, it is welcomed! Thanks.
The action commences, as the captain states in his log, on "March 16th, 1980." This was 19 years in the future in 1961, the year of the movie's copyright and release. As of 2018, the movie's 1980 chronology is now twice as far in the past as it was in the future in 1961.
Dolores Faith receives an "introducing" credit.