The Forbin Project **** (1970, Eric Braeden, Susan Clark, Gordon Pinsent) – Classic Movie Review 9385

Director Joseph Sargent’s 1970 The Forbin Project is a clever, thoughtful sci-fi thriller in which Colossus, the super computer controlling America’s missile defences, combines with its Russian counterpart to force the world into peace.

James Bridges’s excellent script is put over with first-class special effects (Albert Whitlock and Whitney McMahon), set designs (John McCarthy, Ruby Levitt), computer sound effects (Walden Watson) and electronic music by Michel Colombier. And it is all handled compactly and well by director Sargent, who expertly mingles dark humour with gripping suspense.

Susan Clark and Eric Braeden star as scientists, Dr Cleo Markham and Dr Charles Forbin, and they give more than acceptable performances, but, with a starrier though perhaps not necessarily stronger cast, this could have been a famous sci-fi classic. As it is, it’s an exciting treat for fans of the genre as a well-respected cult film.

The screenplay is based on D F Jones’s novel Colossus.

Also in the cast are Gordon Pinsent as The President, William Schallert as CIA Director Grauber, Leonid Rostoff, Georg Stanford Brown, William Sage, Alex Rodine, Martin E Brooks, Marion Ross, Dolph Sweet, Byron Morrow, Lew Brown, Sid McCoy, Tom Basham and James Hong.

It is also known as Colossus: The Forbin Project.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9385

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