FRANKENTSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD

1966/Director: Ishirô Honda/ Writers: Reuben Bercovitch (story),Takeshi Kimura

Cast: Tadao Takashima, Nick Adams, Kumi Mizuno, Yoshio Tsuchiya, Koji Furuhata

I have been acquiring quite a few movies lately and have been watching a couple a day sometimes and have gotten behind on posting, so I am going to try and catch up with this new category, The Uranium Cafe Double (and sometimes Triple) Feature. I will try to connect two films thematically in some way, and the first entry into the category is simple: the theme is Frankenstein. But these two films are a couple of the oddest in the Frankenstein archives and really are both pretty enjoyable B-movies. The first one is out of Toho Studios and is directed by the great Ishiro Honda. It also starts American actor Nick Adams (the Johnny Yuma TV show) in one of his three films with Toho. He plays scientist James Bowen who is hot on the trail of the Frankenstein Monster (though it is referred to throughout the film as Frankentstein) with the help of his lovely assistant Sueko Togami  (Toho queen Kumi Mizuno) and fellow scientist Dr. Kenichiro Kawaji (who is determined to obtain one of Frankenstein’s members or organs for future research) and is played by fellow Toho regular Tadao Takashima (the link is to a story of Tadao’s battle with severe depression). Check back soon for a review and photos of pretty Kumi Mizuno’s in Ishiro Honda’s Matango (Attack of the Mushroom People).

The action originates in Nazi Germany towards the end of WWII when a mad scientist’s laboratory is raided by Nazi guards and the heart of Frankenstein (the monster) is taken away and then transported to Imperial Japan by submarine. Exactly why the Nazi’s would give away this potential asset to their conquests, even to fellow axis power Japan, is never explained, but the heart winds up in the safest of places in Japan to carry out secret scientific research, the city of Hiroshima. Fifteen years after Hiroshima is baked to a crisp a strange kid begins to appear around the city and eats some of the local small animals like dogs and rabbits, leaving the remains of a little bunny in the local primary school classroom. The freakish boy is captured and for some odd reason is said to possess Caucasian features, no doubt to tie the beast in with the European creator and monster, but actor Koji Furahata does not look in any way Caucasian. Soon the lad has grown to gigantic proportions and escapes his holding cell leaving one of his severed but animated hands behind. In no time he is being blamed for the destruction of local villages and inns, but that is actually the handy work of subterranean monster Baragon (the alternate title is Frankenstein vs Baragon). Needless to say a duel is inevitable between the titans and as usual it is full of giant monsters doing judo flips and spewing fire.

The photography and miniatures are excellent as they usually are in Honda’s films, though the super-imposed scenes are lacking in quality even for the time and genre. Nick Adams seems a little too dim witted to be a geneticist but it makes the movie even more fun. Scenes that the American co-producer Henry G. Saperstein wanted included showing Frankenstein fighting another duel with a giant octopus were deleted from the final version, but reappeared later as an alternate ending. The  Frankenstein monster is one of the oddest on film (and there have been plenty of odd Frankenstein based monsters) and in many ways the creature stays in line with the legend laid down by earlier films: flat head, mistaken crimes, good heart and intentions that are misread and a doomed fascination with a beautiful woman. Baragon later reappeared in Destroy All Monsters and Frankenstein reappears in the sequel to this film War of the Gargantuas. Maybe not for non-Toho fans, but a must for big monster and detailed miniature lovers.

THE DELETED FRANKENSTEIN FIGHTING THE GIANT OCTOPUS SCENE

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER

1965/ Director: Robert Gaffney/ Writers: R.H.W. Dillard, George Garrett

Cast: Marilyn Hanold, James Karen, Lou Cutell, Nancy Marshall, David Kerman, Robert Reilly, Bruce Glover

Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster takes place on sunny Puerto Rico instead of Japan and is a fine example of a great bad movie that is worth watching more than once. It is really not a terribly made film in some respects. The film editing is not bad and there is a good music score (one song by the Distant Cousins may have been the inspiration for the riff from one of my favorite Thrill Kill Kult songs, Babylon Drifter) and the space ship interiors are far from the worst on record.

The story is about secret, cyborg astronaut Frank Saunders (Robert Riley) whose rocket is shot out of the sky by space aliens (Martians) who think it is an attacking missile. When the aliens discover that Frank has survived the attack they go down to Earth themselves to finish off the potential witness that may jeopardize their important mission; acquiring a breeding stock of nubile young earth girls, most of them in bikinis. Frank (as in Frankenstein) is also searched for by human scientists Adam Steele (played by James Karen, most famous for his roles in Return of the Living Dead, and even recently as the CEO in The Pursuit of Happyness) and cry baby Karen Grant (Nancy Marshall). Of course during the crash of his spaceship poor Frank has half his face burnt off and his circuitry all screwed up, so sometimes he over reacts and kills people with his bare hands or machetes. Eventually Frank winds up trying to rescue the earth girls from the aliens with Dr Steele and there meets the “space monster” Mull and they have a less than epic battle that destroys the space ship and nasty aliens.

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The performances of Marylin Hanold and Lou Cutell as the alien princess and her henchman offer up some of the best moments in the film. Lou Cutell’s nodding and sleazy grins are nearly as classic as his poorly done bald wig make up. Actor Bruce Glover (Crispin Glover’s father and one of the gay hitmen in Diamonds are Forever who kept try to bump off 007) appears briefly as an alien.

The movie was voted as one of the 100 worst of all time (what more of a recommendation do you need) though, as I said, is hardly a total flop in all technical departments. You may have a fun time watching all the stock military footage and checking out the swinging gogo pool parties, until they are crashed by ray gun totting aliens who wear space suits that look very much like NASA training gear. It is really a good example of how a chessy camp classic can garner a persistent cult following, and for good reason. It is my definition of a “feel good” movie. It was fun to watch the unintended laughs and guffaws and is one of those films that can be enjoyed alone for “research” or a movie party flick. More upbeat than Frankenstein Conquers the World and loaded with lots more half nekked bikini girls.

TRAILER FOR FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER

TRAILER FOR FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 30th, 2008 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Asian Cult, Bad Movies Worth Watching, Cult Films and Oddities, Double Feature, Horror-Suspense, Science Fiction-Fantasy, Videos . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.