Wild Wild Planet

MGM, looking for some budget television products, contracted with Italian film makers for a series of movies. The Italian team wrote four unrelated stories, but used a common setting: Space Station Gamma One. So, the four films are often called the Gamma Quadrilogy. The Italian title of first film was I Criminali della Galassia (Criminal of the Galaxy). The actors spoke english, but with strong italian accents. The American release, dubbed with American english voices, was titledWild Wild Planet (WWP). MGM was pleased enough with the quality of the Italian films that they opted for a theatrical release too. As usual, the poster promised more than the movie could deliver. (the evil Barbies don't wield laser rifles, while wearing metallic bikinis and tall boots) The poster does suggest a story too ambitious for a 90 minute film. Several plot elements (some important) are easily lost in the rush of scenes. (see notes below)

Quick Plot Synopsis
Aboard space station Gamma One, a scientist from "the corporation" conducts experiments creating artificial human organs for transplant. There is no love lost between Gamma One's macho commander, Mike Halstead, and the creepy perfectionist, Dr. Nurmi. At a dinner party, Halstead is not especially kind to his girlfriend, Connie. She's drunk, so accepts Nurmi's offer of a vacation on planet Delphus: a Corporation research base. Meanwhile on earth, people have been disappearing at an alarming rate. The authorities suspect The Corporation, but can prove nothing. A bevy of evil Barbie women arrive in the city. Each has their own evil minion in a black trench coat. They make people disappear. Actually, they shrink them so they can be smuggled back to Delphus. The abduction of a Dr. Fried is interrupted ahd he's found half size and in a coma. After another failed shrink attempt, the authorities are alerted to the evil Barbies with black coated minions. The authorities find a dead minion. It has four arms and cat-like eyes, and appears to have been assembled. Halstead and Jake confront the evil Barbies in their apartment. They fight, but the men win. Some books are found with lists of names and ties to planet Delphus. Halstead and a team of men fly a rocket to Delphus. Nurmi is ready for them and takes them prisoner. Before executing Halstead, Nurmi gives Halstead a tour of his facility and explains his work and dream. Nurmi is creating a race of perfect humans. Part of that perfection is to merge a man and a woman into one body. Connie is to be Nurmi's merge mate. Halstead and his men start a big fight with the clones and minions, interrupting the merge process. Halstead and Nurmi fight, damaging the super computer which runs everything. Windows and doors break, allowing the red lake water to flood the subterranean complex. Halstead puts his men and Connie into stasis pods so they can float up. He and Jake use O2 cylinders to breathe through the swim to the surface. Once on dry land, two rockets arrive from earth. All is well again. Back on earth, Halstead, Connie and a few others lounge around a pool. Halstead offends Connie by being a jerk (again), but he kisses her and she melts into his arms. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The 60s vision of the future is entertaining. The very 60s evil Barbies, with tall hair and tall boots is amusing

Cold War Angle
There is more of a modern paranoia of big corporations than angst over commies.

Notes
Economy Four Pack -- Director Antonio Margheriti was given just three months to produce four movies. To save time and money, he shot all four in parallel. Sets and props were shared -- the interiors and exteriors of space station, the futuristic city, the rocket models, the jetson cars, etc. Location shoots would double up to avoid set-up and take-down of cameras and lights. Movies 1 and 2 used Tony Russell as the leading man and Lisa Gastoni as his girlfriend. Movies 3 and 4 starred Jack Stuart as the leading man and Ombretta Colli as his girlfriend.

Lost in Space -- The plot of WWP has too many complex facets for a 90 minute film to flesh them out. Here are a few that might help, next time you watch.
Dual Personalities: Dr. Nurmi's "perfect" human was a merging of male and female. That's why he wanted Connie. She would be his merged "other half". That's why the evil Barbies kept using the plural "we".
Cleaning Solution: Those chest pins contained a chemical that would almost instantly dissolve living tissue. That's why the minions or others disappeared when poked with one.
From Concentrate: Nurmi needed a lot of humans in order to find perfect specimens. This perfection was apparently genetic, not simply developmental, as youth and older guys were taken too. Somehow, the black-coated minions are able to shrink people to doll size. That way they can be transported to Delphus. (in the era of no luggage screening) Once on Delphus, Nurmni had a tanning bed that would reconstitute them back to full size.
Robota: Much like Karel Capek's 1920 original "robot", the four-armed clones in black rain coats are manufactured biological humanoids. The workers on Delphus create them, crate them, and ship them to earth for the evil Barbies to use.
Balance of Power: There are two separate (and competing)"authorities". The civil (and military) government is the United Democracies. The Corporation is the amalgam of science and industry. Both have people, resources and power. An uneasy cooperation exists between them.

Jetson Ride -- To car buffs, the two "modern" cars are a terrific look at the mid-60s view of the automotive future. There were just the two props: the white unit with two fins and the red unit with one.


They have a similar look and feel to the flying car in Planeta Bur ('62) which American audiences had only just seen in mid 1965 via the english dubbed version, Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet. Designers of the early and mid-60s were sure that the future would be pointy.


That is, until Mr. Nader convinced Congress that drivers are too stupid to actually drive correctly, and must be protected from themselves. This dulled the future into a bleak era (for car buffs) of mega-bumpered rolling safety cages with a style only a soviet tractor engineer could love. Ah, but in the mid 60s...

Seeds of Trek -- The Gamma Quadrilogy was an early attempt at a space adventure drama for the television market. It wasn't as cohesive as Roddenberry's "space western" in the works, but the Quadrilogy showed that the time was right for television series about space adventures, set in earth's future. Gamma One was more akin to Deep Space 9, perhaps, but the motif of a square-jawed tough-fisted captain and his loyal crew, battling earth's enemies, (both home grown and alien), -- oh, and lots of beautiful space babes -- are clearly features that audiences were ready for.

Bottom line? For a sci-fi fan, WWP is worth watching -- perhaps several times to catch the many complex threads. It is also a fun look at what the mid-60s vision of the future would be.

Spaceflight IC-1

In the autumn of 1965, 20th Century Fox released another of it's British-made low budget sci-fi films. Produced by Lippert Productions, and written by Harry Spalding, Spaceflight IC-1 (IC-1) is a slow moving human drama set in space. A ship is sent from earth with four couples aboard, to found a colony on Earth 2. The journey will take 25 years, but human friction threatens to end the mission before it gets there. The ultra-cheap production value is strongly reminiscent of 50s television shows, making IC-1 feel like a soap opera in space.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Due to overcrowding on the earth, a space ship was launched in 2015 to found a colony on a new planet, Earth 2. The crew, made up of four married couples, three with young sons, have four more people in frozen suspension. They also have a human-machine crew member named Dr. Garth. After only one year into their 25 year journey, order begins to break down. Captain Ralston grows stiffly authoritarian. Steve, the doctor, learns that his wife has a pancreatic infection. No insulin was packed, so he cannot save her with an operation. Ralston refuses to turn the ship back to earth, so she has only a couple years left. She asks permission of Ralston to bear a child (sooner than the mission allowed). Ralston says no. She quietly commits suicide. This enrages Steve, who stages a mutiny. The rest of the crew are split, some pro-mutiny, some loyalists. Carl, a loyalist, lets Ralston out of his cabin. He reasserts his command and threatens to blow up the ship if there is any more trouble. He orders Steve to thaw out his replacement (Dr. Griffith), get him healthy, then Steve can be executed (ejected into space). Ralston's wife worries that he's going insane. Griffith thaws more suddenly than expected and stomps around the ship being destructive. He kills Ralston, but also dies of improper thaw. Both are given dignified burials in space. Steve and the dead captain's wife, Jan, hold hands. The (now) three couples press on to Earth 2. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
The low budget nature of the production (cheap sets, simple costumes, minimal effects, and black-&-white photography, give IC-1 a retro 50s flavor. The topic has some interest to muse over, even if the execution doesn't run with it.

Cold War Angle
There isn't much of the Cold War in IC-1. There is a hint of angst over authoritarian world-government.

Notes
Drama vs. Action -- American audiences were becoming more and more accustomed to action in their sci-fi. Battles with aliens, exploding space ships, cool robots, etc. British sci-fi has typically been more thoughtful (or talky), focusing on the human angle, and low on action.This tends to make them more like soap-operas than action adventures. In this vein were: Spaceways ('53), Devil Girl From Mars ('54),Stranger From Venus ('54), The Gamma People ('56), Escapement ('58), The Cosmic Man ('59), These Are the Damned ('62), The Day Mars Invaded Earth ('63), and The Earth Dies Screaming ('64) are all in this style. Lippert Productions, and writer Harry Spalding (aka Henry Cross) were responsible for several of these.

Brit Boogeyman -- There is a vein in the British culture which fears authoritarian despots. Perhaps having struggled with their own despotic kings (or queens, in Bloody Mary's case), Brits have a decided dislike for dictators and standing armies. That's one reason why the notion of Napoleon winning in Europe bothered them so much. Americans, having only thrown off one king, tend to take their freedom more for granted and so have less innate fear of autocrats. The Brits still did. Orwell's 1984 was a strong dose of that anxiety. IC-1 pulls at that angst with the ominous Rule world government. Captain Ralston is the personification of what the Brit psyche's nightmares. American audiences may not "get" this.

Odd Solution -- The narrator tells how the world is overcrowded by the year 2015. The IC-1 (Interstellar Colony One) was the response. Just how sending 16 people far into space was supposed to help overcrowding was not well explained. Maybe they were supposed to just be a beachhead on Earth 2. Once they had proven that man could live there, the excess millions would be shipped there in bulk. Or, perhaps it was feared that overpopulation would "crash" the earth, so safe new colonies were insurance against mankind killing itself off.

AstroGrandma -- The script's preoccupation with having children seems like a generalized mother constantly fretting over her married sons and daughters not having produced grandchildren yet. Indeed, the "right" to make babies is proverbial elephant in the room driving the plot.

Doc In A Box -- One of the odd features of IC-1 is the character of Dr. Garth -- the talking head. He is as close as the very limited budget would get to a cyborg. The actor had his body a box gussied up with dials and lights, with his head sticking up into the acrylic bubble. Dr. Garth's human head was said to be attached to machines that serve as his vital organs. He is twice called the "Closed Cycle Man." Perhaps this means he doesn't have to eat and poop -- nothing in, nothing out. Unfortunately, not much is done with Garth. He's just an odd sideshow.

Bottom line? IC-1 plays more like a television drama than the typical American sci-fi movie. As such, it will probably annoy the average viewer. The sets, costumes and effects are a minimized backseat to the talky interaction between the actors. But, if you can get beyond the lack of action, the premise and story offers some food for thought.

The Eye Creatures

This made-for-TV movie would normally fall outside of the scope of this study except that it is a member of a small sub-genre of a 50s sci-fi B movies remade for 60s TV. American International Pictures commissioned director Larry Buchanan to remake its 1957 Invasion of the Saucer Men for the television market. But they gave him almost no budget -- just $16,000, according to imdb.com. The Eye Creatures (EC) featured lumpy white humanoid monsters festooned with many eyes. The extremely low budget is obvious. When Wade Williams brought the rights to the film, it got retitled Attack of the The Eye Creatures (yes, two "the" words).

Quick Plot Synopsis
The uncredited screenwriter added the opening scenes in which an Air Force General briefs a lieutenant. Top secret spy satellite footage shows a flying saucer headed for earth. It will land in the midwest. The lieutenant is assigned to check it out. Also added, are a sergeant and corporal who monitor the top secret surveillance equipment. They use the "infrared scope" to peep on teens necking at Lover's Point. They form a sort of pair-of-perverts running gag interspersed through the original script. The '57 script kicks in with the drifters in the diner. See Invasion of the Saucer Men, as it is essentially the same, but with different names. The running thread with Mr. Larkin's beer-loving bull was left out.

Why is this movie fun?
Seeing an almost word-for-word remake of a 50s B sci-fi has some amusement value. Spotting the budget shortcuts (such as un-careful use of day-for-night) provides some amusement too.

Cold War Angle
The original had little Cold War to it. This remake added none.

Notes
Comedy Gone Bad -- The original screenplay had its own odd mixture of "serious" alien invasion / monster story and a few too many attempts at comic relief. Buchanan opted to boost the comic relief aspect in his remake. Yet, he also attempted to retain the "serious" alien-monster angle. The result is even more bi-polar than the original. EC would almost qualify as parody, but Buchanan was serious. At least, seriously completing his assignment with what little he was given.

Cheap Clones -- To satisfy demand for low-cost TV movies, AIP took many of its 50s B movies and cloned them. They took the existing scripts and had them reshot (in color!) with minimal budget. This way, they had two movies about saucer men, etc. Coming up soon in this group, we'll see It Conquered the World ('56) remade as Zontar: Thing From Venus and Day the World Ended ('55) remade as In the Year 2889. These, too, will re-use the older scripts almost verbatim, but be in color and feature more "hip" 60s actors.

Clip Spotter -- Buchanan used a short clip from Invaders From Mars ('53) where the glowing saucer hovered over the rim of the sand pit, then dove in.

Scrimping Exposed -- MST3K's critique of EC included a skit at the called "They Just Didn't Care," which highlighted the flagrant budget shortcuts. The more amusing is the "extra" eye creatures being actors in black shirts and pants, wearing just an eye creature head.

Bottom line? EC is so low in production value that the average viewer will likely find it extremely annoying, or hilarious. Fans of the 1957 original might be amused at seeing the script re-acted with less talent, like a community theater's version. In a way, one can almost respect how much Buchanan accomplished with almost NO money.

Evil Brain From Outer Space

The intent of this study was to focus on theatrical (cinema) sci-fi movies and not so much television series or made-for-TV movies. This tends to be somewhat fuzzy line, producing exceptions. One such exception is Evil Brain from Outer Space (EBOS) was a made-for-TV movie, assembled from three late 50s Japanese theatrical Super Giant serials produced by Shintoho. This makes EBOS akin to Crash of the Moons ('54) created from several "Rocky Jones: Space Ranger" episodes, or Satan's Satellites ('58) was created from episodes of the Commando Cody serial Zombies of the Stratosphere ('52). Also, evil brains from outer space are almost a 50s sci-fi tradition. The superhero, played by Ken Utsui, was modeled after Superman. He is called Starman in the American dubs. He was "Super Giant" in the Japanese originals. EBOS is the fourth TV movie from Super Giant episodes, and the least coherent and most confusing of the four.

Quick Plot Synopsis
(Note: This running narrative cannot capture all of EBOS's random events)
Through narration, we're told that s supposedly great thinker on the planet Zemar, Balizar, was assassinated, but quickly created machines to keep his brain alive. The experience turned him evil and he plots to rule the universe, starting with Earth. The high council on the Emerald Planet decide to send Starman to earth to stop him, lest he use nukes and contaminate space and other planets (like theirs).
A young lab assistant stole Balizar's brain from Dr. Kurikawa's lab, but lost it when police mistook him for a robber. Dr. Sakurai is charged with inventing something that can kill the brain. Meanwhile, the sinister Dr. Kurikawa has a Zemarian base under his house. The masked leader of a group of minions in black tights and hoodies says a new mutant will deal with Sakurai. A fanged man-thing with brain-like cap and filigree "ears" tries to get Sakurai, but Starman intervenes. The two fight, but Filigree escapes. Some trench-coated Zemarian clones rob jewelry stores and throw needle darts to kill people. They steal some plans bound for Sakurai, but two kids see them. They try to get the kids, but Starman intervenes. Starman follows the trenchies to their HQ. Starman fights the black hoodies there. The police arrive, arresting the hoodies. The Zemarians plot to kill various earth leaders, but Starman is one step ahead of them. Several trenchies are arrested too. Next comes a witch mutant who kills a couple of women with a touch of her claw-nails. An earth traitor delivers plans for the Zemarian attack to Dr. Okawa (brother of Kurikawa). He and his white-hooded minions prepare for the final attack. Starman and legions of police surround the house. Okawa produces the witch to fight Starman. They fight, but Starman wins. Okawa is found dead. Starman takes a nuclear device up into the sky so it can explode harmlessly. Meanwhile, Filigree tries to get Sakurai, despite police guards. Just as Filigree defeats the police, Starman intervenes. After a bit of fighting, Filigree escapes. Starman follows him to the cave HQ of the black hoodies. There, Starman fights and defeats Filigree. The masked leader turns out to be Kurikawa. Balizar's brain is found in a locked room. Sakurai's acid-poison kills the brain. The earth is safe for little children. The end.

Why is this movie fun?
The carefully managed fights read like martial arts ballet. Trying to identify which footage came from the three different films used to make EBOS has a certain entertainment value, if in a sort of forensics sort of way.

Cold War Angle
With most Japanese sci-fi (whether cinema or television) the nuclear topic is never far away.

Notes
Some Assembly Required -- EBOS was edited together out of the last three Super Giant movies. The three previous TV movie edits used two-part Super Giant episodes, so had enough footage from a common story line. The last three Super Giant episodes were standalone stories, each with their own monster(s), plot and villain. Footage from all three were cobbled together to create a new story. Some longish exposition by a narrator attempts to bridge gaps in the new story.
Super Giant 7: The Space Mutant Appears (April '58) provided key footage. SG 7 had an evil scientist (with hawk on his shoulder) who created an evil brain. This episode contributed the brain-monster (with curious filigree "ears") and the cave laboratory full of black hoodied minions with the skull and bat wing logos on their chests.
Super Giant 8: The Devil's Incarnation (March '59) featured an evil scientist with his face burned during WWII. He, too, has a brain-thing in a bell jar. He creates a witch from his dead daughter. The witch murders women. SG 8 contributed scarface, the witch (sold as yet another Zemarian mutant) and the white-hoodied minions in a dungeon lab quite similar to SG7's lab.
Super Giant 9: The Poison Moth Kingdom (April '59) was about an arab terrorist (how ahead of its time!) who plans to assassinate Japan's crown prince. SG 9 contributed lesser amounts of footage.

Supa-san -- Super Giant was Japan's first screen superhero. Modeled after America's Superman (tights, cape, super powers, flying, etc.) Supa Jiantsu was the first of a line of colorful japanese heros, and filled much the same role in popular juvenile fiction. It's not hard to see the roots of the ubiquitous "Power Rangers". Super Giant wasn't physically large. The "Giant" was more akin to "Great" than "Huge".

Choreo-battles -- Notable in the Super Giant films were the well choreographed "fights" in which the lone hero held off a whole crowd of evil minions with his quick martial arts moves (and occasional gymnastic moves). As in many subsequent asian fight films, the minions obligingly wait their turn to be defeated. In EBOS, Starman takes on all of the baddies in choreo-battles: the black hoodies, the white hoodies, the trenchies, the Filigree monster and the witch. Attentive viewers will even see some fight footage repeated.

Bottom line? EBOS is not for those who expect a coherent story or even logical progression. It is a fourth story told with cuttings from three other stories. Confusion and breaks in continuity cannot help but follow. Much patience and willingness to let loose ends lie, is required. Fans of martial arts films my be amused by the early roots of the cinematic fighting style.

Atragon

Toho Studios released Kaitei Gunkan in 1963, based on juvenile fiction stories from the early 1900s. American International Pictures bought the rights to it, dubbed it into english and released it in late 1965 as Atragon. A.I.P. left the story unaltered. Unlike the more familiar kaiju film, starring a rubber-suit monster, the star feature is a machine, the super sub Atragon with its distinctive boring-screw nose. This epic tale introduces the undersea Mu Empire, intent on dominating all of the earth.

Quick Plot Synopsis
Some scientists are being mysteriously kidnapped. A pair of photographers become entangled in the mystery as they try to contact a beautiful young woman as a potential model. The woman is a "niece" of a shipping magnate, and former admiral. The agents of the underwater Mu Empire attempt to kidnap the Uncle and niece, Makoto, too. The Mu demand that the world submit to conquest, and destroy the super-sub Atragon. No one has heard of Atragon. Makoto's father, builder of Atragon, did not die in the war, but lives on a secret island. One of his lieutenants takes Uncle, Makoto and a party of others to his island. There, they meet Captain Jinguchi and see Atragon. Uncle asks for Atragon to stop the Mu. Jinguchi refuses to use Atragon against the Mu. He built it only to defend Japan. When the Mu begin destroying shipping, and Tokyo, he decides to stop the Mu. Makoto and the two photographers are captured by the Mu. The Empress of Mu sentences them to be sacrificed to Manda, the aquatic dragon they worship. The earth men manage to grab the Empress, hold her hostage and escape past Manda to the waiting Atragon. The Empress says she'll never surrender, so Jinguchi decides to defeat the Mu. The Atragon defeats Manda with its freeze cannon. It then bores through the underwater cliff and into the Mu power plant chambers. There, an away-team plants explosives. They leave and watch the huge explosions from a distance. Even the Mu sub is destroyed. The Empress runs away and swims into the raging fireball. The End.

Why is this movie fun?
As with most tokusatsu films, the model work is fun. Some of the special effects are still impressive (some not so much). The wonder-sub itself is very Jules-Verne-ian, but modern, not steampunk. Akira Ifukube's music is fun, and Ishiro Honda shows some artistic touches in his direction.

Cold War Angle
The spies and an evil (Mu) empire could fit into Cold War angst, but the writers' intent seems to be more of a reflection of Japanese imperialism confronting itself.

Notes
AIP's Version -- AIP did a fairly straight dub of Toho's Kaitei Gunken, following the original script closely. What footage was cut, to shorten the run time, was not significant. It came mostly in shortening scenes that were held a bit longer than necessary, or some redundant dialogue. It is interesting (amusing?) that the english voice talent tried to speak with japanese accents.

Real Sub -- When the "Reporter" (Mu Agent in beatnik guise) shows the Admiral a photo of a WWII sub, it is a real sub. It is of the I-400, taken from the US ship after its surrender. The Sen Toku class submarines, I-400 series, were the largest subs to date. They carried 2 (and later 3) torpedo planes in the tubular hangar on deck. I-400 and I-401 were sent to attack the American fleet, but the end of the war came before they got there. The 400 and 401 surrendered, were studied, then scuttled by the Americans, lest the Russians study them too. The I-402 was converted to peace-time use, to carry fuel, but it never did. It was scraped. The 403 was planned but never started, 404 and 405 were under construction at war's end. They were never completed.

Fictional Wonder Sub -- The super sub called "Atragon" (supposedly a contraction of Atomic Dragon), was called "Gotengo" in Toho's film. The flying-undersea-burrowing gunship, was actually created by author Shunro Oshikawa in 1899, as the prime gizmo in a series of juvenile fiction stories. Oshikawa's "Denkopan" bears a strong resemblance to Jules Verne's wonder-gizmos, "Albatross" and "Nautilus", etc. Oshikawa was inspired by Verne's work. The role of charismatic leader, / scientist / inventor-genius, is also very Verne-esque.
Toho's wonder-sub would be familiar to japanese audiences from Oshikawa's stories. In this, there is an interesting undercurrent. Oshikawa's disgruntled navy captain takes Denkopan on many missions, thwarting Japan's current enemies (Russia, France, Britain and the US) with bravado displays of japanese military might. The early 1900s was a time when Japanese militarism was growing and popular. The tide of bravado would eventually lead to them to WWII. This was a subtle point adult japanese audiences would know.

Dueling Imperialisms -- Note how Shinichi Sekizawa's screenplay pits two imperialisms against each other. Captain Jinguchi represents the "old" Japanese Nationalist (Imperialist) way of thinking. He hasn't accepted Japan's defeat and the "new" Japan. He finds himself pitted against the Mu Empire with exaggerated arrogance ( a parody of Japan's own mindset up to and during the war) Jinguchi's finally deciding to set aside his old priorities, to defeat a mirror image of his prior attitude, is a sort of poetic catharsis. We even have a sort of analog to the atomic end of Imperial Japan, with the fiery destruction of the Mu. The Empress choses to die with her empire -- a sentiment not lost on the Japanese. Yet, even within that literary device, are the seeds of irony. It was Jinguchi's ultra-military weapon (the Atragon) which prevailed. By 1963, it seems the Japanese were coming out of their penance for the war, and starting to take pride in their military potential again.

What's Mu? -- Toho and Sekizawa did not invent the notion of a "lost" continent of Mu with its highly advanced civilization. That idea started in the mid-1800s with traveler and writer Augustus Le Piongeon. He theorized that the similarities of various ancient civilizations implied a common source. His Mu was in the Atlantic Ocean. The idea of Mu was expanded upon by James Churchward, though he placed Mu in the Pacific. He felt that Mu explained many mysteries, such as Easter Island, etc. Churchward and Le Piongeon's Mu was more of a quasi-scientific conjecture than the legendary Atlantis, (described by Plato) though the literary expressions of both are quite similar.

Techno-Anachronisim -- It is interesting that movie makers like to depict an highly advanced, "lost" civilization still dressing, dancing, decorating their stone temples in bronze-age style. This, despite being techno-advanced beyond us. Perhaps their ancientness and being the source of our own ancient civilizations was too hard to depict without making them look Babylonian. But really, their white sub has a laser weapon, but all the guards carry spears?

A Touch of Honda -- Look for bits of directoral art from Ishiro Honda. Of special interest is the scene in which the Mu high priest is told of the Atragon's penetration of the power plant chamber. Honda has him positioned between the silhouette teeth of the (near foreground) statue of Manda. It's as if Honda is suggesting that the Mu are, themselves, in the jaws of their own false religion -- imperialism.

Token Kaiju? -- Many Japanese films of the 60s are disparaged for their ubiquitous rubber monsters. In some films, the giant monster appears almost superfluous, as if simply inserted for the sake of having one. The giant walrus in Gorath, the armadillo-thing in The Mysterians, and now the snake-dragon-monster Manda in Atragon. Consider many of the later (briefly appearing) Kaiju as visual metaphors -- much as Godzilla was a metaphor for nuclear war. The walrus for offended nature, the armadillo-thing symbolizing the Mysterians' hostile intent, Manda symbolizing the aggressive (monstrous?) spirit of the Muans. Those token kaiju may be visual literary devices more than producer gimmicks to sell tickets.

Bottom line? Atragon is, in many ways, typical of early 60s japanese special effects movies -- for better or worse. Yet, the visuals that Honda delivers and the subtleties beneath the basic plot, make it more entertaining. The AIP version is more available, and close enough to the original. Kaiju fans may be disappointed at the lack of screen-time Manda gets (and his simple puppet-ness).