Furankenshutain tai Chitei Kaijû Baragon

Well, he may not exactly conquer the world in this picture, but at least he gets off his usual home turf! In the very imaginative opening of "Frankenstein Conquers the World" (1965), you see, the living heart of the Frankenstein monster is taken from Germany at the end of World War II and transported by submarine to Japan, where it is promptly exposed to A-bomb radiation at Hiroshima and eventually grows, to become a giant, gap-toothed male waif. This lumbering doofus (who ultimately reveals himself to be the nimblest, most energetic Frankenstein ever shown on film) soon has a dukeout royale with Baragon, a sort of giant, spiny-backed, (heat?) ray-spewing, burrowing armadillo dinosaur, with no holds barred and no quarter given. Anyway, this picture strikes me as being several cuts above the usual kaiju eiga. It has been fairly handsomely produced, features very adequate FX (despite the Maltin book's claim to the contrary; well, that bucking horse excepted), and makes excellent use of its CinemaScope frame. Director Ishiro Honda, composer Akira Ifukube and the great actor Takashi Shimura, who all contributed so much to the original "Gojira" film in 1954, here bring their talents together again, with highly entertaining results, and American actor Nick Adams does his best playing Dr. James Bowen, a scientist working at the Hiroshima International Institute of Radiotherapentics (sic). The picture offers several striking visuals, none perhaps as impressive as the awesome spectacle of Franky and Baragon going at it with a flaming forest as a backdrop. The pristine-looking DVD from Media Blasters that I just watched offers both the "international" and the "theatrical" versions of the film, which differ only in the final five minutes. I much prefer the "international," if only because we get to see Franky (ridiculously) battle yet another monster in it. Either version, however, should provide an evening's worth of good mindless fun.

The legend of Frankenstein and his various adventures have been covered to a crazy degree over the years but right here we have horror legends Toho take a stab at it. Sadly it appears they weren't told very much before they wrote the screenplay.

Assisted once again by a US studio (Which has always been to their detriment) this tells the story of a young boy who is discovered and found to be growing at an incredible rate. Before they know it he's grown disastrously large and broken free of his constraints, just at the same time as a giant monster has appeared on a rampage as well.

You can immediately tell that it's a Toho film, from the sfx to the one bit of score they keep using or mildly remixing. Several of the usual faces are also present including Takashi Shimura who has a blink and you'll miss it role.

The storyline is actually more competently done than many of these Toho monster films but in its place the sfx are a tad worse. The creature effects and that of our Frankenstein are fine, but every once in a while you'll spot something so bad it should have got someones butt fired (I'm looking at you shifty Boar and awful Horse).

What drew the most ire from me were certain logistical issues. For example Frankenstein is of course the name of the Scientist who created the monster not the name of the monster itself. As the boy grows the clothes grow (Hulk style) and various other little things that bothered me more than they perhaps should.

It's more Toho monster cheese, if you like that stuff this will likely appeal otherwise you'll probably scratch your head in amazement just how ridiculous it all is.

The Good:

Fairly well made stuff

The Bad:

Takashi Shimura is wasted

Frequent logistical flaws

Some really poor sfx

Here's a movie about a radioactive child growing into a large, homeless 100 foot tall looking brute who grunts, and then fights a nappy looking dinosaur. Okay, it's not Ingmar Bergman, but damn, is it silly, fun and entertaining. It's chock full of cliches, but the pace is amazingly fast. One of the best elements of this happy cinematic misfire is actor Tadao Takashima. His normally bland white-lab coated scientist has some fascinating charcater elements (He's an alky, and has an interesting dark streak) The VHS copy I have has tacked on the ending where Frankenstein vs. A-Big-Octopus-That-Comes-Out-Of-Nowhere. Silly, and fun. Cool party movie.

I have seen this movie before and right away you know that it is a large man rampaging through a miniature city. But....who says the imagination has to florish on common every day stuff. I thought it was really funny and compared the flik to Attack of the 50 foot woman. It also borrowed some orchestration chords from my all time favorite child hood monster flik WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS. Every once in a while we all feel the need to see something cheezy and not common. This movie is that type of movie. We know it is not real and just a dream, but why knock it? I wish it would come to DVD. I am a collector of Cheezy horror movies from the 50's, 60's and other eras. Die hard Gozilla fans will get a kick out of this movie. I personally thought War of the Gargantuas really represented what a real hideous beast should look like. If the Studios in Japan ever read this comment, please put War of the Gargantuas on DVD!!!!

This is one of the more entertaining (and yet still bonkers) Toho monster rallies and at some points you can actually feel your grip on sanity beginning to weaken. Like many Frankenstein movies you do feel a certain amount of sympathy for the monster (not Baragon though, who looks like he escaped from a toy shop) and actually wish he would deliver a massive ass-kicking to the immaculately dressed, white gloved troops who are shooting at him. Baragon spitting feathers and the pig-on-rails scenes alone are worth the admission price. The sheer lunacy of this movie even exceeds that of King Kong Lives! Sadly the best scene is missing: the one in which Nick Adams' agent persuaded him to turn up for this particular engagement.