Varan the Unbelievable

Toho are the kings of the kaiju movies, they started with Godzilla and the ball kept on rolling. But not all the creature features were on quite the same level as Varan demonstrated.

Varan itself was a 1958 movie but Toho had the bizzare habit of letting the US tweek and re-release their movies in the west. What the US would do is take the original movie, edit in some scenes with American actors visiting Japan and the whole thing would be an absolute mess. No idea why Toho would allow their movies to be butchered in such a way.

So this is just the 1958 movie with some segments removed and others added. I didn't like the original movie and considered it a very weak Toho addition so with the US treatment they actually managed to make it worse.

It looks horrifically dated, it lacks in character and any real entertainment value and I advise folks skip over this (And all the modified US versions).

The Good:

Nothing really

The Bad:

Looks terrible for its age

One of the US butcheries

Poor sound editing

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Good girls don't ask questions, they just do what a man tells them

In VARAN THE UNBELIEVABLE, the title monster is aroused from its lair at the bottom of a lake. It's disturbed by "scientific tests" that turn its watery home into a useless cesspool. Most of the movie's running time is taken up by the human drama between Cmdr. James Bradley (Myron Healey), his wife, the military, and the poor villagers who resist being relocated.

This is the "Americanized" version of the original Japanese film by Director Ishiro Honda. The "reworked" story has Healey's character spouting most of the dialogue / narration, much like Raymond Burr in the "re-imagined" American release of GODZILLA. Not surprisingly, this makes for quite a slog, since the movie is padded out with loads of dull situations added for American audiences of the era.

While Honda's movie has a reputation for being rather bland, it's difficult to see how this version could possibly be an improvement! Fragments of the original tale are shown as non sequitur scenes -usually of natives jumping around, or military HQ- here and there throughout the film. As for the monster, it's not bad, especially during the big finish.

A film for the true, giant monster completist... .

Watch out Godzilla, Mothra, and Rodan. Here comes Katsumi Tezuka in a rubber suit as Obake.

O. K. As with Godzilla (1954) was Americanize to Godzilla, o Monstro do Mar (1956), the same process was done with Varan - O Monstro do Oriente (1958) Americanized as this film Varan the Unbelievable (1962). So do not be disappointed if a few things have been adjusted.

Cmdr. James Bradley (Myron Healey) is the head of a joint US and Japanese scientific investigation. It requires a lake that is protected by a native village. It is said that the lake contains an ancient reptile that if aroused will destroy the world.

Something arises from the lake.

Obake is being mortified and tanked to no avail.

Planes have a flair for Obake.

Now I wonder why the world is about to be destroyed?

Will a solution be found or are you become Obake-chow?

VARAN THE UNBELIEVABLE was pretty scary stuff when I first saw it as a kid in 1962. A few years ago I picked the original Japanese version and the must say it proceeds at a ponderous pace and is much longer than the Crown International Pictures release. There are more battle scenes and Varan even flies in the Japanese version. The American distributor shortened the film considerably and added scenes with Myron Healey and maybe even Tsuruko Kobayashi. The monster is a neat-looking reptilian creature that one critic referred to as appearing like "a squirrel with jet propelled nuts." In any event, not bad stuff but it's not great either. For better Japanese sci-fi GODZILLA, RODAN, ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE and THE MYSTERIANS are much better. But VARAN deserves a break and was never seen again (except for a brief appearance in one of the GHIDRAH sequels). VARAN was meant for television release originally but never made it. See it anyway for its fun moments, and there are a few. With Katsumi Tezuka in a rubber suit as Varan. Also, catch the original Japanese version if you can!

They took a perfectly good Japanese monster movie -- one that was apparently begun for US television anyway -- and ruined it. They excerpted a few minutes of monster footage and used it to pad out their own, utterly different movie, featuring a cast of non-actors and a script that treats the Japanese people as something less than human. To be avoided at all costs.