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

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!

Varan The Unbelievable is a very enjoyable Japanese giant monster movie. This movie was practically re-shot for it's American audience so if you enjoy the American version then you diffenently need to check out the original Japanese version. It will be like watching two different films, Varan has the ability to fly in the original version. The U.S. version is good but the original is much better.

Varan was one of the few Japanese monsters that didn't catch on in Japan after the success of Godzilla and Rodan

I have seen the original version of the film and it is a very good example of the kaiju eiga genre. However, this version is a piece of garbage. The scenes where Myron Healy "interacts" with the populous of the island are awkward and you can tell immediately that the film was done by two different crews. Also, the print that is used by the American company is so dark you can barely make out the monster and they pretty much do away with one of the best scores ever composed by Akira Ifkube and replace it with some stock music that was originally used in "The Amazing Colossal Man". If Toho wants to sue the Americans for butchering one of their films, I will be glad to show up as a witness.

This came out paired with CIPs also POSSIBLY recut version of the East German etc FIRST SPACESHIP ON VENUS-Der Schwagen Stern- (or SILENT STAR) In a theater full of candy and popcorn munching kids, i was in pure heaven -not one but TWO cool sci-fi pictures! Although VARAN seemed OK to me at the time, even at 10 years old I felt that the Freeze frame-pan-right(?) film technique brought the action to grinding halt, when transitioning back to the American footage. I briefly had the Japanese Laserdisc in 2.35 Scope, and was amazed to find BARAN flying like a squirrel! I guess we would have hooted that off the screen back then, but what did we know? It was a Saturday, and we wanted our candy, soda and(believable) action.