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| Inside the Shin Bungeiza theater. Photo by Brett Homenick. |
On Thursday, September 10, I saw Frankenstein Conquers the World (1965) in 35mm at the Shin Bungeiza theater in Ikebukuro. Then, on Friday, September 11, I took in a screening of The War of the Gargantuas (1966), which was also presented in 35mm, at the same venue.
The print for FCTW in particular was incredible; there was a barely a noticeable flaw. WOTG, on the other hand, had its share of scratches and imperfections but was still duly impressive. It was certainly a cool double feature, even if it took place on separate days.
For the last 15 or so years, I've been somewhat perplexed by the fact that FCTW is often cited by tokusatsu fans as one of the best kaiju movies of the Showa era. I mean, I like it, too, but it's always felt more like a dress rehearsal for WOTG to me than anything else. It's just missing that certain something to push it over the top. It's hard not to come away with the distinct impression that Nick Adams was more enthusiastic about making the film than everybody else was.
It doesn't help matters that Baragon is a JTTS whose sole purpose is to get beaten up by Frankenstein and make him look good. The monster scenes are a bit underwhelming.
I first saw FCTW in the spring of 1994 when it aired in TNT's 100% Weird late-night programming block. Even though I had mostly stopped watching Godzilla and other giant monster movies at this point, I was still looking for movies like this -- especially Destroy All Monsters (1968), the holiest of holy grails -- to air on cable TV.
I set my VCR to record it (since it was airing overnight) and probably watched it the next day. My reaction wasn't very strong; I thought it was fine but quickly moved on to other things. It wouldn't be until we discovered DAM and the post-Biollante Heisei movies later that year that we really got back into tokusatsu in a big way.
The version of FCTW I saw used the giant-octopus ending, which is notable. It's not the first time I've seen this cut theatrically in Japan, so I wonder if the original version has now been officially supplanted. I do prefer the original ending, and I think the giant-octopus ending is best left as a curiosity than the actual conclusion of the film, but it is what it is, and things are as they are.
I first saw WOTG when I was about eight years old on Super Scary Saturday, and I've loved it ever since. The battle between the Gargantuas is much more compelling than the one in the previous film, as Sanda and Gaira are not only more evenly matched, but we also know why they're fighting, apart from the fact that they're huge monsters, and that's just what huge monsters do.
For all the criticism he gets, I don't think Russ Tamblyn is that bad in the role of Dr. Paul Stewart. His character as written doesn't have much going on in the first place, and his performance more or less suits the part of a slightly awkward scientist who was probably too devoted to his work to have much of a social life.
Contrast that with Nick Adams' acting choices in FCTW as Dr. James Bowen, which sort of make you wonder how such a happenin' hodad who gives a too-cool-for-school finger point to bid farewell to Yoshio Tsuchiya's character ever had the patience to earn his seven Ph.D.s from the University of Higher Learning.
The only real downside to the WOTG screening is that it wasn't the UPA release, which is definitive for me. That dub is one of the best of all time.
Overall, it was a fun couple of nights at the flicks, and I had a blast. Let's do it again soon!
