Badmovies.org Forum

For my birthday I got a slew of kaiju movies, nice research stuff for my comic book.

I got the DVD release of "Frankenstein" that has the American and Japanese versions. If I recall I believe the American version has Frank be a bit more aggressive. Has a great ending fight with Baragon who would go onto to do more things than the ,more or less, protagonist of this movie. However there is something very shocking in the Japanese version.

That damn devilfish DOES appear here. I swear up and down that every article I read on this issue claims that the Devilfish only had stills or was lost forever. Apparently untrue since we see Frank fight with the monster and seemingly gets dragged to a watery grave.

None the less I think both the Japanese and American endings are quite good. DESPITE the fact we have to go WTF at seeing an octopus monster show up in the mountains, I'm sure some people don't mind having a little more monster action before the end, and there is something quite macabre about seeing Frank grapple against this new monster before getting dragged under water. Though with the American version it has quite the dynamic ending what with a volcano erupting just after Frank defeats Baragon, and is not QUITE as random as that octopus coming out of nowhere.

*spoilers to War of the Gargantuas*

Believe it or not Frankenstein here may in fact be the gentle brown Gargantua from "War of the Gargantuas", with a little help of retconning. Or possibly just an offspring via cell sample. Still it is rather uncanny that following "Conquers" we have another film with an American actor playing the lead scientist. Possibly during the writing stage it was a more clear cut sequel but during production they may have made a not so clear transition to a more stand alone movie. Ah well, they're cool monster movies in my book.

I always found FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD to be very surreal. FACT: the idea for the film actually originated with a script Willis (KING KONG) O'Brien had about Frankenstein vs. King Kong! The idea was used for FCtW...which was to originally have had Frankie fight Godzilla! I have some pics in an old FAMOUS MONSTERS mag of the scetches that O'Brein made for the idea...I'll hook up me scanner this weekend and share them with you!

I bought both FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD and MATANGO (ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE) when they were released on DVD.  I hadn't seen either one since the 1970s when they were on TV quite frequently (often on Boston's CREATURE FEATURE).  Two worthy additions to anyone's collection!

Great movies!   I love em' both.  :thumbup: :teddyr: :thumbup:


As to Frankie being Sanda (Brown Gargantua) I think Gaira (Green Gargantua) is instead.

Frankie was thought to have drowned from the battle with Oodaku.(devilsfish)  Instead, perhaps he went dormant underwater as his body repaired itself, thru the process of cellular osmosis....he absorbed protein and oxygen rich plankton to survive in his dormant state.

This allowed him to repair his body and also convert the 0\2 molecule in water to breatheable oxygen as his body changed to an amphibious state. He also changed physically from being underwater, thus his aversion to sunlight.

However, perhaps the brain suffered significant damage as the result of the initial lack of oxygen, and was somehow incapable of repair.  This would account for his violent behavior and his aggressiveness instead of the kind creature he once was.  Just a thought.

The first time I saw the devilfish ending I was like "what the hell?!? As the years went by I forgot about it and dismissed it as just a rumour.  And I have to say that that was the strangest ending to any movie I have ever seen.  It just comes out of nowhere and takes you in a totally different direction.  The whole thing comes off as a nightmare.

In fact, here's a trailer *Japanese only* but it also has the Oodaku (devilfish) ending starting around 2:25 into the trailer.  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtj6o3n_hMM