Badmovies.org Forum

Toho's version of "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea."  Underwater homing missiles, lasers, surgically-created monsters, and Cesar Romero as the nefarious Dr. Malic make this a fun film.  Whoever thought up the giant, flying lion with the brain of an Asian woman deserves an award.

this is a fun movie, and who would ever have thought we'd have a great DVD presentation?  the second disc- the Japanese version- is pretty useless, but nice to have anyway.

David

The thing that can be said about Latitude Zero,is it's kind of a follow up to Atragon,(when will that ever be up for review?).
In the summer of 1969,Fuji,(remember our Emma Peelson of Japan from Ultraman).
Oh I mean Fuji,the largest scientific ship in Japan has been sent to Cromwell Combind to see if  ocean currents can make submarines go faster.
Well our 3 heroes go down in the yellow bathysphere to find out,unfortunately,(there seem to be a whole of unfortunates in these Japanese films don't there),an underwater volcano erupts,and it looks like the 3 are going to die in a yellow bathysphere,only later to wake up and see that they are saved by a certain Capt.McKenzie,(Joseph Cotton),and are taken to an underwater utopia called Latitude Zero,where missing scientist are doing lots of good stuff to benefit us all!.
Oh again,yes again,unfortunately there's an evil genius at large,none other than The Clown Prince of Crime Himself,The Joker,or here known as Dr.Malic(Cesar Romero),(Ironically Malic happened to a name of one the Dorcons in the last Maya Space:1999 episode).
Seems he and his woman friend Lickerish(Cottons wife Patricia Medina),want to either conquer LZ or destroy it.
The pair kindnap a certain doctor who's developed an anti-radiation serum,naturally he refuses to tell Malic about,and here we see that's he's able to turn people into flying lions,huge rats,and even,of all the Unholy Things Batman!,Batmen!.
Oh I suppose for the want of getting Adam West Burt Ward & Yvonne Craig on the operating table!.
We can't Malic go on so our heroes re board the Alpha and head for Blood Rock to finally put an end to Malics mad plans of world domination.
All sorts of things happen,a game of chess with submarines using homing torpedoes and death rays,run ins with giant rats acid pools,and of course a real batfight,but where were the bat graphics,(you know POW!,WHAP!,PAP,ZAP!).
Oh before that Malic turned his henchwoman into a flying lion to get them,but she just sat on top of old Smokey and watched it all,oh and during the fight Malic accidentally kills his girl,she dissolves.
Then the final battle,Malic traps the Alpha with a magnetic force,but like Atragon,Alpha can fly too!,as Malic shoots wildly at the sub,all the sudden that lion flys into action and gets Malic and the Blackshark,Malic forgot to turn off the force,and his sub got caught in it,so once again we see Hayatta as yet another henchmen,(why is he always a badguy,I think Ultraman needs to have talk with him),telling Malic they're being pulled to land.
Malic doesn't want to be bothered,however the lion has other ideas,and so the ancient art of blowing up the models at the end of yet another Japanese sci-fi,we are not dissappointed!.
After all said and done Perry Lawton,wants to go back,and why not,with diamonds and a story,he'll be on easy street,however,life on easy street ain't as easy as Sesame Street.
They send him up to be rescued by a navy ship sent to observe the splash down of a capsule,aboard he meets someone who looks like Craig McKenzie,but he's not.
And of course no believes his story,he has no diamonds,and the film is ruined,convinced he's nuts they ask the coremen,who looks alot like Malic,but with a different mustache to take him to sick bay.
If Dr.Ann Barton's there,I suppose I wouldn't mind binging in sick bay either!,meantime the ships radio tells this Capt.McKenzie $6000s worth of diamonds are waiting for Lawton at a NY bank,then they begin to wonder if maybe there might be something to this Latitude Zero business after all.

Thanks for the review, Andrew  :thumbup:.

Joseph Cotten talks about this film over an entire chapter in his autobiography, detailing the US producer Don Sharpe's money hassles and that the cast, to preserve face for Toho, agreed to finish the film for nothing provided that the studio took care of all their living expenses etc.

While Jo Cotten and his wife Patricia were visiting a renowned Japanese actor who was also a fine gardener, the actor said that he wasn't happy with the new fertilizers and preferred what he called "the good old natural s**ts"."  :teddyr: :teddyr:

(http://www.badmovies.org/capsules/l/latitudezero/latitudezero_cap1.jpg)

Richard Jaeckel of  The Green Slime fame and Toho legend Akira Takarada, also known as the love rival of Dr. Serizawa in Godzilla:King Of The Monsters.

Takarada also was in a war movie with Frank Sinatra, where Sinatra was training Takarada's anti-Japanese freedom fighters, a regiment of Hawaiian-Japanese soldiers known as "butterheads".  He spoke his own English quite well!

Another English-speaking Japanese actor who played in Latitude Zero was Masumi Okada, better known as the father of the boy Mikko in the Space Giants TV series.