I’m currently busy writing about some of my favorite Post-1966 Elizabeth Taylor films, but I wanted to share some fantastic news I stumbled across while I was roaming around online.
Two of my favorite television shows from the ‘60s and ‘70s are Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone (1959-64) and Night Gallery (1970-73). CBS and NBC recently launched two new sub-sites called CBS Classics and NBC’s Way Back Wednesdays where you can view episodes of these classic horror/science fiction shows free online at anytime. CBS has made many episodes of The Twilight Zone available, as well as episodes of the original Star Trek (1966-69) and Hawaii Five-O (1968-80) and every Wednesday NBC is making an episode of Rod Serling’s Night Gallery available, along with episodes of other popular shows such as The Alfred Hitchcock Hour (1962-65), the original Battlestar Galactica (1978-79) and Emergency (1972-79).
If you’re somehow unfamiliar with Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery this is a great opportunity to see episodes of these classic television programs. Both shows featured gifted actors often giving some of their best performances and they were written and directed by some of television’s greatest talents, including Rod Serling himself. Many episodes of The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery still give me the creeps and they’re guaranteed to give new viewers a nightmare or two. If you’re already familiar with these critically acclaimed shows you can now become reacquainted with them free of charge. For more information please check out the links I’ve posted below:
Fireman (aka Faiyâman/Magma Man) is an interesting tokusatsu series featuring a kyodai hero (giant hero) that aired in Japan on Nippon Television in 1973. It was made by Tsuburaya Productions, who was also responsible for the popular Ultraman series and Fireman had many things in common with that show.
In the series, the handsome Japanese actor Naoya Makoto (Goranger, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, etc.) plays the powerful hero Fireman. Fireman belongs to a race of unusual beings that live deep inside the earth. When earth is attacked by giant monster-like aliens (kaiju), Fireman rises to the surface, takes a human form and joins Japan’s Scientific Attack Force (S.A.F.) so he can help defeat the evil invaders. Much like Ultraman, Fireman is able to grow and become giant size in order to fight the various kaiju monsters he encounters. He also has many special powers and weapons.
Fireman was directed by Jun Oki and written by Bunkou Wakatsuki. Jun Oki had previously worked on various science fiction shows for Tsuburaya Productions such as Ultraseven (Urutora sebun, 1967), Ultraman Returns (Kaettekita Urutoraman, 1971) and the wonderful mystery/horror series Operation: Mystery! (Kaiki daisakusen, 1968), which I hope to write about in more detail soon. With Fireman, Oki was in control of the direction of the series as well as the special effects, which were often very impressive. Like Silver Kamen which I briefly reviewed here earlier, Fireman was a bit more adult than other similar shows that were airing in Japan at the time. The series often contained more mature stories and some unpredictable twists that were rather unusual for a show typically aimed at a young audience.
Fireman ran for 30 episodes and features a great soundtrack by Toru Fuyuki that was undoubtedly one of the Japanese composer’s best efforts. In the “Battle Sequence” featured in the clip below you can hear some of the terrific music that Toru Fuyuki composed for the series while Fireman fights a kaiju monster called Dorigoras. You’ll cheer, you’ll laugh, and you might even cry, but whatever your expectations are, few things can prepare for you for the action-packed wonder that is Fireman!
What do you get when you mix a plot that seems borrowed from Jules Verne with comic book style heroes and villains that would make Batman envious, costume designs that could be right out of Mario Bava’s Diabolik, combined with a mad dash of James Bond and pulp style adventure? You get the terrifically fun and entertaining Japanese science fiction and fantasy film Latitude Zero (Ido zero daisakusen, 1969) directed by Ishiro Honda!
Honda’s name should be recognizable to most fans of Japanese science fiction films since he’s responsible for the original Godzilla (Gojira, 1954) and many other terrific movies including Rodan (Sora no daikaijû Radon, 1956), The Mysterians (Chikyu Boeigun, 1957), Mothra (Mosura, 1961), Attack of the Mushroom People (Matango, 1963) and Frankenstein Conquers the World (Furankenshutain tai chitei kaijû Baragon, 1965).
Latitude Zero is an often-overlooked film in Honda’s impressive body of work and considered a lesser science fiction effort from Toho Studios. The movie definitely has its flaws, including some of the most shoddy looking movie monsters you’re likely to ever see. But the entertainment value, great cast and amazing look of the sets more than make up for the film’s flaws. As a matter of fact, it could be argued that they sort of add to the film’s unusual charm. Thankfully a new audience of science fiction fans will be able to discover Latitude Zero and make up their own minds about the movie since Media Blasters has recently released a spectacular two disc DVD presentation of the film with lots of terrific bonus materials including two versions of Latitude Zero (the original Japanese release with English subtitles and the original American release in English), interviews with the Japanese film crew and an image gallery.
In 1969 Ishiro Honda made Latitude Zero at Toho Studios with a Japanese crew and American producers and writers. One of these producers was fellow director Don Sharp. Although Sharp is only credited with producing Latitude Zero, the movie often seems more like a collaborative effort between both men since it differs from Honda’s previous films in various ways. Don Sharp made many entertaining genre movies during the sixties such as Curse of the Fly (1965), The Face of Fu Manchu (1965), Our Man in Marrakesh (1966), Rocket to the Moon (1967) and Psychomania (1971). He also made two good films for Hammer Studios (The Kiss of the Vampire, 1963 and Rasputin: The Mad Monk, 1966) and directed episodes of terrific television shows like The Avengers and The Champions. Sharp’s creative influence on Latitude Zero seems rather hard to miss and he may have contributed some of his own ideas to the film.
These are just assumptions on my part and the interviews with the Japanese crew members that appear on the new DVD don’t confirm my suspicions. They do make it clear that the American and Japanese film crews had trouble working together. In the interviews that appear on the DVD the Japanese crew complains a lot about the way Hollywood was making films in the sixties. Compared to Japan where directors were often given full control of the movies they made, American producers were used to having control and making creative decisions. Producers clearly flexed their financial muscles on the set of Latitude Zero and this clash of basic movie-making sensibilities obviously caused a lot of tension between the international cast and crew. I only wish Media Blasters had included some interviews with the American crew on the new DVD so viewers could hear their side of the fascinating behind-the-scene action on the Latitude Zero set.
Latitude Zero begins when a couple of scientists (Akira Takarada and Masumi Okada) and one American reporter (Richard Jaeckel) find themselves lost at sea after an underwater explosion and are rescued by a submarine run by Captain Craig McKenzie (Jospeh Cotten) along with his beautiful assistant Dr. Anne Barton (Linda Haynes) and tough henchman (Susumu Kurobe). Captain McKenzie takes the three men to a mysterious underwater world known as Latitude Zero where scientists and artists have secretly gathered together to create an international utopian society without government interference. Of course, all is not well in Latitude Zero and the men soon find out that the utopian city is under constant attack from an evil genius known as Malic (Cesar Romero) and his two wicked mistresses Lucretia (Patricia Medina) and Kroger (Hikaru Kuroki). After Malic kidnaps another Japanese scientist and his daughter who are making their way to Latitude Zero, Captain McKenzie invites the three men to strap on some jet packs and head out on a mission to save the scientist and his daughter with the hope of putting an end to Malic’s reign of terror. As the adventure unfolds the men are forced to fight off giant bloodthirsty rats, man-like bat creatures and finally a strange giant size beast that is part lion and part vulture.
The film takes a somewhat unusual anti-war stance that is probably due to the times in which it was made. In 1969 the American war in Vietnam was raging and parts of Japan were still under American occupation. Students in both countries were often involved in protests against the war. In the film, the citizens of Latitude Zero don’t use violence against their enemies. Instead of aggressively attacking them, they mostly use protective measures and the idea of a peaceful utopian culture that is home to multiple people from various nations must have seemed extremely appealing at the time.
As I mentioned above, the film brings together a wonderful international cast that includes many popular Japanese actors who appeared in countless science fiction and fantasy films, as well as the great American actor Jospeh Cotten and his real-life wife, the talented actress Patricia Medina. Cotten is one of my favorite actors and I love watching him in anything, so I really enjoyed him as Captain Craig McKenzie even if he’s obviously a little too old for the role. Patricia Medina manages to steal just about every scene she’s in with Cesar Romero and both actors seem to really be enjoying themselves on the set. Supposedly Cotton and Medina decided to appear in the film so they could work together and spend time in Japan, but unfortunately they only have one scene together in the movie.
The amazing Eiji Tsuburaya was responsible for the special effects in Latitude Zero and he did a great job on many of the miniatures and set designs, but much of the film’s backdrops are made up of impressive matte paintings. The creature designs on the other hand leave a lot to be desired. Most of the monsters featured in the movie are obviously men wearing rather shabby costumes or poorly constructed puppets. The climactic battle at the end of the film is somewhat marred by a lion with vulture wings that looks like it belongs on the Island of Misfit Toys created by Rankin/Bass for their Christmas special Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964).
Even with its obvious flaws, muddled script and ridiculous plot-twists, Latitude Zero has a lot to offer adventurous viewers and I’m really glad that Media Blasters has made the effort to release the film in a lavish two disc collection DVD package. The new Media Blasters DVD marks the first time that this film has been made available to American audiences in any format and it’s easily one of my favorite DVD releases of the year. The restored widescreen print of the film looks fantastic and I was also impressed with their choice to use the original Japanese poster art for the DVD case. If you’re a fan of Japanese Tokusatsu films or just want to see an entertaining science fiction and fantasy movie with a good cast, then I highly recommend giving the movie a look. Latitude Zero is currently available from Amazon for only $14.99 (it normally retails for $19.95).
If you’d like to see more screen shots from the film please visit my Latitude Zero Flickr Gallery. The movie contains so much fabulous eye-candy that I hard time selecting which images to share.
Begining this week, I’ll be welcoming a new regular contributor to Cinebeats who calls himself T3rtiumQuid. T3rtiumQuid will be sharing short “Battle Sequence” clips from rare and hard-to-see Japanese tokusatsu television shows and films produced during the ’60s and ’70s, and I’ll be writing about them. Most of the shows and movies featured in these clips are not available outside of Japan and should appeal to anyone who enjoys vintage Japanese science fiction and fantasy.
The first Battle Sequence is taken from the Sun-Hong/TBS produced superhero series Silver Kamen (or Shiruba Kamen / Silver Mask) which aired in Japan from November 1971 to May 1972. There is basically no English information readily available about the show that I’m aware of, but I can tell you that early episodes of Silver Kamen are credited to the acclaimed Japanese director Akio Jissoji and his cinematographer Masao Nakabori. Akio Jissoji passed away in 2006 and his last film was a modern remake of Silver Kamen that was released in Japan a month after he died.
In many ways the original Silver Kamen series is typical of lots of other Japanese superhero shows. It featured a masked hero who does battle with various evil kaijin (monsters or space aliens) in an effort to save humanity and he has many unusual powers and gadgets. The difference between Silver Kamen and other superhero shows that were airing in Japan at the time, such as Ultraman and Mirrorman (or Mirror Mask), was the dark edge that the show had. The early episodes of Silver Kamen were also creatively shot and in some ways more adult then a lot of similar shows that were airing on Japanese television at the time. After 11 episodes, Silver Kamen started to loose it’s edge and it took a new and more “positive” direction. The Silver Kamen series was transformed into Silver Kamen Giant, but it still didn’t really find an audience and the series finally came to an end after 26 epsiodes.
In the following clip, the original Silver Kamen (played by Toshio Shiba) fights it out with a nasty kaijin called Tigris. If you pay attention to the clip, you’ll notice that Tigris’ costume catches on fire during the battle. I’m unclear on all the details, but it seems that Tigris’ costume caught fire prematurely and the actor playing Tigris was almost seriously burned during the fight. Thankfully for viewers the show must go on, and it did!
I’ve been interested in seeing Alan Cooke’s film The Mind of Mr. Soames (1970) for many years mainly because it’s an Amicus production with a great cast that includes Terence Stamp, Robert Vaughn, Nigel Davenport, Christian Roberts, Donal Donnelly and Vickery Turner. The film also features cinematography by the talented Billy Williams. I’ve seen just about every film that Amicus produced during the ’60s and ’70s and many of them are personal favorites so I assumed I would probably really enjoy The Mind of Mr. Soames as well. The film didn’t exactly live up to my high expectations, but it had plenty of interesting moments and explored many fascinating ideas. The cast was truly exceptional and composer Michael Dress’s score is very good, but unfortunately Alan Cooke’s direction is rather dull and uninspired at times.
The Mind of Mr. Soames is based on a bestselling 1961 novel of the same name written by the British science fiction author Charles Eric Maine (pen name for David McIlwain). It tells the story of a thirty-year-old man named John Soames (Terence Stamp) who suffered a mild brain injury during birth that has kept him in a deep sleep his entire life. As the film opens Dr. Bergen (Robert Vaughn) is traveling to London to meet Dr. Maitland (Nigel Davenport) and perform a revolutionary type of brain surgery that will awaken Soames from his lifelong slumber, but he’s surprised by what he finds at the hospital when he arrives there.
Dr. Maitland (Nigel Davenport) has turned the entire hospital into a sort of set for a reality television program that plans to broadcast the operation and follow John Soames recovery. The ongoing interviews between the doctors and the television crew are conducted by a failed medical student and budding reporter named Thomas Fleming (Christian Roberts) who seems eager to exploit the situation as much as possible for his own gain.
When Soames awakens in a childlike state he is put under the care of the rather severe Dr. Maitland and his more sensitive assistant Joe (Donal Donnelly). Dr. Maitland is determined to accelerate Soames’ developmental process and he subjects him to countless tests and educational classes that leave no room for downtime or meaningful human interactions. Thankfully Dr. Bergen and Joe occasionally step in and try to offer Soames their friendship and understanding, but their acts of kindness seems strangely at odds with the cold and clinical environment Soames is trapped in.
One of the most fascinating things about the film is the way it explores early ideas about reality television. As John Soames slowly develops into an adult he is continually filmed by a television crew that watches his every move. Back in 1961 when The Mind of Mr. Soames was first written, reality television was a somewhat impossible idea and very few people besides smart science fiction writers could have imagined what television would be like today. So much of what is shown in The Mind of Mr. Soames has become commonplace now that it might be easy for some viewers to overlook the film’s somewhat groundbreaking take on modern media.
Mr. Soames (Terence Stamp) rests after the operation
It’s possible that the British documentary series Seven Up! (1964) was a minor inspiration for director Alan Cooke when he decided to turn The Mind of Mr. Soames into a film, but that’s debatable. Before making The Mind of Mr. Soames the director had previously worked in television and his previous experience both hinders and adds to the film in my opinion. Cooke’s directing is very static at times and I sometimes wondered if I was watching a television production instead of a feature film, but he does a wonderful job of portraying the subtle effects that an unblinking camera can have when it’s pointed on an unwilling subject. Cooke clearly understood the power as well as the limits of television and his knowledge of the medium is occasionally used to great effect in The Mind of Mr. Soames.
As the film progresses John Soames becomes more and more disenchanted with the claustrophobic environment he’s trapped in and he longs to escape the hospital as well as the cameras. In some of the films best moments Terence Stamp beautifully portrays Soames as someone who longs to be outside among nature and naively imagines the freedom that it offers. When Soames finally gets to explore the world outside the confines of the hospital walls, the film takes on an unearthly beauty that makes you wish the director had chosen to spend more time there instead of spending so much time inside the sterile hospital.
Top: Terence Stamp as Mr. Soames Bottom: James Dean (1955) in a similar shot
In one beautiful scene Stamp’s character lays down in the grass and stares wistfully at some flowers which are just beginning to blossom. The scene recalls the wonderful moment in Elia Kazan’s East of Eden (1955) when James Dean laid on the ground and willed the crops to grow. As I mentioned before in my previous piece about Terence Stamp, East of Eden is one of the actor’s favorite films and it was James Dean’s amazing performance as Cal that inspired Terence Stamp to become an actor. I have no idea if The Mind of Mr. Soames mimicked that important scene from East of Eden intentionally or if it was taken straight out of the book, but I can’t help wondering if Terence Stamp himself suggested it since the moment seems so clearly inspired by the film that encouraged him to start acting.
The Mind of Mr. Soames has an interesting, but somewhat unsatisfying ending. I liked the fact that the film didn’t offer any easy answers to John Soames complicated predicament but it somehow felt unfinished. Viewers are left to wonder what will finally become of this infantile character trapped in a man’s body and ruled by an adult world. I have no problem with inconclusive endings, but the movie seemed like it had more to say and never got the opportunity to say it.
Another complaint I have about the film is the lack of time given to the interesting cast of characters such as the kind and sensitive Joe who is played wonderfully by Donal Donnelly (The Knack …and How to Get It) and the pushy reporter Thomas who’s played by the edgy Christian Roberts (To Sir, with Love, Twisted Nerve, etc.) and his girlfriend Naomi who’s played by the cute Vickery Turner. Vickery Turner had lots of small roles in great British films and she was a popular stage actress in Britain during the sixties. When The Mind of Mr. Soames was released she was mostly known in the US as the wife of American actor Warren Oates who she met on the set of the 1969 comedy Crooks and Coronets a year earlier. The two were only married for five years and during that time Turner didn’t seem to do much acting. She’s terribly wasted in The Mind of Mr. Soames which is a shame. I think if her role had been fleshed out a bit more it would have given the film another interesting angle to explore.
Vickery Turner and Christian Roberts in The Mind of Mr. Soames
The Mind of Mr. Soames is hard to see in the US now, but it was originally distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film is definitely worthy of an offical DVD release and I’d love to see a nice widescreen presentation of the film with audio commentary from the main actors who are all still alive, except for Vickery Turner who passed away last year. Even though the movie suffers from some lackluster direction at times and poor editing, the actors raise the production to unexpected heights and Terence Stamp is especially noteworthy as the childlike John Soames.
If you’d like to see more still shots from the film please visit my Mind of Mr. Soames Gallery at Flickr.
Last week 20th Century Fox released their impressive Land of the Giants - The Full Series (The Giant Collection) (1968) DVD box set and it will undoubtedly be one of the best DVD sets to come out this year. With a list price of $229.00 (currently available from Amazon for $169.99) it’s a very pricey release, but besides getting all 51 episodes of the television show, you also get lots of DVD extras and even reproductions of the original Land of the Giants comic books, plus a booklet with cast interviews and photos, a set of Land of the Giants trading cards, a key chain and even an iron-on patch, which are all contained in an impressively designed carrying case.
I can’t begin to tell you how excited I am about this DVD release! Irwin Allen has been one of my favorite television show creators since I was a kid and the Land of the Giants is undoubtedly one of his grooviest shows. I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to afford this new DVD set myself, but if I had the extra money I would snatch it up in a second. At least I can now finally see all the episodes of this terrific show and I’m really happy about that. Hopefully DVD rental places won’t shy away from the high price and make the show available to those of us who can’t afford to buy it right away.
When I was growing up in the seventies I would catch random episodes of Irwin Allen’s shows like Lost in Space (1965), The Time Tunnel (1966), Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964) and Land of the Giants (1968) playing on TV and I always loved them. Thanks to the recent DVD releases of Irwin Allen’s television shows from 20th century Fox I’ve been able to finally see all the episodes I’ve missed and enjoy them without commercials.
The casts of Lost in Space and Land of the Giants
This year I’ve watched the entire Time Tunnel series and I’ve recently started watching Voyage to the Bottom of Sea, but I’ve only managed to get through season one so far. I really enjoyed The Time Tunnel series since I find the concept of the show fascinating and it stars the super cute one time teen idol James “Moondoggie” Darrin. What can I say, except like many red-blooded American girls, I have a bad crush on James Darrin. In The Time Tunnel series James Darrin plays a scientist named Tony Newman, who helps run a billion dollar government time travel project deep beneath the Arizona desert with fellow scientists Dr. Doug Phillips (Robert Colbert) and Dr. Ann MacGregor (Lee Meriwether). Together they’ve invented a “time tunnel” that allows people to travel through time and space, but while testing the tunnel Dr. Newman and Dr. Phillips become trapped in time. They find themselves landing in the middle of important historic events such as the sinking of the Titanic and the bombing of Pearl Harbor, but they also end up encountering space aliens and unusual characters like Merlin the Magician.
If you enjoy fantasy and science fiction from the sixties I can’t recommend The Time Tunnel series enough. It’s really entertaining and just an all-around fun all-ages show. If you’re looking for high-minded serious drama, look elsewhere. Unfortunately like Irwin Allen’s Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel series was canceled before a final episode was shot which makes the show a little disappointing to watch in the end.
On the set of The Time Tunnel
Land of the Giants is also a really fascinating show and even a little subversive. It involves a group of travelers who crash land on an alternative version of planet earth that is run by giant humans and controlled by a totalitarian government. Our little heroes spend most of the series trying to avoid being captured or killed. I haven’t seen the show in years but I thought the cast was good and I especially liked the two female leads Deanna Lund and Heather Young, as well as the handsome actor Don Marshall. I’m really looking forward to finally seeing all the episodes of Land of the Giants and getting more familiar with the show.
A few of Irwin Allen’s creative creatures
Today Irwin Allen is mostly remembered as being “The Master of Disaster” after making numerous disaster films in the seventies such as The Poseidon Adventure (1972) Towering Inferno (1974), but I think he was really a master at making great low-budget science fiction and fantasy television shows. He worked with some talented people who really gave their all to his productions such as composer John Williams, costume designer Paul Zastupnevich, cinematographer Winton C. Hoch, makeup supervisor Ben Nye, art director Jack Martin Smith and talented special effects experts like L.B. Abbott and Art Cruickshank among others. Allen also shamelessly used stock footage from other films, shot episodes on forgotten 20th Century Fox sets, and reused similar props and costumes in many of his productions, but his shows often contained enough imagination, excitement and humor to still keep them interesting and entertaining.
He may have won the infamous Razzie Award for “Worst Career Achievement” in 1984, but I think modern independent filmmakers interested in making fantasy and science fiction films today could probably learn a lot from the amazing Irwin Allen (pictured above directing a monster on the set of The Time Tunnel).
To learn more about Allen I recommend watching The Fantasy Worlds of Irwin Allen, which is a lighthearted look at Irwin Allen’s career featuring interviews with the casts and crews of his most popular productions. I watched it myself this weekend and really enjoyed it.
The face is the door to the mind.
Without it, the mind is shut off. There is no communication.
- Mr. Okuyama (Tatsuya Nakadai) in The Face of Another
One of my favorite Japanese films is Hiroshi Teshigahara’s The Face of Another (a.k.a. Tanin no kao, 1966) and it’s getting the Criterion treatment in a fabulous Box Set of Hiroshi Teshigahara films which comes out tomorrow. This new Criterion set promises to be one of the best DVD collections of the year and I’m really looking forward to it! Criterion has been releasing some truly great films this year and I can already confirm that many of them will be finding their way onto my “Best DVDs of 2007″ list which I’ll be compiling at the end of the year when I follow-up last year’s list.
Besides The Face of Another, this new DVD set from Criterion will also include Teshigahara’s critically acclaimed Woman in the Dunes (a.k.a. Suna no onna, 1964) and a ghost story called Pitfall (a.k.a. Otoshiana, 1962) that I haven’t had the opportunity to see yet. All three films are based on the work of the Japanese author Kobo Abe who has often been compared to Kafka. Kobo Abe also wrote the screenplays and even appears briefly in one of the bar scenes in The Face of Another.
Director Hiroshi Teshigahara was a pivotal figure of the Japanese new wave and his avant-garde films helped shape the direction of modern Japanese cinema. He was born in Tokyo in 1924 and managed to survive WW2 before graduating from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in 1950. He came from an artistically inclined family and his father was the founder and grand master of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging). During the fifties Teshigahara was active in various artistic circles in Japan and focused his energies on painting and sculpture, as well as flower arranging before turning to cinema. These artistic pursuits served him well because the director clearly has an incredible eye and his early films are filled with creative imagery that greatly adds to the dark drama found in his films.
Few critics use the word “horror” when they’re discussing Teshigahara’s work and I think that’s a shame. Contrary to popular belief among some, “horror” and “science fiction” are not dirty words and it deeply bothers me that both genres are still maligned by many otherwise thoughtful film critics. There’s just no getting around the fact that Teshigahara’s The Face of Another is clearly a horror film, albeit a smart, thoughtful and incredibly beautiful horror film. Those familiar with great horror and sci-fi classics like Georges Franju’s brilliant Eyes Without a Face (a.k.a. Les Yeux Sans Visage, 1960), Jess Franco’s wonderful The Awful Dr. Orloff (a.k.a. Gritos en la noche, 1962) and even Don Siegel’s classic Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) might be able see a few similar themes running through Teshigahara’s The Face of Another.
The film begins with a man (Tatsuya Nakadai) seeking help from a psychiatrist (Mikijiro Hira) to deal with the mental anguish he’s suffering after having his face horribly disfigured in an accident. He’s unable to cope with his current appearance and in turn his marriage and job are both suffering. The psychiatrist decides to design a highly realistic mask made of experimental materials for the man to wear in order to conceal his face. Instead of helping the man deal with his identify crisis, the new mask only seems to plunge him further into despair and dire consequences follow. A parallel story plays out along with the main narrative, which tells the story of a lovely young woman who is trying to cope with her own facial disfigurement caused by the bombing of Nagasaki during WW2.
The Face of Another is a disturbing meditation on the meaning of identity in a country devastated by war and still dealing with the aftermath of the American occupation. Director Hiroshi Teshigahara uses elements of fantasy to tell his tale, but the real terrors he conjures up are often hidden in haunting metaphors about the horrors of war and its consequences, which creep into every aspect of this mesmerizing production. The film even manages to take on new meaning in our current culture where people are willing to give up their individuality by having plastic surgery in order to obtain what they consider “perfect” looks or to hide the unstoppable signs of age.
The Face of Another has an incredibly surreal quality and it’s undoubtedly one of the most amazing looking films that I’ve ever seen. Director Teshigahara and his cinematographer Hiroshi Segawa carefully construct every frame of The Face of Another and make full use of Masao Yamazaki’s stunning set designs. Last but not least, the impressive soundtrack by experimental composer Tôru Takemitsu adds another layer of depth to this complex film. The movie also features the Japanese pop idol and musical performer Bibari Maeda who gets to a sing a song in the movie.
The new Three Films By Hiroshi Teshigahara DVD Box Set also includes some fantastic extras such as four short films by Hiroshi Teshigahara: Hokusai (1953), Ikebana (1956), Tokyo 1958 (1958), and Ako/White Morning (1963), a new documentary about the working relationship between Teshigahara and Kobo Abe, video essays on all three films by critic James Quandt, interviews with Japanese-film scholars Donald Richie and Tadao Sato, a booklet featuring essays by James Quandt, Howard Hampton, Audie Bock, and Peter Grilli, plus Max Tessier’s 1964 interview with Teshigahara.
Important Note: My DVD captures were taken from the Eureka Masters of Cinema PAL DVD that was released in 2005 and I can only assume that the new Criterion release will look just as good, or better.
If you’re not subscribed to Cinema Retro magazine yet, you should be! This great publication from Britain just released their 5th issue and the cover features a nice shot of the legendary Vincent Price from the terrific 1968 British horror film The Witchfinder General (a.k.a Conqueror Worm). Inside you’ll find an 8 page article on The Witchfinder General as well as exclusive interviews with Tigon’s Tony Tenser, actor Michael York and Playboy’s Hugh Hefner. The new issue also contains article’s on the Australian Stanley Kubrick exhibition, Ken Loach’s Kes, John Guillermin’s El Condor and the 1975 horror film Race with Devil that stars Peter Fonda & Warren Oates, plus much, much more!
This full-color glossy magazine is beautifully put together and contains lots of great information for retro cinema lovers. Each issue is a “limited edition collector’s item” and will not be sold on newsstands. It’s cover price of $11.95 may seem a little steep, but the cost of the magazine is reduced if you subscribe and the high-quality of each issue makes it well worth the cover price in my opinion.
Cinema Retro recently announced that the Hammer glamour queen Caroline Munro will soon become a regular contributor with her very own column in the magazine. Here’s a nice blurb about Caroline from the Cinema Retro website:
“Caroline made her first impression on the public by being proclaimed “Face of the Year” by Britain’s ‘The Evening News’. At the tender age of sixteen, she embarked on a recording career and has worked with such legendary musicians as Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and Adam Ant. Her appearance on a calendar for Lamb’s Navy Rum caused a sensation in Britain and helped ensure the success of her budding film career. Over the years, she has risen to the top ranks of ‘glamour girls’ of the British cinema with an active fan club and numerous web sites devoted to her career. Her films include Dracula 72 A.D., The Golden Voyage of Sinbad’, At The Earth’s Core’, Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter, The Dr.Phibes films and the 1977 James Bond blockbuster The Spy Who Loved Me. She has co-starred with such acting giants as Christopher Lee, Richard Widmark, Peter Cushing, Vincent Price and Roger Moore. Caroline will relive the making of her films – both the classics and a few she would prefer to forget – in her regular column for Cinema Retro.”
Caroline Munro as Stella Star in Starcash
Caroline has always been one of my favorite Hammer glamour girls and I’m really looking forward to reading her upcoming column in Cinema Retro. It will be interesting to see what she has to say about the films she’s made and the people she has worked with.
In the meantime you can enjoy Caroline in this trailer for Luigi Cozzi’s Starcrash. Starcrash is a fun 1979 Italian Star Wars knock-off starring David Hasselhoff (yes, that David Hasselhoff), Christopher Plummer, Marjoe Gortner and Caroline Munro as the very sexy Stella Star. This might be one of the movies she would like to forget, but I think it’s worth remembering.
In the series, the handsome Japanese actor Naoya Makoto (Goranger, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, etc.) plays the powerful hero Fireman. Fireman belongs to a race of unusual beings that live deep inside the earth. When earth is attacked by giant monster-like aliens (
What do you get when you mix a plot that seems borrowed from Jules Verne with comic book style heroes and villains that would make Batman envious, costume designs that could be right out of Mario Bava’s Diabolik, combined with a mad dash of James Bond and pulp style adventure? You get the terrifically fun and entertaining Japanese science fiction and fantasy film Latitude Zero (Ido zero daisakusen, 1969) directed by Ishiro Honda! 
for only $14.99 (it normally retails for $19.95).
I’ve been interested in seeing Alan Cooke’s film 
Last week 20th Century Fox released their impressive 
(1968) DVD box set and it will undoubtedly be one of the best DVD sets to come out this year. With a list price of $229.00 (currently available from Amazon for $169.99) it’s a very pricey release, but besides getting all 51 episodes of the television show, you also get lots of DVD extras and even reproductions of the original Land of the Giants comic books, plus a booklet with cast interviews and photos, a set of Land of the Giants trading cards, a key chain and even an iron-on patch, which are all contained in an impressively designed carrying case.
(1965), 
(1966), 
(1964) and Land of the Giants (1968) playing on TV and I always loved them. Thanks to the recent DVD releases of Irwin Allen’s television shows from 20th century Fox I’ve been able to finally see all the episodes I’ve missed and enjoy them without commercials.
This year I’ve watched the entire Time Tunnel series and I’ve recently started watching Voyage to the Bottom of Sea, but I’ve only managed to get through season one so far. I really enjoyed The Time Tunnel series since I find the concept of the show fascinating and it stars the super cute one time teen idol 
Today Irwin Allen is mostly remembered as being “The Master of Disaster” after making numerous disaster films in the seventies such as The Poseidon Adventure (1972) Towering Inferno (1974), but I think he was really a master at making great low-budget science fiction and fantasy television shows. He worked with some talented people who really gave their all to his productions such as composer John Williams, costume designer Paul Zastupnevich, cinematographer Winton C. Hoch, makeup supervisor Ben Nye, art director Jack Martin Smith and talented special effects experts like L.B. Abbott and Art Cruickshank among others. Allen also shamelessly used stock footage from other films, shot episodes on forgotten 20th Century Fox sets, and reused similar props and costumes in many of his productions, but his shows often contained enough imagination, excitement and humor to still keep them interesting and entertaining. 
, which is a lighthearted look at Irwin Allen’s career featuring interviews with the casts and crews of his most popular productions. I watched it myself this weekend and really enjoyed it.
One of my favorite Japanese films is Hiroshi Teshigahara’s The Face of Another (a.k.a. Tanin no kao, 1966) and it’s getting the Criterion treatment in a fabulous Box Set of Hiroshi Teshigahara films which comes out tomorrow. This new Criterion set promises to be one of the best DVD collections of the year and I’m really looking forward to it! Criterion has been releasing some truly great films this year and I can already confirm that many of them will be finding their way onto my “Best DVDs of 2007″ list which I’ll be compiling at the end of the year when I follow-up 
also includes some fantastic extras such as four short films by Hiroshi Teshigahara: Hokusai (1953), Ikebana (1956), Tokyo 1958 (1958), and Ako/White Morning (1963), a new documentary about the working relationship between Teshigahara and Kobo Abe, video essays on all three films by critic James Quandt, interviews with Japanese-film scholars Donald Richie and Tadao Sato, a booklet featuring essays by James Quandt, Howard Hampton, Audie Bock, and Peter Grilli, plus Max Tessier’s 1964 interview with Teshigahara.
. Inside you’ll find an 8 page article on The Witchfinder General as well as exclusive interviews with Tigon’s Tony Tenser, actor Michael York and Playboy’s Hugh Hefner. The new issue also contains article’s on the Australian Stanley Kubrick exhibition, Ken Loach’s Kes, John Guillermin’s El Condor and the 1975 horror film Race with Devil that stars Peter Fonda & Warren Oates, plus much, much more!
